So it begins, Irons, Lessons & Practice.

Wednesday's goals were simple, collect the new irons, have a lesson now they'd arrived, and get some practice in at the simulator. I achieved all three, and it's left me feeling genuinely confident that I can build a consistent, repeatable swing and start making serious strides towards shooting sub 85 before the end of the year. There's a lot of work to be done, but there are also a lot of promising signs that make the problems feel fixable rather than permanent.

On The Grass

My lesson was at 11:45 and the grass range was available, which meant not only instant feedback on the clubs and ball striking but gave my coach a proper first look. Setup, backswing, downswing, strike pattern, divot patterns. The full picture.

Starting with the PW, we worked through a warm-up of half swings and pump drills, focusing on the P6 transition before moving into full swing shots with the 7 iron. And it was good. Really good. For the first time in a long time the ball was launching and crucially going incredibly straight. That's not to say all the issues are resolved. The most obvious miss is now left rather than right, but I think that'll sort itself out with time. My grip has been strengthened significantly and my swing attributes are now the priority more than ever.

The Shaft Situation

Worth pausing on this. Those 120g shafts I thought I was being fitted into turned out to be Dynamic Gold X100s 130g. The heaviest shaft available. Apparently that's what my swing and speed demands. Make of that what you will.

Swing Tempo. The Real Problem

The most important thing to come out of the lesson was swing tempo, and I'll be honest I struggle with it.

My backswing is controlled, smooth, timed well. Then the downswing arrives and my brain tells me to annihilate the ball. It all falls apart. My coach highlighted it clearly and it's something I genuinely need to work on before anything else clicks into place. The swing is there it's pure when everything connects it's just getting the downswing consistent enough to stay in rhythm and on plane.

I finished the lesson hitting 4 irons. There's a lot to work on there. But with it likely being my club off almost every par 4 and 5 tee until the driver gets replaced, it has to become a priority.

Key Practice Points

Before my next lesson I'll be focusing on:

• Swing Tempo — without this dialled in, consistency isn't happening
• Weight Transfer — step drills and a Tommy Fleetwood visualisation about bumping the door closed with the left hip. No correct weight transfer means no power and no clean impact
• Alignment — I'm convinced a lot of the errant left or right misses come down to misalignment. The sticks are going on the floor, intermediary targets are being picked
• Mobility & Rotation — I've finally started getting more thoracic rotation into the swing. Daily mobility work to keep it going

Simulator Time

After the lesson I spent two hours at the indoor simulator going through the motions, working on the highlighted issues and most importantly just getting comfortable with the new clubs.

I've attached the 9i shot patterns below. Ball flight, miss patterns, yardages. What's been great to see is the dispersion tightening up considerably compared to before. Most of the bad shots shown would still have been playable on course.

What's Next

The plan now is simple get out on course this weekend weather permitting, get real feedback, and start putting into practice what's been highlighted. That should also mean the first scorecard upload isn't far away.

The other pressing issue is the rest of the bag. I was fully prepared to wait a month or two, get bedded in with the irons and build some consistency before thinking about wedges. But the grip sizing change has made my current wedges feel completely alien. I can't swing them properly. Two years with the wrong clubs, and fixing that has now exposed everything else.

I'm starting to think the wedge fitting needs to be booked ASAP!