I Had a Golf Lesson Yesterday, I Learned Something From A Club Pro, I’m Very Excited!

So after hitting my drive in the fairway on the par five, I have to decide if I can go for it or not. I think that because there is a bit of wind in my face, well I will just not give it a go today. The green is surrounded by water and there is no room for a mistake.

Lay up time.

I want to have a shot that is about 60 yards but no closer. Closer and I have no good chance of spinning the ball so that I can get it close. There is still a birdie on this hole.

A five iron will do just fine. Nothing big, just a nice crisp hit. I get set up and take a normal swing and await the sound that I love.

The thud of the club hitting down and through the ball taking a shallow divot to announce the departure of Titleist Pro V 1. Man was I ever surprised when the sound that I heard was a weak kinda of a “click” noise. A mishit to say the least. A thinly hit 5 iron that took off like a reluctant knat in the wailing moments of a Northern Maine summer.

And this was not the first time that I had hit an iron shot thin and kinda weak. The good news is that I didn’t hit it fat, the bad news is that it don’t matter. Thin is still a poor shot even though the results are seemingly ok.

So a day or two later I waltz into the pro shop and tell Mike I have this problem. He smiles and says tomorrow 11:00 am. I respond with my own smile and say that is fine.

We meet at the correct time, he ( Mike) asks me to set up to the ball with whatever I feel like, I take an 8 iron. He then says ok good thanks. Then he looks into my golf bag. Sort of standing there gazing at my stuff.

He says..” You right eye or left eye dominate?”

“Left eye” I tell him. And then he says..” no wonder your having troubles”

Of course I was surprised that we had not hit a single golf ball yet and we were already agreeing that I had troubles with my golf swing. We as it turns out there really wasn’t anything wrong with my actual swing. Mike thought that the swing was fine.

But since I was not using my dominate eye properly, I was not using information that got to my brain visually properly. This included seeing the target line, lining up to the target line and getting the proper ball position.

Because I did not pay attention to eye dominance, I was aligned wrong most of the time and my swing was not allowed to fully finish with good extension through the impact area.

You see your dominate eye processes information much faster than your other eye. And it needs to see the information first. Key point here is you all know that you have to have your head behind the ball.

But better said is you must have your dominate eye behind the ball. Do you recall Jack Nicklaus as he began his backswing, he turned his head to the right. It’s because he is left eye dominate. And the turn of the head helped trigger the start of his swing, and also made sure his dominate eye was behind the ball.

The other important factor here is while putting, you must know which is your dominate eye as well. Because if you don’t have the dominate eye on or behind the ball at set up, you will not receive the correct information so that you can process it. And you will compensate during your stroke.

Some of you already know which eye is which, some don’t. For those who don’t here is how to find out.

Hold one of your thumbs up, straight up and align it with an object across the room at eye level. Keep both eyes open while you align this object exactly in line with your thump. Got it?

Now without moving your thumb, close your right eye. Did the object move ? If no you are left eye dominate.

Now close your left eye. See the difference?

So in the full golf swing, if you are left eye dominate and swing right handed you will be well served to make sure the ball is well ahead of YOUR LEFT EYE.

I played yesterday with this new thought. I moved the ball forward at setup. Actually I did more than that. With my driver I moved it ” passed my left foot to the left” to me it looked like it was a mile away.

But I was determined to get this right. Results … GREAT!

I hit the ball further than I do on average. And I missed one fairway and that was a fairway trap on a par five . Killed a birdie, but still managed a par.

I must admit that I struggled some with the irons. I found it harder to convince myself that I needed to get that eye behind the ball and keep it there.

But all in all… I give this golf instruction from Mike a very high grade. We hit a total of five balls during this golf lesson.

That’s right five balls during golf instruction from a PGA professional. But the overall improvement in ball striking was very obvious.

A great golf lesson with little to any actual golf. My kind of lesson.

So Mike gave me some magic to work with. Eye dominance ! Check it out.