PGA Superstore

I love the PGA Tour Superstore! I generally go to the store in Scottsdale. It is the Costco of golf stores. There are 8 hitting bays with state-of-the-art analysis, a putting green and a chipping and sand area, in addition to rows and rows of golf clubs, clothing and other merchandise. You can go into the hitting bays and try the demonstration clubs for a reasonable period of time without being pestered by salespersons. The store offered a specialty package of 6-45-minute lessons with an "instructor" for $200! I had my first lesson on Sunday.

Before my lesson, I went to the local driving range and hit balls to "groove" my swing and so that I did not make a fool of myself in front of the instructor and any interested bystanders. Bob, the instructor, and I talked about my goals and aspirations (it was like talking with a shrink) and we decided to initially work with the driver. My initial goal is to hit my driver about 250 yards and keep it in the fairway (or at least in the rough and playable!). I also told him that I have an extremely quick backswing swing and did not think that I could change that part of my game. Bob said that the speed of your backswing is a function of your personality (I like this guy already!).

I confidently stepped into the hitting bay and started hitting balls. I consistently hit the driver 240 yards and between 5 yards right of center and 15 - 18 yards left of center. Assuming that the average fairway is 30 yards wide I was pretty pleased with my accuracy. I decided that going to a golf pro is a lot like going to a mechanic. Invariably, when you are with the mechanic (golf pro) the car (swing) works fine and there are no problems. As soon as you leave the mechanic (golf pro), the car (swing) falls apart!

The state-of-the-art computer measures ball spin, ball speed (but not clubhead speed), distance (in the air and on the ground) and distance off-center, all objective criteria, and then the kicker, the computer describes the ball flight, which seems very subjective! The computer consistently referred to my ball flight as a "pull" or "hook" or worse yet a "pull hook". I would have described it as a "draw"! Bob also put one of those stickers over the clubface and I consistently hit the ball one-quarter inch or so toward the heel of the club.

Bob was very nice and told me that he liked my grip, alignment, posture, swing plane, etc., but the one thing keeping me off the PGA tour was that my clubhead was not lagging my hands, i.e., my wrists were unhinging well before the point of impact so that I was losing all of the power in my swing; thus the pitiful distance on my driver (Bob did not say that, but I know that was what he was thinking!). He showed me two drills. In the first he gave me a very short club and had me swing it with my right hand only to feel the shoulder and elbow coming through the ball before the wrist and hands. In the second drill, which he demonstrated, he got on his knees with my club in his right hand above his head and slammed it on the ground, to demonstrate the shoulder and elbow moving first with the wrist and club following. But all I could think about was that he was slamming my Ping G5 iron against the ground and probably bending it!

The lesson flew by and I thought that Bob could help me so I booked my second lesson for the following weekend. I went home and checked my golf club and it looks fine (but it gives me an excuse if I have trouble hitting that club straight).