Rookie on the Green

I’m a very patient, laid-back person, but the guy we got paired with for 18 holes today got on even my nerves.  To set the stage, my husband and I were walking the course and this guy and his friend had a cart.

Things started off badly when on the first hole, the guy drove his cart right in front of us on the fairway as we were setting up to hit our second shots.  No amount of yelling could dissuade him, so we went for it and had to yell fore because he was sitting in the path of the ball in the cart.  It was pretty hard to understand why someone would do this, and he did it on just about every hole.  He was just oblivious, when common courtesy (and common sense) is not to stand in front of or park your cart in front of someone who’s hitting a shot.

The problem got worse and worse the more beer the guy drank (and he was the only one drinking). He also got slower and slower on his shots to the point that even though he had the cart and we were walking, we always ended up waiting on him — it got to the point he was really holding up the pace of play.

The most unfortunate side effect of all the beer was that the guy felt the need to relieve himself behind every tree (and on a fence, and even on the sidewalk next to a tee box).  It seemed like every time I looked up, he was doing it again.  Ay caramba!  That was downright disgusting.  I did everything in my power not to shake his hand at the end of the round, but somehow I was forced into it!  At least I gave him my glove hand…blechhh!!!  To top it all off, he kept on calling me “hon” and “honey” in a really obnoxious way throughout the round.

One kind of funny thing did happen, though.  I think even the guy’s friend was (FINALLY) starting to notice that the guy was really out of it.  On about my 5th shot on a par 4, I happened to land the ball in the hole from about 50 yards out (yes!).  The guy was convinced it was a hole in one and that if he signed the witness card I could get my name in the paper.  His friend had to yell at him for him to believe that this was not actually a hole in one.

Bottom line:  we would have had a much better outing without all the frustrations this guy brought on — it just wasn’t a pleasant time.  It was hard to focus and was just constantly aggravating.  Maybe we should have just let him and his friend play ahead of us to wash our hands of the bad apple.  The moral of the story:  please, please, please don’t be THAT GUY!

It’s been a long winter and we still have a few months left here in Minnesota!  In hopes of fooling myself into thinking golf weather will be here soon, I booked a few lessons at GolfTec in Edina to get my progress back on track before it’s time to get out on the course. One of the things I worked on in the lesson was shoulder turn and shoulder tilt on the backswing.

Shoulder Turn Before

My instructor used a photo of Michelle Wie to show me where I was going wrong in this before shot.  On the backswing, my shoulders weren’t “wound up” enough, not rotated far enough in the direction of the red arrow.  As you can see from the green arrows, my left shoulder lines up with the inside of my left leg, and Wie’s left shoulder is rotated to the point over her right, or back, leg.  You can also see the yellow “70″ shoulder turn number.  At GolfTec, green numbers are good, yellow numbers need work and red numbers are bad.  So that’s what we have to work with.

My instructor had me focus on getting my shoulder turn closer to Michelle Wie’s above.  Then I took a few practice swings with a Swingyde Golf Swing Training Aid, pictured above.  It was really amazing how this helped me get the feel for where everything should line up, both on the backswing and on the follow-through, without doing anything funky with my wrists.  In my swings after that, I tried to remember what it felt like with the Swingyde.  Maybe I need to get one of those things… it made a big difference.

Shoulder Turn Before and After

Here’s a look at before and after from the side — big improvement on the shoulder turn (nevermind that my head is turned to see what I did).  You might also notice that my hips turned too much, too though.  More on that coming up.

Here’s another before and after from the front.  The challenge through this process was that when I worked on getting my shoulders turned enough, my left shoulder wasn’t tilted low enough.  When I got the shoulder turn and tilt fixed, my hips rotated too much, as I pointed out before.  So the trick is to fix the shoulders and keep the lower body solid, and that’s going to take some practice.  Here are a couple of the drills my instructor gave me to work on this:

1.  Line Up the Clubs.  You need two golf clubs.  Get your feet like you’re setting up to hit the ball, in an athletic stance, shoulder width apart.  Put one club on the ground, shaft touching the inside of your back foot, pointing out in front of you (perpendicular to the target).  Take the other club and hold it straight across your chest with your arms crossed against your chest.  Rotate your shoulders to the right, as in a backswing, until the club at your chest is parallel to and directly above the club on the ground.  This helps get the shoulders rotated enough and helps you learn a good weight shift in your swing.

2.  Table Drill.  This one also works on weight shift, but also keeps your hip tilt from going too far.  You need a golf club and a table.  Stand with the table off your right hip.  Line up your feet as though at address.  Hold one end of the golf club in each hand with your arms extended about waist-high.  Rotate your upper body so that the club stays parallel to the floor and to the table, and clears the table.  You should feel the weight shift into the inside of your right leg on the backswing.

So, that’s what I’m working on this week.  My instructor left me with an after shot next to Stuart Appleby to show me the things I was doing right and for a little extra encouragement!  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to practice some of this stuff in a golf dome this weekend.

I was a little worried about our how our trip to the Adirondacks would go since this was our first time flying with our golf clubs AND our Boston terrier, Fred. But everything got there in one piece in the new bags we bought and Fred arrived none the worse for wear. We got these Tour Trek Endeavor travel bags at Golfsmith. They were some of the least expensive travel covers available, but they still seem to have a decent amount of padding. We also used the Club Glove Stiff Arm. You extend the stick up from the bottom of your bag until the hard dome is higher than the top of your driver. This absorbs the impact and protects your clubs when they’re thrown around by the baggage handlers.

In spite of my best efforts to fix my grip, my thumb blister keeps reappearing.  This gets to be pretty annoying and painful out on the course.  My golf coach let me try the “miracle product” he found and it’s been the best thing I’ve tried for dealing with this.  It’s 3M Nexcare Absolute Waterproof Foam Tape.  The tape stayed on for 18 holes in the heat and was totally comfortable over the blister.  It adheres to itself and forms a good protective layer, but stays flexible, so it’s great for finger issues.  I love this stuff.