Eventually I settled on one site that resonated with me logically and intuitively: Golf Swing Feeling. Since I have no innate (or at least developed) athletic sense, the idea of learning how to Feel the right way to swing had lots of appeal. Enough that I even scraped all the content and made my own private site for study and review before I go out to hit balls.

Another foray into Google yielded the other inspiration for my study: the design of swing machines for testing clubs and balls. This link explains the idea best without trying to sell anything, breaking the golf swing into 3 components that swing machine-makers discovered after studying how the top pros swing:

• Circular Body Rotation
• Unrestricted Hinge at the Wrist
• Constant Forward Tilt

Physics, man - made sense to me! So now I had a target for the mechanics to achieve, and a model for "getting it into my body." Through my head, 'cause that's all I've got to work with. :)

In February (or thereabouts) I bought a set of clubs, steel shafts and normal driver heads, New Old Stock from about 5 years ago I think, and an interesting afternoon yakking with the seller, a fellow from Newcastle UK (home to one of my fave beers), and somehow (I don't remember) involved with the Mill Woods Golf Club clubhouse.

Steel-shaft clubs are out of fashion now - whippy graphite shafts and large club heads are the norm. They're easier to hit, much more forgiving, and parallel the changes in skis since I last skiied - softer and easier so people don't have to work as hard on good technique to get fast results.

Henry and I went to the range pretty much every day with decent weather from the first week of April until August, and I continued until October when the final range closed. I have no idea how many balls I hit, but if my 2012 pace is any indication, probably 4-5000!!! We settled on Ottewell Curling Club for the most part: cheap happy-hour buckets, not usually very busy, benches we could sit around on, a bit of pastoral in the midst of some of the petrochemical industry that drives the economy of this province.

NOT that I know what I'm talking about except that I've read a lot about how to hit a golf ball properly, but plenty of time sitting on a bench watching others hit provided lots of examples of what NOT to do, and lots of examples of how people make it work for them anyway. And, very enviable examples of people, usually younger, who really have the athletic ability - a smooth easy swing, no over-thinking, and decent results that seem to come very naturally. But I tell myself "Brains Guy... Brains Guy... Brains Guy..." and persist.

Bad habits I see routinely on the range, which only matter if you're trying to get better:

• Not having a bit of a plan - "Hit Better" is not a plan, it's a wish. Unless you're one of the lucky ones and have the athletic touch already, you're going to have to learn, and that means practice, and that means some sort of coordinated effort on doing things properly. Unless the magic is already in your body through genetics or natural talent, there is no magic.

• Hitting like baseball - Even though they're similar strokes, a lot of people take the similarity too seriously and

  - Hold the club like a bat
  - Keep their wrists stiff
  - Power through their arms
  - Lift their lead foot to give the ball a good pounding

• Woods first (and maybe mostly) - Only 1 or maybe 2 shots on each hole will involve a wood, yet it's often the first (and most-used) club out of the bag, with inevitable slices and toppers and a frustrating start.

• Distance Only - Sure it's cool to really pound it out there, but if it's off into the weeds over half the time how is that helpful? As an older learner and not a big guy to start with, my strategy has to focus on ball control or I'm just going to be a frustrated duffer.

• Whack-Whack-Whack - Hitting quickly through a bucket only works if you can hit well already.