Anatomy of a Golf Lesson

Cark Renner and author

The air was cool as I made way north on highway 5 to a driving range on the border of Carlsbad and Oceanside. One might wonder why I was driving so far to hit balls. My instructor, long time golf pro-Clark Renner was working from that site. Head teaching pro at El Camino Country Club, he taught at the range since the club didn’t have one.

I had a number of questions for Clark, and I asked the first one, while I was hitting some pitch shots with my sand wedge. I told him that if I took the club to the inside my tendency was to swing out with a resulting shank, which drove me, crazy. He pointed out that I just needed to open the clubface to keep the ball going to the target. I didn’t need to take it much inside on these short shots.
Next, we talked about my full swing, and we worked on my keeping my swing on an inside-out plane. This was helpful, and I began hitting better balls. I had drifted away from taking the club inside enough.

Finally, we went to the putting green. I had been putting well, but I had noticed that when I casually hit a close putt with an open stance I rarely missed. I asked Clark if he thought this might work, and he embraced this new open stance as opposed to the one I was using. This stance helped me see the line better and felt comfortable. I used it yesterday during my round and putted well.
When I got home from my lesson, I typed up notes so that I could regularly review my lessons and assess my progress.