Ladies League, A Scorecard, and A Reality Check
Yesterday, I played with the ladies’ 9-hole league. They’re always easygoing, and since most are newer golfers, I don’t get intimidated playing with them. I figured I’d keep score to see if I’ve made any progress. While I made more decent contact than usual (progress!), I still shot a 57—a lovely mix of short carries, over-putting, and enough mishits to add up to a big ol’ pile of golf sadness.
Our friend Todd met me at the range to watch my swing and offer some tips ahead of my round. He said maybe I should stop thinking of weight shift as leaning into my left leg and start thinking of it as pushing off my right. He also sent me a reel—I call them Toddagrams—about keeping my back to the target, but I have no idea how to make that fit into my already overflowing list of swing thoughts.
Before he left, he reminded me (again) to take small swings—toe to toe. Did I actually do that during the round? Um… nope.
My brain can only juggle so many swing thoughts at once. I try to practice weight shift in my practice swing (shift, turn, shift, turn), but once it’s time to swing-swing, my mind locks onto a few things: spine angle, shoulder turn, knee flex, head down at impact, and (after a drive that misses the fairway to the right) rolling my forearms. A semi-full-swing ensues and unsurprisingly, I don’t hardly move my lower body at all (hello hanging back at impact). Even then, about halfway through the round, I caught myself leaning toward the target again—probably a result of fatigue.
So what did I do after that? Headed straight back to the range, of course. I ran through some drills (mostly spine angle) and let the Golf Fix app analyze my swing. The results? Abysmal. 10 swings. 5.4 points out of 10. But hey, at least that’s an increase from last time 🎉. My most common issues: lack of shoulder turn at the top, backswing sway, hanging back at impact, reverse spine tilt, and shoulder up at impact. Basically, everything I’ve been working on. DAMMIT.
Because I clearly hadn’t had enough self-inflicted suffering for one day, I took some video of myself swinging while thinking shift, turn, shift, turn—only to be horrified by the sway and the weird hip jiggle I’ve apparently started doing. At least when there is a ball in front of me.
I’d love to grab my body, give it a good shake, and scream, PAY ATTENTION! BUILD MUSCLE MEMORY, YOU SLACKER! But apparently, it’s 2025, and we’re supposed to be kind to ourselves. So, I’ll accept my imaginary good sportsmanship trophy and keep plugging away.
Onward.