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The THP Range/Practice Thread

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Went to the range with a buddy and we decided to play the Par 3 course instead. This is the kid who I am going to start doing match play with. He is of very similar ability to me, playing off about an 8 and he really pushes me.

We tied the first hole then he won the next 2 with two great birdies. We went back and forth and going into 9 I was down 1. He put his 9i to the middle of the green and I hit a green shot in there about 8 feet. I drained the birdie to force a playoff hole where I won with a par.

So we played 10 holes and I finished with 8/10 GIRs and shot a +3. I was happy with my short irons for sure.
 
TexasHacker34 said:
Went to the range with a buddy and we decided to play the Par 3 course instead. This is the kid who I am going to start doing match play with. He is of very similar ability to me, playing off about an 8 and he really pushes me.

We tied the first hole then he won the next 2 with two great birdies. We went back and forth and going into 9 I was down 1. He put his 9i to the middle of the green and I hit a green shot in there about 8 feet. I drained the birdie to force a playoff hole where I won with a par.

So we played 10 holes and I finished with 8/10 GIRs and shot a +3. I was happy with my short irons for sure.
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Nice work TH. It's always good to have someone that can push you. Keep it up! Good stats too...how did you putt?

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Agent Jay said:
Nice work TH. It's always good to have someone that can push you. Keep it up! Good stats too...how did you putt?

Sent from my S3 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
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Ehh... Not great. The greens were soft, almost spongy. I never really got used to them. I am talking wedges spinning back 10-15 feet, something that never happens to me
 
My buddy and I went to the practice green for lunch today for a match of WEDGE (like HORSE, playing closest to the pin)

The practice green has three pin locations, so we each get three balls per location. We alternate turns setting the shot by calling the lie and the target pin. Each pin can only be used once per location, and once a location is done, we move across or around the green and try not to play the same spot twice.

I went up to an early 2 game lead (W to WEDGE and WE to WEDGE), then he came back with 2 close games. I won the tie breaker match and took a dollar for my overall 3 to 2 victory.
 
That's always fun Sharkman. I wish I had a practice buddy.
 
I was at the range Saturday and had my wife observe me a few shots. I'd been watching something recently and they were talking about how much trouble being across the line at the top could cause. I've been having issues all year with a pull hook, so thought my wife could tell me whether I was so I didn't have to set up a camera. Well, after 3 swings where I was lined up with alignment rods toward a certain target, she pointed to the flag my shaft was aimed at. Calling it only 30° right of my target would probably be conservative. So the past few days I've been working on it. A tip from GC (link below) helped me with it. And wow, what a difference. I haven't hit a hook in the 4 rounds since! A few pulls on shots I've tried to overpower, but no pull hooks. For the record, my first swing after I watched the video, I took my normal backswing and looked at the top and I could see all but my pinkie knuckle on my right hand. Now all I see is palm. It has worked wonders, and an unintended consequence seems to be improved distance. The past 2 rounds I've been taking at least one club less than usual, and still been long more often than short. My only issue seems to be that with my longer clubs I am having trouble releasing the club in time. Especially with driver, I've been hitting a lot of pushes. Nothing dramatic, but definitely right of where I'm lined up. I'm sure it's just a timing issue that will improve very soon. Still, a slight push is WAY better than a snap hook :) And it might not even be a push; it wouldn't surprise me at all if I've gotten so use to the pull hook that I'm subconsciously aimed right.

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/gol...the-week-dont-get-across-the-line-at-the-top/
 
Two hours of this beautiful morning were spent by me on the putting green. No full-shots. No chipping. Just putting. It felt VERY productive, especially sinking 20 four-footers in a row to finish it off. Oh, and, while practicing my lag-putting, I drained a 75-foot (roughly paced off after I made it) putt. Double-breaker over a ridge. I wish I would have saved that putt for this weekend though. :banana:
 
Today was another lunch hour spent on the practice green playing a game of WEDGE.

I lost the first game and then came back to win overall 2 to 1. The practice keeping my wrist flat is paying dividends in the short game. Contact was crisp and not flippy at all. The ball jumped up quickly and stayed online, and there were a lot of shots that it seemed I could watch the ball backspin in slow motion. We play mostly from greenside distances to about 10 yards off the green, so not enough backspin to bring the ball backwards, but it was definitely encouraging.

Trouble shots today were downhill lies ... these tended to run out way further than I intended. I also need to practice more from thicker lies to make sure I can keep the clubface from opening way up and shooting the ball off to the right.
 
Had another lesson with my pro today. At a lesson 3 weeks ago, we made the decision to make my swing shorter and more compact. I've played some really good golf and some really bad golf during that time. My pro had to remind me that the goal is where my swing is going to be next summer, and that expecting to make big changes in 3 weeks isn't a realistic goal. However, I have been working with a Swingyde on my club, but trying to not get that to touch my forearm in order to shorten my swing. I took a few swings with a PW with the Swingyde on it, and he really liked the progress that I was making. Then he asked me to hit shots with an 8 iron, and I was hitting some really good shots! He took a video of one of my swings:



Even though I'm still slightly past parallel at the top, this is much better than it was 3 weeks ago and prior to that as well. In the past, my hands would be all the way above my hat, and the clubhead would be so far past parallel that it would be at the level of my waist at times. So it was good to see that I'm making some good changes. The weird part is that when I took this swing, I feel like I'm only taking the club to just above waist-high....just shows me how feel is sometimes completely different from what is really going on.

We also took some down-the-line video, and my backswing was perfectly on plane, but the downswing was a little too far from the inside. So we worked on feeling like I'm dragging the handle of the club to the left after impact in order to get the path of the downswing more neutral. What we're trying to prevent is the path being too far in-to-out and then I flip the club at impact, which is the recipe for a quick hook, which is what I've been struggling with recently. I'm going to have another lesson in 3 weeks, and after that we're going to work on a plan for practicing and hitting balls over the winter.
 
Ary swing looks good!

Hit the range up last night and hit most of my bag. Think I may have worked some things out. I do seriously need to relax more when I play and swing easier.
 
Nice work, Amol.

I didn't realize I was playing with a guy who takes lessons. I now feel like we won the match 3 Up.
 
Looks good to me. Nice job on the work Amol!


Nothing but some putting so far this week for me. Battling some rather painful back issues that started on Sunday and I haven't been brave enough to swing a club yet.
 
Working with the new clubs this week which is good. Need to work chipping and pitching since I keep topping the ball. Hopefully I can get it figured out.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
 
I'll show you what a smart man showed me once. Easy stuff.
 
Hawk said:
I'll show you what a smart man showed me once. Easy stuff.
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That's what Brian told me. I think we might go it tomorrow night.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
 
Just takes a little practice. Get your weight forward, the ball back, hands in front of the ball, and accelerate into it. You can control speed/distance with the lenght of your backswing and loft.
 
Hawk said:
Just takes a little practice. Get your weight forward, the ball back, hands in front of the ball, and accelerate into it. You can control speed/distance with the lenght of your backswing and loft.
Click to expand...

Yea a big part of my problem is not putting my Weight forward. Need to work on that and hands forward.

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LeftySean said:
I normally leave the 60* in the bag for greenside work, but I'm trying to get comfortable with it to give myself another option when I'm short-sided, the pin placement is really tight, and putting is not viable (several paces worth of wet, longish fairway grass, for example).

Other than sticking it close to the pin using the 60*, I'd guess I would have to try a bump and run with a PW/GW. But that's kinda tricky if there's nothing to bump the ball against.

I could use a SW/GW, let the ball run past the hole and putt back. But I can't rely on that if the green slopes downward after the hole.

I could also try a finesse 1/8th swing or putting stroke shot with the SW/GW, but if I take too much off the swing, it'll have the same result as stubbing a chip shot with the 60* - ball gets 1/2 way there and I'm still short sided. I might be able to putt at this point, though.


On the bright side, "short-sided, pin placement really tight, putting not viable" doesn't happen that often, so maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing....

I'm still puzzled as to why exactly every third shot was the stub-fail. Just bizarre.
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Sean, you might want to check out Brad Faxon'S Golf Chanel Academy video (I think it was on Tuesday, so maybe it will repeat over the next week or so). Here is a part of it:
http://www.golfchannel.com/topics/people/brad-faxon.htm

The other good one to find is Gary Player doing his short game show (with Martin Hall). I have that DVR'd - don't know if the video is available online. I just like listening to Player talk!
 
Grins said:
Sean, you might want to check out Brad Faxon'S Golf Chanel Academy video (I think it was on Tuesday, so maybe it will repeat over the next week or so). Here is a part of it:
http://www.golfchannel.com/topics/people/brad-faxon.htm

The other good one to find is Gary Player doing his short game show (with Martin Hall). I have that DVR'd - don't know if the video is available online. I just like listening to Player talk!
Click to expand...

That show that Faxon did was pretty good. I was specifically looking at at shaft position at setup and that helped me a lot to eliminate those chunky chips that go 5 feet.
 
Just got back from the range. Saw Amol's post about using the Swingyde yesterday and thought that was strange. I actually broke mine out at the range today for the first time in probably two years. Ary, it sounds like you and I have exactly the same swing. I go way past parrellel alot when I am not swinging smoothly and I have the tendency to snap hook shots because of it.
When I took a lesson with the swingyde for the first time, it really shortened and strengthened my swing. I would love to get back to that swing.
Todays range session was very good. I used the swingyde wit hall my swings with the 51*, 8i, and some with the 6i. That was for an entire large bucket. Then I removed it and continued with the 6i through the driver without it. I was hitting some very nice penetrating shots throughout the rest of the practice. Until I was to tired to hold the club any more. Hope this swing continues through the weekend.
 
Grins said:
Sean, you might want to check out Brad Faxon'S Golf Chanel Academy video (I think it was on Tuesday, so maybe it will repeat over the next week or so). Here is a part of it:
http://www.golfchannel.com/topics/people/brad-faxon.htm

The other good one to find is Gary Player doing his short game show (with Martin Hall). I have that DVR'd - don't know if the video is available online. I just like listening to Player talk!
Click to expand...

I loved watching Player do those shows! I think I missed the short game one, though.

I will check out the Faxon link when I get a chance. Thanks!
 
My range time today was the first full swing practice I've had in nearly 2 weeks. My back is mostly holding up, but my golf swing is not. I've reverted to push-slicing my shots. The twist this time, though, is that the short irons are off. The longer clubs - 4H and longer, were pretty decent - I even hit a couple nice draws with the 4H!

Mix in the usual fat shots and topped rollers, and I feel like I'm back to where I was in May. I will say I was pretty tentative with my swing at times. I do not want to tweak my back again (more like the side of my rib-cage, actually) and I'm pretty sure I'm pulling my arms in as I swing. That, and I just can't seem to feel the difference between getting my arms extended on the backswing versus just getting my hands up above my head. Hands up leads to very vertical swing and poor shots.

I'm going to wait a couple days before more full swing action, probably a 9 hole round. I don't want to over-do it and have to take another 2 weeks off.
 
Took the boy to the range as a little reward and it was a good time. Ground is getting Fall-firm and I'm not a fan of that, but what can you do.

Hit the ball pretty well for having a bad back and not swinging a club for 5 days. I was happy with all of it. We went to putt, but the greens had huge holes in it from aeration on Monday. Instead I just poked a couple and then watched and helped him.
 
On my stupid long drive home I had some reflection time.

This year was all about the MC, plain and simple...doing what I can to be able to go down there to perform at a high level (for me).

Next year, I want it to be about that again (or other events), but also really want to focus on improving my game. Sure this year Ive gone to the range more than like 10 years combined, but I dont necessarily feel like Im getting better. A month before the MC I went to a guy who was trying to change my swing for the good, I just couldnt work on those kind of changes and be able to hit a ball in Myrtle, so I pretty much ended up disregarding just about everything (with the exception of the takeaway).

So heres where I stand and see my options:

1. Golftec-The ONLY problem I have with them is having to pony up the whole cost of the package upfront, Ive yet to find one that is flexible like some have encountered. Id do this over the winter and hit the ground running come spring.

or

2. Wait til Spring, find a local guy and get working outdoors on my game in hopes of making the changes quick enough that I can enjoy the summer golf.

While the THP events have been great in 2013, outside of that I havent really enjoyed golf as much because of the way I have played.

Thoughts?
 
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