During my first golf lesson last week, the pro talking to me needed at least all 10 fingers to count out the ways my swing was broken. He could have lamented on the flaws, but he didn’t. He handed me the club and said, “let’s focus on your fingers.”

I guarantee you I didn't grip it in the fingers on this swing. Look at my weak follow through.

After watching me take just two swings he commented that my grip was seriously hindering me. I had the club gripped with the pads of my hand and not my fingers. According to the pro, you need to grip the club in your fingers. It’s how you can control it. He also said that probably 90 percent of the people playing golf are gripping the club wrong.

This is the kind of advice I want. I don’t want to try to just compound what I’m doing wrong with new moves, etc. I want to tear my swing down and start anew. If my grip – the most fundamental piece of the golf swing – is wrong. Then let’s start there and fix it.

If you’ve ever taken a golf lesson, you know how odd you feel after you’re given about four new things to work on. It’s also not easy to figure it all out when you’re hitting balls indoors. But, before I left, I was using a new grip, slightly modified stance and different swing path to hit some decent shots. My pro called it a good day. And, to my credit, he said I was not a lost cause.

You have to supplement your golf lessons with hitting balls. And while most people who live in Buffalo will go to the indoor golf dome and pound bucket after bucket, I urge you to go to the Frog Hair Grille on Transit. The BuffaloGolfer.com team headed there Sunday and played Pebble Beach via the golf simulation technology.

Are the golf simulators 100 percent accurate? No. But they’re very close, especially on full shots. If you rip it, the ball carries further. It rewards you for hitting great golf shots.  For me, after having so many new swing ideas introduce to me last week, this time at Frog Hair was vital. I still had some bad swings, but it helped me work on my grip and posture. It’s beginning to feel a bit more normal.

Today’s lesson two. I imagine we’re going to focus more on the swing plane. I’ll bring my best. I’m determined to never be a golfing lost cause.