What/How Did You Practice Today?

[fixyurdivot]

20 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I was finally able to get the Mizuno's out to the range today and have kind of a "getting to know you" session. This past week has been a slew of bad weather ranging from rain to wind. I was hoping to get some net time before heading out to see flight, but I was going crazy. 

These clubs are awesome and fun to hit. My swing, on the other hand, was lacking in performance. My day started out with a beautiful 60° that went 25 yards and just left of my target. After that, I was visited by Shan-King. I can't say I'm too fond of that guy. 

I finally made a tweak in my setup, as someone with concrete, inflexible ankles I tend to get my weight into my toes. After that, I started seeing shots more toward the center. One thing I'll say about the Mizuno's is I was a little concerned going in about the difference in shafts and grips (xp 90 vs. Modus 105 and standard grips vs. MCC +4). Those concerns were unfounded as I was seeing straight shots to a baby fade compared to a hooky draw. Plus, once I got my weight right, I was getting more consistent face strike. 

I'm planning on booking a lesson next month and I'm currently trying to decide if I want my first lesson with the local pro to focus on setup, alignment, and grip or if I want to see if he can help me not to decelerate at impact. 

I finished my day on the putting and chipping greens. I wanted to play around with the set GW and hitting bump and runs with the 7 iron. I've got to say, both these clubs are money around the green. 

Nice looking bag Jason but.... wait for it.... the irons are missing a key accessory .

[sirchunksalot]

10 minutes ago, fixyurdivot said:

Nice looking bag Jason but.... wait for it.... the irons are missing a key accessory .

I just don't think I can do it. The thought of not letting them breathe naturally and glisten in the sun is just too much. 

[Rickp]

2 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I just don't think I can do it. The thought of not letting them breathe naturally and glisten in the sun is just too much. 

Have to agree with you my friend

[fixyurdivot]

7 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I just don't think I can do it. The thought of not letting them breathe naturally and glisten in the sun is just too much. 

 

5 minutes ago, Rickp said:

Have to agree with you my friend

Your irons will love you for it and play better... no, really, they will.

[RichL85]

Haven't had much chance to practice with my wife mostly incapacitated for the past few weeks, but I managed to get out and work with the movement thought my coach gave me yesterday. Some improvement on some parts of the swing, no change on other parts. I'm starting to get to a point where I'm accepting that I have certain things in my swing that would be considered less than ideal. I don't currently have, nor do I expect to ever have, the flexibility in some parts to be able to get into those ideal positions. I'm going to try a few more weeks of practice with the current drills and see if I can get some improvement, but I think a discussion with my coach may be coming up. 

[russtopherb]

Nothing like a quiet range to yourself in the early evening. 
 

Cant say I’m too thrilled with the big increase in costs here in comparison to how many nearly smooth balls I found in the bucket, but that’s for another post at another time. 

Spent a lot of time with wedges just working on 50-60 yard shots before working my way through the bag. I spent some decent time in the practice bunker too since that’s always a problem spot for me. 

[cksurfdude]

Putted (didn't play) on the course for 9 holes .. walked along while my wife played.

I was her caddie-coach as she set up for her shots .. primarily checking her aim & alignment towards her target (she tends to setup very closed and then swing across her body) .. and also trying to get her to think more tactically about her targets.

Then when she got to the green I'd drop a ball towards one corner, away from the flag, and putt out from there. 

Well it turns out the practice green was way faster that day vs the actual greens - left 3 different long, uphill first putts way short..! Second putts were all good .. most dropped but did lip out two or three.

My wife played decently and pulled off some nice golf shots

[gavinski91]

Was able to stop by the range this morning for an hour on my way to a meeting, with a primary focus on sequencing and speed for my driver. I think part of my problem is when I don't swing hard with my driver I end up holding off and coming through with my club face way open. That didn't seem to be the problem today.

Creating more width in my backswing also helped me shallow the club a bit more and decrease some of that sidespin (this slo-mo is the third driver swing in the video above).

Overall an encouraging range session!

[ParFore74x]

Spent almost an hour at the chipping green this afternoon. Partly to get acquainted with my 54° T22 but also to really work on bump & runs with my 8 iron. I call it up & down practice. Wedge or 8 iron onto the green for close proximity to the hole to set up a one putt situation. Uphill and downhill lies, fairway, rough, and deep rough. I was using five balls and I was pleased with getting to the point that I could one putt 4 out of 5 of them. I’ll call that a successful session. 

[bens197]

Today was a bucket of wedges. 
 

I worked on my tempo drill I’ve developed after admiring several Tour players rehearsals. 
 

I’ll take one wedge and aim for 3 targets. Same tempo and same speed, just different backswing lengths. 
 

 

[Shankster]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:24 PM, ParFore74x said:

Spent almost an hour at the chipping green this afternoon. Partly to get acquainted with my 54° T22 but also to really work on bump & runs with my 8 iron. I call it up & down practice. Wedge or 8 iron onto the green for close proximity to the hole to set up a one putt situation. Uphill and downhill lies, fairway, rough, and deep rough. I was using five balls and I was pleased with getting to the point that I could one putt 4 out of 5 of them. I’ll call that a successful session. 

How are those T22 wedges?

[ParFore74x]

2 hours ago, Shankster said:

How are those T22 wedges?

I really like it so far. I feel like I can get more stopping power with them than I could with my MD4s while using the same swing/shot. Might have to consider getting a 58° as well.

[RollingGreens]

I hit the range going through my bag yesterday really focusing on 150 and in and my driver and fairway woods. Finished with the putting green.  Really love the way I am hitting my wedges from 100 and in. Plus the new focus of putting had been great with how I am Lining up my body to the hole and the adjusting my putter direction/aim. 27 putts in a round last week was awesome. 

[JerryB]

Hit the range for the first time in a few weeks.  It was sorely needed.  Spent most of the time on my irons.  Looks more like I'm not pulling everything to the left as much as I'm way misaligned.  When I took a moment to line myself up, my shots were online.  It just feels like I'm lined up to the right of my target.

Hit through the rest of my bag too.  Still difficult to judge my distances as there's still a large disparity between bad shots, good shots, and then the occasional absolutely pure strike.  Along with alignment, my biggest mental block is trying to slow down a bit.  I have a tendency to really try to kill the ball to generally poor results.

We've got a work scramble next weekend that I'm really looking forward to.  I think we've got a chance to do really well!

[ParFore74x]

I also spent some time at the range yesterday working on irons. My alignment and tempo were off and once I got them under control, I was seeing some really nice trajectory and distance. I believe that I need to get back into doing this more often so that I can get it to transfer to my game in the course. It always time for the happy dance when the distance is good and the dispersion is tight.  

[RichL85]

Frustrating range session last night. Physically I just wasn't where I needed to be and it showed. Timing was just a little out of sync. Legs were pretty much fried from the gym earlier in the afternoon which I think contributed to things. After a solid half hour of struggling, I made an adjustment to the feelings I was looking for and that seemed to help. Overall just not a good swing day, but helpful in learning some troubleshooting techniques to handle those off days better. Tore open a small blister on my right hand, so that put an end to the session for the night. 

[Shankster]

Hit a full bucket today.  Warmed up with 2 5 iron shots…

Then I just proceeded to carve the sky with my 3 iron.  High/Low/Mid  in all three directions.  I think even Seve would have enjoyed this masterpiece.  Had one of them smack the 250 marker in flight.  Probably the best 3 iron I’ve ever hit.  Flushed most of them.  It was amazing.  Think I’m narrowing down my club options….

[juspoole]

Went to a Titleist fitting at a local club the other day.  Already having the SM8 wedges and the T100S, I wanted to hone in on both of these to find out which wedge grind/bounce options and gapping would be best.  For my T100S, I wanted to verify the shafts were correct.  

Some interesting things came out.  When I had first bought the SM8, I did so based on the online fitting from Titleist and came away with the D grind for my 54*.  It took me a little to get used to it, but I've been happy with the wedge over the years.  I came away with similar results this time around, but was interesting was when I switched from wedge to wedge and you can really see the results change.  Not only on ball flight - the D was much more of a piercing trajectory - but also from the turf interaction and just how much of a difference it truly was.   I let him know about a large gap in my club makeup.  My 54* on a comfortable less than 100% swing can max at 108.  While my gap wedge (T100S) can go 128/130 comfortably.   He suggested, rather than taking off loft to add a 52* which I was hitting right at 118 and felt great.  The only problem with that is figuring out what I'd have to take out of my bag.  That would be PW, Strong GW, GW, SW, and LW.  5 wedges. 

Next for the irons.  I tried several different shaft options and let my fitter know that I had been playing fairly well with them, but suffering more from a draw when I previously played a more straight ball to slight fade with Mizunos.  We found from Trackman that my delivery was around a couple degrees too upright.  This being from Titleist standard sets being around a degree and a half more upright than Mizunos as standard lie angle.  On top of that, I had them bent more upright based on historical fittings, but most of that was done by lie board (which I know how many of you feel on this).  The nice thing was that we settled on the same shaft I currently have as the best for launch, spin, etc...  He then set me in a demo T100S set to 2* flat and automatically the large draw was taken out.  When I felt like it was a big pull/hook I'd look up only to see it 10/12 yards to the right, which would still be very playable.  

Looking back, I wish I would made a better effort to get to the range a bit before this Titleist session.  I have been lifting weights a lot more lately so I was pretty stiff and probably had one of my worst contact days of the past few years.  However, I had a local club adjust my clubs and went to the range the following two days.  Confidence was really coming back and I was striking the clubs very solid with a much straighter ball flight.  The ball was only moving a few yards one direction or the other and I'm excited to get out to play.  

[sirchunksalot]

I spent a little bit of time in the yard chipping whiffle balls around working on alignment. I was picking out a tree in the woods, going through my routine, and then letting it fly. I have a tendency to align the club decently, but my feet and shoulders are a different story...wide left. I'm hoping I got it toned down a bit before my round after work tomorrow, we're playing 9 at Bear Trace. 

I'm excited about the round because there's a couple of guys that haven't played in a while that I've been working hard for months to get back on the course. One just went out and got fitted for a set of G425 irons. It's going to be an interesting round, but it'll be fun. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Got back into superspeed yesterday and first time picking up a club in almost 3 weeks. My best play off the tee was when I was doing superspeed and I only got 3 weeks into the first protocol before all craziness started with our house and dog.

pumped to get back into it and the swings yesterday felt pretty awsome.

[RichL85]

Ran out to the range to work on some things today. Pretty annoyed to find out my biggest recent problem was that I had ended up setting up too close to the ball and jamming myself up. Spent some time focusing more on setup and letting the swing do whatever it was going to do. It wasn't the best day, but I worked through the bag hitting a lot of different shots. Struggled with some of those partial wedge distances so that is something for me to work on. A small setup change on driver and striped a couple to end the session. One last 7 iron to finish and flew the target so, it was at least a promising ending. Always feels good to walk away on a few good ones. 

[ParFore74x]

Went to the driving range this afternoon only to find out that it was packed and people were actually waiting for openings to hit. Pretty crazy. I opted for more short game work with chipping, bump & runs, and putting. Feeling pretty comfortable with the short game in practice at the moment, just need it to carry over to the course a bit more. 

[cksurfdude]

Walked 9 on the course - while my wife played her round I was pitching from about 50 yds and then putting .. last week was just putting so slowly starting to recover!

Most of my wedge shots weren't too bad .. decent aim and distance control. Onlyscrewed up one short pitch .. just a stoopit mental lapse, I think, where I needed to lob it over a bunker with a tall lip towards the green .. but made the second one count.

Putting was really good today* - good distance control on the first putts .. no 3 putts!! .. and a 1 putt on the last hole for an official up & down from about 53 yds

Really nice afternoon to be out there!

 

* Putting: was using the MLA Tour XDream today; still really like this putter!! The forum member test was five (5??!!!) years ago... 

Not sure why this thing has not gotten more recognition... It's a nicely crafted, full-milled putter with adjustable weights, high MOI and a nice solid feel.

[PMookie]

First time on the range in about a month… Starting all over… Again. Good gracious. 

[cnosil]

34 minutes ago, PMookie said:

First time on the range in about a month… Starting all over… Again. Good gracious. 

I am guessing you swing is a little off?

[PMookie]

1 hour ago, cnosil said:

I am guessing you swing is a little off?

Ummmm, just a TAD… So aggravating.

[Shankster]

2 hours ago, PMookie said:

First time on the range in about a month… Starting all over… Again. Good gracious. 

You will be striping it before you know it.  Godspeed sir!

[Shankster]

Back to the range again today… same as yesterday.  Smashing the heck out of these things.  Was working mostly on the “stock” shot today, but my goodness.  Flushing the long irons and sending them on a 8 iron trajectory is a ton of fun.

Time to buy a UDI.  

[chisag]

3 minutes ago, Shankster said:

Back to the range again today… same as yesterday.  Smashing the heck out of these things.  Was working mostly on the “stock” shot today, but my goodness.  Flushing the long irons and sending them on a 8 iron trajectory is a ton of fun.

Time to buy a UDI.  

 

... Good stuff. Played with a young guy last week swinging around 110 that thought he hit his driver too high and said "It is about as high as my PW" and was surprised I agreed it was but don't change a thing. Most don't realize trajectory should be about the same for every club in their bag. Obviously some slower swing speed players may have trouble elevating mid/long irons because of a lack of spin but most with reasonable speed should see a similar ball flight. Even then, since a PW is going a much shorter distance it can appear to be higher than say a 5 iron reaching it's apex further away from you.

[Shankster]

4 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... Good stuff. Played with a young guy last week swinging around 110 that thought he hit his driver too high and said "It is about as high as my PW" and was surprised I agreed it was but don't change a thing. Most don't realize trajectory should be about the same for every club in their bag. Obviously some slower swing speed players may have trouble elevating mid/long irons because of a lack of spin but most with reasonable speed should see a similar ball flight. Even then, since a PW is going a much shorter distance it can appear to be higher than say a 5 iron reaching it's apex further away from you.

Yeah.  I know they should all be roughly the same height, but these just looked better than normal.  High for my standards and I’m a high ball flight guy. C-Tapers can’t bring me down.  But I get knock-down… (poor attempt at a song reference).