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The THP Range/Practice Thread

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Spent 2hrs at the range today and then did some putting practice working on figuring out where this push or fade is coming from.

I thought I had it figured out and went out to play and played terrible couldn't keep the ball in the fairway off the tee and this led to lots of punching the ball back into play as well long 3rds into par 4s.
 
Back to the range for more punishment...errr....I mean practice. It was not so bad tonight, but I clearly need to keep working to get back to the form I found so promising last week. And then figure out a way to stay there, more or less. I think that is the point at which I go back to my instructor and ask him how to hang on to what I've achieved.
 
I had a fun evening playing short game games with my son. On the green we played a game he learned at his camp called "poison". Then we went down to an open area and played a game where we empty the shag bag and try to pitch and chip the balls into a range basket. I did the same thing yesterday with him and the daughter last night. Short game is coming around as a result of all this practice. It's great.
 
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I'm not sure what it was, but I had a horrible range session yesterday with my irons. The ground was really wet from rain and I think that was part of the problem because I couldn't seem to compress the ball at all. I spent some time on driver, which hasn't been working for me lately and had some good shots and some bad. But still, off the tee I was carrying my 3 wood close to 250 and my driver was going about the same distance but a lot less straight. I switched over to chipping and putting and was on fire though. Short game (chips/pitches) is an area that really costs me strokes during a round. I probably hit 30-40 chips/pitches and holed out on 5 which is insane for me, and came within 3 feet on about half. I'm normally decent with putting and average around 35 putts a round, but was doing slightly better with putting during this practice session as well.

I went back to the range today and had much better results with my irons. One thing I've been working on lately is slowing my backswing and keeping my head as still/quit as possible during the back swing. My iron game is usually what saves me in a round as long as I'm not having an off day, but I've continued to improve. Most of my short irons I was able to hit in a 10 yard circle 10 out of 10 times. I then really focused on carrying this over to the long irons by hitting a series of 10 balls with a short iron and then 3 or 4 with my 3 iron. The intent was to try and ingrain the same feel with all irons. So it went PW, 3i, 8i, 3i, 6i, 3i, 4i, 3i. About mid way through I really started seeing amazing results with my 3 iron. I then attempted to carry these same thoughts over to the 3w with excellent results. So then I did the same with the driver and finally had great results, despite struggling with the driver for the last month or so. I was consistently hitting nice draws, but just too high and not any further than 250 yards carry distance. But ball flight was exactly what I wanted to see. I ended the session with rotating shots between driver, 6i, pw to try and reinforce the same feeling between different length clubs. I saw some issues here, but minimal compared to the past.

I have a lesson tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can re-create some of the results then.
 
Hitting the range today. Taking the boy and we're just going to have a little fun I figure.


Not sure what the coming months hold here. I don't have that undeniable urge to just quit practicing or playing. Wasn't sure how post-MC would treat me in that respect, but I still want to keep getting better. I saw some fruits of all that labor at times, which was nice.

I was happy with quite a few things in my play. Some others not so much. I actually went down there and hit iron distances I wanted/am capable of and my driver wasn't too bad. I lost yardage as the weekend went on though. Sunday I was down a good 10 yards per club, but I'll chalk that up to either nerves or just being tired. I do know that my warmup Sunday was basically terrible and I didn't feel like I could turn at all. If I don't turn I sway, so a loss in distance is no surprise there.

My 40-100 yard wedges ended up being a weak point, which was unexpected, but in retrospect I think the Gmac quote sold of holds true there (paraphrasing) "working on your weaknesses only makes your strengths weaker" or something like that. Same for hybrids. Weren't there for me much, which is the opposite of normal. I'm ok with that though. Maybe I'll start there and build those two things back into my game.

Setup with the hybrid has become a bad habit of forward pressing, so there something to look at. I knew it, was called on it, but in a pressure situation I just couldn't make myself do something that didn't feel 'right'.
 
Went out for a practice round yesterday with my brother in law who is still learning the game. Course was short but tight so I tried to hit a 4I off the tee on every hole setting myself up for under 150 to the green on most holes.. Unfortunately I was hitting a bunch of pull hooks. Ugh so frustrating trying to do the smart thing and screwing that up. On holes I had decent tee shots I scored well, but playing from behind trees is never a good thing. Very disappointing to shoot 82 on what I would consider an easier course and hitting irons off tees.
 
Got some good range time today with buddy daddio, he is making great progress after his knee surgery
 
I chipped balls for a good hour today. Felt good to get back out there for the first time in a while.
Does not hurt that a few pre-release wedges showed up and wanted to see if they spun the cover off the ball...The answer is yes.
 
JB said:
I chipped balls for a good hour today. Felt good to get back out there for the first time in a while.
Does not hurt that a few pre-release wedges showed up and wanted to see if they spun the cover off the ball...The answer is yes.
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Practice with a teaser.....lol. If it's anything like the ones I hit in MB.....
 
JB said:
I chipped balls for a good hour today. Felt good to get back out there for the first time in a while.
Does not hurt that a few pre-release wedges showed up and wanted to see if they spun the cover off the ball...The answer is yes.
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You know what might feel good is meeting up with us on the 23rd :D
 
jitzy said:
You know what might feel good is meeting up with us on the 23rd :D
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I would love to play with THPers as I always love it, but I will be just coming back from 6 days in CA just a couple of days prior and leaving GG with one dog that just had ACL and meniscus surgery yesterday and another that is having seizures/passing out every day. It would not be fair to her to jump in the car and leave again.

But with so many great THPers in FL, we will all definitely get a round in I am sure. Lots of events in this area each year.
 
My wife took down the net in the garage...I think I should put it up!
 
Guess what tomorrow is?!?! Range time!
 
JB said:
I would love to play with THPers as I always love it, but I will be just coming back from 6 days in CA just a couple of days prior and leaving GG with one dog that just had ACL and meniscus surgery yesterday and another that is having seizures/passing out every day. It would not be fair to her to jump in the car and leave again.

But with so many great THPers in FL, we will all definitely get a round in I am sure. Lots of events in this area each year.
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Believe me I knew if you could of been there you would of been, I was just pickin on ya a little. I hope the dogs are getting better though. They really are just our furry kids.
 
Range time has been helpful to me, but the biggest help has been setting up a hitting mat on the patio and hitting foam practice balls into the yard. My mat has stripes printed on it for an inside-out swing path. An hour a night this summer has been helpful in getting straighter, more consistent shots. I like the reminder stripe on the mat to stay inside. This summer I've gone from compensating for a mild to moderate slice to playing a more or less straight ball with dead-on aim. It's great not having to guess as to whether the mild fade version will appear or the moderate slice that needs a left hand bias. $20 well spent on that little mat.
 
Walked the dog as I do every night on course with a different iron. New Apex arrived yesterday dialing in the difference in distance, flight etc.. really helping my GIR.
 
Actually practiced twice last night lol. Is the Morgan Cup really over? It was all for fun though.

Hit 100 balls at the range. Switched up clubs quite a bit. Must have rested enough, because I was able to actually turn again.

My wedge flags change weekly based on where they set the ropes and last night one was at 80 yards (aka the distance of death aka the distance that made Hawk want to cry at Caledonia aka eff you straight to hell 80 yards). So, my first swing I hit the flag stick. LOL. As I said to Mike Dean afterwards, "I'm so clutch."

Came home, played with the kids and put them to bed and worked with wedges and the putter at a nearby practice green.
 
Just finished up with a short game session at the range working on chipping and putting. At first the hangover insisted and I felt like picking up the balls and heading home. Then the light bulb went off and the MC chapter may be closed, but working on my game isn't. To just walk off and quit would be giving up on all the hard work I put in for the last seven months. #MCGameChanger
 
mmaynard11 said:
Just finished up with a short game session at the range working on chipping and putting. At first the hangover insisted and I felt like picking up the balls and heading home. Then the light bulb went off and the MC chapter may be closed, but working on my game isn't. To just walk off and quit would be giving up on all the hard work I put in for the last seven months. #MCGameChanger
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Sort of how I feel Matt. I made some strides, but plenty of work left to do. I like the challenge.
 
Spent 1.5 hours on the local par three course, just hitting irons & working on approach shots & pitches (it's not worth scewing up my putting stroke on their shaggy, wet greens). I'm really encouraged by the progress I'm seeing - my misses are getting smaller & I'm starting to hit a lot more greens, even from 160-170 out.

Most of all, I'm seeing my distances go up and my typical ball flight is now a slight draw. I can't believe how well I'm hitting my 5 iron & even my 4 iron - nice, high draw that's settling nicely on the green. I'm just trying not to overswing & let the club do the work, and I'm starting to collect the ball on the center of the clubface. I'm starting to understand what the instructors on TV mean when they say "effortless power". Most of my golfing life I've been in the "powerless effort" camp. I feel like using the Orange Whip has developed my shoulder turn & using my core muscles to put a good swing on the ball. My thought is just to "brush the grass" or "clip the tee".
 
I have found something and am happy with my ball striking, but it's a matter of keeping it solid every time I go out. It seems like there are times where a hitch shows up and it ends up unraveling my game for a little bit, so I'm working on tightening that up, realizing what I'm doing, and getting back to snuff much quicker.

At this point though, I think I'm getting a little too over analytic, so I think will be taking a little hiatus from the lessons. I have a few key swing thoughts that I want to keep focusing on and if I start missing, take more of a relaxed approach and just get back to fundamentals. We'll see how that goes.
 
Short day at work so I hit the range before house duties called.

Goal #1 was to correct the push or fade I've been hitting lately which has killed the last several rounds especially with driver.

Goal #2 was to fix the 3wd

#1's cause showed up after I laid a rod on my target line and then took the club back well inside of it- HELLO OTT swing worked on taking the club head straight back(hands consistent distance from body) this solved the push or fade I was hitting and I had a straight ball flight and could draw it if I wanted.

#2's issue was mental causing a physical reaction- I was tensing up knowing I pull 3wd because it's the "SAFE or SAFER" option off the tee and that caused tension cause I didn't wanna miss. A little tempo and relaxation work and I was back on the level with it.

Irons were solid today as well and I worked on keep the club head from coming inside with them as well.

Playing lesson scheduled for Friday.
 
Time for me to spend a ton of time putting. I'm sick of not breaking my goal of 80 because of things like 35 putts!!!
 
Hawk said:
Sort of how I feel Matt. I made some strides, but plenty of work left to do. I like the challenge.
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There definitely was a different feel to it. Couldn't have been to bad as I'm going out for another practice session tomorrow.
 
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