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The Official Driving Range Session Thread

We had rain for most of the day yesterday, but it ended right as I was getting off work. I decided I would run out and see if the driving range at my home course was open and sure enough it was. I was the only one on the driving range the entire time I was out there, so I was able to work on some things without having many distractions around me. I've been having quite a few problems with my driver and 3 wood lately, so that's where I spent most of my time. After hitting a few 3 woods without much success I happened to glance down at the club and it was pretty obvious by looking at the ball marks on the club face that just about every shot was hitting of the toe of the club. I made a few quick changes and started hitting the ball more in the center of the club face and the ball started flying right at the target on every shot. I then tried the same quick fix with the driver and got the same result. I've been having issues for several weeks now and I wish I would have figured this out a while ago. It would have save me some frustration and some money that I lost to my friends in our money game.
 
Had a great session with cameras, Flightscope and...a soccer ball today. Been working a bit on my transition, making it more aggressive without really trying. Been doing a drill where you put a ball between your knees and in the downswing your left leg/knee moves towards the target and therefor you drop the ball.

Also tried to get more rotation in my upper body in the backswing and I got some nice effortless power from that.
 
Finally got in 400 balls today so I think I might be able to get back on schedule. The heat is hard to combat but I didnt hit any "bad" shots until the end when I could barely swing the club.

Still having issues with my driver but I noticed a huge difference in consistency today so I am going to use it off the tee first hole tomorrow instead of on the back 9. Irons are amazing right now and I hope they stay that way because I love landing balls on the mini greens at the range. Just got home so I can take a water break/shower then I am heading outside to practice my putting some more on my green.
 
Hit the range today in the rain and worked on rotation of my forearms in my backswing. I've noticed that I've recently been under rotating them so that I took the club back closed which cause me to come around the ball and hit pull hooks, though not terrible ones (10-15 yds). Still enough to miss a green. After today with nearly 4 hours on the range (breaks plentiful, ended up being 4 buckets), I've found I've been doing it much better and now I'm hitting more of a push draw which is what I hit when I'm really turned on. Looking forward to a quick 9 holes after work tomorrow.


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- I wish golf was as easy as Tapatalk.
 
Hit the range yesterday on my way home and hitting a large bucket is starting to get difficult to do before dark. That just blows Canadian bacon. Anyway, started off as usual spending time with the wedges and scoring clubs. I do more with these then any other as I feel its important to be confident in them. Then I move to about 3 balls per club and work my way up to driver. I also mix in long clubs in between like driver, 3w and hybrid so I mix it up a bit. I was dropping 54* wedge shots all over the flag. Not even sure how far it was but it was my b*tch. I hit all my irons really really well. Like the best Ive hit them in a while well. Then I get the 3W out. Big ugly slice. wtc? Again, same thing. Back to irons, hit them great. Grabbed driver and hit a huge ugly slice. Back to irons and hit them fine. I dont think I hit one driver straight or a draw. Now I wish for the life of me I could snap hook one. I just dont get golf sometimes. I hit the driver so well just two weeks ago and not its long gone. I guess thats how it works.
 
i hit the range this morning worked on my back swing i hit 15 balls with my wedges to warm up then hit the rest of the bucket with my 7 iron and 5 iron. only switch to the 5 later cause i wanted to hit to another flag. Just trying to instill this new back swing so i don't think about it. then hit another 15 with my wedges working on half shots toward my chipping net. glad my short game isn't suffering during these changes. put 4 in the net from about 60 out. and most of the other shots were close.
 
When I go to the driving range I practice under one of two secnarios. First, direct club work in trouble areas in order to build proficiency. Second, round work in which I simulate playing hole of my course in thier entirity to use course management and viusalization techniques.
 
I am going to head over there pretty soon, cool front blew through here earlier - should be nice. I have had two of the best range sessions I have had in months recently, maybe in years, I was killing everything. Figured out what I was doing with the shanks on the wedges and it has carried over to all my irons and I am hitting them dead solid, all of them. A couple of years ago I could take aim at a pin from 225 with a 3 iron and hit it to within 15-20 feet or less then for a while it just disappeared on me completely, I think it may be back.
 
I hit around 200 balls yesterday. 56*, 8 iron and driver, no other club than those. 56* was money, 8 iron I got rid of the pulls but had some massive draws. I started aiming almost 20 yards right of my target to get close. I tried opening the clubface a tad at a time and that started to help but just like a coaching session it didnt feel right. Broke out the alingment sticks playing a draw and started at my target. Well I guess my setup is good, just feel like I am aiming way right which is not as bad as I thought. Hopefully a few more sessions I will have it figured out. Driver was so so, no distance but solid contact and straight. I have been nutting it around 265 which I am very happy with and the occasional longer ball (on the course) but my miss's are left. Ended with my 56* again and was all over the target. Last 20 balls every thing was off the toe and way right. Damn you golf! though it was going to end well...
 
I had an epic 2 hour session today. Best striking I have had in a while, was nutting everything. While working down to my 5 iron the pro was out hitting as well. He was going after a flag that was around 185-190. When I got to my 5 I was all over that flag, he kept looking back and I was just laughing. Driver was so good and I am just in aw at how good the TM Superfast is, maybe its the white head but I flat love that club. Hopefully my tournament does not get rained out tomorrow because I am giddy to play. First weekend of October I will be ordering a set of R11 irons!
 
I went to the range today to work on some mid iron and driver swings. I started with my 6-iron. It was not going well. I was taking huge divots with every swing. I was getting about 120-140 yards of distance and a ton of height. I was getting really frustrated. I must have spent most of a 75 ball bucket just hitting high and short 6-irons. I finally got frustrated and put it back in my bag.

Yup, it was my 9-iron.

:bulgy-eyes:
 
blugold said:
I went to the range today to work on some mid iron and driver swings. I started with my 6-iron. It was not going well. I was taking huge divots with every swing. I was getting about 120-140 yards of distance and a ton of height. I was getting really frustrated. I must have spent most of a 75 ball bucket just hitting high and short 6-irons. I finally got frustrated and put it back in my bag.

Yup, it was my 9-iron.

:bulgy-eyes:
Click to expand...

now thats some funny stuff
 
Last Tuesday, I had one of the best range sessions I have ever had. Left the range really pumped about my game, specifically how well I was hitting my driver. I worked on tempo and my swing, and was exaggerating my take away to help with control. Wednesday I was hitting from the tee the best i have in a long time. Then on Sunday it fell apart, was slicing the ball again and it just frustrated me to no end. Heading back to the range today to get some more work in, hopefully can get my driver straightened out.
 
My range day yesterday was less than stellar by my standards. I struggled with long irons and made a few bad swing with the mid irons. The one bright spot was the 10 balls I hit with my driver and hybrid. I only missed one ball with each club.


Kongfrontation
 
blugold said:
I went to the range today to work on some mid iron and driver swings. I started with my 6-iron. It was not going well. I was taking huge divots with every swing. I was getting about 120-140 yards of distance and a ton of height. I was getting really frustrated. I must have spent most of a 75 ball bucket just hitting high and short 6-irons. I finally got frustrated and put it back in my bag.

Yup, it was my 9-iron.

:bulgy-eyes:
Click to expand...

I did that on the golf course a while back, had 145 to the pin with a little wind behind me so I grabbed my 9 iron, choked down an inch or so and hit a ball that flew the green and a lot more and I am thinking wow how do you hit a flyer off a tee and then I realize I hit a 6 iron instead of the 9.
 
pjcedog said:
I did that on the golf course a while back, had 145 to the pin with a little wind behind me so I grabbed my 9 iron, choked down an inch or so and hit a ball that flew the green and a lot more and I am thinking wow how do you hit a flyer off a tee and then I realize I hit a 6 iron instead of the 9.
Click to expand...

Thankfully I haven't done that on the course in a while.
 
Went to the driving range today to get some swings in. It's been raining since Friday, so haven't been able to play or hit balls for a few day's and wanted to just work on my ball striking/tempo and keeping a quite body and getting my hips turned through on my down swing. Ended up being a pretty bad session at the range and I couldn't hit anything. Very frustrating day for me as I've been striking the ball really well lately. Ended up leaving without really resolving what was going on but was getting too frustrated to be productive. On top of having a bad swing day, the range employee was out trying to analyze swings today and offer advise... which I can't stand. (he just works at the driving range stand and is not a PGA pro but acts like he is). I didn't even finish my bucket. Going to do some video of myself swinging in the backyard to see where my breakdown is tomorrow.
 
Lately I have been working on my balance point and keeping a balanced swing. I have pretty much been standing on my tip toes with almost no weight at all on my heels. This was causing me to fall forward and lead to very inconsistent striking. I am also working on going less than parallel with my irons. I don't need distance, I need accuracy. I have also been working on workabilitying the ball a little in case I ever need it in dire situations.
 
I've been working on impressing chicks with my driving distance lately. It's worked out sometimes and sometimes it hasnt. Actually, my motto is keep it simple and its paying dividends.
 
Went to the range last night, had the whole place to myself. I'm fighting off a hook with the driver, and realized that its almost entirely due to over swinging. I made a number of nice smooth swings and was hitting the ball great. As soon as I tried to turn it up a bit, i'd start losing the ball left.

Also worked on staying down on my irons as pulled out of a few shots last round and sent a few screamers rolling up the fairway. I think my problem here was the opposite of my driver...I was babying everything and kind of picking at the ball. I was focusing on really hitting down on the ball and accellerating through impact. I made some great contact with my short irons, still struggling a bit with my 4-6 irons through.

Lastly, I got to working on my wedges. I've been really inconsistent with them, similar problems to my irons, kind of picking at them. More than that, I was never getting my weight back to my left side and I was missing everything right. Used a drill I saw on the fix, stuck a ball under my right foot and almost had a bit of an S&T move with my wedges. Took me a while to combine really hitting down on the ball and staying on my left side but at the end of the session I was hitting them really well.

I hit the putting green for about 30 minutes before taking off. I've got my first tournament in a while coming up sunday and hoping this work pays off. I'm playing 9 after work today so we'll see how the changes work out. Might need to hit the range again tomorrow too!
 
Overall, today was a horrible day at the range for me today. There wasn't a lot that went right for me today and 90% of the time it wasn't fun for me. I only worked with the J40 irons today. Ball striking was the poorest its been all year with the most consistent shot a pseudo-shank (yes I'm coining this term) where the shot was shank like only I wasn't hitting it off the hosel, it was a weak peel to the right after hitting the center of the club face. When I did managed to get a good shot off it seemed as if it was totally by accident. When this happened I couldn't get anything to go more than 125 yds. My PW and 9i were maxing out at 100 and the 8i and 7i were going 125. Obviously way below my typical averages. I couldn't get the 6i or 5i off the ground at all but they were the best 50-75 yd worm burners you'll ever see.

Overall I felt helpless on the range and the feeling was compounded by me feeling like I was the only one not hitting well. For the first time since taking up this game I was afraid to hit the ball because I didn't want to know where the ball was going to go. I tried not to press and never got out of my pre-shot routine but the results were consistently poor and that's putting it nicely. If I have another range session like that tomorrow morning or shoot an epicly bad round tomorrow afternoon I may have to shut down my playing for the rest of the year and go back to the drawing board with lessons to fix whatever is wrong with my swing. Trouble is do I want to totally start over? I hate when golf isn't fun for me because I'm by no means competitive with golf. I expect a lot out of myself (maybe too much) with golf its days like today take everything out of me mentally. Golf is hard enough for me and I'm constantly looking for ways to make it easier but days like today make golf harder, if not impossible to play and that sucks.
 
There's always tomorrow Hanks. I was in your boat yesterday, Worst ball striking ever! When its bad it starts having the mental effect and thats when i pack it up fir the day .You will get that swing back.


Tap-in Talking
 
Hit the range today. It was interesting, they moved everyone off the mats so we were hitting off grass. Obviously took some getting used to...mats are so forgiving.

Had a decent day. Trying to dial in my long irons and driver. Had an interesting run in. Met one of my buddies there and so we were chatting for a minute while I was switching clubs and some random dude is like, "You gonna talk or play?" I'm like, seriously, i'm cleaning and club and swapping to another. Relax and enjoy the morning! Maybe it's me, but I like to relax and hit the balls. Anyways, I just went on to keep hitting the balls and enjoying my morning.
 
Yoccos said:
I've been working on impressing chicks with my driving distance lately. It's worked out sometimes and sometimes it hasnt. Actually, my motto is keep it simple and its paying dividends.
Click to expand...

Impress any chicks or are the chickens liking the distance more? Lol


iOS using Tapatalk
 
I hit a lot of 4 irons today because I didn't hit it great on the course. I have got to get that launch higher but I just can't seem to do so! Going back before my round tomorrow so I'll try again then!
 
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