{"id":487999,"date":"2026-02-20T16:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487999\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:33:12","slug":"im-scared-to-play-a-round-of-golf-again-after-my-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487999\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Scared To Play A Round Of Golf Again After My Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently had my first proper golf lesson in about 20 years with Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Tom Motley<\/a>, and the absolute magician managed to cure my habitual slice with the click of his fingers.<\/p>\n

OK, so that wasn’t exactly the method, but the hip-rotation drill he showed me to provide the fix<\/a> was very simple and left me feeling incredibly optimistic for the future.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The tweak is also something that my fellow slicers<\/a> can practice in the comfort of their own home whenever they have a few minutes.<\/p>\n

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Since I met with Tom, I’ve been intermittently executing the drill around the house so that when I go down the driving range to practice<\/a>, my new-look swing feels a little less alien.<\/p>\n

And I have to say, in the couple of times I’ve been out to the range and gone through the new technique, the top-level results have been particularly confidence-inducing, especially with my driver.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Jonny\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Jonny Leighfield)<\/p>\n

I now have a level of control which I didn’t have before and the ball flight<\/a> is much flatter – something I consider to be a very good thing when I was putting low-flying aircraft in danger previously.<\/p>\n

However, I have unsurprisingly discovered something of an issue with all of these new feels and swing thoughts – sometimes I hit a horribly bad shot in a shape that I’ve never seen before.<\/p>\n

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It could be a disgusting duck hook left, a massive chunk or an arm-tingling thin. The point is, I don’t always have a clue in which direction my golf ball<\/a> is going to head. And that’s now a real problem.<\/p>\n

Prior to the aforementioned lesson, I knew my likely miss was short and right. I had reached the teens in terms of a handicap index and there was something akin to consistency floating around my golf game. Not excellent consistency, but a relatively tight area of ability that allowed me to enjoy playing.<\/p>\n

Yet, I knew that if I was to progress any further in terms of my ability, I’d have to go for a lesson (or three) to iron out the kinks and that might lead to some regression in the short-term.<\/p>\n

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I’m not surprised by the fact I may have taken a couple of steps back for the time being, but I am a little perturbed by the fact I’m now sort of filled with dread every time I even think about going out for a round.<\/p>\n

I know I’m going to have to play again at some point if I want to improve in the long run, but I’m scared to go out and face that fact that it’s going to be a really tough slog at times and there could be some nasty surprises waiting around every corner. That doesn’t sound very enjoyable to me, and that’s basically why I play.<\/p>\n

WHY I’M WORRIED<\/p>\n

Probably the biggest reason for I’m concerned about playing a round again is how hard I feel I’ve worked to reach this point anyway.<\/p>\n

When I joined Golf Monthly, my handicap index was around 28. But by playing a bit more regularly (and by steadily obtaining almost a new bag of clubs over time), my game improved and I was even able to boast a 15.5 handicap index at one stage. Heady days indeed. Not that I enjoyed them particularly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Jonny\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Then there is the reality that my scores are likely to rise a bit as well. I haven’t been proud of breaking 100 for a long time, and I don’t really want to return to those days if possible.<\/p>\n

And then there’s obviously the fear of straight-up failure. What if I can’t execute this new swing out on the course? I’ll have to go back to all of my old bad habits and accept that shooting in the 80s is a very good day for me.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Jonny\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

SO WHAT DO I DO ABOUT IT?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I’m going to have to accept that if I ever want to play a round of golf again, it might not all be sunshine and rainbows and I have to just get out there. Rip off the band-aid, so to speak.<\/p>\n

At some point, maybe once the courses near me dry up somewhat (or even that it stops raining for just one day), I will venture back out and lower my expectations to such a degree it will be literally impossible for me to be disappointed.<\/p>\n

That is, after all, the only way I will move past this little wobble. As famous author Mark Twain once wrote: “The secret of making progress is to get started.” Wish me luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recently had my first proper golf lesson in about 20 years with Golf Monthly Top 50 coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-487999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}