I took an impromptu lesson tonight. I did not plan on taking a lesson, but the old, swing coach came over right when I started hitting balls and next thing you know, I was standing in a bunker with him.
Before that, we were driving in his cart over to the bunker zone and he was telling me about compressing the sand against the ball and continued this story as we walked into the bunker. He used an upside down, old persimmon wood as a cane - using the old wooden club head as a knob. I noticed he was walking with an upside down iron in his other hand. He used the two clubs together like one would use a pair of crutches.
He continued to talk to me about the physics behind the sand shot and had me throw some balls from his shag bag into the bunker.
One of the balls landed near his foot and he turned over the iron in his right hand. While he was talked about sand compression, he took a nice, easy, one-handed swing and flopped the ball out of the bunker with the greatest of easy. The ball landed softly and rolled towards the cup. He said, ‘See. It’s as easy as that.’
He wanted me to open my stance a bit with the ball in the middle-front part of the stance. He told me open the face and to approach the ball from the outside and take a divot that was 1/3 behind the ball and 2/3 in front of the ball. He said that if you can do that, you will get the ball out of the bunker 99% of the time.
I was amazed at how fat (behind the ball) I hit each shot. The reason why I need to swing so hard to get the ball out of the bunker is a result of how far behind the ball I was hitting. As I took more and more sand shots, I realized how inconsistently I struck the ball from shot to shot.
He gave me a good drill to practice on working on the necessary swing. Draw two parallel lines about 6 inches apart from one another. Start on the far left side and go down the two lines swinging and starting your divot on that back line and hitting it through to the front line. All you need to do is take a nice, chip swing and swing evenly and steadily through the sand.
It sounds so easy if you have good tempo with your chip swing. This is my biggest problem. I still get ‘yippy’ with my chip swing. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I still get the ‘yips’ with my chips and in the sand and it just kills me. I need to focus almost all of my time from here on out chipping and getting out of the bunker.
After we hit about 40 balls we called it a day. I did not feel as if I was getting any better, however, I did hit a few nice balls out of the sand – but it was not a high percentage.
He watched me drive the ball and wanted me to hit each drive to a different spot - The first one between the first pole on the left and the third pole, the second one between the fifth and the seventh poles, then the third and fifth. He wanted me to focus on making a big, big back turn. During my take-away he would mutter, ‘big, big back turn’. I hit balls like a maniac because I was in a hurry to make it somewhere by 8:00pm.
My drives were okay – they were out there but all had a fade to them. I am so sick of seeing that type of ball flight. I want change now.
All in all, the lesson was okay. I think what was taught in the lesson was invaluable, but I was a little down on my inconsistent ball striking. I am not sure why some of the aspects of have to be so difficult. After some reflection, I came to the realization that it is a long learning process that requires a great deal of practice and repetition. I just need to continue to practice and to try to make the weakest parts of my game stronger – sometimes, it’s a painful process that requires a great deal of patience and perseverance. I do know that I am getting better and that is a good feeling – I just want to be much better, much faster. I am 27 days into my 80 day goal, I realize that I have come a long way, however, I also realize that I have a long, long way to go.
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