After a few years of complete and utter futility on the golf course, I decided it was time to take a few lessons and figure out what was wrong. The symptoms are strange and possibly inconsistent – I’m hitting my driver 150 yards long but 75 yards right, I can’t hit a 5-iron further than a 7-iron, I consistently top the ball or bounce the clubhead a few ball widths behind the ball, and I’m a terror to groups ahead of me.
One lesson with a local pro did wonders. I’m hitting the ball more consistently, and my drives have straightened out. Each stroke with a club is more consistent in terms of distance and direction, and my 5-iron clears the first set of flags (no, not the ones on the mini golf course). I have hours of work still to do, but there are hopeful symptoms that my game is improving. Most notably, I’m sore in new places (shoulders, obliques that I forgot I had, and hip flexors). Perhaps it’s using muscles that hadn’t played a shot for me in years, perhaps it’s just erase bad muscle memory in an effort to re-learn grip, swing and follow-through.
In any event, it’s actually fun to be coached and demonstrate mastery of an old skill made new. Next up: working on my skating.
