Jon Gomez is a teaching golf professional and the New Player Development Director at River Ridge Golf Course in Oxnard. As a way to experience the challenges that new players face in learning the game, Gomez has decided to try to teach himself to play left- handed. He has agreed to write regular updates for the Star's golf Web site about his progress and struggles.

Here is the first installment.

The initial practice.

I'm a natural right-hander. I throw with my right hand. Use a fork at dinner with my right hand. My first day as a left-handed golfer was probably very similar to any new golfer going to their first lesson. I was excited to try something new, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little bit nervous! I had set up a specific time for the lesson and made sure that I stuck to it. I went to the range with two clubs, a left- and right-handed 6 iron, and a medium basket.

I brought along the right-handed club to serve two purposes. The first was to lay it on the ground and use it as an alignment aide for my left-handed swing.

The second was to use it every now and then, to make sure my normal right-handed swing wouldn't feel awkward the next time I play or practice right-handed.

I decided to put myself through the same type of lesson plan that I would put any beginner golfer through. I want to see what it's like from the student's perspective and what I might need to change to improve my style.

Obviously, I want to see results very fast and expect a lot from myself, and the added amount of pressure I have put on myself to break 90 in three months is already on my mind. I am forcing myself to practice once in between lessons, as well as work on a specific drill at home that I can work on a few minutes in the evening, twice a week.

The main focus for a beginner's first lesson is to establish some kind of comfort for gripping the club. If the grip feels uncomfortable, a golfers chance for success is very limited. Learning to hold the club in your fingertips and have your hands feel like a unit is much easier said than done.

As a right-handed golfer I can pick up any club and feel like the club belongs in my hands. After years and years of playing, practicing and teaching the grip, it has become very natural.

But trying to teach myself to hold the club left-handed was a different story altogether!

I tried the overlap grip first, but found that my left hand didn't feel like it could wrap around the club enough.

Next, I tried the interlock grip but found that to be even more uncomfortable. My hands were spaced way too far apart and I couldn't get the club in my fingertips at all.

That left me with the 10-finger or baseball style grip. This was by far the best feeling grip for me, and therefore would be the easiest for me to repeat and be successful with. Just like with any of my students, I told myself that I could try one of the other grips again in the future after I create some consistency, and build a little more hand strength necessary for the other two grips.

Now that I have my grip, I reminded myself that placing my hands on the grip properly means nothing without the proper grip pressure.

You must hold the club lightly to be able to feel the weight of the club head during the swing. You can't say that enough to yourself: " You must hold the club lightly to have success."

More good swings are ruined by gripping the club tightly than anything else. The lighter you can hold the club, the easier it is allow your arms and shoulders to stay tension free. This is the trigger that allows the rest of the body to move effortlessly through the swing.

Now it's time to work on my set-up. With my feet about shoulder width apart, I try to stand as athletically as I can. Knees bent, backside sticking out, bending slightly from the waist with my arms hanging relaxed down under my shoulders.

I suddenly realize that doing what I normally take for granted right-handed is like trying to find myself out of a dark room left-handed!

I struggled with feeling comfortable with ball position, and looking down toward a target over my right shoulder.

I continued to give myself gentle reminders that the more I do it, the easier it will become.

I make my first few swings, never letting the club get higher than waist height on the back or forward swing. I am trying to get a feel for the club swinging back and forth.

I want the club to gently brush the ground as it swings slowly back and forth. Even in this small swing I feel a little off balance and not very coordinated.

When I actually feel I'm ready to hit my first ball with this little swing I remind myself to take a deep breath and grip lightly.

It works well and I can hit the ball pretty consistently this way. The solid feeling of contact is exciting, and I decide that after about a dozen small swings I'm ready to graduate to a bigger swing.

Big mistake! The first four shots I try with a bigger swing I barely make contact with the ball, and on two of them I hit so far behind the ball the mound of turf I bring up flies as far as the ball!

I decide to go back to the smaller swings and gradually build my way up to making fuller type swings.

The solid feeling returns and after about 20 to 25 balls. I am actually hitting the ball pretty good. It's not going very far, but its going fairly straight and I am trying to focus more on staying balanced and my technique than ripping it a long way.

After about 45 minutes of practice, I decide to go over in my head all the things that helped me to hit successful shots and what I would need to practice before next weeks lesson.

I decided that the keys to my good shots were trying to stay relaxed and make small controlled swings and to keep a humble outlook.

It took me more than a year to break 100 as a right-handed 13-year-old.

It might take a lot longer than I thought to break 90 as a left-handed 40-year-old!

*Next time: A review of my practice drills and a story log of my entire 3-month lesson plan.