Lesson Time

I will be honest, I have not had a lesson since I started playing golf. I started over thirty years ago, when my family took over the little restaurant at Chimney Rock Golf Course in the Napa Valley. Since then, I have developed some bad habits by watching too many YouTube videos. What is the best way to fix this? Take a lesson from your local pro. I called up Glen Riddle Golf Course and made a reservation for an hour long lesson. If you read my Range Day blog post, you will know I like to practice on grass. Glen Riddle has two grass ranges. One is open to the public and the other is for lessons and members. My lesson started with a ride out to the lessons range where John Belkov, one of the club pros, would givie me my lesson. He wanted to find out what asked what I hoped to work on, my reply – what everyone wants…more length!!! Lol, but seriously I just wanted to get a bit more consistent.

We started off with the short game, so I pulled a wedge and started. My real problem is I don’t aim consistently in the right direction and my front foot has gotten to far open. I’ve been watching too many videos on trying to get more power and now I’m way to open. John noticed immediately and went to work on getting me a bit more closed and to take the extra second to aim a bit more in the general direction that I want the ball to go in.

We moved from the wedge to my nine iron. I have a trip planned for next month to the “cradle of American golf” – a very special spot – and I told John about it. We decided this would be good practice to work on my short game. As you can see in the picture my front foot is still open. I lose about ten yards, and if I do manage to make proper contact I yank the ball to the left. It’s always nice for someone to help you correct what is stopping you from hitting the ball as good as you can. The only problem is, when you are playing on the course no one is giving you tips. Everyone is worried about their own game. I know because I’ve played with club pros and they are concentrating on playing their game.

By the time I got to my driver we had been working on my short game for so long, there wasn’t much time left. This is where my bad habits are really pronounced. Again, it’s the same thing as before. Opened up too much, not lined up correctly and trying to kill the ball. Hopefully after my work with John I will be able to be a little longer and straighter. All in all I would definitely recommend a lesson. Whether you have never played golf or if you are someone who’s been playing for thirty plus years. As always if you want to see some video from my lesson just go and check out my Instagram and don’t forget to sign up, down below, so you can get notification of when the newest blog comes up! And as always, I’ll try and hit them straight but if I don’t, I will yell “FORE”!

The High Handicapper