What/How Did You Practice Today?

[APFA2315]

Probably sounds weird, but experimenting with different putter weights by fiddling with warmup swing donuts.

Nothing fancy...literally just held a 145g donut between my upper and lower hands to see how my putting stroke changed with more weight at the top. Eventually added a second donut to the bottom (just dropped it down to the club head like a normal warmup weight) and tried hitting putts with both donuts. Definitely a bit odd because it obstructed part of the face, but...hey, forced me to be more accurate and the goal was just to get some information on feel. Hit probably ~40-50 putts in each configuration from 5-6 feet on my PuttOut matt with the ramp target at the end. Ended up being really useful, even if it was weird to hit putts while avoiding a swing donut hanging over the putter face. Stroke was more stable, could actually feel myself using my shoulders instead of wrist/arm, I had to do far less to get the ball rolling straight, etc. 

For context, my putter is a stupid old Golf Works Accu-Site ACS-9 that I found back in college for $1 at Goodwill and for some reason have never gotten around to changing. Better late than never. 

[Kenny B]

8 hours ago, APFA2315 said:

Probably sounds weird, but experimenting with different putter weights by fiddling with warmup swing donuts.

Nothing fancy...literally just held a 145g donut between my upper and lower hands to see how my putting stroke changed with more weight at the top. Eventually added a second donut to the bottom (just dropped it down to the club head like a normal warmup weight) and tried hitting putts with both donuts. Definitely a bit odd because it obstructed part of the face, but...hey, forced me to be more accurate and the goal was just to get some information on feel. Hit probably ~40-50 putts in each configuration from 5-6 feet on my PuttOut matt with the ramp target at the end. Ended up being really useful, even if it was weird to hit putts while avoiding a swing donut hanging over the putter face. Stroke was more stable, could actually feel myself using my shoulders instead of wrist/arm, I had to do far less to get the ball rolling straight, etc. 

For context, my putter is a stupid old Golf Works Accu-Site ACS-9 that I found back in college for $1 at Goodwill and for some reason have never gotten around to changing. Better late than never. 

If you want to experiment with heavy putters, look for used Boccieri Heavy Putters.  I have one that I used for many years; found it in a used bin at a store.  The heavy weight does straighten out your stroke at the bottom of the arc; works best for short putts.  However, I had poor control of long putts, so I suggest you try putts over 15-20'.  I gave up that putter when I was fitted at Ping HQ with a counterweight Sigma 2; best putter I have ever used.

[cksurfdude]

Had another indoor lesson yesterday where we worked on applying some of the good stuff we've been going over -- the instructor set up a green on the sim with a forced carry over water to a flag at 103 yds with a 6 mph headwind .. ie. I had to hit a solid shot to get onto the green.

Hit maybe 80-90 balls and drowned 9-10 of them .. so say that's somewhere around an 87.5-90% success rate. Def a big improvement over this time a year ago.

A few other balls were short, but dry!, and a bunch exhibit my typical short-right to long-left pattern but .. a good number were on-line and in a decent enough position on the green...

Left on a good note = last shot stayed right on the flag and ended just inches short (a virtual kick-in )

[Jim Shaw]

Wow, what a great way to practice!! Out of curiosity what did you add for the 6mph headwinds, also did you measure to the front of the green as well? 

[cnosil]

49 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

a bunch exhibit my typical short-right to long-left pattern but ..

Sounds like a great day if practice.    I highlighted the word my in your summary to say that is a typical miss pattern for a right handed golfer.   Not just you.   .    Just shows that when plann8ng what club to hit you need to account for this misses since they are part of our shot pattern and aim at the right target. 
 

Keep it up! 

[chisag]

3 minutes ago, cnosil said:

 Just shows that when plannng what club to hit you need to account for this misses since they are part of our shot pattern and aim at the right target. 

 

 

... Great suggestion and excellent teaching moment. If there is no trouble right you can aim where you think best. But if there is trouble right, you should aim for the left side of the green. Hit it where you aim and you have a long birdie putt depending on pin location. Hit it right of your aim and you have a closer birdie putt. Hit a poor shot further right and you are on the right fringe. But from 100 yds it takes a really bad shot to bring the trouble into play if you aim left. 

... It really is one of the differences between a low index and a mid/high index. Taking your miss into account and planning where to hit the ball with every approach shot. I play with so many that just go at every flag and sooner rather than later, it results in unnecessary dropped shots they could have avoided by not aiming at the flag. On my best swinging days I will go at most every flag with the exception of the sucker pins. But for most rounds I am picking a spot on the green and many times it isn't the flag. 

 

[DaveP043]

16 minutes ago, chisag said:

... Great suggestion and excellent teaching moment. If there is no trouble right you can aim where you think best. But if there is trouble right, you should aim for the left side of the green. Hit it where you aim and you have a long birdie putt depending on pin location. Hit it right of your aim and you have a closer birdie putt. Hit a poor shot further right and you are on the right fringe. But from 100 yds it takes a really bad shot to bring the trouble into play if you aim left. 

Amen, this is in absolute agreement with Broadie's Every Shot Counts, strokes gained evaluations, and recommendations from systems like Decade and Lowest Score Wins.  Shot planning HAS to take into account a player's skill level, the width of his shot patterns, the location of really bad troubles.  

[gavinski91]

3 hours ago, chisag said:

... It really is one of the differences between a low index and a mid/high index. Taking your miss into account and planning where to hit the ball with every approach shot. I play with so many that just go at every flag and sooner rather than later, it results in unnecessary dropped shots they could have avoided by not aiming at the flag. On my best swinging days I will go at most every flag with the exception of the sucker pins. But for most rounds I am picking a spot on the green and many times it isn't the flag. 

 

For me a big part of it is recognizing that my miss isn't consistent through the bag, and planning my shots accordingly. With longer clubs my miss is a cut, but with shorter clubs it's a pull (9-iron is about where that switches over for me). So even if the pin is dead center of the green with no trouble anywhere, I'm aiming 5 yards right of the pin on a 130-yard shot, and 5 yards left of the pin on a 165-yard shot. That way the pin remains in the center of my typical dispersion.

[cnosil]

4 hours ago, gavinski91 said:

For me a big part of it is recognizing that my miss isn't consistent through the bag, and planning my shots accordingly. With longer clubs my miss is a cut, but with shorter clubs it's a pull (9-iron is about where that switches over for me). So even if the pin is dead center of the green with no trouble anywhere, I'm aiming 5 yards right of the pin on a 130-yard shot, and 5 yards left of the pin on a 165-yard shot. That way the pin remains in the center of my typical dispersion.

But the question is should you always be centering your dispersion over the pin?  How wide is your dispersion pattern with each club?   I personally wouldn't call your shot shape a "miss" just your normal ball flight.   If the pin is near trouble,  do you still aim at the pin?  Scott Fawcett would say that your dispersion pattern is like a shotgun and you have no idea where each shot will end up.  

[cksurfdude]

10 hours ago, cnosil said:

Sounds like a great day if practice.    I highlighted the word my in your summary to say that is a typical miss pattern for a right handed golfer.   Not just you.   .    Just shows that when plann8ng what club to hit you need to account for this misses since they are part of our shot pattern and aim at the right target. 
 

Keep it up! 

Thx! Wasn't sure if that dispersion pattern was typical or not .. and didn't want to assume ... but working working on trying to tighten that up!

[cksurfdude]

10 hours ago, Jim Shaw said:

Wow, what a great way to practice!! Out of curiosity what did you add for the 6mph headwinds, also did you measure to the front of the green as well? 

This was at a GolfTec center where they use Foresight LMs - the instructor set this up, using a part of the sim software that lets you choose options for environment variables.

He didn't give me the yardage to the front, but it can be measured/read on the screen. He has in other exercises like this we've run, but this time it was supposed to be full-ish shots to the center of the green.

[APFA2315]

On 12/14/2022 at 9:22 AM, Kenny B said:

If you want to experiment with heavy putters, look for used Boccieri Heavy Putters.  I have one that I used for many years; found it in a used bin at a store.  The heavy weight does straighten out your stroke at the bottom of the arc; works best for short putts.  However, I had poor control of long putts, so I suggest you try putts over 15-20'.  I gave up that putter when I was fitted at Ping HQ with a counterweight Sigma 2; best putter I have ever used.

Thanks for the suggestion - will have to look that up. I’ve been meaning to try out one of the Wilson Staff Infinite putters or something similar.

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Worked on low point control outside with my four iron and 58*. Working on getting more pressure on my lead side in downswing. With my swing work this past year my low point has moved back a bit and I far a lot of my longer clubs. Also worked on some iron speed with the TXG drill of waggling. Those actually were the most forward in low point than when I took my normal swings or my slow motion swings. Need to focus on that the next couple months and see if I can translate that to the course. 

[edingc]

First lesson of the offseason (and first since August) is scheduled for tomorrow. Thinking I want to spend some time on wedges, especially partial wedges, as that is a weak spot of mine.

Full swings have been coming along pretty nicely. Spent 90 minutes in the garage last night. Still struggle with the occasional overdraw when I get stuck on my backside a little too much.

Driver has gone from a slight fade to a slight draw with just one tweak. On Saturday, I noticed that when I rehearsed going to P2/shaft parallel with the driver that the face was open. I tweaked my hold on the club to get the face more square/slightly closed and that has made a world of difference!

[Klaitons]

Which one of you likes to do what?
 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Nice to be back on Switzerland and have some decent weather. Very wet still, but at least able to work on some swing changes with dry swings.

Ranges are open, but for my own sanity I'm going to wait till the new year before I go.

[Marty Reymann]

 

 

 

I workout on the Nitroswing almost every day, my swing keeps getting better and faster all year rotund

[GolfSpy SAM]

On 12/20/2022 at 9:26 AM, edingc said:

First lesson of the offseason (and first since August) is scheduled for tomorrow. Thinking I want to spend some time on wedges, especially partial wedges, as that is a weak spot of mine.

How'd the lesson go?

[GolfSpy SAM]

6 hours ago, Marty Reymann said:

 

 

 

I workout on the Nitroswing almost every day, my swing keeps getting better and faster all year rotund

Doesn't look like the videos attached.  I'd love to see, though, if you get a chance to try again

 

[cksurfdude]

8 hours ago, Marty Reymann said:

 

 

I workout on the Nitroswing almost every day, my swing keeps getting better and faster all year rotund

 

2 hours ago, Samsonite said:

Doesn't look like the videos attached.  I'd love to see, though, if you get a chance to try again

Yeah was gonna mention that also.

In another thread @cnosil provided a link to Marty's Twitter where there a few short clips of students using it...

https://twitter.com/breakingbadgolf

 

 

[edingc]

13 hours ago, Samsonite said:

How'd the lesson go?

Good! I wrote about it over in my work in progress thread, but the basics is that I'm still working on club face stability through impact. I tend to over rotate the face and hit hooks and overdraws. 

I was able to get in the garage yesterday before the storm hit and work on the tweaks we made. Some good, some bad. My strike moved in towards the heel a bit and as a result my efficiency went down and I had quite a few nasty shanks. Hopefully that will sort itself out. Good example swing with a wedge below, tightened up backswing with a more across the chest finish.

 

[juspoole]

Got out to my local course yesterday to use their indoor Full Swing Sims.  While we "played", I just can't call it playing so I'll stick with practice.

I hadn't played any real golf since mid November and only did one other simulator time in early December.  Basically, I was not expecting much in terms of contact or my swing in general.

However, I hit my driver great.  Probably the best I've done in this simulator, which would be about the 10th time now.  Chipping was a different story, but I don't really amount the simulated environment for chipping/pitching.  Some fat iron shots here and there, but was really please with how the swing felt. 

Going to keep at it every couple weeks to try and keep my swing speed up and contact strong.  

[sirchunksalot]

I spent a little bit of time in the kitchen working with my PuttOut. I was hoping to get a perfect putt from all distances, but after 127 putts from 1-4 feet, decided to call it a day. 

I did notice a bit of a push bias to my putts that I'm going to have to work on. I didn't outright miss many, but they were hitting the circle then rolling off the back. 

I will say it felt good to be doing something golf related after a month of being sidelined with the kidney stone. Hopefully I can get out to the range tomorrow or Wednesday, it's supposed to warm up. 

[JerryB]

50 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I will say it felt good to be doing something golf related after a month of being sidelined with the kidney stone. Hopefully I can get out to the range tomorrow or Wednesday, it's supposed to warm up. 

Kidney stone?  Oof.  I feel for ya, and after that you deserve some decent weather for range time.

[sirchunksalot]

10 minutes ago, JerryB said:

Kidney stone?  Oof.  I feel for ya, and after that you deserve some decent weather for range time.

I appreciate it! They're pretty miserable and I highly recommend not getting them. Don't know how the range session will go, but I don't care right now, I'll be in paradise out there just hitting some.

[JerryB]

2 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

I appreciate it! They're pretty miserable and I highly recommend not getting them. Don't know how the range session will go, but I don't care right now, I'll be in paradise out there just hitting some.

I know the feeling.  I finally got my mat and net set up in the garage and spent some time hitting an 8 iron with some intent, as opposed to the more halfhearted swings of the past couple weeks.  

Then I pulled 2 iron and winged the garage door opener again, so Owen and I are trying to brainstorm other solutions.

[sirchunksalot]

9 minutes ago, JerryB said:

I know the feeling.  I finally got my mat and net set up in the garage and spent some time hitting an 8 iron with some intent, as opposed to the more halfhearted swings of the past couple weeks.  

Then I pulled 2 iron and winged the garage door opener again, so Owen and I are trying to brainstorm other solutions.

Hopefully you can come up with something, it would suck to damage it. 

[JerryB]

1 minute ago, sirchunksalot said:

Hopefully you can come up with something, it would suck to damage it. 

That's almost exactly what my wife said, although there was just a touch of menace in her voice.

[sirchunksalot]

14 hours ago, JerryB said:

That's almost exactly what my wife said, although there was just a touch of menace in her voice.

There are times when it's wise to listen to the advice your wife gives you, and I do believe that's one of them. 

[cksurfdude]

16 hours ago, JerryB said:

winged the garage door opener

I ended up just taking mine down (the motor and the guide rail, not the ceiling or door mounts) it was reasonably easy enough.

* One tip, though - take some tape and a sharpie and mark each wire connection .. twice = once on the wire and once on the connector terminal on the opener.