I have these for sale, if interested

Golf sticks, bag and shoes

Rank amateur here. I’ve played for 30 odd years but apart for the odd period with a bit more frequency only once or twice a year. After I bolloxed my hip I can’t anymore as it gets too sore in the back 9 and the stiffness/lack of flexibility meant I struggled not to shank every shot and trying to compensate started hurting other joints.

Before that I bought a couple of hybrid clubs and loved them. So much easier to control than equivalent iron for me.

I’ve never tried a sport (not convinced it’s a sport – certainly not the way I played it!) where trying hard was so counter productive!

Agree with that. It seemed the more I thought about setting up the shot the more likely I was to scuff it. When I just went and hit the bugger it seemed to be a better shot. Bloody satisfying when you get *the odd clean shot though. Makes a great noise off the club face!

I gave up due to frustration, mostly because I could practise well, hitting perfect shots, and then play really badly, or practise badly and then play very well.

I am not sure about only listening to the pro, most golfers aren’t that bright and often just have a good swing they lucked into somewhat, and they don’t always know more than the fundamentals.

The pro that recommended those clubs to me had a fantastically strong swing that would clear his drives right over the fence at the back of the range and be consistently straight. The range got a new head coach who started teaching him a slow tempoed backswing and extending his right arm downwards in the downswing to flatten it out, and after hours of practise he lost a lot of distance and accuracy and got a bit depreseed about it!

Leadbetter did the same sort of thing to Faldos swing and he ended up occasionally hitting it straight left!

I was at the range once and Ronan Rafferty was in the teaching bay a couple in front of me. He said he had been reading one of Nicklaus’s books where he recommended looking at the ball mostly with your left eye, with the view that it should stop you lifting your head (my Dad had that book).

He would take a stance, which was pretty good in itself, and then, just before swinging, would drop his head to the right and stare at the ball with his left eye, like some demented lunatic.

The range teaching pro next to him wasn’t saying anything, so eventually I spoke out and told him what he was doing.

He then could not stop himself from doing it !

Just like an amateur hacker on the cource who can not stop lifting his head! So it happens to us all 🙂

There are two key moves that pro golfers make that set them apart from many amateurs.

Once the club is taken fully back the first move is a turning of the hips such that the left hips rotates towards the targets and then back around.

As this happens the right elbow tucks in towards the right hip, although this happens by virtue of the hips moving – the arms have not moved at all at this point and it is this that gives the pro that late hitting position.

Even pros where their right elbow appears to ‘fly’ at the top of the backswing will bring it back into the hip on the downswing – often through a very pronounced hip movement – check out Jim Furyk on slomo.

From this position the arms can then unwind and release through the ball, which almost moves you head backwards and even down a bit in the extreme releasers.

Amateurs will try and hit with their arms from the top of the backswing, which throws the clubs outside the line and therefore the clubhead path is from outside to in, whereas it is from inside to out for a pro – so amateurs will slice by default whereas pros are fighting a hook as their bad shot – unless you have a weak swing like Montgomerie.

For an amateur the easiest way to start learning to hit like that is to concentrate on dropping your left heel (if you are right handed, and assuming that you lift your heel slightly on the backswing) as the first move of your downswing.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL_6M_xZvq0[/video]

Funnily enough – the Pro at Express Golf played exactly the same YouTube clip of Ben Hogan TurnerGuy mentioned above!!

Funnily enough – the Pro at Express Golf played exactly the same YouTube clip of Ben Hogan TurnerGuy mentioned above!!

lots of pros have different swing thoughts but they all pretty much do that same move, with different amounts of emphasis.

And the relevant swing thought often changes with time, as you get used to one feeling it becomes natural and you can then overdo it to get the same feel, so you need another thought to concentrate on.

That’s why pros have so much trouble and need constant tweeking.

That’s why I switched to cycling, so much less frustrating and so much better for your fitness, and much, much less requirement to practise.

How often do you come back frustrated from a ride ?

vs

How often do you come back not frustrated from a round of golf?

Well an update… Tonight I’m absolutely buzzing!!

Decided on a change of pro the other week. Found the pro wasn’t overly encouraging & tended to over complicate things. Happened to be in American golf buying a set of irons (Ping G25’s) and the chap who was fitting me was superb. Anyway,to cut a long story short he is now my teaching pro.

So, after two lessons with the chap tonight while practising what he’d been teaching something just clicked. Managed to get over (for now at least) the nasty habit I had of hitting the ball with the face open. Was hitting ball after ball around 110 yards either straight or with that lovely left curve that he’d been trying to get me to master.

Suddenly feels like the golf bug is really starting to catch!