I had a lesson and now I'm in trouble. Plus, how do you cope with offensive attitudes on the course?

Thursday, I had a lesson with our pro, the estimable Jon Newsome. Jon's a great teacher, he explains the biomechanics involved in any change he proposes, but keeps it to a level that you can implement. He isn't going to turn a 48-year-old fat bloke into a champion, but he can help me to play as well as I can.

Anyway, I'm hitting the ball well but I have developed a bit of a slice (a bit?). I had self-diagnosed an out-to-in swing path but Jon reckoned it was more to do with my grip. The teaching pro's try to avoid changing the grip too much, but my left hand was too weak (the 'v' formed by my thumb and index finger was pointing at my left shoulder rather than my right, and my right hand had become too strong to compensate). A small adjustment and hey presto, slice gone! Also, my swing path is too steep and that also tends to lead to a 'push' shot, apparently. Anyway, most of the time since then, certainly with my irons, that appears to be working well. It'll take a bit of time to settle down but I can already feel that it's the right thing to do. It's always the way, though, that you know you've taken a step forward, but it feels like two steps back. I've played 54 holes since Thursday, had a solitary birdie and parred about another half a dozen, plus lost half a dozen balls. It'll come though, it'll come.

One problem is that I'm hitting the ball further (again). I played on Saturday and ended up 'N/R'ing (no return on the competition) after I hit a ball out of bounds. Now, when I say out of bounds, what I actually did was hit a BUNKER shot from a fairway bunker, 200 - 220 yards, past the green and into a wood. With a 6-iron. Didn't blade it, hit it fair and square. The hole's a bit downhill, granted, the sand was dry, and there was a breeze behind me, but only a breeze, honest. Distance control is clearly the next challenge.

In the group I was playing in, two of the blokes got into a discussion on politics, and more specifically the politics of immigration. And not, if you know what I mean, an intellectual discourse on the mechanisms by which a modern society deals with the inevitable global shifts of population and provides a welcome to its new members. I'm really not a wet liberal, I believe that we have to find the right way from a simple resource point of view to manage immigration, but I found some of the conversation hard to stomach, and I ended up sniping which, along with the heat, fighting my new swing and the 5-hour round, made for not the most agreeable day I've had on a golf course. I suppose I should let it wash over me, I don't expect to agree with other people all the time, but sometimes it's harder than others.

Wednesday, I have my semi-final in the club knockout! Wish me luck.