New realizations

I had a few realizations while out there putting today.  First and foremost, I realized how important tempo is in a golf swing.  I was using the putting tutor (a putting aid that helps let you know if you are starting the ball on line, as well as help you with a few other putting aspects) and for the life of me could not get the ball to go straight through the marbles.  I’ve been having problems with that for a couple weeks, but then today I was using my metronome and found that I could hit it straight through time after time..  I haven’t a clue how slowing down my swing straightens it, but it does and that’s all I really need to know.

I also realized that I have a speed problem.  It seems that I have a tendency to overshoot the hole by four or five feet on a putt as close as nine feet away, which is not good..  But, I discovered a new game where you hit a ball from 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 feet away and you have to hit each ball past the hole, but within two feet.  It took me about 30 minutes, but I finally got through all of the distances three times in a row.  Think that with a few weeks of this game under my belt I will have much better speed control in the future, or at least I hope!

A final realization I had is that there are a lot fewer “problems” in my putting game that I am encountering these days.  Two months ago, there was so much wrong going on in my swing that I was having realizations on a daily basis.  Now, I have one or two a week, a much better scenario!

With these realizations in mind, I think I’ve started off the week on the right foot.  I’m going to end the week out at Pumpkin with a two-hour lesson on how to grip and swing a club for real.  There’s excitement in the air, I can’t believe that the time is coming nearer where I might actually be playing golf!