Swing Clinic
In my never ending quest to improve my game, I went to the Swing Clinic at the Golden Bear Golf Center this afternoon. I arrived early and went to the end of the range to warm up. I started out with the pitching wedge, and hit fat, fat, fat shots. I switched to the 9-iron and began to get my swing ironed out. I then got out the 7-iron and started to hit some decent shots, tending to pull the ball a little. The big hook wasn’t to be found today, for the most part.
Alan was the instructor today, and we started out with the sand wedge at the purple flagged green. I hit the wedge pretty solidly and he thought I was hitting it pretty well. The fat shot was no where to be found. Next, I got out the 7-iron and I hit a few balls, tending to fade the ball. Here I am at the swing clinic, wanting to fix my hook, and I’m fading the ball. (This game continues to baffle me). After I hit a few balls, he adjusted my grip. My left hand was fine, but my right hand was too far clockwise. He moved it counter-clockwise until it fit better over my left thumb. This had the immediate effect of making the shot dispersion smaller. He also adjusted my stance slightly to give my shoulders more tilt to the right. After that, my ball-striking improved pretty dramatically. As always, he’s able to fix me up and get my swing back into shape. The main thing he wants me to work on is to not freeze over the ball before I swing.
I hit a few drives, mostly well-struck, though there were two or three moon balls in the mix and also hit a few 5-woods, and that’s when the hook came back. My final drive was a perfect slight fade right over the blue flagged green, carrying about 220. Time was up and I headed home happy with the swing clinic.