Going Lefty.....with GoingLefty

So I have my first lesson coming up on Monday. Still have not hit a ball so that will be my first time (golf dome as it's winter here, I think I'm going to film it so if I do I'll post the swing here). I still just have the wedge and putter and have been hesitating on the irons because, well I need to make sure I can hit balls first. My exercise program continues and I've added some equipment. More mobility tools and some bands for strength training etc.

I have been thinking of getting graphite in all my clubs just to help with my back, but I'm not sure if it will help. I would have to think something lighter would put less force on my spine no? Anyone have any insight on this?
 
Ok, just had my first lesson and hit my first golf ball in 19 months!

I worked out a bit too hard yesterday out of excitement I think and woke up with a stiff upper back. I did a bunch of stretching to work it out and it was mostly gone by the time the lesson rolled around at 10:30am. It's winter here so it was at a golf dome.


We didn't hit any balls until the end and I only hit 4 I think. It was a big moment for me, 19 months since I hit the last one and ended up in the hospital. I was a tad nervous haha :bulgy-eyes:.

The first one I made decent contact but thinned it. The second was better but I was still tensed up and it wasn't much of a shot. Same on the third. The fourth I hit it flush, nice and relaxed and it went dead straight, nice trajectory about (to Ron's eye) 145 yards. Zero pain. I can play golf with that! I was only swinging about 70% speed wise at that point. We had built up over the lesson from slow to that. He's 100% on board about my back health being #1 and so we left it at that for the lesson. We will very gradually take the speed up as we go.


Anyway thanks for reading, it's a great damn day for this guy! Going to go stretch out again now. Cheers all!:banana:
 
Last edited:
@GoingLefty

Have you picked up any clubs yet? If not, let me know. I have a set that I built for my son. He's 17 now and shows no interest in golf whatsoever anymore. I can't remember exactly what all is included, but I think it's 5w, 7w, 28° wood, 3h, 5h, 6-PW, SW and putter. I also have a 13° Nike driver from c. 2006ish. If you have any interest, I could make you a deal that'll get you started without spending too much money and leave you plenty of budget to replace/upgrade clubs as you improve OR keep you from spending too much if you should decide to go back to RH after this season.
 
@GoingLefty

Have you picked up any clubs yet? If not, let me know. I have a set that I built for my son. He's 17 now and shows no interest in golf whatsoever anymore. I can't remember exactly what all is included, but I think it's 5w, 7w, 28° wood, 3h, 5h, 6-PW, SW and putter. I also have a 13° Nike driver from c. 2006ish. If you have any interest, I could make you a deal that'll get you started without spending too much money and leave you plenty of budget to replace/upgrade clubs as you improve OR keep you from spending too much if you should decide to go back to RH after this season.

I have my eye on a used set of Pings with graphite shafts but what type of clubs are they? PM me if you like, I might be interested.

Got this golf bag today in the mail. Got it because of the weight. Less than 5lbs. Looks like pretty good quality too considering it was less than $100.

jKDZWtm.jpg
 
Hit the driving range today (heated stalls) and pretty pleased. Hit lots of bad shots for sure, even missed my first swing but also hit several decent ones too. I'd say I hit a dozen good ones out of a small bucket. Was getting my 7 iron out past 150 on my good ones. I'm finding it a major challenge to get out of my own way mentally. I'm trying to be loose and free but some part of me really wants to hit that damn ball. The more I can let go, the better I hit it. Still, very happy with where I'm at right now and excited to even be a range! Again no pain, just a bit of stiffness after which I worked out. I'm going to do a breakdown of my goals for this quarter of the year shortly and my plan on how to get there.

Also, I picked up a set of used irons yesterday. They are Apex Forged and in great condition. Reg flex in the recoil shaft. First graphite irons I've ever bought, but got a nice deal on them and like the look a lot. Today I traded in my Ping SW (since this iron set came with one. I got SW-6i) for a G400 5 hybrid in reg shaft and a G 7 wood in reg shaft as well (paid the difference). All the clubs are in great shape except the 7 wood has a few dings on the crown and some face wear. I just need a 5 wood now and a Driver. I think I'll forgo a 3 wood. I'll probably go Ping G30 or G400, maybe Titleist 917's. Oh and I need a lob wedge too. Probably get a Callaway, I've had them before and they're great wedges.

IG7yS0q.jpg
 
Enjoyed your instructor's video. He made some good points on not thinking about mechanics during the swing. That works for me until the first bad shot. After that I am thinking about fixing what went wrong.
Good luck on your journey.
 
Hit the driving range today (heated stalls) and pretty pleased. Hit lots of bad shots for sure, even missed my first swing but also hit several decent ones too. I'd say I hit a dozen good ones out of a small bucket. Was getting my 7 iron out past 150 on my good ones. I'm finding it a major challenge to get out of my own way mentally. I'm trying to be loose and free but some part of me really wants to hit that damn ball. The more I can let go, the better I hit it. Still, very happy with where I'm at right now and excited to even be a range! Again no pain, just a bit of stiffness after which I worked out. I'm going to do a breakdown of my goals for this quarter of the year shortly and my plan on how to get there.

Also, I picked up a set of used irons yesterday. They are Apex Forged and in great condition. Reg flex in the recoil shaft. First graphite irons I've ever bought, but got a nice deal on them and like the look a lot. Today I traded in my Ping SW (since this iron set came with one. I got SW-6i) for a G400 5 hybrid in reg shaft and a G 7 wood in reg shaft as well (paid the difference). All the clubs are in great shape except the 7 wood has a few dings on the crown and some face wear. I just need a 5 wood now and a Driver. I think I'll forgo a 3 wood. I'll probably go Ping G30 or G400, maybe Titleist 917's. Oh and I need a lob wedge too. Probably get a Callaway, I've had them before and they're great wedges.

IG7yS0q.jpg


Those are nice clubs, good luck going lefty!
 
Really interested to see how this goes. I've thought for a while it makes more sense for left handed people to play right handed clubs and vice versa. As a lefty it's my right arm is doing the majority of the work which seems a bit backwards.
 
Enjoyed your instructor's video. He made some good points on not thinking about mechanics during the swing. That works for me until the first bad shot. After that I am thinking about fixing what went wrong.
Good luck on your journey.

I hear you on that, it's certainly a challenge to do it. I can't as yet...but we'll see. I think I'll get there. Thanks for the luck, appreciate it.
 
Really interested to see how this goes. I've thought for a while it makes more sense for left handed people to play right handed clubs and vice versa. As a lefty it's my right arm is doing the majority of the work which seems a bit backwards.

It certainly is possible and I think it will be "easier" than the first time I learned golf. I think my approach (more on this later) plus other factors such as knowing course management etc. will make improvement more rapid. Then your point and other factors as well can also contribute too. (assuming my back continues to be good)

It's going to be fascinating to me, I'm really of the opinion that there are better ways to approach learning golf than are commonly accepted.
 
So I had a lesson yesterday and hit the range today. The video is from yesterday but I wish I took one at the range today. I was hitting it really well. Hit a medium bucket and no pain at all and only hit maybe 20 bad shots out of 80. I was pretty surprised. The method of learning that I'm doing (all feel based) is really working. The coach gave me a good strategy for reviewing my shots with: Was I relaxed? Was the swing in rhythm? and Was I focused? It's important to focus on these questions between shots, not during. (easier said than done) I was not really able to do that very well yesterday. Today though, I was much better and was just focusing on the clubhead striking the ball in a relaxed manor.

I just took my sand wedge and 7 iron. I was hitting my sand wedge about 70-80 yards. (It used to be my 100 yard club right handed) and my 7 iron 140-150. I got a few out past 150 to but most lay in that range which is plenty playable. What I couldn't believe was how good a contact I was getting. I will film my next session and here is hoping it wasn't some fluke. This new way of swinging the club is so much easier on my back and I'm swinging without hardly any effort it feels like. I wasn't tired at all after hitting the bucket where as before I'd be beat from swinging so hard.

Here is my old swing from 2015 for those interested (I'm not looking for any swing advice btw guys, please.)



Here is my swing from yesterday, I picked a couple of decent strikes. I hit plenty bad that I omitted of course haha. (I'm about 20lbs lighter here too. I'm using some of my golf course management ideas to lose weight. 5lbs so far this month.)

 
So I have now had 4 range sessions so far and I am making some progress. I'm hitting a fair amount of good shots every time. The 5 hybrid I hit for the first time yesterday and I can't believe how forgiving it is. I hadn't used hybrids as a right handed player as I hit my long irons well. You can it it off the toe, the heel, the top of the face and it still goes. I was flying it consistently 150 yards. With range balls and winter here I would say that would be averaging around 160 yards in the summer with a real ball. I flew a few really solid strikes out to 170 yards so I think it'll be a great go-to tee shot club for me although the 7 wood was similarly easy to hit too.

As for my lessons, they are now over. I had just the two with him and unfortunately for whatever reason he is very hard to communicate with and get in contact with (away from the actual lessons). I may go into detail about this depending on some factors but right now I don't want to say much more. I'm confident I can learn through feel though on my own as was my original plan.

My back has been great but I still feel that I am "holding back" when I swing which I think is actually adding stress on my back, not making it better. It's a mental hurdle I have to get over. Also the grips that came with the irons were way too big for me and hurting my hands. I really felt like I had to hang on for the life of me or the clubs would fly out of my hands. Golf town is having 40% off grips right now so I took them in and decided on a throw back grip. I wanted something really comfortable and tacky and I haven't really liked any of the composite grips I've tried.

So went with these bad boys:

excel_copper_midsize.jpg


The bad news is they won't be ready until Feb. 4th! They are just slammed during this sale I guess. Ah well, I'll be working on my putting a lot haha. Also I might have to go and try some 5 woods out or maybe a driver even....hmmm.

The back is good like I said and I am doing a lot of mobility work still and core stuff. I'll continue with that but eventually I need to start adding more weights in.

That's it for now, progress is being made....
 
So I have now had 4 range sessions so far and I am making some progress. I'm hitting a fair amount of good shots every time. The 5 hybrid I hit for the first time yesterday and I can't believe how forgiving it is. I hadn't used hybrids as a right handed player as I hit my long irons well. You can it it off the toe, the heel, the top of the face and it still goes. I was flying it consistently 150 yards. With range balls and winter here I would say that would be averaging around 160 yards in the summer with a real ball. I flew a few really solid strikes out to 170 yards so I think it'll be a great go-to tee shot club for me although the 7 wood was similarly easy to hit too.

As for my lessons, they are now over. I had just the two with him and unfortunately for whatever reason he is very hard to communicate with and get in contact with (away from the actual lessons). I may go into detail about this depending on some factors but right now I don't want to say much more. I'm confident I can learn through feel though on my own as was my original plan.

My back has been great but I still feel that I am "holding back" when I swing which I think is actually adding stress on my back, not making it better. It's a mental hurdle I have to get over. Also the grips that came with the irons were way too big for me and hurting my hands. I really felt like I had to hang on for the life of me or the clubs would fly out of my hands. Golf town is having 40% off grips right now so I took them in and decided on a throw back grip. I wanted something really comfortable and tacky and I haven't really liked any of the composite grips I've tried.

So went with these bad boys:

excel_copper_midsize.jpg


The bad news is they won't be ready until Feb. 4th! They are just slammed during this sale I guess. Ah well, I'll be working on my putting a lot haha. Also I might have to go and try some 5 woods out or maybe a driver even....hmmm.

The back is good like I said and I am doing a lot of mobility work still and core stuff. I'll continue with that but eventually I need to start adding more weights in.

That's it for now, progress is being made....

PM sent.
 
Nice choice on the Dri-Tacs! They're my favorite. I bought a bunch of them in the same color that you posted. Dicks had that model on closeout last winter.
 
Nice choice on the Dri-Tacs! They're my favorite. I bought a bunch of them in the same color that you posted. Dicks had that model on closeout last winter.

Yeah they are incredibly comfortable, love the throw back look too. How do you find them in the rain?
 
So finally got a driver. Decided on the Titleist 917 10.5 degree. I wanted something that had good adjustability seeing as I'm not sure where I'll end up. Got it used but in excellent condition for just over $200 Canadian. I also picked up a new G30 4 hybrid for a hundo and a used G 5 wood for the same. So I have my full bag now (still waiting on getting my irons back with my new grips), save for maybe a lob wedge. Or I might add a right handed club instead. An 8 or 7 iron for tricky situations. It might be a big advantage for me.

I think I will drop the 5 wood to a 4 wood and play it as my go to tee club for tight holes. We'll see though.

I was also able to get my Driver club head speed on the sim. 88-90 MPH. So thats the starting point, a far cry from 115mph when I was playing righty. Gotta start somewhere eh?
 
Last edited:
So finally got a driver. Decided on the Titleist 917 10.5 degree. I wanted something that had good adjustability seeing as I'm not sure where I'll end up. Got it used but in excellent condition for just over $200 Canadian. I also picked up a new G30 4 hybrid for a hundo and a used G30 5 wood for the same. So I have my full bag now (still waiting on getting my irons back with my new grips), save for maybe a lob wedge. Or I might add a right handed club instead. An 8 or 7 iron for tricky situations. It might be a big advantage for me.

I think I will drop the 5 wood to a 4 wood and play it as my go to tee club for tight holes. We'll see though.

I was also able to get my Driver club head speed on the sim. 88-90 MPH. So thats the starting point, a far cry from 115mph when I was playing righty. Gotta start somewhere eh?

I love that your filling out your bag and gaining some confidence, brother. Heck, you just started putting and chipping a little over a month ago with a "We'll see how it goes" mindset. Now, you're up to a full bag and, swinging a driver (I assume) pain free at @ 90 mph. That's a hell of a lot of progress in one month, man. Fantastic news. Can't wait until you post your first round (I know in the frozen north it may be a while). It ma or may not produce the score that your hoping for, but it will be pretty cool to see that you took this whole conversion to the course and you'll be back to playing the game you thought may have been robbed of you after your accident. Good stuff in this thread. I'll be following along, for sure.
 
This thread blows my mind haha!

having done some left handed swings with the Superspeed, I think you're lightyears ahead of anything I could do!
 
This thread blows my mind haha!

having done some left handed swings with the Superspeed, I think you're lightyears ahead of anything I could do!

Over the years I've come to understand that right and left-handedness is more of a continuum than binary. Even among people like myself who are ambidextrous, most have tendencies like favoring fine motor skills with one hand and brute strength with the other. And even those rare folks that are near dead center ambidextrous tend to pick one hand or the other for many things, because in most activities there is a skill development component.

This all gives us a different perspective on what GoingLefty is attempting to do. If you are someone who is pretty one-sided dominant, what he's trying to do probably sounds like something between extremely difficult to impossible. If you are ambidextrous, you probably see this as doable, but something that he'll have to invest some time and effort to get there.
 
I love that your filling out your bag and gaining some confidence, brother. Heck, you just started putting and chipping a little over a month ago with a "We'll see how it goes" mindset. Now, you're up to a full bag and, swinging a driver (I assume) pain free at @ 90 mph. That's a hell of a lot of progress in one month, man. Fantastic news. Can't wait until you post your first round (I know in the frozen north it may be a while). It ma or may not produce the score that your hoping for, but it will be pretty cool to see that you took this whole conversion to the course and you'll be back to playing the game you thought may have been robbed of you after your accident. Good stuff in this thread. I'll be following along, for sure.

Thanks so much for the well wishes and for following along. You know there is a part of me buying this stuff that is still nervous that I might have to sell it but honestly I have had no pain other than some tightness here and there. The driver going up to 12 degrees is really nice as I am betting that will be the best setting for me to start.

The stretching and mobility work has been key I think, but yes I am thrilled by it. It seems like it's been way longer than a month but you're right, it hasn't! I'm very thankful to be hitting balls again, but your post just highlighted that for me. I'm so excited to get on a course and see how it goes. Right now I'm at the range a few times a week and swinging a whip practice club at home. I still hit a lot of duffs at the range but I'm getting some damn good shots out there too.

As for score, my first goal is to average 3 over per hole or shoot 126. I forgot to mention that I got a partial membership at a club here (par 72). It's a very odd course in some ways but it was only $600 ending today I think. 5 other buddies also got the same deal. It's restricted to after 11am on weekdays and after 1 on weekends. Perfect for us as we all work weekends plus our work gives us a $250 fitness allowance and they are going to let us use it for this so for $400 we have our membership. Sweet as golf here is expensive.
 
This thread blows my mind haha!

having done some left handed swings with the Superspeed, I think you're lightyears ahead of anything I could do!

Haha, thanks man but you never know where you'd be. You might be way ahead of me! It is still very awkward swinging left but it's coming. I don't know where it will end up but that's a big part of the fun. I'll try and record my next range session so you guys can see all the duffs as well as the good ones.
 
Over the years I've come to understand that right and left-handedness is more of a continuum than binary. Even among people like myself who are ambidextrous, most have tendencies like favoring fine motor skills with one hand and brute strength with the other. And even those rare folks that are near dead center ambidextrous tend to pick one hand or the other for many things, because in most activities there is a skill development component.

This all gives us a different perspective on what GoingLefty is attempting to do. If you are someone who is pretty one-sided dominant, what he's trying to do probably sounds like something between extremely difficult to impossible. If you are ambidextrous, you probably see this as doable, but something that he'll have to invest some time and effort to get there.

Some really good points. I'm sure we all have various levels of being one hand dominant. I would have said I was extremely right hand dominant before this but I do think as a kid I had some ambidextrous abilities. I think I mentioned that I could switch hit a little bit in little league and I played hocked shooting left. For those not familiar that is the common way for hockey players that are right handed to shoot. I'm sure that has helped me too, even though I haven't played in 20 years really. I played from the age of 5 to 20 like that so it had to have made an imprint.

Hockey players are said to be the best golfers in general out of the pro sports athletes because I believe the downward strike on the puck (you hit the ice just before the puck in taking a slap-shot) is similar to the downward strike on the golf ball.
 
Thanks so much for the well wishes and for following along. You know there is a part of me buying this stuff that is still nervous that I might have to sell it but honestly I have had no pain other than some tightness here and there. The driver going up to 12 degrees is really nice as I am betting that will be the best setting for me to start.

The stretching and mobility work has been key I think, but yes I am thrilled by it. It seems like it's been way longer than a month but you're right, it hasn't! I'm very thankful to be hitting balls again, but your post just highlighted that for me. I'm so excited to get on a course and see how it goes. Right now I'm at the range a few times a week and swinging a whip practice club at home. I still hit a lot of duffs at the range but I'm getting some damn good shots out there too.

As for score, my first goal is to average 3 over per hole or shoot 126. I forgot to mention that I got a partial membership at a club here (par 72). It's a very odd course in some ways but it was only $600 ending today I think. 5 other buddies also got the same deal. It's restricted to after 11am on weekdays and after 1 on weekends. Perfect for us as we all work weekends plus our work gives us a $250 fitness allowance and they are going to let us use it for this so for $400 we have our membership. Sweet as golf here is expensive.

Awesome deal on the membership. Also cool that your buddies signed up, too. I think that will help you stay on track, also. What you're doing sounds difficult as it is. It's good that you'll have some guys to get out with and encourage you to continue with your game.

126 is definitely doable and I think you're going to surprise yourself once you get out there, brother. You're going to have your bad shots, for sure, but I have a feeling you're going to walk off that course for the first time and say "No ****, I just shot a ...... from the other side of the ball". Can't wait to see your first post round report!
 
Awesome deal on the membership. Also cool that your buddies signed up, too. I think that will help you stay on track, also. What you're doing sounds difficult as it is. It's good that you'll have some guys to get out with and encourage you to continue with your game.

126 is definitely doable and I think you're going to surprise yourself once you get out there, brother. You're going to have your bad shots, for sure, but I have a feeling you're going to walk off that course for the first time and say "No ****, I just shot a ...... from the other side of the ball". Can't wait to see your first post round report!

Haha, well like you said just getting out with my buddies will be great. If I do surprise myself though, I'll be sure to credit you brother...but if I shoot 145 I get to blame you too ok?? :D Maybe I'll try and film some of my first round and post it here. Would be kind of cool to have some footage of it for posterity. Although we are all pretty vicious s#@&% talkers so I might have to bleep a bunch hah.
 
Back
Top