Long story short, watch the show! I took a solid 7 shots off my game. Here is my journey.
After a few years of golf hiatus with starting a family and taking care of past sports injuries during Covid it was time to get back to the most relaxing yet frustrating sport on Earth, golf.
After a few range sessions and a couple of rounds to get the feel back I can honestly say not much was different. Didnt swing with as much torque from the surgery repairs but still had a fast swing. Putting was average for an average causal golfer. 70 yards in I still was awful, up to 170 was 50/50 with distance control but mostly straight. 170-220 on the money with hybrids/woods. Driver was a little lighter at around 260 yards with a fade on a good hit or a real good right angle slice on a miss. Hanging around mid-upper 80s on average (generous with a mulligan or not adding a penalty stroke to be honest among friends), low 80s on a good day, low 90s on a bad days; I knew my game, and my inconsistencies were consistent to save them with my strengths.
So then I found the Golf Fix on Peacock. Didn't have much hope for improving watching a guy talk about how to golf, showing a couple of drills and a few full demo swings. But I have a hard time falling asleep so I figured why not give it a try.
First I watched the episode I was most interested in: stopping my slice. Light turned on. What I was doing to try and fix my problem was actually making it worse! Went to the range and sure enough, way better. Less shank slices, my slices turned to fades, my fade lessened, and had way more down the pipe hits. Ok, this show might be on to something. So I then watched every episode; late at night, intently by myself, in the peace and quite.
Next thing I did was order new clubs. Yes, at this point mine were pushing 5-10 years old anyway. But before the show I figured it really didn't matter much, I'm not a good player let alone a scratch player so its not a big deal. But I learned about shaft stiffness and loft and degrees; and again my thinking was backwards. Not wanting to spend a ton of money I got 1-2 year old but brand new clubs, kept my bag and putter, and sold my old clubs on Facebook. Net cost was about $1000: D, 3W, 5W, 3H, 4H, 5-AW, 60. (I can get into this in another post).
So I then learned about setting a routine (which I felt I did well already). But, I realized some other mistakes within my steady routine that impacted my swing and performance. I didn't change my swing, but the routine helped with the lessons on grip and stance consistency. I might not have improved drastically here. But I definitely grew in confidence the next couple of times at the range.
Then oddly enough came the respect and need to go to the range. Practice and warm up. I never really thought much of it. Honestly, still not a huge fan BUT I realized the importance of it all. Working your swing, and working on distance. I always just did that on the course. However, writing it down after a bucket of balls (light, 50%, full, max was my markers). This helped the confidence. Working on the little snippets here and there I picked up from the episode the distance control came last and probably most importantly. Not only consitancy with distance control but also severely reducing chunking or topping the ball. Well technically the putting caught on last. But I didn't know that until the rounds came in to play. I can't pinpoint what caused me to go from 2.4 putts a hole to 2.2 putts (thanks Golf Pad for keeping track). All I really remember is starting to line the ball up properly, not sure if it was that, the overall confidence boost, or somethimg else in any episode; but the result is obvious in my 9 rounds since watching the show.
All in all I went to the range 8 times before hitting a course again. At the range, I was there at least an hour and used at least a "large" bucket of balls. After that I did 3 18-hole par 3 rounds, at the same course. I am now on 9 rounds of full golf at 4 different courses. My 9 hole average us 40.5, my best being a 39, worst being a 42. My 18 hole average is down to a 81, with a low of 79 and a high of 83. No lost balls in the woods, one into the water, only 3 sandtraps in total (thanks again GolfPad for the reminder, haha), and a total of 2 mulligans.
That is my story so far. This offseason I'll be sure to watch again. Certainly paying attention to working draws/fades and spins. Maybe they'll even make another season too. Who knows. But I'm a fan and I think the average Joe looking for a cheaper than pro lessons way to get better and faster should check the show out.
