Opettelen pelaamaan golfia

I will leave for Spain day after tomorrow. I'm playing with my brother in three different places: La Marquesa, Las Ramblas and Altorreal. Looking very much forward in seeing how my new swing works. Can I stay calm? What is it like hitting from grass and not from a perfect lie like in practicing range. And I am very uncertain with distance control. I think I have found the target line - most of the shots:-) I always have a feeling that I am going to play great rounds - like in tv tournaments. I just can help it - and even though the score is terrible I remember one or two great shots. If I didn't keep a score I would be sure that I have played like a professional.

Okay, here's one tip from "one pro", again:-) Try to play with golfers that have a lower hcd than you have. You learn by watching them play. So today I played in OSIM Singapore Masters - I was playing in front of my TV - swinged after Mamat, Dougherty and the others...

I needed some extra motivation to practice my swing in our living room. Swinging at an imaginary ball is okay for a while, but ... it's dull. I found an old pillow. I thought it might work as an impact bag, but it is little too heavy. To not to break my clubs I started to swing so that I only sweepped the surface very little. This is a very good exercise! It develops a very good control of distance to ground. To sweep the surface so that you can hear a sound but the pillow hardly moves is challenging for me. And it makes swinging feel like swinging with a ball - there is something in stake. I know if I succeeded or not. Also this gives an clue about how clubhead speed affects on impact. Swinging faster tends to create a thick impact.

Looks like learning golf is one of those never ending journeys we have in our life. I have learned about my self that I need continues feedback of progress to be motivated on something like this. Like loosing weight - I have to weigh my self every morning to stick to my goal. Otherwise I will start gaining weight. During the past year I have lost 25 kg, this works for me. For golf I need a similar kind of feedback of progress. I don't think that following the drop of my handicap is the right qualifier. At the moment a simple solution would be to check that I have done my practice swings. 100 swings a day until the summer range opens. One pro suggested a drill: try to hit 10 balls as close as possible to each other. Count the difference in meters and follow up on your progress during the summer. This might be a good thing to do one a week? Shooting with short irons about 100 meters. It would be nice to get all balls in a 10 meter circle?

Today is my 48. birthday. For my birthday I just finished 11 email lessons of golf with Lawrie Montague at Golf Academy. http://www.golf-school-australia.com Get the lessons! I'll add a quotation from Lawrie's email: "Thankyou for your comments on my lesson series and you're right the lessons are simple and for good reason, golf instruction tends to be ambiguous and complicated, and really it's not that difficult to learn how to hit better, more consistent golf shots and ultimately lower your scores. Hannu as long as you truly develop an understanding about what you are trying to do and then follow-up with consistent thoughtful action golf becomes less of a mystery. Good luck to you and your adventures in golf and please let me know how you're travelling down the track." Consider this a "slice" of my birthday cake to you:-) Hannu - learning and living (Modified from McLuhan's "learning a living)