What/How Did You Practice Today?

[Peaksy68]

Played 9 with a real focus on scoring to see if I'm ready to return to club competitions. Didn't really warm up properly, I'll need to improve that. Started with a poor drive but managed bogey. Drove the ball well after that, 6/7 fairways with reasonable distance. One 3 putt on recently dusted greens, and a couple of 1 putts. Shot 5 over, including a double after playing through and rushing things a bit. Irons are a bit of a struggle, not sure of my current yardages, but it will improve with time I'm certain. Managed to get out of 3 bunkers ok, which is a big improvement over my bunker play prior to my shoulder fully seizing up.

Booked in for the big (hopefully) return tomorrow. Playing with 2 good mates who happened to have a gap with them so really looking forward to it. I'll have some serious butterflies if the last couple of 9 hole practice rounds are anything to go by, can't believe how nervous I've been on the first tee shot.

[bens197]

Getting the feel of this Hi Toe with the help of the world’s best ball retriever.

[Rickp]

Getting the feel of this Hi Toe with the help of the world’s best ball retriever.

Now that’s keeping your head down
She’s going to be a player


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[CarlH]

On the driving range, focused on posture and angles using 6 iron and driver

On chipping range, chipped various distances with 60* using varying flight height.

On putting range, putted from 3-6 feet until my back began to get sore.

On 19th hole, had a cool drink of water to cool down.

[bens197]

Now that’s keeping your head down
She’s going to be a player


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“Daddy! Go!” She loved helping

[DrMJG]

I still am nursing a somewhat sore right knee so focused on half swings with the 56º and 60º.

Nice easy swings from the 4:00 and 5:00 position with a focus on hitting as close to the target as possible.

Had the best on target shots from the 56º that I have had in quite some time.  Perhaps the knee pull was a blessing in disguise. I was working as well on creating the loft needed to get to the target. I have found a comfort today with that club that has alluded me for this past year.

My 60º is now a solidly predictable club off of the turf. I can get nice chips from 70+ yards and closer to both be on line with the target and stop and/or roll as hoped for.  My Phil Flops are good with nigh high lofts and a fairly dead stop once it hits the green.

Fun day to help me ignore the knee.

[PMookie]

Two large buckets at the range. First bucket using the TourStriker ball to work on staying connected. Second bucket working through the irons and driver, alternating shots, to work on consistency. Hot as all get-out, but enjoyable.
Hit the Sub70 MB+ 7 iron as well. Wow. So nice!!!


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[revkev]

Monday is always chipping and putting day for me. Half an hour, the three balls, toss them and then chip towards three different pins and putt them out. Putt all three towards a pin somewhere else on the practice green and repeat.

I usually use my 52 for this drill and always a sleeve of my gamers.

I’m up and down over 50 percent of the time according to Shot Scope. :)


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[revkev]

The last three rounds for me have been some of my best golf of my life, but I just can't seem to translate those feelings to the range.
I spent a bucket yesterday hitting nothing but wedges. Was OK. I really need to consider moving up to a 52 degree and 56 degree instead of my current 54/60 setup. There is just not a lot of confidence in the 60, and I have a big distance gap between my gap wedge (48 degrees) and 54 degree that causes problems from time to time. To get 105-125 yards, I either have to step on the 54 or try flighting the gap wedge down, neither of which is a good strategy for me.
I went back today focused on working on my driver and mid irons. Both were a major disappointment. I was able to hit several straight drives, but my distance with both the driver and 7 iron was less than usual. According to my Swing Caddie, I've actually lost 5-8 MPH in swing speed over the last week or two, so that's really frustrating. I'm pretty sure it's just sequencing, but it was very disheartening to see such poor numbers.
 

Hang in there brother. I’m not sure where you are in your training but ASD number 2 is a great sub in the middle day of the week. I will frequently do it between holes on the course.


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[DrMJG]

30 shots with the 6i.  

I am going to learn to hit this club well, plain and simple.

Started out rough and inconsistent: Poor loft, out of line and mediocre distance.  So I accepted them as warm-ups that simply moved the body.

Next group was better, but only 60% or so were shots I would accept as fairly fine in a game.

Coffee consumption was next.

Decided to really think things through: No out to in swing path, good ball position at the address, setting a point of aim about 10 feet in front of ball, good hand position on the grip, take a few waggles before striking, head down, good hip rotation, if uncomfortable at address, step back and reload. 

Last 15 shots were more in the "WOW, that was nice" territory.

All the normal things that I need to get back towards "automatic",

I have decided to take the next 10 days to take 20 shots with ONLY my 6i. No other weapon in the arsenal is as rough.  Other clubs I can hit with a 85-90% "not too shabby" rate! 

Edited August 6, 2019 by DrMJG

[russtopherb]

Drives me nuts how I just can't have "one swing" for all of my clubs. Not sure how other spies are, but if I try to hit my driver the same way that I hit 7i, it's a disaster.

I hit a small bucket starting with my PW and then moved around from there to 7i. Things were fine, good distance/dispersion, etc. Moved to driver and BLAH. Hot slicey garbage. After a few swings I got into a groove and felt good, hit some nice shots (even 2 draws that only moved a few yards) then back to my 7i and GARBAGE AGAIN. Terrible weak shots that fluttered to the right. Went back to short wedge shots which were fine, then back to 7i and only the last 3 balls I hit were back to what I started with. 

[edingc]

21 hours ago, revkev said:

 

Hang in there brother. I’m not sure where you are in your training but ASD number 2 is a great sub in the middle day of the week. I will frequently do it between holes on the course.


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Thanks! I'm going to post another update over in that thread later, but I'm not quite to the ASD protocols yet due to life getting in the way. 

I'm beginning to realize that I'm getting to be a better player during my rounds and less great on the driving range. Honestly, I guess my tolerance for a bad shot is so much bigger during a round than on the range. 

I really need to continuing my round mentality on the range. I sometimes get to obsessed with seeing higher numbers on the Swing Caddie and completely ruin my rhythm, timing and routine.

[null]

Went to the range this evening and worked on the drills I learned last week. Man I can already see and feel the difference in my ball striking. I'm flushing my irons and really compressing the ball. Working on maintaining my posture through the downswing and feeling like I'm having the club exit more around my body to the left rather than up and to the left. Towel drill really helped me actually start hitting down on my irons. Coming together nicely. 

 

 

[golfertrb]

Went to the range this evening and worked on the drills I learned last week. Man I can already see and feel the difference in my ball striking. I'm flushing my irons and really compressing the ball. Working on maintaining my posture through the downswing and feeling like I'm having the club exit more around my body to the left rather than up and to the left. Towel drill really helped me actually start hitting down on my irons. Coming together nicely. 
 
 

Maintaining my posture has always been a struggle for me and so much worse since my back surgeries but not much feels as good as really hitting down and compressing the ball with a well-struck iron. Glad to hear all your hard work is paying dividends. I love the feeling of the body rotating through a shot. I hit a 3/4 53* the other day so well by doing just what you described - what a feeling! If I could bottle that... Keep it up - the best is yet to come!


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[DrMJG]

Day 1 of 20 days and 20 shots/day with the 6i only. It is my most inconsistent club; I need to get much better as it is my lowest numbered iron.

Got started with 15 studied 1/2 shots  to make sure all was lining up well, from address through all positions up to and including the follow through.  

Actually, those shots felt good, even when inconsistencies were noted, mainly in terms of where the face of the club needed to be at every point.  When all was good, the basic loft and direction was more than simply solid.

It was a brain difficult day.  I had not spent over an hour with just one club before as I did today.  I kept my video running, stopping to review when something went bad or when something went really well, making both mental and physical notes.

Final 5 were attempts at fuller shots. Of those, four I was almost thrilled about, but one was pulled too much.

Tomorrow will be a repeat of this day, especially if I get up a bit early to beat the heat.

[Shankster]

Work has pretty much put a stop to my golf practice....

But I’ve started a swing reset, my outing with STUD was the last straw. I flat out sucked.

Working on 20 yard pitch shots... taking paint!!!

Feet together 50% swings. Getting my rhythm back.

[DrMJG]

Day 2 of my "learn to play a 6i" project

A repeat of yesterday to continue to to gain a good control of my most inconsistent club.

I started off with a number less than full swing thoughts.

Today began with 5 left arm only to make sure I was not some how flipping at contact and to make sure I am not simply losing control.  All were good fine and on to 1/2 swings. I was happy with the line of flight after the contact.  No shots were so far off line as to have even been a small concern.  I felt good with the face of the club through the back swing and follow through.

I finished with fuller swings. Loft was good and distance was fine, though I was not trying to hit the ball very hard.  Ball speed on the last 5 averaged about 90 and all finished with a slight draw.

Tomorrow I will extend the number of full swings to 8.

[DrMJG]

Day 3 of The 6i Quest!

As I was planning tohlit some "longer" shots this morning, I began with a full set of physical warmups including 10 swings with the Orange Whip®. Arms and shoulders felt really good with no tension.

As with the  other days, I started with 5 shots going only to a 4 O'clock position on the back swing.  I do this to make sure the address points of good ligning up, face position, natural angles, and the like are all accounted for. 

In this respect, what pleased me the most, other than the good feel, was the nice sound I got as feed back indicating a nice connect at impact.  Loft was looking better and all the shots were very well placed on line.

Moved up for the next 15 to a 3/4 swing. The goal here was to keep everything as it "should" be with a slightly fuller swing.  I was concentrating mostly with club face position and head and shoulder activity.  I was OK with this grouping.  I did top one primarily as I had the ball a bit back in my stance, oops!

Again, good sound for most of them and with the exception of one fairly bad pull left, I was able to see some very nice alignment results.  I will spend some time this evening looking at the video to study my head and shoulders.  While they felt good, I want to make sure my mechanics were as good as they felt.

Edited August 9, 2019 by DrMJG

[CarlH]

Club Championship begins tomorrow with an 8:30 tee time for me.  Warmed up with 7 iron until hitting full shots.  Pulled out the driver and hit a few.  Went over to the chipping green and worked on short pitches with the lob wedge, then chipping with LW, GW, PW, 9i, and 8i.  Tomorrow, prior to the round, I will hit some irons and driver to warm up and stretch, not trying to work on any specific swing thought and then follow that up with a few chips and then focus on putting for distance control until shortly before tee time.

[Kenny B]

I have not even been to the golf course since I played my walking 9-holes on Monday.  Temps have been 102-105º, but today was a little cooler... only 90º but starting tonight through Saturday we have a Red Flag Warning for lightning strikes and high winds; bad combination.

Today I started out with about 50-60 pitches with my PM Grind 60º from 25 yards to a pin on the front of the practice green.  All balls were within 8 feet the pin except 4 shots; 3 of those I blame on people walking behind and to my right side headed to the #10 tee.  I usually watch out for that, but a few guys got past me.  As soon as I see movement out of the corner of my eye, I miss a shot.

Next I went to the range; something I rarely do, but there was a bucket of balls just sitting there begging to be hit.  I hit maybe a dozen balls with my 9i trying to focus on making a fuller shoulder turn; bigger turns = more mishits.  Need more  practice.  I finished with about 10 balls with the driver.  All would be playable, but nothing exemplary.

Finally, I headed to the putting green and hit chips, alternately, to close pins and pins further away trying to get within 3 feet.  Not bad, but need more work there too.  Finished with one-handed putts from 4 feet, making sure my path is good.  Didn't work on distance control; I'll do that before I play tomorrow.

[russtopherb]

Another small bucket at the range, gotta wait for that clubhead to set my wrists before I start down. If not, wipey fades. I really need to ingrain that on the range so I'm not thinking about it on the course.

[DrMJG]

Day 4 for My 6i Redux 

I took all of the shots today as "full swing" but much slower tempo.  

The first 10 were slower that the last 10.  I wanted to make sure all went well through all of the positions of the swing.  Seemed a bit awkward at times; but, I sped up the actions to about 50% of what I usually take, I felt how it was all coming together.  

Topped 2 badly today in the first 5 but corrected.  

It was great seeing the ball loft well and take off rather straight.

I am working hard at not jumping the gun on this slow build of the club.  While I am chomping at the bit, I am working towards a long term ability to hit this club as needed.

[Shankster]

More feet together shots today. This is a great reset drill. Video is showing a shallower swing.

Only 9,998 more hours to go.

[edingc]

Lots and lots of short game work over the past few days. Presently working on Utley's techniques, and I'm getting good results especially with chipping. Distance control with pitching is going to take some more practice.

[CarlH]

2 hours ago, edingc said:

Lots and lots of short game work over the past few days. Presently working on Utley's techniques, and I'm getting good results especially with chipping. Distance control with pitching is going to take some more practice.

I'm a big fan of Stan Utley's short game teachings.  Got his book on the short game years ago.

[edingc]

6 hours ago, CarlH said:

I'm a big fan of Stan Utley's short game teachings.  Got his book on the short game years ago.

I just finished the book last night. I love the simplicity. I'm finding more and more opportunities to from 50 and in, so I'm really hoping this will help shave a few strokes per round.

[DrMJG]

And, on it goes... Day 5 of the focus on the 6i

Today, after warm-up, I took all of the shots as somewhat gentle yet  full swings, mainly to keep comfortable with all of the aspects the swing, from address and aim through follow-through.

None were topped and for the most part they went in the direction aimed.  I hit two worm burners with no loft.  Sat down and went through the process, good loft after that.  It did feel far more comfortable and, for lack of another word, normal.

Tomorrow, I will speed up the down swing and go for more distances.

Edited August 10, 2019 by DrMJG

[Shankster]

And, on it goes... Day 5 of the focus on the 6i

Today, after warm-up, I took all of the shots as somewhat gentle yet  full swings, mainly to keep comfortable with all of the aspects the swing, from address and aim through follow-through.

None were topped and for the most part they went in the direction aimed.  I hit two worm burners with no loft.  Sat down and went through the process, good loft after that.  It did feel far more comfortable and, for lack of another word, normal.

Tomorrow, I will speed up the down swing and go for more distances.

Glad you are having some success!

I on the other hand... am not.

I can hit beautiful shots in my yard up to around 90 yards (checked with the neighbors, and as long as I don’t break anything we’re good)...

But I go to a place that resembles a golf course, you know a place with yard markers, and a hitting mat...

And I can’t get the ball to turn over for the life of me. Hit 5, yes 5 large buckets. The first one was a frustration filled half shots with feet together. All blocked or a fade.

Then I just smashed the heck out of the other 4 because what I am trying to do isn’t working!!! I feel like Doc Brown!!!!

[MomoMan83]

Did a couple of backyard practice sessions today, hitting off a mat into a net, trying to work on my hip rotation on the downswing. It's not something I have focused on much before so is a bit of a challenge for me. I'm hitting my irons fairly consistently and quite often hitting it flush. Driver is hit or miss, but that's all off a mat into a net. The heat and humidity has been too oppressive lately to play to see if it will translate to the course. Hopefully I'll be able to play in next Thursdays coworker scramble and find out.

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[DrMJG]

Day 6 of the 6i Rebuild!

Today was a learning day.

After my usual pattern of physical warm-ups, it was on to fuller and fuller shots.

I decided today's target was my usual "fairway" at the range.  A 20 yard wide area that goes from my hitting area directly back 285 to the fence.  I know anything I hit there will be an acceptable shot.  As well, I can adjust my target either left or right and shoot towards a free, 140 to the left and 160 to the right.  But today I was working on finally adding some distance to the 6i.

I did not start off hitting for distance.  It was for direction and loft.  Started off fine, but I ended up will a pull when I started adding for more distance. Ok, I went back to a slower swing, and direction got better.

I now know I was so focused on how far, I ended up over hitting the ball by trying to gain too much speed.  SO...   tomorrow I need to take a step or two back to regain control.

Edited August 12, 2019 by DrMJG