My swing has been feeling good since lesson 8 and getting better each time I play or practice. I’ve been to the driving range a few times and it is really helping. I’ve also had a couple of hour practice sessions at GolfTEC. It’s still a work in progress, but I broke 80 twice in the last week so I must be doing something right.

On Tuesday I went to a free GolfTEC wedge clinic where they reinforced the fundamentals of chip and pitch shots. It was perfect timing and a nice refresher because yesterday I had an hour-long outdoor lesson in the short game area at a local course. We worked on chipping, pitching, finesse wedges, bunker shots, and putting. It was a packed hour! Here are some notes I took from the clinic and lesson.

Chipping

• 0-20 yards to the pin.
• Rolls more than it flies.
• Ball back in stance, weight on left leg, shaft tilted to target so that hands are ahead of the club.
• Match back swing and forward swing in speed and length.
• Swing more in to out to help the ball pop up.
• Only have the toe part of the sole on the ground (the point of the toe will work to part the turf which can come in handy with thicker grass), shaft more upright (still tilted forward though), and stand closer to the ball so it can be like a putting stroke.
• Can hit off the toe of the club if need to deaden the shot and less roll out.
• Can also play ball forward to get a higher shot, instead of back in the stance and produce less roll.
• Try to take a divot right under the ball, sweeping through at a shallow angle instead of steep, but still have hands forward.
• Determine % carry and % roll for each wedge and a basic length shot for each.
• Ladder drill with clubs spaced out a yard or two apart. Land the ball between each one going out and then coming back to create feel for distances.
• Put a poker chip or something similar on the green and try to land balls on it.

Pitching

• 20-40 yards to pin.
• Ball flies more than it rolls.
• Use more body and some rotation compared to chipping.
• Ball in the center of the stance.
• Don’t have to open the stance to see more of the target like a lot of people like to, it’s a preference if you want to.
• Determine % carry and % roll for each wedge for pitch shots of a basic length.
• Ladder drill.
• Phil’s “hinge and hold” method.
• Always follow through longer than back swing was so that you don’t decel and come up short.

Finesse Wedge

• 40-80 yards.
• 1/2 and 3/4 swings with each wedge.
• Similar fundamentals as pitch.
• More body rotation.
• Nice and smooth, don’t need to focus on power

Bunker Shots

• Hit 2 inches behind the ball.
• Club should travel 8 inches in the sand.
• Don’t try to hit closer to the ball to change length of shot. Very difficult to do.
• Don’t focus on the ball. Focus on the entry point in the sand.
• 2 line drill. Make 2 lines 8 inches apart in the sand. Club should enter sand on back line and leave on front line. Don’t need to use a ball all the time with this drill.
• Only use LW, SW, and GW/AW for green side bunker shots.
• Can adjust length of shot by changing the wedge and length of the swing.

Putting

• Stand closer to ball so that dropping a ball from eyes is on the putting line.
• Shaft of putter more upright so that the toe of the putter isn’t off the ground. Shaft should be in line with forearms.
• Put a CD on the ground and putt off of it so you can see if eyes are on the line.
• Putt a poker chip to make sure the sole is going across ground and the toe isn’t pointing up in the air. If putter isn’t soled correctly, won’t be able to hit the poker chip with a solid hit.

One of my goals this year is to put in significant short game practice time and I have plenty of things here to work on. Determining carry/roll percentages and distances for my wedges with chips and putts will make a huge difference in my ability to get up and down. Right now I play the guessing game and am so inconsistent around the green because of it. With a couple of small changes to my putting technique I should be able to make more putts inside 15 feet.

Check out my 10th and final lesson.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Yesterday was my eighth golf lesson. I had an hour-long practice session last Thursday to work on things from lesson 7 which went ok. I was able to get out for some golf on Saturday and Sunday but struggled with my contact. I kept hitting drives right into the ground. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

While warming up I wasn’t making any swings similar to those on the course to show hitting the ball down into the ground, but I was hitting a lot of shots off the heel of the club. My instructor said if it was really off the heel, this could definitel cause the shots I had been hitting. During the lesson we worked on:

• Choking up on the driver.
• Lining up with the middle of the driver at the inside of the ball. At impact, the driver is off the ground, so the middle of the club has a different position.
• Sweeping the ball off the tee with the driver instead of a steep angle of attack.
• A drill of putting the club head cover next to the ball where the club shouldn’t hit it.

Here’s a bunch of other stuff from the lesson.

Look ahead to lesson 9.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Yesterday was my seventh golf lesson. I had two good hour-long practice session on Thursday and Saturday to work on things from lesson 6 and was able to get out for some golf on Friday and Saturday. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

I was disappointed to see that when we started the lesson on irons my hip tilt was still a little low. I had been doing great during my practice sessions, but I guess the pressure of doing it in front of my instructor gets to me a little. During the lesson we worked on:

• More of the same from last week, but moved on to the driver, where my hip tilt really suffers. I need to create more hip tilt at impact.
• More of a sweeping action at impart with the driver instead of coming down at the ball with a steep angle.
• When my right foot comes off the ground before impact it decreases some of the hip tilt I’ve created by bumping my hips. I need to figure out how to keep that right foot down longer. I have no problems keeping it down while swinging very slow as practice, but can’t do it in a full speed swing.

Here’s a bunch of other stuff from the lesson.

Look ahead to lesson 8.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Today was my sixth golf lesson. I had a good hour-long practice session on Thursday  to work on things from lesson 5 and was able to get out for a bunch of golf Saturday through today. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

During the lesson we worked on:

• Going back to keeping the upper body behind the ball in the back swing and through impact.
• Create hip tilt at impart.

We’ve worked on the first thing before, so I just had to get back to doing what I had been for that. For the hip tilt, the focus was from the following drill.

Here’s a bunch of other stuff from the lesson.

Jump ahead to lesson 7 to see how things continued.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Today was my fifth golf lesson. I had a couple of great hour-long practice sessions on Thursday and Saturday to work on things from lesson 4 and was able to get out for 36 holes of golf over the weekend. Last week’s changes developed a hook on about 30% of my iron shots, so fixing that was the focus of this week’s lesson. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

During the lesson we worked on:

• Extending my swing down the target line.
• Exaggerate hands leading the club at impart; keep the club back.

Look ahead to lesson 6.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Today was my fourth golf lesson. I had a couple of great hour-long practice sessions on Thursday and Saturday to work on things from lesson 3 and was able to get out for 27 holes of golf over the weekend. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

This video has a bit of commentary from my instructor.

In the lesson we worked on:

• Standing further away from the ball.
• Keeping my left wrist flat at the top of the back swing.
• Not letting the hands get too close to the body at impact.

I’m still feeling really good about all of the changes. As you can see in these videos and pictures, my shoulders are still rotating too much on the back swing. I think this weeks changes will be the toughest to get used to out of everything we’ve been working on so far. Keeping my left wrist flat at the top of the swing feels really weird now, but I should be able to get the hang of it after a couple of practice sessions.

Look ahead to see lesson 5.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Today was my third golf lesson. A tough week for practicing things from lesson 2 because a bunch of coworkers were in town for the weekend and I didn’t get any time on the course. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

This video has a bit of commentary from my instructor.

In the lesson we worked on my swing plane from the top of the swing down to the impact position. Some of the other changes (rotating hips open more at impact) we’ve been working on have caused my swing plane to get too steep. Part of correcting the swing plane includes dropping my right shoulder when coming down from the top to get a better shoulder tilt at impact.

Check out lesson 4 to see what we worked on next.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

I had me second lesson on Tuesday. Since I was out-of-town for work most of the previous week I didn’t get much time to work on the swing changes from lesson 1 but was able to do them pretty well. Here’s a video of my swing at the start of the lesson.

Next is a video of my swing at the end of the lesson.

This video has a bit of commentary from my instructor.

In the lesson we worked on starting my down swing with the hips and turning them more through impact. Also worked a bit on keeping my right heel down until after impact because it’s been lifting and causing a loss of power.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

Check out lesson 3.