Free Lesson Month

May is the PGA free lesson month. I did this a couple years ago, where the PGA teaching professionals offer a free 10 minute lesson to help grow the game, get people onto their ranges, etc.

2 years ago I went to La Costa, this year I'm going to Aviara. It's a good excuse to get a free "bucket" of balls, and a couple quick tips from a pro.

Start here - and go to instruction. Then enter your zip, and should see an ad for the free lesson in the month of May.

Update 05/30/06
So I had my lesson at Aviara - with Lance Strickland. Great guy, very cool about the lesson. He ended up spending a little over 20 minutes with me. I was hitting 6 irons pretty sweet. Straight, slight fade. Showed him how that fade turns into a slice fairly often with the driver.

Issues: my swing path is pretty steep, combine that with the strong left hand grip and it means I am basically "blocking" the ball through impact (leading with the outside/pinky side of my left hand towards the target).

Changes: weaken my left hand grip a bit, making it more neutral. Try to think about a slightly more level swing plane - but dont worry about this too much. It's ok to be steep (which produces the slight outside-in swing path through impact), but very tough, critical timing when combined with a strong left hand grip.

With the "weaker" grip, should be more free to rotate arms through impact. Exaggerate this while learning the new grip. Should feel like I'm going to snap hook it, but will see that it's a straight ball, or even a little draw. This rotation through impact is the proper technique, rather than the "blocking" I'm doing now. Should get a little more distance as well with this proper technique - currently when blocking the swing, the ball is sort of "glancing" off the club face.