St. Andrews Golf Academy
As a birthday / Father's Day present, Alex had booked an afternoon golf lesson for his father at the St Andrews Golf Academy at the Old Course in St Andrews. So after lunch, the pair met up and headed for the links. J. R. hadn't played golf in over 30 years except for the driving range and the windmill hole, so his swing was more than a little rusty. J. R. met up with Mr. Kevin Hale, one of the Senior Golf Instructors at the St Andrews Golf Academy. Kevin has been at St Andrews since 2008 and has worked with the Scottish Amateur Champion in 2014 and the 2012 Scottish Girls Champion. But he had his work cut out with J. R.'s baseball swing. First, the pair practiced driving first with Kevin working on getting J. R. to turn his hips correctly and use his legs for power instead of his arms.
Swing Trainer
During the training, Kevin and J. R. made use of the swing trainer at the Academy which allowed Kevin to help J. R. get used to the proper swing arc as he tended to bring the club too far back which meant a loss of control.
Short Game
After an hour of that, they headed out to the practice course for some work on the short game, where J. R. experienced a Scottish bunker for the first time. It was slow going at first, but eventually J. R. was able to get up and out of the bunker three times in a row, which meant Alex owed him a beer. The lesson ended with some fairway iron work and then Kevin provided J. R. with a swing analysis to show the difference from the three-hour session and remind him what he needed to work on.
