What/How Did You Practice Today?

[richk9holes]

Indoor only due to snow, which you might vaguely make out in the photo, @GolfKings Wall

update: I played well, but the score is total cheating. For the sake of time I used 2 mulligans on the front instead of playing long arduous efforts through trees. 1 or 2 mulligans on the back I may be counting one I foolishly tried hitting through brush and hit 17 yards forward.

The course I played is in in Singapore, water everywhere and some sloped left to right fairways that my Driver fade is doomed. 

Edited March 14, 2023 by richk9holes
Additional information

[Syks7]

I've been struggling with heavy contact, I think in part to getting stuck on my back foot and not transferring weight properly so I built myself a balance bard with some wood scraps I have in the garage from past home improvement projects.  -- A piece of 1x and 3/4" plywood.  So far I think it's going to be a great tool.  I've been watching this Clay Ballard video and the 'bad shots' he shows look suspiciously like my bad swings feel.  

Since it's been raining I've been in my garage fiddling with it without a ball.  I've put a towel down for feedback to make sure I'm not hitting fat.  It's been great and I'm learning some good feels from it.  Bonus point is that on concrete the thing is pretty squirrely.  If I put any rotational torque into my feet before I've shifted pressure enough for one side or the other to ground it twists wickedly enough that it stops my swing.  It's forcing me to deliberately isolate the pressure feel and stay balanced.  When I take the balance plate away it's wild how much more grounded my swing feels.  It feels like there's loads of power available just from applying pressure properly.  

Side note:  Something I did not realize was how much pressure I was putting on my trail foot.  I was trying to push off of it to transfer weight (and getting stuck in the process).  Pretty handy thing to learn from a piece of scrap plywood.

 

[Jim Shaw]

Good session today, 9 holes then down to the range, working on R&B ( rythym and balance, and follow through!! 
working hard to get my muscle memory back, I know it is in there somewhere 

[richk9holes]

@Syks7 Sounds like we have similar things we're working on, thanks for this video.

Something I've been trying lately is (not aloud I'd sound nuts) saying "happy feet happy feet" while i get a footing for the ground under my feet, then "calm feet" when i feel I'm balanced. I don't begin my swing until I say "calm feet" in my head.

[IndyBonzo]

Hit for an hour on Foresight at PGASS.  First, did an AvB comparison with my driver at two different shaft lengths, and I found the sweet spot for dispersion and distance balancing.  My tinkering with swing weight and shaft length may be over.  Excited about that.  (Next up:  figuring out if I can do the same with Otto Flex.  But even if not, I am very pleased with this progress.  It's been work!)

I also nailed down my gaps from SW-7i.  Some interesting big gaps in there.  If I do choose new irons, this will be good comparison data.  If not, some loft changes are in order for a couple clubs.

Finally, I did a side-by-side comparison of my usual ProV1 against the OnCore Vero X1 (which I learned of in this forum).  Interestingly, at my swing speeds, the OnCore gave me more distance and a little less spin/better accuracy with driver, and essentially the same or slightly better performance with the irons.  Color me impressed!  It will be interesting to see how they feel on the course, on and around the greens especially.  Intriguing stuff.

It was a productive hour.

Finally, let me say again, I am learning so much in these forums.  Super helpful and interesting.  I feel fortunate to have found MGS!

[Syks7]

14 minutes ago, richk9holes said:

@Syks7 Sounds like we have similar things we're working on, thanks for this video.

Something I've been trying lately is (not aloud I'd sound nuts) saying "happy feet happy feet" while i get a footing for the ground under my feet, then "calm feet" when i feel I'm balanced. I don't begin my swing until I say "calm feet" in my head.

 I love swing thoughts. So personal and so geared toward where you are at any given moment in time. 

[richk9holes]

3 hours ago, richk9holes said:

Indoor only due to snow, which you might vaguely make out in the photo, @GolfKings Wall

update: I played well, but the score is total cheating. For the sake of time I used 2 mulligans on the front instead of playing long arduous efforts through trees. 1 or 2 mulligans on the back I may be counting one I foolishly tried hitting through brush and hit 17 yards forward.

The course I played is in in Singapore, water everywhere and some sloped left to right fairways that my Driver fade is doomed. 

Update to the update: After posting the above, on the way out one of the employees at Golf Kings came over and handed me a TM burner plus 5i. Said one of the owners said I could have it, it had been lying around. I had mentioned in passing I wanted to try out a 5i.

Now I have something new to toy around with and no $ spent. Worst case it's a solid addition to the bag I keep for guests. Best case I decide I can play it next to a club 1/4" shorter and 1.5° higher lofted.

Plenty of cheap options like bending loft/lie, or replacing the shaft.

[Rickp]

58 minutes ago, richk9holes said:

Update to the update: After posting the above, on the way out one of the employees at Golf Kings came over and handed me a TM burner plus 5i. Said one of the owners said I could have it, it had been lying around. I had mentioned in passing I wanted to try out a 5i.

Now I have something new to toy around with and no $ spent. Worst case it's a solid addition to the bag I keep for guests. Best case I decide I can play it next to a club 1/4" shorter and 1.5° higher lofted.

Plenty of cheap options like bending loft/lie, or replacing the shaft.

It’s a monster!!

[Bang60]

4 hours ago, richk9holes said:

Update to the update: After posting the above, on the way out one of the employees at Golf Kings came over and handed me a TM burner plus 5i. Said one of the owners said I could have it, it had been lying around. I had mentioned in passing I wanted to try out a 5i.

Now I have something new to toy around with and no $ spent. Worst case it's a solid addition to the bag I keep for guests. Best case I decide I can play it next to a club 1/4" shorter and 1.5° higher lofted.

Plenty of cheap options like bending loft/lie, or replacing the shaft.

Burner hybrids huh didn’t know they existed wow might keep my eyes out, my all time favourite club is Nickent hybrids but the polymer filler is damaged on mine so can’t play them anymore

[Bang60]

I practice with my 9 an sw for 20mins today total rubbish because I just finished at the gym, big mistake but body getting stronger plus I’m working on my retaining wall which had a lean out that needed straightening. So I dig out behind then remove all the planks reset and replace the planks and now back filling bloody hard work for this old man lol…

[ChuckZ]

Talked to my fitter this morning at his shop when I was ordering my new supply of Prov1s.  Titleist is having their 3 for 4 program and just could not turn down buying the new premium balls.  Tested the white boxes (388 protos) on this ball back in September and it is definitely a winner.  Discussed the TSR fairways (5 and 7 woods) versus the new TSR hybrids.  He fitted me for my current hybrids way back when (818 and 816) and we agreed to get together once my Dr releases me to start playing again.  Kinda excited.  

[RichL85]

Range visits this week on the days it hasn't been raining. Mainly just working on staying taller during the backswing. Noticed that recently my head has been dropping down pretty early in the backswing so I've been making corrections from there. Trying to keep my head up in the backswing let's me move into feeling a little downward movement around the transition and has helped overall contact consistency. 

I hit through the bag, except driver and currently I'm pretty happy with where the swing is. Just for kicks I decided to try out some of the speed queues that I have been working on with driver to see what it would do for my other clubs. Definitely not a consistent thing at the moment, but it gives me about 7mph higher speed potential. Went from averaging 82 mph with a 7-iron at my fitting in September to 89 mph today. I doubt I'll ever use that kind of speed on the course, but hey, it's fun to blast a few once in awhile. 

[202]

I used the Golf Galaxy simulator for over an hour yesterday to check ball flight and other stats with a couple of clubs.
A simulator can definitely help one’s game.
I need to do it again.

[cksurfdude]

On 3/14/2023 at 3:21 PM, Syks7 said:

I've been struggling with heavy contact, I think in part to getting stuck on my back foot and not transferring weight properly so I built myself a balance bard with some wood scraps I have in the garage from past home improvement projects.  -- A piece of 1x and 3/4" plywood. 

Nice!! I also did a quick and dirty DIY of the same thing after an instructor had me swing on his during a lesson. Was really helpful to me at the time, and continues to be helpful as well as an occasional but important refresher / reminder!

[cksurfdude]

Had a pretty good, and productive, range session yesterday afternoon!

First a shout-out to @RickyBobby_PR for a deceptively simple yet extremely effective warmup tip!!

Started out with PW half swings at half speed, focusing on posture and weight/pressure shift thru the swing. Alternated with a few small chips and pitches to keep mixing things up.

Did not move on to a fuller swing until I was sure I was feeling what I needed to .. and def started making nice contact more often.

Still have some other basic flaws to keep working on (eg wrist angles) but that simple, effective warmup / loosening up is now a part of my routine - no longer just a shrug and an oh well that's all I've got today attitude

[RickyBobby_PR]

28 minutes ago, cksurfdude said:

Had a pretty good, and productive, range session yesterday afternoon!

First a shout-out to @RickyBobby_PR for a deceptively simple yet extremely effective warmup tip!!

Started out with PW half swings at half speed, focusing on posture and weight/pressure shift thru the swing. Alternated with a few small chips and pitches to keep mixing things up.

Did not move on to a fuller swing until I was sure I was feeling what I needed to .. and def started making nice contact more often.

Still have some other basic flaws to keep working on (eg wrist angles) but that simple, effective warmup / loosening up is now a part of my routine - no longer just a shrug and an oh well that's all I've got today attitude

Glad to hear it’s working out for you 

[Kenny B]

On 3/14/2023 at 8:29 PM, Bang60 said:

I practice with my 9 an sw for 20mins today total rubbish because I just finished at the gym, big mistake but body getting stronger plus I’m working on my retaining wall which had a lean out that needed straightening. So I dig out behind then remove all the planks reset and replace the planks and now back filling bloody hard work for this old man lol…

Yard work and golf don't mix!!

[Bang60]

23 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Yard work and golf don't mix!!

Yeah don't I know it lol my whole body keeps telling me to stop, I've had a few days rest so back to it today or tomorrow. But while I'm sore it's not as deep as it has been, getting use to physical work again just not swinging as smooth but I'm ok and looking fwd to a 4 day seniors torny starting 1/5/23...

[cksurfdude]

2 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Yard work and golf don't mix!!

.. oh yeah .. for those of us over 30, that is

But that said... Spring is coming and sheesh there's a hechuvalotta cleanup and pruning to be done.......

[Bang60]

2 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

.. oh yeah .. for those of us over 30, that is

But that said... Spring is coming and sheesh there's a hechuvalotta cleanup and pruning to be done.......

Over 30 huh I still thought I was bulletproof when I was over 50…. Mmmm month in a coma slows ya down a tad, after 3long years feels like I’ve finally made progress …..

[Bang60]

Practicing with my cobra speedback gap wedge, had it 6ish months and decided it’s time to give a run. Hitting about 60 metres high shots and good results when keeping my eyes on the ball till after contact, did about an hour and half of the shots were good . Now back to the garden after golf ️ lol  

[Jim Shaw]

for some reason I didnt get any posts on my email for a few days, anyway...

What a week it has been, I played 5 days, pushed my physical and mental capabilities. I have been off golf for basically 5 months due to surgery and it is a new and may I say weird experience coming back.

i developed a "scooping" fall on back foot action on some drives during the round which caused some weak left pulls, very disconcerting, my fix for that is to to make sure " I call it tap the player into the boards" with my hips, a reference to a hockey hip check. That worked really well.

My putting was abysmal on my wednesday round, I figured out I was concentrating on the result instead of the process so thursday I rolled the ball much better and yesterday was "magic with the wand"

So the process continues... my first tournament is April 22-23 so have some time to figure it out but I am very restless to get back to just using muscle memory and not having to take two steps forward and one step back.

 

[sirchunksalot]

It was sunny, cool, and windy today so I decided it would be a good day to go to the range. Actually, my wife suggested it since she's not feeling good and is spending most of her time in the bedroom.

I'm not going to say it was my best day, but it surely wasn't my worst. I'll just say it was fun getting out hitting some balls.

My wedges were horrendous. Shank, shank, shank, shank, top. That last one was setting me up for the theme of the day which was thin. It seemed like most of my shots were coming low off the face. 

I only hit a small bucket, so I was limited to the number of shots I hit per club. 

My set GW was probably one of my better clubs today, I was slightly off the heel but hitting nice shots near my target. I love this club. 

The 8 iron was a little inconsistent, but I was still hitting it decent.

The 6 iron was trying to cut the ball in half. I hit some low screamers with it, but the contact was pretty consistent.

I hit a couple of good shots with my 5 wood, but topped one so bad it wasn't funny. I think I should start spraying the bottom of the club to check contact there.

Driver was pretty good. I hit one high toe and you can barely see the impression next to the "Flash Face" writing and the others were a little more near the heel. I was happy with the consistency.

I need to continue to work on a pre shot routine and not freeze so much over the ball. I've gotten better than I was where I was locked in terrible thoughts for way too long standing over the ball. After I left the putting green I found a couple of balls sitting close to the mat in a puddle of water and hit some chips with them just sitting the club down and going. Those were the most pure wedges I hit all day and a proof statement not to be a basket case over the ball.

I did roll some putts, where I started out pulling everything. I made a slight adjustment in set up and focused on rolling the ball over an intermediate target and got that straightened out. 

 

 

 

[Triple_Putt]

Snagged this off a forum member here and got it set up in the basement and rolled a few dozen putts. Still needs to flatten out some but definitely is a bit faster than my normal greens I play  

[GaryF]

Going back to last fall I have been struggling with my irons resulting in a variety of mishits intertwined with some great shots.  With my irons, I tend to go in streaks.  I’ll play well for awhile, then fall into a slump.  My recent struggles have been lingering for awhile.

I’ve mentioned some things in previous posts that I’ve been working on to make some corrections derived from researching a variety of sources including Trackman data. By nature I’m very analytical and enjoy researching, studying, learning and practicing. When I’m playing I play be ‘feel’.  My only on course analytics are to assess the resulting shot(s) then move on, but remember for a later practice session.  

When I struggle, I often rhetorically ask ‘what am I doing wrong?’ The answer is usually elusive.  Well, the changes I’ve been working on seem to be working, and it dawned on me that a more important question to ask is often overlooked - when things are going well: ‘what am I doing right?’  ‘Feel’ is meaningful when supported by context.  I guess my assumption is that if I know technically what I’m doing right, then when things aren’t working, the answer to what I’m doing wrong will better reveal itself.  
 

 

[Jim Shaw]

7 minutes ago, GaryF said:

Going back to last fall I have been struggling with my irons resulting in a variety of mishits intertwined with some great shots.  With my irons, I tend to go in streaks.  I’ll play well for awhile, then fall into a slump.  My recent struggles have been lingering for awhile.

I’ve mentioned some things in previous posts that I’ve been working on to make some corrections derived from researching a variety of sources including Trackman data. By nature I’m very analytical and enjoy researching, studying, learning and practicing. When I’m playing I play be ‘feel’.  My only on course analytics are to assess the resulting shot(s) then move on, but remember for a later practice session.  

When I struggle, I often rhetorically ask ‘what am I doing wrong?’ The answer is usually elusive.  Well, the changes I’ve been working on seem to be working, and it dawned on me that a more important question to ask is often overlooked - when things are going well: ‘what am I doing right?’  ‘Feel’ is meaningful when supported by context.  I guess my assumption is that if I know technically what I’m doing right, then when things aren’t working, the answer to what I’m doing wrong will better reveal itself.  
 

 

Great post, mechanics are the foundation that you can fall back on, you will find the more you play, eventually feel will work into the shots 

[Bang60]

Practice gap wedge again today but it's Mizuno Zoids F wedge turn, WOW UNBELIEVABLE how good this wedge is. My question is yesterday cobra which was good today mizuno unbelievabley straighter and much longer I'm still wondering what happened, there's a 20 metre difference in length and that's unbelievable so tomorrow I'm back to the cobra gap wedge and the next day mizuno. I'm planning on using my gap wedges only for 2ish weeks as I've got a 4 day torn'y 1/5, I've always had good short irons back in the day because I practiced alot ...

Does SR on the Mizuno shaft mean "soft-regular" if you know?

[RickyBobby_PR]

6 hours ago, Bang60 said:

Practice gap wedge again today but it's Mizuno Zoids F wedge turn, WOW UNBELIEVABLE how good this wedge is. My question is yesterday cobra which was good today mizuno unbelievabley straighter and much longer I'm still wondering what happened, there's a 20 metre difference in length and that's unbelievable so tomorrow I'm back to the cobra gap wedge and the next day mizuno. I'm planning on using my gap wedges only for 2ish weeks as I've got a 4 day torn'y 1/5, I've always had good short irons back in the day because I practiced alot ...

Does SR on the Mizuno shaft mean "soft-regular" if you know?

It could be that or senior but doesn’t really matter because it’s only relevant to the that specific line and weight.

The shaft profiles in them are extremely different. The kbs tour 90 has firm profile but with a soft tip and from what I remember without going to look it up is the balance point is higher up on the shaft. 
 

More than likely one combo is just better for your swing and this is why going by flex labels on shafts doesn’t mean much 

[richk9holes]

"SR" is the worst abbreviation to use, and so many of them do. It could mean anywhere from Senior to Stiff Regular, with Soft Regular being my best guess. 

If I were obsessed with the exact answer, an internet search might reveal the shaft's description in non-abbreviated form.

[chisag]

10 hours ago, Bang60 said:

Does SR on the Mizuno shaft mean "soft-regular" if you know?

 

... Most modern premium shafts have an A-Flex for senior flex and a SR for a shaft between their stiff and regular flex, which is only relevant to that shaft from that OEM. Many older shafts did have a SR designation for senior flex and considering this is a TZoid, I am pretty sure it is a senior flex. When TZoid's were new a 65gm shaft would be extremely light weight considering the stock shaft was most likely a 130gm DG.