Over the course of my 25 year golfing career, I have had less than 5 lessons. At most, I would pick a swing thought that made sense to me and just go with that. I am a feel player and that works for me. I always knew that my swing wasn't perfect, but I also knew that it was good enough to break 70.
However, after playing a round with Golf Teacher Alex Dunlop, I decided to take in a long overdue lesson. I was actually looking forward to getting some expert eyes on my swing and receiving some feedback on things that I could work on. As an added bonus, Alex's office has a first class view of Newcastle Golf Club and the City of Seattle.
The view from above the clubhouse at Newcastle and the Rusty Putter; an 18 hole putting course.
Chances are, your office isn't as green.
One of the best parts about taking a lesson with Alex is that he is a straight up cool dude that likes to talk about golf. We could have hung around and shot the shit for an hour, but we decided to hit some balls as well. Alex is Trackman certified and immediately as we start the lesson, I am getting feedback in terms of numbers. Now, these numbers didn't mean much to me at first, especially since I have always played by feel. The good news is that Alex is an expert on explaining what these numbers mean and keying in on the numbers that actually matter.
For me, it was just one number that we started on with my driver. That number was attack angle and according to Alex -2.5 was not good. After a series of interpretations and suggestions that made sense to me, I was able to understand what it felt like to change that -2.5 to a +2.5. After grooving that feeling over several months, my drives are much longer and there is less dispersion on my tee shots.
On the latest session, Alex and I worked on consistently compressing my iron shots.
Here I am compared to Brooks Koepka. A model player for shaft lean.
One of the coolest aspects about Trackman is that you get full digital copies of your lessons afterwards. The photos above are snap shots that I took from the videos on my phone. If you wanted to, you could pull up a lesson while you are sitting in a staff meeting. You can literally hear Alex and I discussing things as we review the video and crack jokes about how much better I am at golf than Brooks Koepka.
My case is nothing special for Alex, it's just business as usual for him. I had the opportunity to sit in on another lesson and the story was similar with even more measurable success over the past 2 years.
“When I first started working with Alex 2 years ago, I carried a 24 handicap, now I am a 10.”
Alex is the youngest ever winner of the Western Washington Chapter’s PGA Teacher of the Year for 2015 and is generally regarded as one of the best teachers in the state of Washington. You can find Alex at Newcastle throughout the week or head on over to his website to learn more.