Getting My Hands in Front of the Ball at Impact
This morning, I had another lesson with Mike Murray at Golf Galaxy. I hit a few balls in the fitting area to warm up and started the lesson. I told him about my difficulties with the driver (push fades) and inconsistent ball-striking with the irons (fat or thin). He had me hit a few balls and then looked at the video. My hands weren’t in front of the ball again (a re-occurring theme). He taped a rod onto the shaft of my 7-iron and had me set up normally with the rod clear of my left side. He had me hit short shots with that rod in place. At first, I hit the ball well right of the target line, but as I hit a few more balls, managed to get the ball going straight. A look on the video showed my hands well in front of the ball at impact. I took my sand wedge and hit a few short shots with it, and the video showed good impact with my hands well in front of the ball.
Next, we worked on the driver. I did a few practice swings the previous drill in mind, and then hit some shots. The first shot was a drop kick, but I started hitting some good shots. In the video, we noticed that my wrist position at the top has improved; my wrist is flatter, with the result that the clubface is no longer open at the top. My other, less important issue, was a slight reverse tilt at the top. He had me swing with a 3/4 swing, and on the video, I still had a full swing, but the slight reverse tilt was gone. He’s not concerned with that issue at the present as it is minor.
Today’s lesson was quite good, so I decided to run over to Hank Haney Golf Ranch and hit a few balls. I started off pretending that the rod was attached to my 7-iron and hit short shots. I had a difficult time of it, but I kept at it and started hitting some well-struck, but low flying shots. I changed to hitting full swings off a tee, and my ball-striking gradually got better. With the remaining balls, I played a mock round at Coyote Ridge on the range. I was pleased to say that, with the exception of one shot, well struck (not always straight, but neither fat nor thin).
I was quite pleased with my progress today. A vast amount of work remains, but my ball-striking is finally improving.