Back from Atlanta

We're back home now from Atlanta so I wanted to post a recap on how the trip went. We got into Atlanta around 1:00 and by the time we got our bags, rented a car and drove nearly an hour north from the airport I arrived at Alpharetta Athletic Club at 3:00 in time to start my lesson. We began by going over a brief history of my golfing career and what ultimately lead me to being there in the first place. I explained the struggles I'd been having lately and he was quickly interested in seeing me hit some balls. For a good two and a half hours we worked together trying identify the main areas of my swing that needed work. It was nice having the ability to look at my swing from multiple angles in slow motion because it caused the flaws in my swing to really stand out. I'd say that there were 4 issues that we both felt needed improvement. For those that understand the golf swing here they are:


(1) Grip: My grip was too weak which was causing a lot of the shots I was missing to
to the right. Tom suggested that I turn my left hand over more to the right (stronger) just slightly which put my grip in a more neutral position.
(2) Setup: I need to center my weight more in my address position and put my head back a little and not cocked forward like it was.
(3) Backswing: For those that have played golf with me know that my backswing is short...no big secret there. Because its short, I tend to not make a big enough shoulder turn which affects my rhythm and tempo and can get really jerky under pressure. Tom gave me a good drill to work on that really helps with this problem.
(4) Impact: We noticed that when I would hit my driver, my left heel was jumping
about 2" inches off the ground right before impact. I didn't do this with any other club, but definitely another cause of hitting shots to the right...especially with my driver. Tom explained a better way to use my pivot on the downswing to help alleviate this problem and it seemed to work pretty well.


On Saturday, we got together again around 10:00 for a follow-up lesson. This time, we basically worked on the same things we had talked about the day before. We took some more video and introduced a couple new drills to work on going forward. We called it a day around lunch time, and from there I went next door to meet with the person in charge of club fitting. The facility we worked out of was a brand new building built just off to the side of the driving range. It had two hitting bays that could be opened up to the range; one for Tom to teach out of and the other to do club fittings. I was interested in demoing a few drivers and the guy there was more than willing to help. He did have a lot going on so what we did was pretty informal and more or less just me seeing what clubs felt the best. I tried one type of driver in about 10 different shafts and came up with a combination that might be a possibility in the future. It was a good experience and if I get back to Atlanta soon, I hope to set up an appointment with him again to do a more in depth fitting.

Once I was done with both the lesson and fitting, I drove about another 20 minutes north to a course called Hawk's Ridge. Tom had set me up out there and said that if I decided to go I wouldn't be let down. He was right. This place was one of the nicest golf courses I have ever played. It looked a lot like Augusta (even though nothing compares to Augusta) with all the tall pine trees lining the fairways, elevation changes on every hole, large bunkers and perfectly sculpted greens. It was an absolute treat to play and even Erika, who rode around in the cart with me, was impressed. I played 18 holes in just over 2 hours and only had to pass up one group for the entire round. It's like we had the place to ourselves.

Overall, it was a very informative trip and I'm glad I went. Any time you can get a second opinion from someone knowledgeable about the game it can't hurt. Everything we talked about I've seen, done or heard before so it wasn't like he was throwing a bunch of new ideas at me. But over time, you forget things and a trip like this becomes valuable to help put the pieces back together. When we left Atlanta, Tom said he would be more than willing to help again in the future and I hope the opportunity to go back comes sooner rather than later. Right now, my plans are to practice every day, all day and really try to groove these changes. I feel good about what's to come and I'm excited to get back to where I need to be. I'm gonna do everything I can to come out of this better than before. Hope everyone is doing well!