14th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary from 2000

    In this excerpt, I give the details about how volunteering for the first time for the Aztec High School Golf Team in the fall took too much of my time.  I recall nearly  making one of the longest putts I had attempted at one practice session.  I also practice out in the frigid cold with Mike, and it's there that he sees something that needs a "drastic" change.

12-14-00
   I tried for a while at the beginning of this school year to volunteer as a coach for the Aztec High School Golf Team.  I went only two times, once to a practice session, and once to play along on a day of cuts for the few remaining spots on the team.  After that, I...

just couldn’t help out anymore.  As technology coordinator and full time educator, I just couldn’t get away from school enough, and the practices were in Kirtland, too far away for staying, playing golf, and getting home in time to be a good father and husband too. I liked working with the kids, but didn’t feel as though I knew enough or play well yet enough to be a great golf teacher.

    During one practice session on the putting green, I played against a father who had also come to help.  We were playing eighteen holes, all on the green, and each hole we agreed was a par two.  I came so close to making an incredibly long and big-breaking putt that curved along the inside of the fringe around the green.  It followed the curve of the green just like a marble rolling along on the inside of a big shallow bowl.  The ball hit the hole and lipped out a few inches away.  I was very pleased with my reading of the green, and the ability to execute on that putt. 

12-18-00

    It’s cold.  I have continued to take lessons once a week or so with Mike as the weather permits.  I have had a lesson where Mike and I were the only two out there. Literally!  At another lesson, I pulled out and used my Mickey Mouse earmuffs, and was not embarrassed at all to use them in front of Mike because of the wind. 

    Mike came out, showed me a few things, and then went back inside.  I don’t mind practicing in the cold.  It’s what makes me get so excited about playing golf.  I like that I am willing to suffer in order to get better.  When Guy and I played basketball, we played in the snow sometimes.  We didn’t care.  We just loved the sport we were playing, and the weather just didn’t matter to us.      

    What Mike and I are working on right now is… well it’s not my back swing.  I have seen it on film and it looks great!  I have a nice take-away, and I am right on plane.  One small mistake Mike did notice in my back swing, though, is that I make my lateral move behind the ball a little too far.  I need to put my weight on my right leg, and stop it there.  I tend to go too far back sometimes, but that’s about it.  My problem right now is in my impact and follow through.  My downswing is not so bad either.  After many uphill practice shots, I have gotten rid of my casting problem, and hit less and less shots with my hands now.  I am dropping the club right into the slot.  It’s at impact where I break down.  At the last practice session, I hit shot after shot after shot, to the right of the target.  I was very consistent.  Not a slice, just straight right.  Great back swing, smooth transition, excellent downswing, but I am just not getting the clubface square using a “large muscle” swing. 
    So, Mike says, “Time for drastic measures.”
    I think, “Uh oh, what does that mean?”