Playing With a Beginner Revelation

Written on 11-14-2020

        This is cool.  I just woke up at the cabin home, showered, gathered all my vitamins and pills, poured my h2orange and a coffee, started the broadcast from the Masters from Thursday, and settled in to the glider rocker next to an already going fire.  I am alone, because everybody else is taking a walk with Kody.  

On to more golf…

I played 15 holes yesterday.  When I arrived at the course, a man who was doing a fundraiser just outside the pro shop told me the news.  The governor has decided to shut down golf courses in the state again starting Monday.  Bummer.  I am upset that it cuts into my membership, but they did extend the last one when this happened before, so I bet they will do it again.

I didn’t plan on playing 18 holes, but when I heard that, I decided to play as many as I could.  Two others joined me, and I actually knew one of them.  It was...

Carrie (not her real name) who works the car wash right outside of the entrance to Kokopelli, and she detailed our Windstar years ago.  She was a beginner at golf, and she was being coached by Chris, who took an interest in helping her after she detailed his jeep.  He thought that she looked fairly athletic, so he wondered if she played golf, and when she said no, he decided to help her.  He was a patient teacher, and it was fun and refreshing to see him helping someone who was just starting out.  

I know that my results were similar to hers on some of my shots, but I also know that I am miles ahead of someone who is just starting.  It also reminded me of what works when I saw her have success, however.  When she kept her head steady and let her hands and arms go freely through the hitting area, she had good results, and I was reminded that even a beginner can have good fundamentals and results on some swings.

Here is what I discovered yesterday.  I was locking my legs in more than I ever have (kind of pigeon-toed), and I was keeping my head over the ball, doing my best to stay very still.  On my backswing, I was bringing my club more to the inside going back. I noticed Todd Graves brings his club inside, and his club’s toe is nearly pointing straight up at knee height and just slightly closed.  

I went to the range first, and I experimented with those two things.  Bringing my club more inside felt funny, and I felt like becuase of that I was following through more out to the right.  It was similar to the I feeling I had when I used Troy’s tip of “hands to the wall.”

By the end of the front nine, Chris gave me a tip, and I allowed it.  They were leaving after nine holes anyway, and I had topped multiple shots again, so I was curious what he would say.  He told me after another topped tee shot on #9 that I was “early.”  I asked for clarification, and he said I wasn’t completing my backswing.  Oh.  I thought that I needed a shorter backswing to stop the topping.  I carried his tip to the back nine and experimented with it.

Hole #10 was not so good, but it was due to a short game malfunction.  I was actually on the green in three, but I accidentally putted it off the green.  

#11 was glorious.  Why can’t I do what I did on #11 all the time?  I drove it well past the 150 yard markers, up on the left side of the fairway.  I only needed a pitching wedge for my approach, and I swung my golf ball to the front of the green.  I had a long putt, but I found the perfect speed to roll the ball up two hills and stop right next to the hole.  Ah, so wonderful.

It makes sense to me.  When I am reaching back in my backswing, I typically have better results, so I should keep doing that.  

What I want to be able to do is complete my backswing every time, keep my head steady and still when I do that, and then get my left arm to be full extended at impact making the proper angle with my hands leading my clubhead.  That’s all.  So simple.

Written on 12-6-2020.

This year is wrapping up soon.  It’s another Sunday afternoon, and we are all in relaxation mode.  B is napping on our recliner, which was moved into our bedroom since we decorated for Christmas, and we needed the extra room for our Christmas tree in the living room.  James is playing Magic with Rich in his bedroom (via video chat), and they told me they are practicing being roommates before James moves in.  Rich bought a new house in Albuquerque, so James will be renting from him.  James starts his new job in about a week. 

The Mayakoba Classic is on the television, and I am halfway watching.  Don’t have much to report as far as golf is concerned.  Pinon Hills remains closed due to Covid-19, and I wrenched my lower back out of position about ten days ago, but I have been slowly recovering since that time.  

It wasn’t one single incident of bad lifting.  I bent down to brush off a railroad tie that James and I were putting in on the back patio outside of our dining room.  That was it.  Just bent over to wipe away some dirt, and it twinged.  This has been the worst tweak I have ever had, so I am thankful it is getting better, but everything stopped.  We couldn’t celebrate our anniversary the way we wanted.  Heck, I could barely shift my butt in my bed.  It hurt too much to just lift my bottom and shift it over.

I have decided to take on one more school for the CORE this year, so I will be up to three schools soon.  I don’t see us going out very much this spring due to the pandemic, and I figured I might as well earn some more money.  It feels good to help out Zaira, too, since Rocio has died.  

I don’t think I have mentioned it in here, but Rocio, our director, passed away recently.  I am very sad about it.  I was secretly hoping she would make a comeback to be able to work with us, but it wasn’t meant to be.  She had colon cancer.  I decided to dedicate the work that I will be doing with this third school to Rocio and her memory.  She would have liked that, and Zaira was asking for somebody with experience to take on the schools that were new to the grant and our coaching philosophy.