Real Progress

Last week I dumped my kids and wife off at a movie and hit a nearby driving range.

Though I bought a pile of balls, I mostly just hit wedges. I found a real groove when I was able to focus on having very quiet hands at the end of my backswing. The key was to keep them quiet on that first move downward - that night anyway.

I've also been goofing around with taking HUGE backswings. I mean ones where my club goes past parallel and I can see it near my left eye at the top a la John Daly.

Why do I do this?

Well, after hitting tons of half-wedges, I usually get my swing in a really good, smooth place. Then I whip out my driver and am really able to take monstrous, slow swings that are real head-turners on the range. The ball simply explodes off my club.

I played my regular round last Saturday, after my range session. I was simply all over the place. I hit bombs and stiffed some pins....and was also picking up on some holes.

But when I was finished, I was surprised to realize that in between snap-hooks and slices....that I managed 8 pars which is always a decent achievement on my extremely hard home course. So I had at least that to take away from the round.

Then, on Tuesday, I played Wachusett CC. It's a track that would invariably annihilate me as a young Hacker. I'd play my wide-open muni (Green Hill) and shoot mid 80s (when I was *on*) but then my uncle would take me to Wachusett, more of a real, tree-lined course, and it would smack me back down to reality, and up to the mid 90s.

But that was then; I'm a much, much better player now. This Tuesday I ate the course up. I shot a 78 despite carelessly bogeying 17 and doubling 18.

Why'd I play so well?

Well I was taking that incredibly big backswing with my driver from the first hole on. I tried to get my left shoulder as far under my chin as possible; I tried to see the clubhead next to my left eye; and I tried to start my downswing with those *quiet* hands from the range session while I kept the left shoulder wound as long as possible.

I was flat-out smashing the ball off the tee.

Wachusett also has one of the most *unfair* practice greens I've ever seen. It's literally carved into a hillside. I found it to be awesome practice trying to chip, pitch, and putt on it. To make my warm-up session even harder, I would only use my 8 and 9-irons for *flop* shots. I'm definitely going back to this practice green when in the area again. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that playing and practicing under extremely difficult conditions really pays dividends.

But getting back to my driving....

This is what makes golf so darn frustrating. After weeks of hitting my tee shots sideways, I fixed my swing up in Maine by shortening my backswing. That only worked for a little bit.

So now the temporary solution is to take a huge swing????

Crap.