Getting into the swing of golf: Learning to play at Goat Hill

I closed my eyes, lifted my front foot and swung as hard as I could at the ball.

It was a strike.

Problem was I wasn’t play softball… This was golf.

Scott Lechmanski, the golf pro at the Shelter Island Country Club, a k a Goat Hill, shook his head and asked, “What’s going on with you?”

We were on lesson two of the club’s four-part “Learn to Play Golf” program and apparently I had just unlearned everything I had picked up in lesson one.

The program is designed to introduce novices like me to the game in a relaxed, non-intimidating setting. Which is good, since one of the reasons I have avoided golf for so long is the fact I can think of nothing more intimidating than holding up a foursome of pros as I hack away at a ball that I can’t hit.

Let’s face it, golf can truly be a frustrating game. Especially because the week before, I had found a modicum of success with a driver, somehow managing on one swing to send the ball in a graceful arc that soared close to 150 yards on the driving range.

I may not know much about golf, but I intrinsically understood how the delightful pinging sound of the club hitting the ball just right could lead to love. On those rare occasions when you do it properly and the ball sails gracefully through the air, you can feel the addiction forming in your veins.

That’s exactly what Mr. Lechmanski is hoping for and the real goal of “Learn to Play Golf” is to get people hooked and keep them coming back to Goat Hill — ideally as members.

“Of the 10 ladies I had last year, every one of them plays every Monday in the ladies scramble,” he said. “They can all hit and keep up. The program does work.”

This is the third year for the program, which was the idea of Belle Lareau, the club’s secretary. The four-lesson program costs $140 and Mr. Lechmanski takes out a maximum of three people at a time.

“We thought if we could get some people to join the club, it would be worth it and we could get even more to join,” Mr. Lechmanski said. “The first year, 12 or 14 took it and everyone of them joined.”

The numbers were not quite so good last year, and though none of the participants has yet joined the club this year, Mr. Lechmanski is hopeful that with summer officially upon us, participation in the program will pick up and SICC will gain new members who learn to love the game as much as I’m trying to.

While he’s had only moderate success getting adults to join Goat Hill after taking part in “Learn to Play Golf,” Mr. Lechmanski finds the kids he teaches get hooked fairly quickly and stick with it. He believes part of the reason is that he keeps them engaged by devising contests, offering prizes, setting goals and encouraging competition.

“It makes them concentrate more on their aim if they know they’re going to win a prize,” he said. “The program has been going good for seven or eight years and it keeps growing.

“They play for prizes, take part in scrambles, and play on different teams because they get bored easy,” said Mr. Lechmanski. “They have a good time. They all stay with it. I haven’t lost a kid in a few years.”

The youth program at Goat Hill meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The cost is $125 for the summer and participants are grouped by age. At summer’s end, a Shelter Island Junior Open is held for 6-to-15-year olds with a barbecue and prizes.

It may be fun for kids, but learning golf can be extremely maddening for adults. By lesson three, I was sliding backward and having a difficult time remembering the fairly straightforward tips Mr. Lechmanski had drilled into me in lessons one and two.

Keep your head still, make sure your weight is on the balls of your feet, don’t break your wrists, stare at the ball on the tee until your swing is complete, make sure you end by pointing the club in the direction you want the ball to go, pivot your hips and for God’s sake, don’t lift your front foot like a baseball player swinging a bat.

Nothing to it. The problem for a newbie like me is remembering to do all those things at the same time.

“Don’t move your head” said Mr. Lechmanski as I did exactly that on the one swipe in which I didn’t break my wrists. To remind me, he held out a club and balanced it on my skull while I took another swipe, twisted my body and swung the club as hard as I could, ending with a disappointing flick of the wrist.

“Bend your knees so you’re reaching out with the club. Don’t go back on your heels, watch the ball the whole time and twist from your shoulders,” recited Mr. Lechmanski. “Keep your arms straight and point the club in the direction you want the ball to go.”

When we headed out to the course to try putting it all together on one of the holes, he noticed me staring at the ball a little too long after I had set up for my swing.

“Stop thinking about it,” he said. “If you want to take a few practice swings, fine. But when you step up to the ball, don’t think… just swing. If you think about it too much, you’ll never hit it.

“And don’t try to kill it,” he added, as if I needed something else to not think about.

Apparently, I’m not alone in my inability to keep it all straight.

“I had a threesome go through the program last year. They go out and play together, but if they’re having a tough time, they’ll come back and see me and I’ll fix them,” he said. “You just forget. It’s good to stop by. I’ll look at you for half an hour and I’ll fix you.

“And if you hit a bucket of balls once a week, you’ll be amazed on how much you improve.”

So that’s what I need to do — get out there between lessons and put it all into practice. Coincidently, a friend who heard I was giving this golf thing a try left a message on my cell phone last Saturday. It seems he knows a woman who is cleaning out her garage and is eager to get rid of the many golf clubs she has amassed over the years.

This friend is obviously on the lookout for someone he can drag into the game and set on the road to addiction. He even offered to go over there and select a nice set of clubs for me — no charge.

I think that’s what they call an enabler.

I have one more lesson to look forward to with Mr. Lechmanski who at our last meetings said, “We’ll see if you can maneuver around three or four holes and keep score.”

Why do I sense that will hardly be the end of it?

To sign up for “Learn to Play Golf” with Scott Lechmanski, give him a call at (631) 495-3352. Membership at Shelter Island Country Club starts at under $500. For more information call (631) 749-0416.