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The THP Range/Practice Thread

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Played 9 holes last night, but was practicing with two balls on each hole. Was a very quiet night due to the high winds so we had no one behind us, plus we had 3 foursomes infront of me and my buddy. Worked on the driver and irons and trying to get dialed in so I could see more GIR. I played my easier course that I have membership at so I was actually doin quiet well. With the driver I moved the ball back some and did a JB style open stance and was seeing longer distance and more fairways. Was pretty nice on two pars 4's finding myself inside the 100 yard marker. That can make the game a h#ll lot easier. But once I got to irons I worked on keeping my lower body quiet on my back swing and boom. Was hitting straight high shots. Looks like I got back in the routine of moving to much below my hips and was doing a Ricky Martin dance aka (Living la vida loca). But once I started swing well I was actually hitting the greens in two and could putt for birdie. That makes the game alot easier and my 2 putt average I was getting pars. Going to keep working with that and the short game alot. Also tried getting with my instructor and couldn't reach him on the phone. I was thinking before I left florida he had like a week marked out in his calender so he must be on vacation or a golf trip. But anyways I am still at it and still on my #JourneyToBetter.
 
Was able to get two practice sessions in yesterday. One in the AM waiting for the AC repair guy and the other after the kids went to bed.

Only focusing on major thing at the moment, which is keeping my (secondary) spine tilt at address, the top of my backswing, and at impact. Address is easy. Top of backswing is harder. Impact is extremely hard. Sort of goes back to the length of my backswing, so keeping that shorter makes all the difference. I can keep my angle and stay connected a lot easier that way, then it's just a turn through. Not convinced this is going to be 100% cured by July, but even halfway cured it's much better than it was/is.

From there I worked a bit on posture and setup with the putter.

To the range after work (hopefully - stupid thunderstorms forecasted). I brought sticks for alignment and a pool noodle to help me feel myself staying behind the ball better. Going to look like Inspector Gadget out there.
 
Hit a bucket at lunch and took some video. It's obvious that no matter what I do, I'm not getting my weight left, and coming OTT. My shots are all playable, but I know I'm missing out on distance and better dispertion. I can see my whole upper body rotating before my lower body does. Its so frustrating because I just cannot find the feel to trigger the weight shift. I can get around OK playing a fade with irons (driver is decent, worst it's a pull fade) but I know I can be much better if I can just start with the weight shift.

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Absolutely had a horrible range session today. I think this wicked "S" word I have been hitting with my driver is making its way through the rest of my clubs. I have done everything minus scheduling another lesson, who I've deemed we werent seeing eye to eye. I think and believe my issue is all in weight transfer, due to swing changes Ive made to get the club parallel to the target.

Today I worked solely on wedges and my tempo just felt off. It almost felt as my left side was being exagerrated through the swing and way out of sync. After about 40 balls with 40% of my shots being fat or hit with the clubface way open, I decide to head out on my practice round. I think I need to post a video to see if Panda can point me in the right direction.

I hit maybe one or two good drives, with the rest being way right. The good thing was that everything else seemed to be working.

Does anyone ever feel they are pressing just too much and that leads to poor form and swing tempo?
 
mmaynard11 said:
Does anyone ever feel they are pressing just too much and that leads to poor form and swing tempo?
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I absolutely do buddy. There are days where everything seems to click but I am unable to find it again the next time. Days im off, nothing seems to work. A few shots come out well, but I habe almost jo clue how. Or I know how and I know what im doing wrong but the body wont listen... such are my struggles
 
I had a great practice on the range yesterday ... great to see my lessons paying such large dividends ...

forgot my headphones and had to listen someone give lessons to his buddy ... while demoing "how to swing" he shanked it so bad it almost hit me ... lol ... he gave the poor guy so much "advice/instructions" I started to screw up too ... almost gave the guy $50 for his buddy to get a real lesson

Not sure why all the bad golfers decide to give lesson next to me ... thank god for headphones ... and please, for the love of god, do your friend a favor and send them to someone that actually knows how to teach!
 
Inspector Gadget

2yny5unu.jpg
 
Haha, love it.
 
Hawk said:
Inspector Gadget

2yny5unu.jpg
Click to expand...

Great minds! This little gadget has soooo many uses! Doesn't hurt when I want to push my head through it or come over the top in a different drill. Love it!
 
Worked too! Much better at staying behind it when I left.
 
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Spent an hour and a half working on chipping and short approach shots to a couple of practice greens. Really focused on my touch around the green and keeping it consistent.

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Hit the range and short game area after 18 today, really focused on staying in the shot and not popping up. Then worked pitching and chipping.
 
Spent almost 2 hours at the range tonight. After 52 holes over the past 2 days it was nice to put the headphones on and beat some balls. Started with an 8i and worked my way down to GW. The swing was feeling good and I was seeing some nice ball flight and contact. I finished with some 7i and hybrid work. After trying myself out on the range I took my remaining golf balls to the practice green for some chipping work. I hit about 60 chips off a tight lie to work on control and touch.

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Range and short game session this evening. Today I specifically focused on two things: my tee ball (driver and 3W), and my chipping and pitching. With the driver especially, I focused on elongating my backswing and firing my hips through. I've felt like I've been getting my hips stuck on my follow through, perhaps causing some of the push slices I've seen recently. When I felt like I was more fluid through my follow through, I saw some wonderful results...straight to slight fade, going a decent distance. Spent half of the session on my tee ball, and the other half on short chips and pitches, high shots and low shots, around the green from different lies.
 
Love the place I've been practicing at. Neve busy. Lots of flags to pick from and they always hook me up with balls for cheaper than they are supposed to be.

I grabbed 175, which is sort of a lot for me, but I really wanted to work on this thing. Set up the noodle and it was definitely difficult at first. Setup still feels a little weird and maintaining my tilt takes a lot of effort. It came to me though and when it did I was pretty happy from 8 iron to driver.

Hit about 50-ish pitch shots to 90, 60, 85, and 65 yards. About 25 knockdown and punch shots just to get a feel for distance.

Finished up on the putting green.
 
I had a solid hour today before my round to get some much needed short game work in. Helped big time on the course today as I had 2 sand saves. I think I may had 2 sand saves all of last year.

I am finally getting comfortable just hitting a few shots at the range and spending my precious practice time in the short game area and practice green.
 
Hawk said:
Well, taking the recent changes from my lesson from the comfort of the driving range to the golf course was a big fail. LOL. I stuck with it though. Figured I'd at least just do that, because it's not going to get better ignoring it. Contact was good, but I was hitting balls 20-40 yards (straight) right of my target on pretty much every swing until the 15th hole. Full swings that is. I really thought I was just pushing the ball, but was fortunate to have a friend with me. He took a look at my setup, and laid down a club on my foot line, which was literally pointing 40 yards right of my target. Setting up 'square' felt really really wrong. Basically like I was 40 yards to the left, but the eyes obviously lie. After that and some concentration the ball started going where I was hoping it would, which was a relief.

This week will be spending a good deal of time working on alignment. Setting up a gate to hit through, using my pre-shot routine for each range ball, etc. Basically using the gate to solidify that I'm set up right and the preshot routine to help my eyes understand/remember what they need to be looking at. Hopefully that will help, but I think this won't be a quick fix. Will probably have to stick with it for a while to get it cemented in.

Putting stroke has really been treating me well. Wedges are fine too.

Lots of work to do this week. Hoping to get 36 in one day over the weekend, if not both days.
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I too suffer from the "what my eyes tell me I'm pointing at is not where I am pointing".

I have reverted to aiming the face from behind the ball, then moving to step in and focus on my rear foot being parallel to the scoring lines. Still not 100 percent though. Need a good alignment drill to go with my sticks.

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socalf1fan said:
I too suffer from the "what my eyes tell me I'm pointing at is not where I am pointing".

I have reverted to aiming the face from behind the ball, then moving to step in and focus on my rear foot being parallel to the scoring lines. Still not 100 percent though. Need a good alignment drill to go with my sticks.

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Take a look at this pic and ignore the noodle.

y3abu8em.jpg


See the stick and club laying down? That's a drill I used in the past and was doing today. That's your gate to start the ball through. Then you set another one down at your foot line. It helped me visualize the right alignment last year, but I got out the habit and have suffered for it.
 
Well after my driver broke a few days back and that scary pic I posted...

I went to the range today with the Big Bertha and the X2 Hot testers from our proshop.

I liked the x2hot better. Played with the settings and for me the X2 Hot just felt a bit better. The bertha was a couple yards longer by eyesight but I seemed to hit the X2 straighter. So I threw one on my tab at the proshop. X2hot 10.5 regular flex (I have stiff Irons, but I just don't seem to swing hard enough with the stiff driver to work well, I feel like I have to over swing to make them work usually, as I have a slow methodical driver swing).

Anyhow hit a bunch on the range, at the stock setting, then set as Draw. Turned out well but I seemed to be hitting low to mid, unlike the RBZ I broke which flew mid to high usually. I jacked it to +2 Draw and I was bombing it straight 260-280 with 2 drives on the course I played 14 after wards for 290-300 approximately which is like a omgwtf once in a lifetime moment for me lol.

I need to get out and practice my short game. Used to be my saving grace...now it seems like I'm playing army golf, but I'm hitting e6's now and not my normal spinny balls. Seems to be not checking up and rolling forever. Going to do that thursday.

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Hawk said:
Take a look at this pic and ignore the noodle.

y3abu8em.jpg


See the stick and club laying down? That's a drill I used in the past and was doing today. That's your gate to start the ball through. Then you set another one down at your foot line. It helped me visualize the right alignment last year, but I got out the habit and have suffered for it.
Click to expand...

Awesome! I will give this a shot! Thanks Hawk!

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No problem. You can actually set the sticks vertical as well. I just prefer them laying down.
 
Had a real up and down day. Hit 7i only, working on tempo and my full swing. I finally got back to really hitting it flush, great impact and distance as well. Then, started shanking. Instead of leaving, I doubled down and kept swinging away, which just compounded things and made it worse. I finally left, and went home. But after 20 minutes, I couldn't take it any more and started doing full swings in slow motion to try and figure out the problem. I finally realized I was flipping like an Olympic diver, so worked on keeping the shaft close to my right leg on the downswing. It definitely got better, but am still rattled from the whole thing, especially since I have my first league match tomorrow. I'm now resisting the urge to go back out, as I think taking some time to forget about it is probably a good idea. You gotta love this game sometimes.


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Growing pains.

I've been working really hard on my game this year and I'll get to a good spot and then when I take another lesson, we'll work on reinforcing one thing and it will wreck my iron game for a couple of rounds. Working so hard on a small draw turns into a pull-draw and almost a straight hook. Going out to play a round right after a lesson isn't a good idea for me. I know it'll come around, it's just frustrating to go from hitting 8-10 greens to struggling to hit 5. I'm worried I'm close to hitting a plateau in my improvement.
 
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