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The THP Range/Practice Thread

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If your ball is on the apron or tightly mowed fairway, it is often safer to use a 3 wood or hybrid and play it like a putt. I used a 3 wood 3 times during yesterday's round from more than 7 yards off the green and got up and got up and down twice. A 6-8 iron is also a much better option than a wedge. The sooner you can get the ball on the ground the better, usually.
 
After hitting the range on the way to work today I am still amazed at how something so simple (taking the club straight back instead of taking it back to the inside) and swinging easy can make such a huge difference in how I am hitting the ball.

Life is good.......then I got to work.
 
Hit the range again tonight, hoping to figure out what I have been doing wrong since Saturday. I worked really slowly to start out and tought I noticed something right off the bat. I had moved my ball postion back slightly, not consciously, and my weight transfer was all jacked up, causing all kinds of problems. Once I got the weight transfer straightened out, I moved the ball position forward and walla, the ball flight had returned. Everything was working as it should again. Ended up hitting half of my bag to make sure that it worked from top to bottom of my bag. Will hit the range tomorrow to hopefully see similar results and then back onto the putting green.
 
Worked on alignment tonight and took some ideas from the tips that I was given. Good stuff! I set up to a target that was to the right of me and used two alignment sticks as a gate to hit the ball through and another to get my feet parallel to that line. Picked a spot about 5 yards right of the flag as my target line and it actually worked out. Still hit a few big hookers, but that's to be expected. The most important thing was that I started getting used to what I was looking at and how my body should feel when it was lined up right. Took it slow and hit each ball with purpose.

Finished off by hitting driver quite a bit. Wanted to hit the putting green, but also wanted to get home to see the kids. Kids won that battle, so putting will have to wait until next time.
 
That's the goal. It was shocking how different everything looked using that gate. Driver was probably the most different visually. I think I was flat out aligned right 15+ yards off the tee without realizing it.
 
Hawk said:
That's the goal. It was shocking how different everything looked using that gate. Driver was probably the most different visually. I think I was flat out aligned right 15+ yards off the tee without realizing it.
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I have this issue with the driver. I feel like I'm aiming in the first cut to the left of the fairway and that's usually about center fairway, actually, for me.

Had a great day at the range this evening. Getting really comfortable with the X Forged and was actually having my buddy that was there with me call shots. Fades, draws, the dreaded straight ball. I was hitting them all on command. I just need to get this to the course.

PLEASE, SWING, PLEASE COME WITH ME TO AN ACTUAL ROUND OF GOLF!!!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4
 
Had a really good session at the range tonight. Ball striking was solid except for a few iron swings that were just plain ugly. Finally started making some progress with the new R1 driver with high straight balls or just the slightest of fades. It too had a few ugly swings but all in all I was happy with the progress I made. Starting to feel more comfortable with it and moving further away from the ball by about an inch seemed to make a big difference and pretty much removed the fade. I may have gotten into a bad habit previously of standing too close to the ball. We shall see the next time I head out if I get the same results. I was hitting it higher than normal tonight which may not be a bad thing. I don't feel like the ball was ballooning but it might be a little too high especially into a wind but I won't know until I hit into one. It was dead calm tonight.
 
Hawk said:
That's the goal. It was shocking how different everything looked using that gate. Driver was probably the most different visually. I think I was flat out aligned right 15+ yards off the tee without realizing it.
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First time I started with the alignment I got that same crazy realization. My body was flat out cutting back through ultra closed to try and get the ball back to center at best.

When I step up onto the tee right now, I practice a couple swings towards an imperfection well behind the ball, which is weird for me, because I normally don't take practice swings with the driver. I know you're going to cure that sucker, just like I'm going to cure mine. Range time is a MUST!
 
I went to a course by work and hit a large bucket of balls, hit some putts and ate lunch today. It was a nice break from work. I was hitting my irons well. Nice and straight except for my 4 iron which is still hooking way too much. Oh we'll, just need to remember to play the draw with it! I struggled with the handful of drivers I hit. I think I need to just concentrate on drivers on my next trip.
 
I was working on creating and maintaining width in my backswing. It felt good.

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Was out on the range tonight and was mainly working on my driver. What I was working on was on my back swing I need to make sure i bend my right elbow more. Then the big ones I worked on were rotation on the downswing, and going in and out. I have a problem from going out to in on my downswing and causing a nasty slice. But felt tonight I could tell I am defiantly improving. Hoping to get out on the range with bhillin tomorrow night.
 
Hawk, I just saw your posts from yesterday, SO HAPPY that the alignment sticks worked well for you. It really sucks to make great contact and the result isn't good because you were aligned wrong.

I had a lesson with my coach today, and I finally told him that I wanted to make some changes to my swing to shorten it up. I didn't want to mess with it too much before the Morgan Cup, but now that it's over and I probably won't be in a competitive situation until next year sometime, I figured this was the time to do it. One thing I really like about my coach: he only has me work on 1 or 2 things at a time. So he told me what I need to feel is that I'm not hinging my wrists as much as I normally do on my swing, and to keep my right knee flexed to limit my backswing. On the wrist thing, I have to feel like my backswing looks like Steve Stricker. To get this feeling, he put a Swingyde on my club, but we didn't use it like most other people use it.

Most people use the Swingyde to increase wrist hinge and to get on plane, and they want the sensation of the Swingyde hitting their forearm in the backswing. Well, what he wants me to do is NOT have the Swingyde hit my forearm, because if it does, I have too much wrist hinge. I can do this very easily on slow practice swings, but on real swings it's much harder. What I figured out is that I almost have to feel like I'm only taking the club back to hip height, although it's much further. He did show me my swing on video without the Swingyde and with the Swingyde, and having the Swingyde in place probably took about 10% of my overswing away. My goal is to have my swing with short irons not go past parallel, and I still have a long way to go to do that. I did struggle a good bit at times when I was hitting balls after the lesson was over, but I also hit some really pure shots as well. I was hitting a 9 iron, and with what felt like a much shorter swing, I was seeing a little more distance as compared to my "regular" swing on good strikes. So that's promising. I know that I'll have good days and bad days with this swing transition, but I think that after considering it for a while, I'm finally going to commit to it.
 
What I figured out is that I almost have to feel like I'm only taking the club back to hip height, although it's much further.
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I know the feeling Amol. If I take what feels like a quarter-swing, I'm taking a full swing to vertical. If it's a three-quarter swing, the club is actually going all the way to horizontal.
 
wadesworld said:
I know the feeling Amol. If I take what feels like a quarter-swing, I'm taking a full swing to vertical. If it's a three-quarter swing, the club is actually going all the way to horizontal.[/COLOR]
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I always cringe when I see my swing on video. Even when I feel like I'm barely taking the club back, it's usually past parallel, it's awful.
 
blugold said:
I was working on creating and maintaining width in my backswing. It felt good.

ygusu9ad.jpg
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Nice width. However, -1 for lack of a duckface selfie.
 
I had an awesome practice session this afternoon. I went for about 90 minutes, and nearly an hour of it was on putting. I'm getting more comfortable with the new putting method, and it's becoming a more "unconscious" stroke, which is the goal. Rather than focusing on the setup/method, I really tried to focus on reading putts. I tried to spend a little more time seeing how the putt would break, especially on the last 1/3 of the putt. It is amazing how much better my putting can be when I put in the extra effort.

I will say, though, that I was a little aggravated at the greens keeper for the pin placements on the putting green today. Nearly every hole was right on a slope or on a really severe slope. It made reading the greens more challenging (which was a good thing), but the putts were incredibly difficult, which did not give much feedback. Still, a really good session. If nothing else, I am going to California as a better putter.


On the range, I worked on hitting choked-down shots with my irons. (I watched an old episode of playing with the pros with GMac, and he had a pretty lengthy discussion about it.) I was trying to focus on hitting a lot of different irons fully and then choking down on them to see the ball carry shorter. It's tough to do -- I really wanted to take a longer backswing when I was choked down. I think this could even become a drill for me when I think that I am getting too long in general with my backswing. When I went back to full shots, the swing stayed more compact, and contact was much crisper.
 
Thanks again for the help Ary. Your set up worked really well for me. Good luck on the long swing. I know from experience that it's just plain hard to deal with.
 
blugold said:
I was working on creating and maintaining width in my backswing. It felt good.

ygusu9ad.jpg
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This is exactly what my instructor wants me to focus on. I have a bad habit of curling my arms back at the top of my backswing, and I loose all that width.
 
ATLGolfer said:
I had an awesome practice session this afternoon. I went for about 90 minutes, and nearly an hour of it was on putting. I'm getting more comfortable with the new putting method, and it's becoming a more "unconscious" stroke, which is the goal. Rather than focusing on the setup/method, I really tried to focus on reading putts. I tried to spend a little more time seeing how the putt would break, especially on the last 1/3 of the putt. It is amazing how much better my putting can be when I put in the extra effort.

I will say, though, that I was a little aggravated at the greens keeper for the pin placements on the putting green today. Nearly every hole was right on a slope or on a really severe slope. It made reading the greens more challenging (which was a good thing), but the putts were incredibly difficult, which did not give much feedback. Still, a really good session. If nothing else, I am going to California as a better putter.


On the range, I worked on hitting choked-down shots with my irons. (I watched an old episode of playing with the pros with GMac, and he had a pretty lengthy discussion about it.) I was trying to focus on hitting a lot of different irons fully and then choking down on them to see the ball carry shorter. It's tough to do -- I really wanted to take a longer backswing when I was choked down. I think this could even become a drill for me when I think that I am getting too long in general with my backswing. When I went back to full shots, the swing stayed more compact, and contact was much crisper.
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Sounds like you may have read Dave Stockton's Unconscious Putting. Reading the last 1/3rd of the putt is what vexes me the most...It's just confounding how I often see the break exactly opposite to reality.
 
As for my own practice session tonight, it was all chipping and putting. Putting went OK, still can't figure out how the green slopes, even though I've been there many times...you'd think I would develop a memory for it. Apparently not.

Chipping....realized all my shorter chips kinda squirted left (push slice). Maybe this is the result of holding off the wrist action, i.e. making a putting like stroke? I'll assume "yes" and remind myself to aim a bit right.
 
Chipping....realized all my shorter chips kinda squirted left (push slice). Maybe this is the result of holding off the wrist action, i.e. making a putting like stroke? I'll assume "yes" and remind myself to aim a bit right.
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I have seen pros mention that you have to account for a bit of right movement if you're holding the face open after impact, so you're probably correct.
 
Had exclusively a short game lesson using 56* degree wedge. Worked on hitting 1/4,1/2,3/4 swings.
 
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