He is not worthy

I don’t practice enough so I acquire a slice

It was my first lesson after a two weeks break yesterday and Anthony was cold so I let him have my beloved France hat, bought at Murrayfield in 2000 (Scotland 16 – 28 France). After a few blissful rounds of decent, consistent golf, I had started slicing the ball and struggling with my irons again. Anthony said that the slice issue was because I hadn’t practiced enough and so my old swing was creeping back in and making a mess of everything.

I wasn’t in a great mood and this made things worse. What do you mean, the slice is my fault? My swing feels disjointed and clunky for no reason whatsoever! And I did practice a little bit. We started working on the takeaway again, but despite some improvement, my swing still felt rushed and unbalanced. I played slice after slice. It was one of those lessons where nothing he said made any sense to me.

Start the downswing by imagining my torso is rotating

After a frustrating 45 minutes, I was still hitting the ball badly despite getting my backswing back to where it should be. Anthony asked me what part of my body moved first at the start of my downswing. My hips, I answered. He advised me to imagine that my torso initiated the movement by turning towards my target. And I have no idea how or why, but that helped a bit. My swing felt a lot more compact and fluid and I started hitting the ball better. Anthony suggested that I practice this with a pitching wedge and a half-swing.

So off he went to warm up in his office and I stayed on the practice ground, fully expecting more misery and frustration. Instead, I progressively started hitting the ball cleanly, solely by picturing my torso turning at the beginning of the downswing. What would happen if I hit it with a full swing, I wondered? By focusing on keeping my clubhead open during my takeaway, then pausing slightly at the top and then initiating the downswing by turning my torso, I started hitting good shots.

Imagine all the good shots

Tell me, how could I resist going out there to play a few holes?

After a while, I decided I deserved to test my improved swing on the course, so I went out to play four holes. The result: not one slice and a marked improvement. Rotating my torso first meant that my swing felt much more compact and together. It was also a lot smoother. I find it quite interesting that, since we started, we managed to overcome two obstacles not by dissecting my technique, but by using my imagination. Degrees and angles and planes don’t mean anything to me. I find it much easier to implement a technique tweak if I’m told “Imagine that you…”. This is what worked before when I got intensely frustrated and Anthony told me to imagine I wanted to hit him with the ball. Basically, Anthony is the John Lennon of golf.

First qualifying round this week

This is badly needed, as I have my first qualifying round on Wednesday. I’m not expecting a handicap cut just yet, as I’m still obviously getting to grips with my new swing, but I’d like to play to my handicap. I’m playing tomorrow, so I’ll focus on what I learnt today and hopefully it will stick. And I’ll dig out my old John Lennon records.

Yesterday was my third lesson with Anthony. He said: “Let’s go and play four holes so I can see what’s happening with your swing.” Hurrah! So off I went trotting after him. He has long legs. I do not.

Aiming at the wrong golf course

My clubface is too closed

We started playing and I seemed to be hitting the ball well. Anthony was nodding a lot, which is good. Then on the third (par 3), my shot went left. I told Anthony that this seemed to be happening much more regularly with my new swing. He said it was because my clubface was too closed when I took my stance. He opened it up and it looked to me like I was aiming for Waterhall Golf Club (i.e. far too right, see illustration). That wasn’t going to work. With a rueful smile and a tiny shake of the head, I lined up as he said and… the ball soared over the pond, landed just in front of the green and rolled to within two feet of the hole (I missed the birdie putt, obvs). I was stunned. Anthony explained why that was and I didn’t really get it, but basically it has to do with my new improved backswing. Anyway, he looked smug.

Opening my clubface works!

On the next hole, a par 4, I took my stance with the clubface slightly more open and it took me a couple of tries to get it right with the driver. Then my second shot from 165 yards finished three feet from the hole (guess what happened next). “Why didn’t you tell me about the clubface thing before?” I asked. “You weren’t ready. There were other things to correct first.” Now the obvious question is “What else is he keeping from me?”. Best not to ask any more questions at this stage.

The plan for the next couple of weeks

Anthony is going away for a couple of weeks, so he wants me to play! Yes, play! He asked me to pay special attention to my clubface when I take my stance and to carry on working on my takeaway. Also, at the end of the two weeks, he wants me to rank the areas of my game again so we can compare them to the list I drew before we started our lessons. This will help us determine how to proceed. Fine. Anything as long as I can play with my buddies.

Après l’effort, le réconfort.

On the way back to the clubhouse, I asked him whether I should spend some time practicing now. “No, he said. Too windy.” “Are you saying that I should go home and spend the afternoon eating biscuits?” “That’s exactly what I’m saying. You deserve it.” I dutifully headed home and followed my orders.

Today, I’ve been out and tried to practice what I learnt yesterday. It worked! Well, most of the time. My new swing feels really great, balanced, fluid and compact, and as a result, my long game was unusually consistent. One month into my challenge, I’m feeling pretty good about it! Mind you, it’s hard not to feel good after spending most of your day playing in the South Downs National Park.

I arrived at the club for my first lesson, and Anthony said: “I’m warning you. During the next couple of months, you’re going to hate me, you’re going to hate golf and you’re going to hate yourself.”

I replied: “I could never hate myself or golf, Anthony.”

We previously agreed that my long game was a problem and so my swing needed looking at. Fortunately, my grip was ok, but my takeaway was not. Instead of turning my shoulders, I dip the left one, which means that the club face is too closed, the club gets stuck behind me and I have to lurch to the left and back to make the swing happen. This explains why I’m normally unbalanced at the end of it.

So we practiced the takeaway for about an hour together. It’s a short movement of the club head along a specific plane, which sounds simple, but is in fact incredibly difficult, as your muscle memory takes over and wants to do what it’s used to doing. Then I practiced on my own for 50 minutes until I got frostbite. The idea was to go from this:

to this:

It wasn’t too bad! After an hour and a half, I gained some consistency. The real problem, however, is that Anthony thinks that for the new technique to really bed in and my muscle memory to completely forget the old swing, I need to practice a lot (this article on practice and muscle memory suggests that, unfortunately, he’s right). And not play. At all. So I’m going to be a good golfer and do just that. Instead of playing with my buddies tomorrow, I shall stand on the frozen practice ground and sob hit ball after ball until dippy shoulders are a distant memory. On Wednesday, I’ll go to the club, but instead of playing in the competition, I’ll practice some more.

I’m not yet hating anything or anyone, but I can see how it could happen…

Sunday night update

I thought I’d edit this post to report on my progress as a non-playing, all-practicing golfer. It’s hell. I’m under strict orders to practice my takeaway: start the backswing along the line of my feet; stop and make sure the clubhead faces up (see photos above); do that a few times. Then try and hit the ball cleanly. That’s what I did for three hours yesterday and an hour today instead of playing, as I normally would. Sometimes it worked, more often than not it didn’t. I could feel the disconnect between how my brain is used to directing my arms and shoulders and the different movement my limbs were trying to replicate. It was intensely frustrating at times, but today I had a very good last half-hour, where I felt like all the different parts of my body were actually working together nicely, with no arguments. So there is hope!

It’s only when I watched this video taken at the end of today’s session that I realised my hands went far too high. Was it all in vain? We’ll know when I next see Anthony on Wednesday.