“I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see……… “
- T. Keith, noted American philosopher
warning: Very little boy content below…..
I think the first time I ever golfed was back at the South Park golf course with Rob and his brother while in high school…..I wasn’t good (read as: horrible) at it then, and was lucky I could hit the ball after several attempts. This state of affairs has never really improved; I didn’t play much in college or after I graduated (really, only with Rob again) and, well, I never really got better. There wasn’t really one thing wrong with my swing; it was about 20 different things. Would sometimes play with the work crowd in Pittsburgh, again, same results.
Didn’t play, not even once, in Seattle. Didn’t play, not even once, in Ann Arbor.
Began playing more and more once I came here to mid-Michigan. Started to take some lessons, mostly at lunch at Michigan State. These were frustrating; again, if you have 20 different things going wrong at once, it’s hard to get much progress going on. After a while, though, at least I wasn’t embarrassing myself. I could hit my irons (sometimes) pretty well, and always could putt and chip halfway decently. Anything that involved distance though was still bad……could never hit the driver or anything off the tee. I’ve consistently told Kevin that if he wants to record wins against Dad in a sport at a young age; golf is it.
The only bright spot? when I would happen to connect, or, to do everything right in the swing, I would almost always hit the ball straight…..I’ve never really had a hook or slice problem.
So, two years ago, I was attending lessons at lunch again at Michigan state and the instructor ‘suggested’ a change no one had ever suggested before…change my grip. Always before I had been told that my grip, for the most part, was pretty much like it should be, but, this guy, he wanted it all twisted over and interlocking. And this change was a disaster; everything I hit now would go right….it didn’t matter if I did everything right on the swing, on contact, slice to the right. I went and practiced with that grip (everything goes way right), I played like that (everything goes way right)….and finally I said, screw it, I’m going back to my old grip. And some how, some way, everything was way better. I’ve never been able to hit my driver, now, I can achieve some measure of success with the devil club (there’s nothing more satisfying than hitting the ball well and watching it sail off into the distance into the middle of the fairway….there’s nothing more frustrating than hitting the ball and not getting it past the ladies tees). The last two scrambles I’ve been in (golf tournaments, where you play the best ball of the four of you, hit again from that location, and play the best ball again) we’ve used my drive a couple of times, and that’s been really nice.
What happened? I think, but really have no real idea, that the new grip forced me to make sure that the rest of my swing was correct to try and make the grip work. So, I guess, I was really working on making sure I took the club back correctly, and brought it back down correctly, and transferred my weight properly (the center of gravity through the swing might be the one thing that I had consistently butchered all this time).
The upshot of all of the lessons (and what prompted me to write about this today) is that I finally have an idea when things are going wrong on the golf course and what to do to make them right. Yesterday, for example. I’m out with a buddy from Golder that I’ve golfed with a lot (but not recently, not since I think I’ve figured things out) and we’re taking in 9 holes on a simple gorgeous day. And I’m golfing horribly to start, I always seem to be pulling up, and so I’m topping the ball, and the first 3 to 4 holes are horrible (and, probably typical of how I used to play with my friend, so, he wasn’t very surprised I guess). And then I figure out (or remember) that I need to bend over more, that I had been standing up too straight and no matter how much I thought I was keeping my head down, because I was too straight there was no way I could swing without pulling away from the ball in that position. So, I do that (and it’s a simple stupid thing, I might have bent forward 2-3 inches tops), and for the next 5-6 holes, I’m very pleased with the results….nice drives down the fairway, nice approaches with my irons. Still a lot of the problems other ‘hack’s’ like me have; shoot over the green on a chip, or barely hit it and have to chip again, but, it’s better to be walking 150 to 250 yards after your first shot than to try again or have to hit it twice more to get to where your buddy landed after his first shot.
I still think I need to golf on a more consistent basis to get to where I’d like to be (as good at golf as I can be at racquetball or bowling….to have reasonable confidence that I could go out and not totally suck). Maybe one day I’ll find the time to do a golf league or something. Or get the boys trained up (and Suzanne trained up) and have my built-in foursome going on.
