Scratch By 50: In Search Of A Proper Turn

Graham Averill has turned 50 this year and he's freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he's decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now a 7.2. Welcome to his midlife crisis.

I drove 16 hours to and from Pennsylvania for a single lesson with a golf guru. He never even put a club in my hand but what he taught me might be the thing that takes my game to the next level.

So far, my quest for scratch has been guided by Sam Hahn, CEO of L.A.B. Golf. He's a great golfer who has been super-generous with his time and help but he also knows there are coaches that are on the next level.

Tom Bailey, founder of Avoda Golf, is one of those masterminds. Bailey is a former collegiate player turned teaching pro who began exploring club design and biomechanics after suffering an injury. Specifically, Bailey started experimenting with same-length clubs and curved club faces. Bryson DeChambeau took notice and won the 2024 U.S. Open gaming Bailey's irons and Avoda took off.

But Bailey still loves teaching and he's been helping my golf coach, Sam, with his own swing. Sam has been wanting me to try Avoda's irons but he's also been pushing Bailey to take a peek at my swing. So I headed to Avoda's headquarters in Pennsylvania for a club fitting and a lesson. I'll dig into the clubs in an upcoming article but the main takeaway from this trip was that my turn was setting me up for inconsistency.

I have a shallow, partial turn, which I always assumed was the product of my lack of mobility thanks to accumulated sports injuries but, apparently, I was just doing the movement wrong.

"As long as you can turn around and look at the wall behind you, you have enough mobility to complete a full turn in the golf swing," Bailey told me while pointing out that I was starting my backswing by sinking into a small squat which was limiting the mobility in my hips while also introducing a variable to my swing that was hard to predict. That vertical shift of the squat sometimes led to fat shots. Sometimes thin.

So Bailey showed me how to turn properly. He had me stand straight and turn to look the wall behind me. And that's it. That's the golf turn. I was overcomplicating the movement. Eliminating the downward shift of the squat and simply turning my shoulders and core allows me to weight my back hip while getting my lead shoulder over the ball more effortlessly. I'm able to get my shoulders closer to 90 degrees to the ball and my back completely to the target. My hands are higher at the top of my swing, too. I've never been able to reach any of those positions before.

Take a look at the side-by-side video below. On the left is my swing just before meeting Bailey. On the right is the swing just after my lesson.

It's not perfect but it's getting better. Most noticeably on the new swing, my trail hip is higher, hands are higher and my legs are straighter. According to Bailey, reaching these checkpoints at the top of the backswing sets you up for a proper delivery of the club.

"It eliminates the need for compensations on the downswing," Bailey said. "All of the little things golfers work on to get the ball flight they want become less necessary. If you establish a good foundation, you don't have to develop all of those compensations."

Bailey says it might take a couple weeks to dial in the movement so that it feels natural but it should clean up some of my inconsistencies. He sent me home with a daily resistance band exercise that helps reinforce this new movement and I've spent the last few days working through the new swing on the range. I've also had the chance to walk a couple of practice nine-hole rounds. I didn't break any course records but I'm encouraged by how it feels and the ball flight that I'm seeing.

And, of course, I've become the stereotypical golfer who practices their backswing in the grocery line or while I'm cooking dinner. I find myself slowly turning my shoulders and weighting my back hip with a spatula in my hand.

I know my swing is never going to be perfect (see the video above for proof) but I think this is a step towards "more consistent."

This golf lesson wasn't the only reason I drove 16 hours to and from Pennsylvania. I was also fitted for a new set of irons. I'm excited to talk about that in an upcoming article because Avoda is doing some really interesting things. But gear doesn't operate in a vacuum and new clubs alone won't make me a better golfer. But better movement and new clubs? Who knows what that will do. I'm excited to find out.

Dig deeper into one golfer's struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week's Scratch By 50 where Graham digs into a mental collapse at the end of the best round of his life.