My revival (hopefully)

[Faiz]

I moved back to the UK from Uganda 3 years ago and came over as a good 3 handicapper who could break par often. Good all round game but I was living and breathing golf. Playing 3-4 times a week.
I moved over and golf became secondary as we sorted our lives out, focused on work, started doing other things as I built new friendships. Played less over winter as its too dark to get out and super cold.
Fairly quickly my game took a dive and I asked to be given a handicap assessment which duly took it to 7. Then this year again I went up to 10.
When this happened I decided to get back into it and try get back to a decent level again. I practiced a bit and in my first event back as a 10 I played a 6 over round which won me my division. But since then I've been struggling.
One of my friends in University in the states showed me his scorecard where he keeps stats for fairways hit, gir and putts. I decided to do that and it quickly became apparent that my tee game is costing me massively. Double bogeys caused by bad tee shots litter my cards and it doesn't seem to have an easy solution.
I thought about it and decided that enough is enough, I'm going to get some lessons and try get back to a decent level again.
So I took the plunge and booked 6 lessons with my local pro, first one is tomorrow after work.
Growing up in Uganda I never really had lessons as there was nobody there to teach so I'm not quite sure what to expect but I'm excited and have decided to try make all changes that are suggested.
I wanted to capture all that happens on my journey here and you are welcome to drop in and see how it goes.
For reference I've attached my prior scores so we can hopefully see some improvement along the way.

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[OGputtnfool]

Good luck! It'll be fun to watch your journey!

 

[MikeF]

Good luck, I'm sure you will soon be playing back at the level that you used to

 

[Hamfist]

You are still playing good golf. Maybe not AS good as when you could play all the time, (which is the real difference-maker to me), but 6-over is still a very nice round.
Once the groove comes back, I'm confident you'll trend lower.
General question, since I've never played in either location. Are the course type you are now playing radically different than the ones in Uganda? That would be a learning curve right there.

 

[Snickerdog]

Looks like you have a good plan!! Should be back to a 2/3 in no time.

 

[BigMac]

Looks like you're headed in the right direction with your plan and schedule, good luck!

 

[Faiz]

Thanks all for the positive support! Really feeling good about this direction and willing to take it all on board.

General question, since I've never played in either location. Are the course type you are now playing radically different than the ones in Uganda? That would be a learning curve right there.

Yes this is a very valid question. My course in Uganda was definitely more forgiving, I could get away with bad tee shots a lot more. I was able to play a strong draw with my irons which is difficult here as there is not as much room for error.
This course I've moved to is quite tight on some holes with small well protected greens. Also, apart from in the height of summer, I am not hitting the ball as far.

I have had my first lesson and it was genuinely incredible. He is sending me the video footage of my swing which I'll post up with some info about the lesson.

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[Drumdog]

Good luck on your journey and I'm looking forward to seeing your videos.

 

[Grins]

Good luck with the lessons & getting back into it!

 

[HarlettoScara]

Good luck with the plan, looking forward to seeing how you progress. I also suffer with throwing away shots from the tee, so I feel your pain!

 

[Jeff Spicoli]

Good luck on your journey. My tee game often blows up my rounds so I can relate.

 

[Faiz]

Sorry been so busy the last few days, had my wedding anniversary and a socially distanced bbq with my golf buddies and family. Our first time to eat somewhere other than our house since this whole thing began!
So I turned up for the lesson and we first had an in depth chat about my background in golf and other sports I've played. I told him my perceived ideas of what's wrong with my swing and kind of what I want to get out of these lessons.
He had me hit about 20 shots with a 7 iron whilst he filmed me. He filmed from the right, back and left. After this he showed me and we discussed what was wrong.
I had only ever seen my swing from the right so some of the other angles were so strange to see!
Errors that I saw were a stance that was way too wide, oddly the right leg was way back but I think the front leg looked OK.
My grip is way too strong but I had never realised what effect this was having on my whole body. My stance was set for a fade to counter my strong grip.
From the back my posture is horrendous, really slumped over the ball. Little hip rotation and not much rotation in the finish with my body angle quite bent over on the follow through. I think again to counter the strong grip.
After watching this he explained that in order to get what I wanted we had to start from the stance. You can't build a house without strong foundations.
He narrowed my stance to about shoulder width, made it square with my left foot rotated outward about 30°s or so. Then he made me swing a little to get used to it. Then he gave me a club without a head and the difference was remarkable. I almost fell back and he explained that the club is like a counterweight to my stance and that I need to find a stable balance in both situations.
To prove this point he got me standing on a pair of balance pads and I was all over the place. I could feel my feet working really hard to keep me from going forwards and then backwards. The ideal stance, he said, is when I can stand on the pads and be stable with minimum movements from my feet to keep myself up there. Once this is achieved then it allows the body to relax and be more prepared for the swing movements as opposed to just keeping me upright.
After this we worked on hip rotation and following through into a more upright finish with a vertical right sole. I have to say when I was doing this my swing very much felt more 'professional'! Haha
To reinforce this he had me do what he called circuits. 10 swings in a bunker thumping the sand and then quickly getting out and hitting 5 shots. I did this twice. I was impressed with the effectiveness of the muscle memory.
Finally at the end of the lesson he asked me how I felt. I told him that the changes feel really natural and comfortable but my grip still feels like it's fighting these changes. He agreed and explained to me that if I really want to commit to making a change then it would be good for me to change to an overlap grip as this would help me to ease my vice like grip pressure. I had a go and it was genuinely remarkable. I couldn't misalign my hands in the same way as I was previously. My right pinkie couldn't grip over the left knuckles so I had to adopt a neutral grip.
With this final key in place I hit some shots for him to video and it was incredible. I had to try and hold in my laughter. I was hitting beautiful piercing 7 irons on my target line consistently.
He explained that this is great but it's not going to be easy and I have to put the work in. I agreed that it was definitely worth putting the work in and we agreed to have the next lesson this Friday.
After he left I took the remaining 30 or so balls and like the eager student I am, I immediately ditched the 7 iron and got out the 5. Same thing, some of the best flighted balls I've ever hit. I was laughing out loud now.
I couldn't resist and got out the 3 iron and it was sensational. The best 3 irons I've ever hit. Bullet straight with what I like to call pro trajectory: low piercing ball with a late rise.
One thing you have to understand is that my swing was always geared towards big draws and maximum distance. This is probably a hangover of my unchecked junior days. Thus straight shots for me were played with a slice swing resulting in super high ball flight.
I couldn't get the video as its on a password protected website but I got some screenshots, the left is before and the right is after.

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[Faiz]

I'm going to get some right side pictures so you cN see the difference in stance and grip.

So on Monday I went out and played a competition round using just my irons. I have not quite got the confidence in my woods yet but I do feel really good about my irons.
I would say that it is quite an improvement, despite hitting a long iron twice into a few holes the score is not so bad.
Unfortunately my putting was not so great but all in all I was really pleased. The iron swing seems to be getting better and I'm getting some distance that I didn't really think was possible. It is highly addictive hitting these low piercing late risers and having the confidence to just aim straight at it.
Having said that, I think I do need to slow down to try protect myself before I cause an injury.
In the scoreboard you can see my terrible 9 holes before my first lesson

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[campilobaxter]

That's awesome Faiz! Keep it up!

 

[Hamfist]

Great job, Faiz.
I'm oddly peeved that you weren't actually wearing a purple crown, though.

 

[Faiz]

Great job, Faiz.
I'm oddly peeved that you weren't actually wearing a purple crown, though.

Haha this made me lol! It's Jugheads crown which I've borrowed!
Playing today so I'll get those pictures.
Also going to try getting some Woods in on the action. Not every hole but the ones which I struggle to reach with an iron off the tee.

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[Faiz]

Hmmm I think I stopped updating this through this corona affected summer but I think it's fair to post where I finished up with this season.
I've had 4 lessons so far, 3 on the range and 1 playing lesson. It has been incredible.
I'm still not at the level I want to be by any means but now when I get on the course I feel that if I do what I've learnt I can easily beat my handicap.
I've managed to slow down my swing a fair bit and I'm working on trying to reduce the length of my back swing. I feel that the wrist hinge at the top is sacrificing a lot of accuracy with very little distance gain. It's important to point out that slowing down my swing has resulted in no loss of distance as the additional hip rotation has added speed from elsewhere. This is huge for me as I feel great by the end of the round now. Before without hip rotation my back was taking a serious pounding. I tried to do my old swing in slow motion the other day and I was cringing thinking about what my back had gone through for so long.

The single big problem I still have is my driver. I can hit every other club really straight which is a very exciting thing for me as even when I was at my peak I was playing draws.
So further research has shown that perhaps this driver is not the right one for me, I think I need something more upright and if equipment can help me with that then I think I'm going to be in a good place very soon.

Here are some images of my swing transition from my first lesson to my fourth. Tbh I am absolutely thrilled with how it has gone, I think the images clearly show how much of a difference has been made.

I'd encourage everyone to take lessons from a decent accredited pro if you can. I would argue that even if you think you don't need it, you will undoubtedly come away with improvements. Of course a lot of it is down to if you get on and understand the methods of that pro but for me luckily I do and I foresee myself having more throughout the year.

Anyway I'll update this more as I get on but I am definitely excited now about the upcoming season.

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