Things are starting to click now.

In my lessons, we’ve been addressing a few problems.  Here’s a rundown of the tweaks I’ve had to make:

• Stop taking the club way inside to start the swing.  I’ve been concentrating on taking it more back along the line.  To me, that action feels like I’m taking the club back outside the line and re-routing it on the downswing.  Of course, I’m not, but it’s way different than taking it back inside the target line.
• Stand a little closer to the ball.  Over time, I’ve begun reaching for the ball a little.  This is a change that I’m not having too much trouble with.  However, I’m catching a lot of shots on the toe, I think I’m subconsciously trying to avoid a shank because I’m standing that much closer.  When I concentrate on not hitting the ball on the toe, I hit it solidly.  It’s just a matter of gaining trust and confidence.
• Tempo.  I identified tempo as the secret of golf a while back, and without a doubt, it’s been my primary focus.  I’ve found that it’s critical for me to establish good tempo early at the driving range or on the course.  Once my tempo gets skewed, it’s very hard to get it back.
• Decrease the hinge in my wrists on the backswing.  In the effort to get my wrists cocked correctly, I’ve gone the opposite direction.  That leads to a number of problems.  That tweak has been the one that has paid off immediately.  Limiting that to 90 degrees or so on the backswing has led to more solid contact right away (the angle may increase slightly on the way down, but 90 degrees at the top is all I want).
• Let the club face open up a little on the backswing.  During the backswing, when the club gets parallel to the ground (where the hands are just about waist-high), the club face should be vertical.  When I get to that point, the face is quite closed.  I used to have the opposite problem of rolling the face too far open at that point, so I have to keep a careful watch on that.

That’s quite a list of things I’m changing.  So far, I haven’t been able to take the changes to the course yet.  I’m seeing higher scores now.  I’m at the stage where I have good stretches of comfort and confidence at the range, though.

None of these tweaks are ingrained yet, so on the course where I have to trust my swing, it’s just not happening.  I’ve been playing less lately, instead choosing to spend a lot of time on the range.  Turning these things into muscle memory is the only cure.

Mostly, my on-course troubles are limited to my irons.  I’m hitting my driver as well as ever.  It’s going long and straight and it’s the club I have the most confidence in right now.

Having so many changes to make presents a little bit of a challenge during practice sessions.  It’s very, very difficult to effectively work on changing more than one or two things at a time.  It’s also very, very difficult to live with the poor shots that come from concentrating on wrist hinge, while ignoring club path, club face, and a closer ball position (remember it’s not a setup problem - it’s the re-routing of the club due to the different setup).

That makes improvement a little slower than I’d like.  I think the best way to proceed is to always concentrate on tempo and to hit 10-20 balls while concentrating on one of the other issues.  Then, focus on another one.  Once these things become comfortable for me, and most importantly - automatic- then I’ll have succcess on the course.

I’m definitely feeling more optimistic and charged than I’ve felt in a while.

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