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Bruce is the friend of a good friend and student of mine, John Cherner, and John was nice enough to convince Bruce to take a lesson from me. Bruce is a highly trained marathon runner and is strong as heck to boot, so when I first took a look at his swing I pretty much knew that by the end of the lesson I could get him to hit the ball much better. We started off with a pitching wedge, hitting to a flag that was 95 yards out. Bruce couldn’t get within 30 yards of it, and when you see the first batch of swings it should be apparent why. Weak grip, no wrist cock, no lateral lower body movement; generally just devoid of any technique that would produce any club head speed or solid strike. I first focused on the grip, then went directly to the wrist cock, then to the sequence of the sidearm throwing motion. It took quite a bit of pushing and pulling but being a good athlete Bruce caught on quickly as we worked and by the end of the lesson he hit one about 120 yards directly over the flag with a divot in front of the ball. I should have filmed myself at that point because I had a bigger smile on my face than Bruce did. I don’t know if he even realized what an amazing transformation he had just made, but I have to say I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything quite as startling as the difference in the first and last swings. Like I said in the video, if the PGA and the equipment companies want more people to play and to continue playing then they ought to be promoting better teaching, because what makes the game fun is improving. When a guy like Bruce takes lessons and shows up with a swing like his, there is a problem. It wouldn’t take long for him to get frustrated at what he might perceive as his own incompetence and quit the game. Now he should be excited enough to want to practice and to continue to play and learn more about how to get better. I always consider that to be my mission.
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