What/How Did You Practice Today?

[Lee Stanek]

I did some chipping on an indoor practice green at a local dome. No courses open here for a while!!  

[cnosil]

3 minutes ago, Triple_Putt said:

Maybe not lost but when I go to putt I feel like I can’t predict where it’s going as it leaves the club face. Unpredictability maybe?

I'd consider that lost    What are your thoughts?  How are you moving the putter through the stroke?   By can't predict where its going,  does that mean you can't start the ball on your intended line, can't control the speed, or can't read the putt.   The answer can't be all of them at this point, have to fix something first.    Are you more mechanical or feel based in your approaches?

[Triple_Putt]

Just now, cnosil said:

I'd consider that lost    What are your thoughts?  How are you moving the putter through the stroke?   By can't predict where its going,  does that mean you can't start the ball on your intended line, can't control the speed, or can't read the putt.   The answer can't be all of them at this point, have to fix something first.    Are you more mechanical or feel based in your approaches?

Great questions… I should have elaborated. It’s mostly when it comes to distance like I can’t put the correct force into it. I can usually keep it on line but I either come short or have too much pace and blow past the hole. I try to keep my stroke identical and keep it mechanical but maybe I just don’t have repeatability to do the same thing every time just yet. My consistency lacks throughout all of my game but seems worse on the greens 

[cnosil]

29 minutes ago, Triple_Putt said:

Great questions… I should have elaborated. It’s mostly when it comes to distance like I can’t put the correct force into it. I can usually keep it on line but I either come short or have too much pace and blow past the hole. I try to keep my stroke identical and keep it mechanical but maybe I just don’t have repeatability to do the same thing every time just yet. My consistency lacks throughout all of my game but seems worse on the greens 

So it is distance control.   Lots of 3 putts?  Do you have good expectations for possible make rates?  Putts have a dispersion pattern just like regular golf shots and some go long and some end up short.   You say you like to be mechanical; so how do you attempt to control distance when putting?   

Here is some perspective on PGA level putting:

 

[richk9holes]

I can't always execute, but I think identifying the correct side you want to leave a lag putt goes a long way. 

[Triple_Putt]

39 minutes ago, cnosil said:

So it is distance control.   Lots of 3 putts?  Do you have good expectations for possible make rates?  Putts have a dispersion pattern just like regular golf shots and some go long and some end up short.   You say you like to be mechanical; so how do you attempt to control distance when putting?   

Here is some perspective on PGA level putting:

 

Definitely tampering my expectations but sometimes even on shorties I feel I should be making I end up leaving it short. I think of either slowing or speeding up my stroke to control distance but seems the judgement of that speed isn’t there yet 

[cnosil]

10 hours ago, Triple_Putt said:

Definitely tampering my expectations but sometimes even on shorties I feel I should be making I end up leaving it short. I think of either slowing or speeding up my stroke to control distance but seems the judgement of that speed isn’t there yet 

IMO, using the speed of the club to control distance can be difficult.   The other option is same tempo but different length.   Either way,  it comes down to practice and learning how far the ball rolls when you make the stroke.   I'll go back to the example many people like to use...when you throw a baseball enough times you learn the feel to control how far you throw the ball.  Putting is the same way.    when you start getting inside of 8 feet you should commit to and almost always hit it past the hole.

[Syks7]

Went out for another twilight practice 9 yesterday.  Very wet/ casual water conditions.  I went off on the back since it was pretty empty and did some experimenting on target selection off the tee specifically focused on avoiding trouble.  Shockingly (sarcasm) it was as good for my score, even when laying up, as it is when I 'cut the corner'.  With zero chance of getting stuck in the trees. 

The most interesting thing I did was on 18 --  Par 5 playing into a 20-25mph wind.  My third shot ended up being from 200.  I decided to see how many times I could hit the green from the 220 effective distance with six shots.  The answer - Zero.  Two were okay and short of the green, 4 were off line leaving odd lies and weird chip/pitches.  I've been better with these lately, but they're still pressure swings with much less forgiveness to them and even though they were all inside 100 yards I wasn't guaranteed of even hitting the green with any but the ones that were short in the fairway.

Then I took a 7th as a simple layup to right around 100 yards (120 to 130 effective distance) which put a much easier club to hit in my hands -- surprise surprise I hit it exactly where I wanted.  I then gathered the original six  and scattered them in a dispersion pattern around the 7th -- I hit the green with all 7 and got up and down with 4/7.  Pretty telling.

Following that lesson I fixed all 7 ball marks and all of the rest that I could find.

[ZackS]

Went and hit a few balls and did some putting and chipping with my son. Other than him not taking any of my advice “shocking” we had a good time. As for me after years of barely playing I am starting back with my never ending battle to keep the lower body from pausing at impact and not having to use my hands so much to square the club. 

 

 

[IndyBonzo]

Confirmed some gapping on the sim, and played a few holes for practice/warm up.  25+ mph winds outside today.  Tomorrow is 63 and calm -- getting out to play for real!  Spring!!

[richk9holes]

Played a little target practice then 23 holes on the simulator. Confirmed my adjustment to 12° loft in my driver is creating more carry distance. After the full round I played, my driving distance average updated on the app and I gained 1+ yard, I think about 1.3. Routinely hitting it 235y carry with the A4 hosel setting. That was the absolute best I could hope for when set at D4.

[elight]

Hit some foam balls into a net in the garage. Confirmed that there is no realistic way for me to ever have a better home setup if I am going to continue parking cars in it. 

[Bang60]

I've made a big change to my setup after I noticed that my stance is straight up and down, that means I've not turned at my hips and the shoulders are directly above my feet but after moving my shoulders in front of my hips my hands aren't as close to my body and I feel more comfortable. I've only hit a 9iron like that yesterday and will try again tomorrow, I noticed that after seeing Jack Nicklass hitting back in 84 on a utube video lol and I thought I don't look anything like that. So I'm giving it a go and see what happens..

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

First range day since playing a few weeks ago. Worked on the proper pressure shifting. Gonna take several months until that becomes more natural. Was still battling some heel strikes. Did some impact drill visualization and that helped. Realizing a feel I had last year of crunch my trail side in transition helps me feel all these good things. Again, still work in progress. 
 

short game work was good. Ball forward chipping great for soft landings. In the middle good if more roll out desired. Also did some more putting with the DF. I am really starting to like my distance control. Back to left hand low and slowly coming back to heads up putting. 

[Triple_Putt]

Had to run into town to grab a few things so stopped at the driving range and hit a small bucket of balls.  Didn't even pull the driver out just hit my irons and then went and practiced putting on their large green for a bit.  Hoping i'll be better on Tuesday than I was last week. 

[202]

Is there a home simulator that works with the almost golf or foam balls?

[sirchunksalot]

Today was family and errand day but when we got home, the wife suggested I go hit some balls. Since it was 75 and gorgeous, she wasn't going to get an argument from me.

For the first time in forever, I wasn't focusing on impact and spraying the face. Instead, today was about weight in the set-up (more forward) and not being my usual basket case self standing over the ball. It was put the ball down, set up, waggle, place the club down, and hit. 

I find I let my weight get on my trail side during set-up, so I wanted to feel between 55-60% on the lead side before starting my swing. 

Overall, I hit the ball pretty good today. It's one of those situations where I know I have more skill than I actually play to and idea just got to start trusting everything I've been working on. 

Now, I'd be lying if I told y'all that I didn't bring out the spray. I used it on driver and the results were some of the most consistent I've ever seen. 

After that, I played a couple of simulated holes. I wanted to not get in a groove with any single club for a while. I did pretty good on the first 3 I played, but the 4th ate my lunch and beat me up. Pull hook, pull hook, topped fairway...you get the point. I would have shot 12 on that hole. 

Finished up the bucket hitting 7 irons with my towel under my arms. Hit 4 of 5 solid, I'm talking like full on compression. That was a good feeling...I need more of that feeling in my life. The last ball I removed the towel and experienced another fully compressed ball.

I'll take that for a last shot.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

2 hours ago, 202 said:

Is there a home simulator that works with the almost golf or foam balls?

Optishot 2  does this and its the least expensive out there. You can click a drop down box and select real balls, foam balls or no ball. That is what I have and only use foam balls (they are a harder foam ball) I can use real, but I don't trust others if you know what I mean. The system even comes with a ball or two. The system uses led sensors in two rows in the mat which gives you all the club data. It's downfall is no ball data. I have a flight scope mevo as well for ball data.

[JerryB]

Owen and I got out to River Heights yesterday and today.  Walked the back nine yesterday and parts of the front and back today, dropping second and third balls on occasion.

Iron game is atrocious.  I'm almost better off just throwing the ball, lol.  Long clubs were actually pretty decent.  Driver was good, other than the one shot where I tried to tee it really low and topped it three inches into the ground, ha!  Switched putters recently and it really seems to be helping, too.

Walking the course is nice but I really can't wait for the course to open and get back in a cart!

[Bang60]

8 hours ago, JerryB said:

Owen and I got out to River Heights yesterday and today.  Walked the back nine yesterday and parts of the front and back today, dropping second and third balls on occasion.

Iron game is atrocious.  I'm almost better off just throwing the ball, lol.  Long clubs were actually pretty decent.  Driver was good, other than the one shot where I tried to tee it really low and topped it three inches into the ground, ha!  Switched putters recently and it really seems to be helping, too.

Walking the course is nice but I really can't wait for the course to open and get back in a cart!

Yeah last time I tried a low tee did the same, must of been a papers depth away from an airswing lol...