I always take a lesson at the start of the season. At least that is what I tell people. It’s a sound strategy get the season off on the right foot and all that, but the truth is I wait. I wait until all the hope and promise of the new golf season has worn off. The best laid plans, the new swing, the new clubs; have all crashed into a heap of unfulfilled expectations. Desperation has set in; it is time for a lesson, the golfing equivalent of putting your life jacket on after your ship has hit the rocks. I made the call.

  “So, what is wrong?” my pro asked. We were at his lesson tee, a compact area with a hitting mat, a tarp for shade, some alignment sticks, and a trash can full of balls. I imagined him toiling here, in the hot sun, fixing peoples swings for a living and I was grateful.

  “My iron play has been bad. Shots leak off to the right and they don’t go anywhere.”

  “Let me see you hit a seven iron. How far do you expect to hit it?”

  “160 yards” I replied confidently. Throwing a ball down I hit a bleeder off to the right that was about 20 feet in the air and crashed into the bushes about 130 yards off the tee. “There it is. That’s why I’m here”.

  “Let me see it.” He took my seven iron and made a swing that had about half the effort of my swing. With the telltale click of good contact, the ball rose in a perfect arc and landed like a butterfly landing on a flower. 165 yard off the tee. “Did you see how I did that? The golf swing starts from the ground up. Your lower body shifts to the target and pulls your upper body through. The arms and hands just work to hold the club.”

  Now I had heard this before, it was nothing new, but as I took a few practice swings the feeling returned and I realized what a good swing felt like. Five swings later I’m striping it, hitting ball after ball at the giant rock 160 yards off the tee. In ten minutes, six weeks of agony were washed away and I could not wait to get on the golf course. I kicked myself for not coming sooner. We spent the rest of the hour working on some specialty shots, but mostly visiting and getting caught up with each other’s past year. As I said good-by I told him I would see him next year at the start of the season, but I won’t. Next year I will wait until I’m desperate and all hope has failed. It will be July before I see him again.