What/How Did You Practice Today?

[cksurfdude]

1 hour ago, Kenkarot said:

I've been working on finding the low point in my swing consistently. Honestly don't really know how to practice other youtube then swinging in the garage lol 

Saw a good drill elsewhere in this forum, and sorry cannot find the link right now, so will try to explain...

You need a practice bunker - (1) take a mid iron (eg 8i) and draw two parallel lines just a few inches apart and perpendicular to where you're standing; (2) setup with the back line (closer to your back foot) pretending that is where the ball is; (3) make your swing and take a shallow divot on the *front* line

There's also...
.. the towel drill - place a towel flat right behind the ball
.. paint or chalk line drill (for grass!) - make a straight line right in front of the ball, hit the ball and try to scuff your marked line

Hope this helps!

[Josh Parker]

Just got back from the range after changing out the grip on my GT driver to jumbo.  Hit a small bucket and liked what I saw. 

[Kenkarot]

38 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Saw a good drill elsewhere in this forum, and sorry cannot find the link right now, so will try to explain...

You need a practice bunker - (1) take a mid iron (eg 8i) and draw two parallel lines just a few inches apart and perpendicular to where you're standing; (2) setup with the back line (closer to your back foot) pretending that is where the ball is; (3) make your swing and take a shallow divot on the *front* line

There's also...
.. the towel drill - place a towel flat right behind the ball
.. paint or chalk line drill (for grass!) - make a straight line right in front of the ball, hit the ball and try to scuff your marked line

Hope this helps!

Im going to check this out! Sound like something you can easily do without being too embarrassing out on the range lol 

[Gin41]

26 minutes ago, Josh Parker said:

Just got back from the range after changing out the grip on my GT driver to jumbo.  Hit a small bucket and liked what I saw. 

How do you find the jumbo grips? Never properly tried them but they always look and feel so foreign.

[Josh Parker]

2 minutes ago, Gin41 said:

How do you find the jumbo grips? Never properly tried them but they always look and feel so foreign.

I found mine at PGASS.  They were $6.99 each and I used air to put mine on so if I don't like it, I can swap it out with the original one. 

[Indy_Oz]

1 hour ago, cksurfdude said:

Saw a good drill elsewhere in this forum, and sorry cannot find the link right now, so will try to explain...

You need a practice bunker - (1) take a mid iron (eg 8i) and draw two parallel lines just a few inches apart and perpendicular to where you're standing; (2) setup with the back line (closer to your back foot) pretending that is where the ball is; (3) make your swing and take a shallow divot on the *front* line

There's also...
.. the towel drill - place a towel flat right behind the ball
.. paint or chalk line drill (for grass!) - make a straight line right in front of the ball, hit the ball and try to scuff your marked line

Hope this helps!

I saw Bryson DeChambeau show that drill to Rick Shiels. I’ve done it a couple of times to see just how inconsistent my low point is.lol 

Just found the vid (2:30 onwards is the drill):

 

[Gin41]

5 minutes ago, Indy_Oz said:

I saw Bryson DeChambeau show that drill to Rick Shiels. I’ve done it a couple of times to see just how inconsistent my low point is.lol 

Just found the vid (2:30 onwards is the drill):

 

That drill looks so good and easy to replicate. I'm guessing you can also do it with a string if you dont have access to a bunker for full swings.

[Indy_Oz]

14 minutes ago, Gin41 said:

That drill looks so good and easy to replicate. I'm guessing you can also do it with a string if you dont have access to a bunker for full swings.

Absolutely. 
On the range, I’ve done effectively the same drill with a tee flush to the ground to act as ball location and aim to take divot just in front of it. I’ve also put pairs of tees in the ground about a foot apart to denote each end of the lines and eyeball the ball and impact lines. Works pretty well too. 

[Willie T]

Day 226 (30 Aug 24) - Friday Men’s golf…had a solid 81 (41 / 40).  It was a solid day of solid pars - had 9 pars, 9 bogies.  Using the Aim Point base principles resulted in solid starts that finished less than 2’ from the hole for stress free pars and easy bogies.  Of course I blew several easy birdie attempts where I choked with the speed.  Still working to be trusting of the read.  (edited to add the score card): 

Edited August 31 by Willie T

[TJ Hall]

Got some putting practice in this evening.

[Jim Shaw]

6 hours ago, Kenkarot said:

I've been working on finding the low point in my swing consistently. Honestly don't really know how to practice other youtube then swinging in the garage lol 

hmm, from my experience the only way to find it is on the range, it is a very personal thing, depending on a few personal factors but it can be done. Lee Trevino said "start as far back in your stance as you can and work your way forward until you find the bottom" 

so start with your PW move it as far back as you can hit 5 balls and see how it feels, move it, 5 more balls and so on, and through you bag, try and "feel" where the best contact is and remember the "bottom" of each club. 

One thing to remember, once you find the bottom it can move marginally depending on your physical factors of that day. 

[Indy_Oz]

More sim time today for me.

Spent some time on drills and swing feels to reduce/ eliminate early extension of right hip. Focus on moving left hip/ pocket back while bringing the hands down. Not fully there, but improvements. Head stayed over the ball more than yesterday in vids and consecutive swings and impacts were more consistent, particularly with wedges and irons. Driver still needs some work, but improving lower body movement and firing sequence left me managing a draw more than a fade and a few pulls due to the stronger grip I'd been using to try to manage coming over the top and early extending.lol. The grind continues...

Once the sim 'range' session was done, I played 9 on the sim. Bay Hill course front nine. With putting set to 'computer decides', I shot +1. Some really nice drives and long iron shots. Very happy with shot shape and distances. Need to translate that across to the course on Sunday! Sunday's course has quite a few holes that will require 3W, hybrid or long iron off the tee, so current driver woes shouldn't be as big a deal as it could be.

[JStapp]

Worked on trying to get a bit more depth at the top to give myself a better opportunity to get on a better plane on the way down. Felt good. Looked good. More reps needed 

[sirchunksalot]

I was able to procure permission from SWMBO to go to the range today and work on short shots and chipping. The knee is still swollen but the partial shots didn't seem to bother it. 

I hit pitch shots on the range out to about 40 yards and did ok until I started flinging my right arm at the ball, I'm usually one who likes to control the motion of shots with my left shoulder. 

I chunked some when I wasn't getting the motion right, I could tell I was dropping my right shoulder at impact. 

I moved on to the chipping green where I started out a little rough. I discovered I was trying to force the club through impact and once I started letting the club do more of the work, I was hitting good shots. I hit some from fairway lies and hit some really good shots when the ball was buried in the rough. 

All in all, it was a good day. It was nice to be back out doing something golf related. 

[Willie T]

Day 227 (31 Aug 24) -  Nip and roll drills with the 50deg wedge.  Set up between 5 and 10 yds from the backyard pins.  Goal was to have the balls finish with 6’ radius of the pin.  Hit groups of six balls - did well as the average finish was well within 2’ of the pins.  Solid confidence builder session.  

[Willie T]

Day 228 (01 Sep 24) - Spent some time rehearsing setup and hitting some easy shots into the net in the backyard with the 6i.  

[Coulter]

Had a really good session today for the most part. Worked from gap wedge all the way up to driver. Worked on alignment and focused on keeping my wrist flat in relation to the back of my forearm at the top of and throughout the swing. The exceptions were my 6 iron wasn’t getting much height (I think I was just tired at this point) and my 3 wood I had 0 control. Even spent about 20 minutes chipping and 20 minutes putting. So a full bag practice for me today which I don’t get to do very often. Another plus I met another MGS reader while heading to the putting green. 

[Wib081]

Practiced yesterday mainly wanted to get into my hybrid little 5 wood and driver. Warmed up with some gap wedge action divots were shallow and good. At the same time helping my 12 y/o work on foot placement and rotation. Ended pretty well for both of us and once he tried keep ing his weight forward he began striping his 5H. I myself got my driver straightened out and had some nice high flight and solid launch angles. Warm up this morning gonna focus on wedges and the hybrid/utilities

[BallsLeon]

Went to the sim this morning and rolled 100 random putts with the new putter between 3-18ft on the PuttView green. Turned off alignment aides, but displayed the green contours.

Loving how easy the putter is to line up, simplifying things so I just have to worry about speed and reading the green. The feel is reminiscent to the Sub 70 009 Mini I tested, which I really enjoyed, but feel like the center shaft suits my eye/alignment better.

[Willie T]

Day 229 (02 Sep 24) - Grandson wanted to hit some into the net with the winner being the one who hit the target inside the net the most.  He beat me by one (wink, wink).  Then some around the yard stroke pkay using foam balls…he had his distance control happening, beat me two out of three holes.  After he and his dad left, I worked on “on course” shot rehearsals - from stepping behind the ball to “see the target” line, to getting feet parallel to the target line and making a solid swing thru the ball that culminates with the pop of the ball in the target. 

[TJ Hall]

Had the Rapsodo out with the net today.  Was a little erratic with some shots.  Trying to get a good rhythm going with the irons.

8 - SW was good, 3 - 7 started getting a little wild.  

[sp0rtsfan86]

Went to the range and worked on continuing drawing the ball and worked on moving the ball right to left as my primary. After that, worked on hitting from some rough and eventually hit a few short game shots. 

I've realized my idea of hit it straight isn't always the best and I need to focus on working the ball more as a primary move.

[Bearrunner]

I’ve had a back injury that has miffed my whole season, so today I played four rounds on Tiger Woods 09 on my old Xbox 360 console, just to say I was actually able to play lmfao

[sirchunksalot]

Today was another day working on short game since I'm taking it easy with the knee. I did take some half and three quarter wedge swings and it seems to be holding up well. 

On the range I hit the ball pretty well but was suffering from a case of the toe strikes. I'm going to have to spend a little time working on that. 

I moved over to the chipping green and hit shots from different lies with different clubs. I worked on toe up bumps with the GW and PW which have always been a tough shot for me to pull off as simple as they are. I was also hitting some higher release 2&3 shots with the 54 and 60. 

I realized a lot of my problems come from trying to drive through the ball with my legs and that I needed to concentrate on building and maintaining a pivot point on my lead side. Gotta get that weight forward, keep it there, and rotate the body. 

 

[cnosil]

2 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

 

I realized a lot of my problems come from trying to drive through the ball with my legs and that I needed to concentrate on building and maintaining a pivot point on my lead side. Gotta get that weight forward, keep it there, and rotate the body. 

 

100%.   Since I have put more rotation into my short game shots it has been a game changer.  

[sirchunksalot]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

100%.   Since I have put more rotation into my short game shots it has been a game changer.  

I can see it's making a huge difference. I used to be bad about stalling out and hit a lot of chunks and thins, now I'm seeing more crisp strikes. I'll still get it wrong from time to time and find I'm having to focus a little more on making the right move. 

[Gravenor]

Started todays session in the nets warming up. I was working on adding width to my follow through (not flipping the wrists or getting too far inside after impact). I didn't have a launch monitor or any flight-tracking equipment with me, but I could feel an instant increase in club head speed without intentionally swinging the club any faster. 

I wanted to do some putting drills today, specifically tailored towards lag-putting, but as luck would have it every single person within a 15-mile radius decided they wanted to do the same thing this afternoon (typical ).

Decided to go and dial in my chipping & pitching instead. Hit maybe 20-30 shots from a complete circle around the green with every club from my 7-iron to my 60°. This is by far one of my favourite drills as it forces you to play shots that you're uncomfortable with. Everything from a downhill short-sided pitch with a 7-iron, to a long uphill chip to a back flag with a 60°. It's a really great test of versatility and has really helped me learn how to control spin & distance.

Finished the session on-course.

Not a soul out there - except me. Hit a range of shots from maybe 85 yards and in until the sun went down. 

[Willie T]

Day 230 (03 Sep 24) - Full swing drills today with the longer irons and hybrid…as this was the backyard, stayed with hard foam balls in a pretty stiff N-NE breeze.  Able to work on flighting the ball down into the wind and then working the ball with the wind to the target point.  

[Sandgroper]

I've never really had the time to practise but with the purchase of new irons after 17 years I thought it would be a good time to learn how to use them properly, so I booked a couple of lessons with the team at my course.

When I hit the ball well there are no issues but consistency is lacking with a number of iron shots being hit fat and too big a divot, which isn't a problem when you're young, but as you get older it starts to hurt towards the end of the round.

On the trackman you have a couple of warm up swings and get some numbers. First thing they say is "what's your big miss?". For me it is a high block that goes about 90% distance. So "let's have a look at your grip." Apparently my left hand isn't strong enough and I need to bring it around so I can see a second knuckle at address. Right hand is OK.

Stance, "you're standing too far from the ball", "bring it in 2 inches". This promotes a sweeping rather than a digging motion, but of course I hosel a few given the past 30 years of stance...

"you're feet are too far apart", this promotes swaying, which is bad...

"more of a flat wrist at the top", roll it outwards at the top rather than inwards, creates a squarer clubface for longer at impact. Less wrist flicking at impact so there is a bigger "forgiveness zone" during impact, which makes sense. If you're late, then that creates the big block, if you're early, there is the draggy hook.

So apart from my grip, my stance, my position over the ball, my outstretched swing, I'm good!

Plenty of practise now is what's required, several range sessions remembering the changes (ignoring where the ball goes for now). 

The image is of one of my average drives.

[Overspark07]

There’s a little 5 hole course that a park district nearby runs. Went for an hour just before sundown and nobody was there. Only took an 8i and just hit balls at one of the holes. Pretty small greens so good target practice. Straightened out some fade that was getting a little unruly.