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Short Game Shape Up - JB Goes To Work

First are very tough for me. Rough can ruin my short game if I let my mind get in the way.
 
Thanks for sharing JB. I look forward to learning something from your journey to improve.
 
awesome thread and something i should really start doing but it is getting cold here.
 
Really??? it is a scary thought of you sharpening your short game. it's already impressive and know you want more so go for it my man. I look forward to reading and seeing it first hand. You know a lot of people are going to follow suit
 
Sweet, JB. I REALLY need some work in this area as well. Not a bad maiden voyage; might try this at the beginning of next season. Thanks for the write-up!
 
Great thread JB, good luck and I am really looking forward to your progress and will be following this thread.
 
Good stuff JB, this is what I have been doing for about 6 months and my HC is much better because of it. I don't know if I will ever get to the level of short game that you had, but I keep working on it.

The only thing I wish is that my course had a short game practice area, there are no target greens on the range, just signs and the putting green is not in a position where you can hit 20 yard shots into it...so it makes it tough to work on spin and release of the ball.
 
TripleBogieTim said:
Good stuff JB, this is what I have been doing for about 6 months and my HC is much better because of it. I don't know if I will ever get to the level of short game that you had, but I keep working on it.

The only thing I wish is that my course had a short game practice area, there are no target greens on the range, just signs and the putting green is not in a position where you can hit 20 yard shots into it...so it makes it tough to work on spin and release of the ball.
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TBT,
Next time you are at your course, seek out the GM or head pro. Ask them if they mind if you use a back nine green for 30 minutes on a morning before people get there. Tell them you just need 20 minutes for some testing and you might be surprised by their answer.
 
I know that if I worked on this part of my game, I would drop plenty of strokes from my handicap. I just learned that too late in the season.
 
Glad to see youre working on your short game... ive heard how great your short game has been from Hanks and OEM... My short game has improved so much over the last year taking lessons and taking a much different approach to shots then i had in the past has helped me a TON. but im still no where close to where i think i can be if i keep putting the time and effort into it over the winter. But it has easily become the most fun part of my practicing at the range and chip and putt. Really interested in seeing how you practice and improve. i may steal some of your practicing techniques always looking for some new ideas to keep things fresh!
 
JB said:
Lots of reasons. Wind, green slope, up and down land variations, there are lots of reasons for me to work on different ball flights as I work to get my short game back to where it was. Also what hazards lie between my ball and the target. Its not something everybody needs to or even should do, but for me its crucial in identifying where I need the most work.
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I see, that makes sense. Thanks and good luck!
 
Good luck man! Here's to the journey!
 
Deflated with your short game and your 4.4 GHIN handicap! But I know what your saying, even though you are a pretty good golfer (as your handicap reflects) you want to get better......we all do. If there was only enough time in the day! My short game is no where near what it use to be in high school or college and it does get deflating. But that was when I could spend every other day and most weekends working on it.

I do like your plan and hope this works out for you! Kuddos for going through this!
 
JB said:
TBT,
Next time you are at your course, seek out the GM or head pro. Ask them if they mind if you use a back nine green for 30 minutes on a morning before people get there. Tell them you just need 20 minutes for some testing and you might be surprised by their answer.
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Thanks JB, that's a good idea and I would have never thought of it...there are a couple of really good greens on our back 9 for this too. Both the GM and the Pro are friends so I don't think it will be an issue, I just never thought to ask.
 
This is a great thread! I like how you are testing yourself and setting a goal for each routine. I really need to do something similar to this over the next few months. Too often I just go and chip/pitch balls with no real direction. I just pick a hole or target and see what happens. I'm looking forward to following this thread. Good luck Josh.
 
JB, great thread, so this is the story that you mention in the other thread 'What's the focus of your Game Improvement'

I think this is awesome..... great minds think alike, so I've heard .... the idea of a 'journal' is a thought that had come to me the other day, as on another forum, of a different subject matter, many of us have our journals there .... I like it !

After reading your posting here, and some of the comments, it gives me reason to pause and re-think how I want to approach my game improvement. Gives me, and I think it's good, reason to question (not doubt) the approach that I thought I'd take for my GI.

Thanks MUCH for sharing this with us ..... I'll be a subscriber to this thread FOR SURE !!

Happy Journey !
 
I really like the testing that you are putting yourself through. I Will be following your lead in that regard. As you continue along please fill us in on any drills that you undertake.
 
JB said:
Tomorrow I will be headed to range to do more work on "finding where I am" as it relates to the short game. I have decided tomorrow will be spent with pitching/chipping the ball and we are going to do a little test involving 30 golf balls all hit the same way, however from 3 different spots towards the hole. The goal is to put 20 of 30 balls with in 6 feet of the hole to see where I stand. Here are the shots.

10 balls from in the light rough about 5 yards off the green with an uphill shot at the hole
10 balls from in the light rough from about 7 yards off the green that is a downhill lie and downhill shot at the hole
10 balls from about 10 yards off the green that is your standard "I came up short"

Playing each of these shots similarly, as in a pitch, should give me an idea of where I am with that stroke and what I need to work on throughout. I will have more details after the range session on how I did and what, if anything, I was able to pick up from this.
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Quoting myself here so that I don't retype the ideas from today. This was the setup I worked with this morning and sadly I did not reach my goals that I set heading in. I got only 12 of 30 inside of 30 feet and it was a mixture from the 3 different spots. Ironically enough I got 4 balls from each spot inside of 6 feet. The other 18 golf balls were scattered somewhere between 7 and 15 feet or so which while is not terrible, is not where I want to be. I had a sneaky suspicion that this part of my game was something that had fallen off, so in that respect, I am quite glad that it was confirmed. For these tests I used Bridgestone B300-RX golf balls and a Cleveland 588 50* wedge.

A couple of things stood out for me in this testing and that is I feared my struggle would be thinning shots and/or back contact as that I thought was something I was doing on the course. In this test, my only issues were distance control and setup (aim). The stroke was fairly good and the contact was crisp. Practice should take care of the two issues in my opinion.

This week is all about doing some tests to see where I stand before I really begin my work on making improvements. Later today I will be heading out again to work on another area and will report back what I am finding with my "testing". Thanks for following along.
 
I'm a lill confused, but once you get to know me, you'll understand how easy that is :)

I know you said your goal for today's drill was to get 20 of 30 within 6 feet.

However, I thought you're goal as you embark on this was to TEST your current skill levels at these various positions and shots. Thus establishing a base from which you would work. This would give you the foundation for references as you proceeded to work on your GI.

So, if I'm right there, your goals this morning were really met, no ?
 
blugold said:
I know that if I worked on this part of my game, I would drop plenty of strokes from my handicap. I just learned that too late in the season.
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But the great thing about this is you know exactly what you will be spending the most practice time on, good luck bg.
 
omikey said:
I'm a lill confused, but once you get to know me, you'll understand how easy that is :)

I know you said your goal for today's drill was to get 20 of 30 within 6 feet.

However, I thought you're goal as you embark on this was to TEST your current skill levels at these various positions and shots. Thus establishing a base from which you would work. This would give you the foundation for references as you proceeded to work on your GI.

So, if I'm right there, your goals this morning were really met, no ?
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Met in the sense that I learned from them yes. But as someone that is not new to the game, I am not trying to create a short game based on strengths, but rather trying to see where my short game is at its current state. So my tests are using my old practice routines from 3 years ago or so with the same goals in mind. It gives me a direct correlation to what I need to work on when my short game was, in my opinion, at its best.
 
I have been catching up on this thread this morning and love the idea, I am going to subscribe to this thread also so as to follow along, great stuff JB and thanks for sharing.
 
JB, are you using your regular ball that you game for this? That could be an important piece of it. Looking forward to seeing your progress throughout.
 
Do you do any technique/set-up work to see how your aim is, how your plane is?
 
Damaikis said:
JB, are you using your regular ball that you game for this? That could be an important piece of it. Looking forward to seeing your progress throughout.
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Yes, and its noted in each write up.

thepete said:
Do you do any technique/set-up work to see how your aim is, how your plane is?
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Aim yes. Plane no.
 
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