The birth and death of my golf swing

Cambridge Lakes (http://www.cambridgelakes.co.uk/) was my first introduction to golf. I'd played mini-golf before, but this hardly counts as the real experience, whereas 9-hole Pitch and Putt is pretty much like real golf without the initial long drive. Anyway, I didn't do too badly. A fellow student, Proty Wu, who I first met at Sussex, but who coincidentally also came to Cambridge as a postgraduate, taught me the basics. At least he showed me how to grip the club and why it was fashionable to wear a glove. I wasn't that bad. And because I knew nothing and he clearly knew something (his Dad owns a golf course in Taiwan) I just put my trust in him. I managed a score of 38 on my first ever round. I hit the green a handful of times off the tee, and frankly I felt let down by poor putting. I was understandably a tad disappointed when on the subsequent visits to Cambridge Lakes I notched up scores in the early 40s. It wasn't until half a dozen visits that I equalled my first score and gradually bettered it. Ten years later I was still improving with scores in the early 30s occurring with reassuring regularity. My best score is 30, just three over par. Surely it was now time to test my ability on a full sized course? I was good, wasn't I? My scores were very respectable. I simply assumed practice would make perfect.

So when the opportunity arose to head to Golf Del Sur (Tenerife - http://www.golfdelsur.net/) for a week in October, courtesy of Jon's parents' unused annual time-share slot, I jumped at it. Having never graced the professionally trimmed greens and lush fairways of a 'proper' course, I was naturally a little apprehensive and booked a half-hour lesson before our first 9-hole round. Under the scrutiny of the instructor I hit a few half-decent 9 irons, which more or less went where I expected them to. Sadly, it turns out that almost everything I had been doing was wrong.

1. It was recommended that I try the overlappong grip rather than the interlocking grip. I found this a little strange at first, but it turned out to be just as good, if not better, after a dozen strokes.
2. My left hand was holding the club in the ball of the palm rather than a light grip with the fingers. The 'tip' was to ensure that two of my left-hand knuckles should be visible during the preparation whilst leaning over the ball. I found that my bad technique was very engrained and extremely hard to 'undo'.
3. I was striking the ball with bent arms. I was advised to straighten them during contact.
4. I would snatch at the stroke, raising the club head rapidly, then bringly it down equally fast. The correct technique was to lift the club slowly whilst watching the ball. I found this hard, as I'd often 'top' the ball or scuff the ground and doing the faster up-and-down stroke overall was my way of minimising the total time of the swing and therefore the hope was that I'd hit the ball more consistently on the ball's sweet spot.
5. My natural swing merely stretched both my arms behind, rather than bending the arms and twisting the shoulders in order to bring the club head above my head. The logo on my glove should have been visible when the club head was at shoulder height. This was the most significant change for me as my previous swing was reliable due to the minimal number of simultaneous 'moving parts'. Now my elbow joints, shoulders and wrists had to somehow work in perfect synchronicity. They didn't. I must admit though, that although my old technique worked reasonably well for pitch and putt, it didn't generate distance, whereas the new one does, which is essential on a full-sized golf course. I'm slightly irked that no one pointed out this clanger to me years ago.
6. My stance was too straight. I should have been leaning over the ball more.
7. I was encouraged to follow through and let my right hip swing forward, and to keep the club above my head until the ball had landed and I had registered how successful the shot was. Interestingly I didn't get much feedback about raising my head, which I know I do. When obeying these listed points, it seemed that this didn't present a problem.

Interestingly the non-English-speaking caddy at the Jaypee course in New Delhi told me that my old swing was better than the new one, but I'm not sure he was a qualified coach so I think I'll disregard his advice. However, I have seen a number of amateurs who just raise the club to the right, without using all their available pivotable joints, and they seem to do fine. However, the pros all seem to adhere to the proper technique so I'll try to do the same.

So how did I do? I don't remember the exact scores but it was in the early 50s for the first nine, then a few strokes more on the second, and slightly worse on the third, which is pretty much how it happened when I first took up pitch and putt, but I guess I have to get worse to get better. And I meticulously stuck with the new technique that I'd learned, which I'm sure was at the expense of a handful of shots.