The Official Driving Range Session Thread

I spent about an hour on the range and about 30 mins on the putting green tonight. I am working on connecting my hands via the Vardon/interlock as opposed to the 10 finger grip I have used for my entire golf career, and it seems like the interlock will be the winner.

Had a really promising session with my 54/50/pw/9/8 iron. Not as great with the 7-4, but I am hoping my session tomorrow irons that out. I also spent some time trying to reduce the draw I put on my hybrid which I felt was pretty successful. Finally, spent some time on my driver looking for a consistent draw.

The first 20 minutes of my putting practice I spent time from a bunch of different locations and putting types. I spent the final 10 minutes on a minimal break, slightly uphill spot to try and get some oomph into my stroke.

Overall I thought the session went really well.

sounds like it went well, must be nice having one of them fancy driving ranges at ur club lol Im going to start hitting up walden ponds a few times a week and get things ironed out. And when I play in the PM, I gotta start hitting the range beforehand, I hit my driver so much better usually just cause of the few swings ahead of time
 
Went out to the range on Monday. I was testing a few of my LWs, SWs and AWs from different golf sets. I started my session with my Tour Striker. I hit a couple of worm burners, but then I started to hit the TS well. Then I started with my LWs. I think that using the TS before I work on my other irons makes all the difference in the world. I hit the LWs just the way I wanted with varying heights and distances. My CG15 LW is staying in my bag. I then hit my SWs. Again, I was able to do very well with them. I still can't decide between my CG15 SW and my Nike Slingshot SW that came with the set as both were good. The AWs were also good. I finished the session with about 8 hits with my TS. 2 worm burners, then good hits with the last 3 really good.

I think that I have found my way to have productive range time. I will start with my Tour Striker and then hit my irons. Then back to the TS to finish. Next time I work on my PW, 9 and 8 and my TS.
 
Went to the range today, to try out my new SuperFast 2.0.... Could have been better for sure. Most of my early shots wound up right (but not TOO much right...)... they weren't wicked slices. I will say, the extra length in the club isn't bothering me one bit. The club itself feels superior to my Diablo Edge. About halfway through the bucket of balls, I somewhat found my groove...and started smoking drives down (or near) the middle. Fun club to hit... however, I'm almost scared to take it onto a course yet... still trying to gain confidence with that beast!
 
Went to the range today, to try out my new SuperFast 2.0.... Could have been better for sure. Most of my early shots wound up right (but not TOO much right...)... they weren't wicked slices. I will say, the extra length in the club isn't bothering me one bit. The club itself feels superior to my Diablo Edge. About halfway through the bucket of balls, I somewhat found my groove...and started smoking drives down (or near) the middle. Fun club to hit... however, I'm almost scared to take it onto a course yet... still trying to gain confidence with that beast!

Sounds like you're progressing well Husk! Are you finding a big distance advantage between the Diablo Edge and the 2.0?
 
Sounds like you're progressing well Husk! Are you finding a big distance advantage between the Diablo Edge and the 2.0?

Absolutely...though, I'm not really sure how far the balls were going. I have a regular shaft 10 * Diablo Edge vs. the Stiff shaft 9.5* Burner SF 2.0. When I hit the Edge, it's comparable to a long pop-fly...with the 2.0, it's like a line-drive home run. Love the club!
 
I hit the ball really well today at the Stadium Golf range in San Diego. I hit shot after shot with all of my irons, and I was working the ball left and right, high and low, at will. I hit my hybrid and my 3 wood really well too. Then I moved to the driver, and I hit some pretty good drives for me, about 250-270 but when trying to hit high draws, I got a little too handsy and snapped a few quackers. I hit about a hundred balls, which is about average for me. If I hit more, I start getting a little tired and I don't practice well...I just hit balls...which is counterproductive to my game. All in all, a good day on the range by my standards.
 
After my third ever lesson last night, yet another big change to contend with.

Went to the range at lunchtime and hit 100 balls. Need to get my hands outside an imaginary line accross my hips. Was far to flat before which caused possible shanks and thinning.

Definite improvement in flight and distance when hit properly.....also a little fade on not quite pured shots when i was hitting a little draw before. Not to worried about that.

If it stops raining i'll head over to the course for some short game practice after work.
 
I had an interesting range session today.. Lately I have been questioning the iron fitting done for me because I feel like the x100 is a bit too stiff, and causes my clubs to lack the quality response on clean hits.. That said, I grabbed my same Mizuno MP-63 head from the pro shop with the Project X 6.0 in it and headed down to make a quality comparison.

I start with my wedges on all range session, today not being any different, and made my way through the set until I got to the 6 iron. I then went back and forth between the x100 and the 6.0 and honestly, the x100 while still being a little bit unresponsive on some shots really offered me the better ball flight. I have the Nike Vr Pro combo irons coming with soft stepped x100 shafts in them, and I really feel like that will be the perfect medium for me.

After more long iron shots and about 25 hits with the driver, I took to the practice green for chipping and putting. I have been working on starting my 54 with a completely open face and swinging way under the ball in the deeper rough to get it high and on the green, and it's been providing some solid results.. Not really sure I am ready to take it to the course, but was pleased with the progression. I then moved to a single line putt with minimal break, dropping tees into the ground at 5-10-15-20 feet and repeating the same putt about 50 times each to get my distance control in check.

Left feeling really confident. There is nothing like a long practice session to clear the head of all the goofy on course auto-correct stuff.
 
Demo day = free grass range with lots of toys :act-up: I focused on weight shifting and getting into a pre-shot routine. Hit some nice shots but doing so from 1030 - 2...with a break here and there means I'll pay for it tomorrow.
 
so, since my lame course decided to close today due to the little bit of rain we had this morning, I took the opportunity to go to the range. I worked mainly on my much discussed driver issues. Took only my 3H, 3W and the burner.

Started hitting 3H off the deck, solid as usual, nice and straight.

THen started hitting 3W off of a tee, I was hitting off mats and the lowest tee I could find was still too high for the 3W. Nonetheless I worked on the swing and had to deal with the occasional pop up. The 3W has been real easy to hit, and was so today too. Hooked a few of them, which seems to be what I do on teh course as well, so not sure what to take from that.

Next was the Driver. My ball striking with it was awesome, I was all over the sweet spot, the results however did very. I would say 2 out of every 5 or so had the nasty slice. I really focused on rolling my hands over, loosening up the grip, and proper shifting of my weight, while keeping lower half quiet. Was staring into the sun, so was hard to see all of the results, but all in all, I think I was striking the ball pretty solid. Just gotta keep the back shoulder from dippping.

We'll see how it pans out, as Im taking a half day vacation to play Shaker Run tomorrow
 
First time in 4.5 weeks swinging today. Seems I have lost some distance but was swinging easier. With swinging easier I had a hard draw but fixed that with ball position. Very good day, just to back back into the swing and hitting some balls. Driver was lost, either hook left or nice and strait but no distance. Off to Myrtle tomorrow and lots of golf!
 
Thinking I really need to start hitting the range before I go out and play 18. For the last two rounds, I have started horrifically. On the first hole I am +7 for the last two days and on the first 5 holes I am a combined +20! On the other 13 holes I am a combined +13. Clearly, the first five have not been a Fab 5!

Do most of you hit the range before a round ir just hop out? What are the thoughts and routines?
 
Thinking I really need to start hitting the range before I go out and play 18. For the last two rounds, I have started horrifically. On the first hole I am +7 for the last two days and on the first 5 holes I am a combined +20! On the other 13 holes I am a combined +13. Clearly, the first five have not been a Fab 5!

Do most of you hit the range before a round ir just hop out? What are the thoughts and routines?

My course has a range with unlimited balls available so I almost always get there about 45 minutes before the round for session. I start with my wedges, and usually pick either 9-7-5-3hybo or pw-8-6-4 and hit about 5-10 with each until I've found a swing I like. Then after a handful of drives, I hit the putting green and go for 5-10-15-20 footers until I've got solid weight on each distance, and then move on to the round.

I think it's really important to find your swing before a round.. if I don't practice, it usually takes me a couple holes to find my game, or at least a swing I am comfortable with. I think for me it revolves around confidence.
 
Never heard of a speed sleeve.....what is supposed to accomplish? Do you take your normal swing?

Its made by TaylorMade, you wrap it around the bottom of the shaft. It is around 16 inch's long. It adds weight and almost makes you swing the perfect swing. Just make nice and easy swings, you can hit balls with it on too.
 
Had another couple of range sessions after last weeks lesson. Finding it difficult to find a thought that leads to me consistently clearing my hips early. Keeping my wrist hinge on my downswing is also difficult.

That said, I hit a few ok ones last time out, then I thought about my shoulder turn on the way back. I tried turning from my shoulders, hitting 8 iron. I then proceed to hit 3 in a row straight over the green and about 10 yards into the heavy stuff at the back. hmmm, might be something in that. Although I still have to practice to nail it down consistently and controllably.
 
My course has a range with unlimited balls available so I almost always get there about 45 minutes before the round for session. I start with my wedges, and usually pick either 9-7-5-3hybo or pw-8-6-4 and hit about 5-10 with each until I've found a swing I like. Then after a handful of drives, I hit the putting green and go for 5-10-15-20 footers until I've got solid weight on each distance, and then move on to the round.

I think it's really important to find your swing before a round.. if I don't practice, it usually takes me a couple holes to find my game, or at least a swing I am comfortable with. I think for me it revolves around confidence.

The course I was a member at last year in PEI had the same unlimited balls with membership deal. The couse I am a member at this year (and was for half of last year) doesn't have that deal. A small bucket of balls is $6 and a large is $10!!! It is crazy! I should also mention I was at an 8 hcp last year after doing the range thing. I am up over 10 now and it is definitely because of how I am starting my rounds. I may just have to suck it up and shell out the money to save my hcp.
 
Had a couple of good range sessions last week working on my driver mostly. Near the end of last year I thought I had my driver worked out, I was hitting a good number of fairways but this year has not continued that trend. I picked up an R9 460 on ebay pretty cheap to give an adjustable driver a try as well as a regular shaft and the last 2 range sessions have been promising. First thing I did was put the driver on the L setting before I left for the range since my miss is a pretty big fade/slice.

Started out with some warmup with my irons and got into a pretty good rhythm and moved on to my current driver which is a 9 degree Callaway Diablo Edge with a stiff shaft. As usually it's starting a little left of where I feel like I'm aiming and just moves right, grab the R9 (10.5 degree regular shaft) take a few practice swings and just make a nice smooth swing and I hooked it, 3 more swings and I get similar results with the R9 a super high ball flight that turns left. I get out the wrench and move the head from the L setting to 1 notch towards R which if I'm right opened the face a bit and lowered the loft. This seems to be the magical setting for me, while the flight is still a bit higher then I think it should be I'm now hitting at most a baby fade with this setup. I generally pick two spots on the range as my fairway and I was able to start it just left of my aiming point and land it either in the center or just to the right of what would be the center. Distance is hard to tell on the range but just from where the ball was landing it was 20-30 yards farther then the Callaway of course it wasn't 30-50 yards right either. Went back to the range a couple of days later and had the same type of success with the R9 so I'm hoping this will translate to the course, might look into a shaft fitting (not sure there's any place around here to do that) to bring the flight down a bit but if I can hit fairways this might be just what I'm looking for.
 
Sounds promising Cheffor. I like the R9 460 which I'm currently gaming. Being able to tinker with the shafts is a good bonus too.

I had a really good range session tonight for the first time in an age. I hit the range and I was just striking the ball nicely. Throwing darts at the pin from about 130 yds. The wrist hinge felt much more natural and the hips were clearing well, the timing was just on. I hope this is the start of these moves getting ingrained into my swing.
 
Another long 2 hour session at the range today.. Sort of want to commend myself for skipping out on playing just to work on my game, but I think it needs it.

I have been battling a bit of a mis-hit where I am hitting on the bottom end of the club, giving me rough feedback and while going about 90% of the distance it needs to, it's a terrible feeling that I really don't want to be a part of!

I started off with wedges of course, and I have been hitting them flush lately, so I quickly moved on and focused most of my session on PW-6i. It took probably close to 100 balls, but after filtering through the Driver and BACK to the mid irons, I found a swing I really was missing - I was cutting off my back swing and not attacking the ball --WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!-- which apparently caused me to come up on the downswing and hit low on the iron -

Didn't spend any time on the putting green, but hopefully will be able to get out there tomorrow again.
 
Had a great session yesterday. Disregard any previous post by me and a 'career best range session'. Up until yesterday, I have been doing everything wrong. My good rounds have happened on accident and my swing was a total mess.

So yesterday I was hitting balls like I normally do everyday at the range and was working on driving through the ball, making sure my hips were going through and not being all hands.

About half a bucket through, one of the guys upstairs, he's one of the assistant pros, stops me and just has me scrape my previous setup/posture and start new. I was dipping horribly and turning my upper body too much in my backswing.

I have the proper setup now, still trying to make it consistent and my backswing stops when my chin meets my left shoulder. I was terrible before with how turned I was. I don't 'squat' as much and working on keeping my chin high and chest out.

Needless to say after him being with me for maybe seven minutes, it turned what I knew upside down. Today is day two and I hope I can keep everything I was told together.

I'm also taking into consideration what Hunter Mahan does with his driving range session - treat every ball like you're on the course. Get a routine going. Not just hitting ball after ball
 
Such a good range session today. Hit a ton of balls and played imaginary holes.

Afterwards went to the super secret short game area and hit 12 balls from 90, 75, 60, and 50 yards each. All with the same club (50°) wedge. I love that place and nobody goes there. It's sooo cool!
 
Due to iffy weather I decided to make it a driving range day. Wanted to spend a lot of time with the Heavy irons and wedges today and it was slightly frustrating today.

My irons much better today and got some good work in with the Heavy irons which I will detail more in the Heavy iron thread itself but these were much better performers than they have been for me so far. Fairly consistent distances but I noticed a much higher ball flight this time around.

My wedges were very good however I noticed that there started to be some overlap in distances between some wedges. my 52 and 56 were giving me roughly the same distances until my 56 and 60 began to give me the same distances as well. All my shots were 3/4 to full with crisp and solid contact yet I couldn't figure out the distances today. I was thinking of going to a 50, 54, 58 configuration but after today's confusing range session I'm just not sure what to do at this point.
 
Headed down to the range this morning, it's beautiful weather here in DC. I manged to take my time and go through a 105 balls in over an hour. As I'm getting back into the swing of things after my golf hiatus I'm realizing flaws in my swing which were never fixed before. Nice thing is I'm working on them and love the feeling when the ball's being strike perfectly :)
 
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