Why I plan to give my golf coach a good kicking

Last week Dave Lamplough taught me 1) that my chipping action was horrible and 2) that it was pretty easy to sort out.

So today I went out into the early morning frost for 18 holes and chipped wonderfully, chipped fantastically, chipped out of this world and out of any other worlds that also exist out there. Lovely, gorgeous, to-die-for contacts that you could hear. Mini little impact zones, mini little compressions. And not just one, either, or the odd one – all of them.

But…

(and why is it there always seems to be a ‘but’ with my golf at the moment?)

… I intend to give Dave a good kicking when I next get up to Knightsbridge.

For, apart from one chip-in, I sent most of my chips way past the hole. On the 6^th, for instance, I chipped gloriously with a 9 iron, just as I intended, just as I wanted… and the ball rolled – albeit wonderfully - off the other side of the green.

You see, I used to squidge, smudge, nurdle and nudge, I’d fat and I‘d thin. Somehow, by hook and crook and despite my hand roll, my bad ball position and my lack of turn, I’d smuggle the ball up towards the hole. I got used to squidging and smudging and nurdling. I got quite good at it, in a horrible sort of way.

Today, I hit everything purely and right out of the middle. And everything went futher and straighter and truer as it used to. And - for the most part - too far.

Hitting the ball better, it turns out, it not the same as scoring better.

Secretly, of course, I’m delighted with my new chipping. It’s just a matter of getting used to hitting the ball properly, that’s all, after years of doing the opposite.

But don’t tell Dave that. It’s a basic principle - never be too nice to your golf coaches, they’ll just charge you more. Better to keep them keen. Better to give them a good kicking.