I'm not sure if it was the biggest mistake I've ever made or the best thing I could have done. To start off he says "let me see you hit a few..."

so I step up and hit 5 perfectly straigh shots with my 8 Iron, all landing my standard 8 iron distance away of about 140-145 yards. I thought to myself, this guy is going to have nothing but praise for me... they were beautiful shots.

His reaction? he shook his head and said, "Let's start with the grip" and proceeded to change my entire swing from grip to follow-through. He said he doesn't like changing lots of things at once but I told him I wanted it end to end in one lesson how it should be so I could work on it on my own. The new swing felt super awkward at first and probably my first 20 shots using it went about 45 yards left of target but by the end of the lesson I was hitting a couple of better shots.

So after the lesson I was super frustrated so I got another bucket of balls and decided to work it out. By the end of that lesson I was hitting about half of my shots with my new swing well and was starting to see what the downsides of some of my old habits were. My 8 Iron shots were consistently 15 yards further than they were before (160ish) but I still am not consistently straight at all.

So here is my dilemma... Tomorrow I am playing golf at the grand del mar The Villas at The Grand Del Mar | Premier Golf Resort Real Estate in San Diego and I know I will play ok if I use my old swing and will probably play horrible with the new swing. (I haven't even dared hit my driver yet) Do I revert to old methods or swallow my pride, have a horrible round, and work on improving my newly corrected swing???

I'm playing with my bro-in-law so no need to be impressive but it is a nice course that I've been looking forward to playing. I think I'm going to play crappy and work on the long-term prospects of a much better swing.

 

Playing a fun round of golf with friends and family is the wrong time to be working on your game, IMHO.

BUT, I would take a couple of key things he taught you last night out to the course...particularly a proper grip and a proper "one-piece" takeaway. Otherwise relax and enjoy yourself.

 

you are going to love it...
keep on swing'n

 

Not quite enough detail. Was your old swing something akin to a guy with a sword fighting snakes in a phone booth? If so, and the new swing is picture perfect, then absolutely work on the new swing. Gotta reach the "repeatable" phase sooner than later.

In the immortal words of one Marsellus Wallace......"That's pride f---ing with you. F--- pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps." I'm sure by the end of the round, you'll have hit enough quality shots with the new swing to feel like the round was somewhat worthwhile. Hitting live shots in rhythm is always 10x better than hitting shots at the range.

 

Old swing...IMO, the instructor should have asked you about your goals...if you just want to improve, that's one thing...but to change the whole swing when you have a decent golf game (and you are weekend golfer) seems like too much for me...

 

It's going to take more than one lesson to break your bad habits. I've never seen you swing a golf club but I can probably accurately guess you have a number of things going on to compensate for something that would otherwise allow you to have a more efficient swing. Whether you try to or not your muscle memory will likely take over on the course during your round tomorrow. Keep working at it, and keep it up with the pro, even Tiger took time off many years ago to completely re-tool his swing. The end result is a more enjoyable time on the course.

 

Was this your swing?

 

^^WTF was that?!?!

 

lol, that would be Charles Barkley's golf swing. Yes, it's always like that. I've never seen anything like that. He always has that hesitation on the down. Crazy.

 

^^That is UNREAL!!!