Everything I Need to Know about Golf, I Learned From Hitting my Nine Iron

I'm at the range and it's going pretty well.  There is a young boy there and he is sitting on a nearby bench with his grandfather. 

The grandfather goes off for a lesson from Stan, the aged, local pro.

I say something to the boy.  I don't remember what it was, but something encouraging.  He says, "My grandpa says you never miss a shot."

In some ways old granddad is correct.  At least compared to others at the range.  I assure the lad that the better you get, the more you can find wrong with what you are doing.

I told the boy that he has about a 40 year head start on my golf career and I'm sure he will over take me in no time.


On to our main topic.  Faithful readers will note my long struggle with the big stick. 

When I practice I start with my 9 iron.  Also I've been pretty good about keeping my head behind the ball.  So everything but the driver has been very well behaved. 

I keep pondering this.  "What's the secret of the nine iron?"  I pull it out and set up to hit a ball and try to be very observant about what I'm doing.

I realize that I put very little body action into the swing.  I'm basically turning shoulders and then turning them back.  The body is very quiet.  The backswing is slow.  I have infinite trust in this swing.  It's the envy of my friends and enemy of tight pins. 

A light goes on...

Let's try doing these several things with all the clubs...  It seems that the speed of the backswing depends on how far I'm trying to hit the ball.  Bad, bad!  I try taking the club back slowly.  Then let's try this "bodyless" swing for all the clubs.  Hmm, this seems to be working.

I grab for the big stick.  I'm very happy with my contact.  I'm not sure how far it's going, but it's straight and up in the air.

Hope returns again. 


Meanwhile I mentioned pickleball the other day.  This showed up in my youtube feed and I'm hot to give it a try.  I got a paddle and some balls.  After my range session I went over to the courts.  They were vacant as usual.  But I could try some serves.

My last racket/paddle sport is table tennis.  I found that I had to hit the ball a lot harder than expected.  It took a couple of hits before I got a ball over the net.  If you watch the players on youtube they are whacking it pretty hard.  There will be an adjustment here.  I'm glad I didn't talk anyone into hitting with me before I tried it.  There will be a learning curve here.