The THP Range/Practice Thread

[UglySwing]

Hit 80 balls, a handful of them irons and 3W, the rest all wedges.
Putted for 10 minutes.

I like this practice routine for me:
-a couple minutes on getting off the tee successfully (usually with a 3W)
-99% of the rest of the time with wedges within 100 yards
-putting

It seems like my game has improved much more, and much faster this way (opposed to all long irons and driver previously).

 

[Floppy]

Hit 80 balls, a handful of them irons and 3W, the rest all wedges.
Putted for 10 minutes.

I like this practice routine for me:
-a couple minutes on getting off the tee successfully (usually with a 3W)
-99% of the rest of the time with wedges within 100 yards
-putting

It seems like my game has improved much more, and much faster this way (opposed to all long irons and driver previously).

I'm somewhat similar. I like to warm up with a wedge (1/2 shot, 3/4 shot, then full shots), graduate to a mid-iron, then work on the tee, and then end with the wedge again. Then move on to putting and chipping.

 

[LeftySean]

Went through a small bucket at the range, and was quite disappointed. You'd think I'd just taken my first golf lesson yesterday if you were watching.

Poor practice today on the heels of a very poor 9 hole round yesterday... I guess I need to see my instructor again, and I guess we'll go over the same things we've gone over the last 5 times I've seen him.

It would be fascinating to find out why none of this instruction or practice results in any permanent improvement. As soon as I start making progress, it just all goes away.

 

[Floppy]

Went through a small bucket at the range, and was quite disappointed. You'd think I'd just taken my first golf lesson yesterday if you were watching.

Poor practice today on the heels of a very poor 9 hole round yesterday... I guess I need to see my instructor again, and I guess we'll go over the same things we've gone over the last 5 times I've seen him.

It would be fascinating to find out why none of this instruction or practice results in any permanent improvement. As soon as I start making progress, it just all goes away.

That's the game we all choose to play. One day you're making progress and looking good, and the next day you look like a caveman swinging a mailbox.

 

[Spivey]

Had a lesson today - worked exclusively on 20-35 yd pitch shots, which were my nemesis over the weekend.
Turns out that I was falling into old habits (sway backwards, club travels too far around the body rather than down the target line). After 10 min of killing worms, I got things fixed, spent the rest of the lesson hitting the green, taking smaller divots, and seeing better results.
Then, changed things up a bit, opened the face and the stance, hit flop shots, with mostly good results.
Overall, pretty good, but I need to practice to make perfect.

 

[russtopher]

The THP Range/Practice Thread

Another early school dropoff for my son meant a quick trip over to the range before work. In hindsight, it wasn't the best of ideas, as my back was a bit stiff yesterday and feels worse this afternoon now.

I mostly worked on short wedges & distance/direction aiming at the 50 and 100 yard markers; both distance and direction was an issue a few times on Sunday. Driver was so-so, I hit a lot more slices than normal when I'm trying to hit my stock fade. I know the trend is to tee it high to almost force an upward hit with the driver for more distance, but it seems like teeing it a bit lower gives me much better dispersion.

The few long irons & fairways I hit off the deck were decent, which was good to see.


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[arydolphin]

I had a lesson earlier today. I told my coach that I was really struggling with the driver, but he wanted me to warm up with some iron swings before we got into the driver. With the iron swing, I was trying to turn my shoulders so much that I was coming out of my spine angle and lifting up with my upper body, which got me all out of whack on the downswing. What we focused on with the irons is feeling my front shoulder moving more downward early in the backswing and trying to stop my backswing when my front shoulder hits my chin. I had to slow down my backswing to do that, and what felt like I was swinging at 75% resulted in better distance with my 7 iron.

With the driver, I've been struggling with the ball going too far left. Of course, today when I was hitting shots, I wasn't hitting quick hooks, but the contact wasn't great. My coach took a can of foot spray and put it on the clubface, and pretty much every shot was low and off the heel area of the club. We made a couple of tweaks with my setup: stand what feels like much further away from the ball, and align the toe of the clubface with the ball before I take the club back. We also tried the slower backswing with the driver that I had been doing with the 7 iron. This was the result of those changes in terms of where impact occurred on the club face:

Also fun to see on the launch monitor: my ball speeds with the driver were in the 150s, with a high of 159. Last year during my club fitting, I was in the high 140s. I've gained at least 5 mph in swing speed since starting lessons with this coach. We have a 9-hole playing lesson set for Friday, I'm really looking forward to it.

 

[Spivey]

Practice today - started with putting, played the clock drill and trying to keep 30 ft putts within 3 ft of the hole. Not very successful.
Moved to 25 yd and 35 yd pitch shots. Things are getting pretty solid, just have to remember my little thoughts about swinging down the target line and making sure I extend my right arm thru impact.
Then off to the range for wedges, and moved thru the even numbers in my bag.
Ended with driver - the club that kills my score. Hit some really good shots, including 10 in a row, almost exactly on line. Ended my driver session with (in order) two draws, one fade, and one straight - all of which were my swing goal.
Back to wedges, and short pitch and chips. I even played the "two hop and stop" game around the green with good success!
Then off to the putting green again, where I spent some time on uphill and downhill 40 ft putts. Finished up by draining a 40 ft downhill putt into the practice (small) hole, not the full size hole.
Capped everything off with a blue cheese burger and sweet potato fries!!

 

[Canes]

Tonight's range session started with a couple drills I learned from the weekend. Slow takeaway feeling the club in front of me upright to 3/4 backswing, pause and hit the ball. After warming up I placed an alignment stick 4 inches or so behind the ball and if I swing inside-out I'd hit the stick. It happened a few times but that's expected. 3W was great but driver started off with blocks and hooks. A better, straight back takeaway and more OTT feel on the downswing helped me hit straight to slight draw drives. I hope I can take this to the course tomorrow.

 

[ArmyGolf]

Mondays range session was alright but not as solid as I was looking for. After a couple months of great golf I'm coming off a bit of an off-week and was just trying to get back to what was making me successful.
A bit of a block to the right has crept in and its leading to me overcompensating and introducing a two-way miss. Not happy about that.

Playing a round tonight after work and we'll see if I can get things straightened out.

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[captaincaution]

Yesterday I got out to the range for a small bucket where I wanted to focus on my driver, as I've been missing a lot with it lately. Got the alignment sticks down and really focused on alignment and a smooth swing. With the forward ball position, what I thought was square alignment was really too far open. Started to hit some very straight drives and some draws as well. When I got too quick, I was missing, so I need to remember to focus on tempo when I'm on the tee. Got a few videos for Freddie to take a peek at.

Alignment, alignment, alignment!

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[Six4three5]

Had a really great range session on Monday. Smoking the ball with just about every single club which was refreshing after how poorly I've been playing and striking the ball.

Yesterday was more of the struggling. Couldn't get comfortable over the ball with anything other than a wedge. Actually shanked a few with the 7 iron and the 5 iron was a complete and utter disaster. Going to shut down the full swing for a few weeks other than league nights on Thursdays and try to reset. I'll work on chipping and putting, but I need something to change. Hoping a reset will do the trick.

 

[DrMWP]

Played 16 holes (two holes closed due to flooding) didn't keep score and worked on short game. I had a 90 yd shot, hit a gap wedge off my back foot and actually got it to spin back.


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[Spivey]

Had a really great range session on Monday. Smoking the ball with just about every single club which was refreshing after how poorly I've been playing and striking the ball.

Yesterday was more of the struggling. Couldn't get comfortable over the ball with anything other than a wedge. Actually shanked a few with the 7 iron and the 5 iron was a complete and utter disaster. Going to shut down the full swing for a few weeks other than league nights on Thursdays and try to reset. I'll work on chipping and putting, but I need something to change. Hoping a reset will do the trick.

Your range session yesterday was mine a month ago. I did not swing a club for a week, everything went back to normal.

 

[Six4three5]

Your range session yesterday was mine a month ago. I did not swing a club for a week, everything went back to normal.

Sometimes I really think I can play/practice too much. I haven't really had a break for more than a couple of days for probably over a year and a half.

 

[TheDoctor]

With the driver, I've been struggling with the ball going too far left. Of course, today when I was hitting shots, I wasn't hitting quick hooks, but the contact wasn't great. My coach took a can of foot spray and put it on the clubface, and pretty much every shot was low and off the heel area of the club. We made a couple of tweaks with my setup: stand what feels like much further away from the ball, and align the toe of the clubface with the ball before I take the club back.

Also fun to see on the launch monitor: my ball speeds with the driver were in the 150s, with a high of 159. Last year during my club fitting, I was in the high 140s. I've gained at least 5 mph in swing speed since starting lessons with this coach. We have a 9-hole playing lesson set for Friday, I'm really looking forward to it.

I have started to do this and it made such a difference for me as well - contact ended up being a lot more in the centre of the clubface but now I need to nail down the tee height and ball position properly to try and reduce the dispersion up and down the face. Little bit difficult to do when hitting off mats but I think I am getting there

Sometimes I really think I can play/practice too much. I haven't really had a break for more than a couple of days for probably over a year and a half.

I wish I had half as much game as you Jimmy, but you do play a bit more than I do so maybe I will have to settle for a quarter of it instead

 

[Six4three5]

I wish I had half as much game as you Jimmy, but you do play a bit more than I do so maybe I will have to settle for a quarter of it instead

Haha I appreciate it buddy. Tell ya tho nobody would want the game or lack of that I'm working with right now.

 

[TheDoctor]

Haha I appreciate it buddy. Tell ya tho no buddy would want the game or lack of that I'm working with right now.

I bet your bad game will still top my good game on any day of the week though

I played with a 2 handicapper a few weeks ago and he was disappointed with his lack of birdies and "only" shooting 77 on a course he had never played before!?!?!?!?

 

[Hamfist]

I bet your bad game will still top my good game on any day of the week though

I played with a 2 handicapper a few weeks ago and he was disappointed with his lack of birdies and "only" shooting 77 on a course he had never played before!?!?!?!?

Sounds like Canadan at Valhalla.

 

[russtopher]

Really frustrated with my driver this week. My usual cut was more of a fade/slice this weekend, and the last two range sessions it's just gotten worse. Today I tried to figure things out, and I went straight to hooking again. Never a middle ground with me.

After the bucket was done, out of frustration I grabbed my 3w and two shag balls and nailed them both dead straight. Mental, this game is.


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[wadesworld]

Why is it you can hit 50 9-irons and have them bounce within a 10-yard circle of a flag on the range, but when you have to hit a 40-yard wide green with a 9-iron, you miss it by 20 yards?

 

[arydolphin]

Why is it you can hit 50 9-irons and have them bounce within a 10-yard circle of a flag on the range, but when you have to hit a 40-yard wide green with a 9-iron, you miss it by 20 yards?

Perhaps because you never get to hit 50 9-irons in a row on the course?

Just something I've been reading recently, that players get better by changing clubs with every shot on the range instead of just hitting the same club over and over.

 

[greggdrews]

Played a round at my home course that turned out to be a bit of on course range time. With heavy rain and the fact that it doesn't drain well I lost a few balls just off of the green. At that point I just started hitting my drive, picking up the ball and setting it at a yardage and position to practice certain clubs from. If I hit a poor shot, I dropped another ball to hit. I also did the same thing with putting, almost doing the clock drill around the holes. I wasn't holding up anyone so I took my time. What started as a miserable round turned out to be great practice.

 

[Six4three5]

Well with the struggling full swing, I decided to hit the chipping and putting green today and I was so pleased it's not even funny. I'm thinking about staying there for awhile till something clicks with the full swing. I was chipping EVERYTHING to within 2-3 feet it was ridiculous. From different distances and different types of chips, pitches, flops, didn't matter just had a really great feel today with the 60*

Putting was great too. Decided to bring the Oddy #1W and I was very pleased. I can't deny the roll that face puts on the ball it's remarkable. I did the gate drill from 5-10-15 feet and I'd have to say for the most part from 5 feet I was about 90% 10 feet was 70% and 15 feet was 70%. Only reason I got those numbers was because I was putting 10 balls and going off of that.

 

[T2GRN18]

Just returned for an extended range/practice session. I went prepared with distances of all the par 3s we will see in Myrtle Beach. Just hitting different shots and visualizing each shot. Over all my ball striking right now feels very solid. I didn't hit anything above 5 iron tonight. I spent the majority of my time with PW -LW in my hand. Working trajectory and moving up and down the grip to control distances. I had the tendency to get a little steep and peel some very impressive divots. 6543 helped me out with a swing thought that really helped. I was seeing a much smaller divot and much better distance control. Finished up chipping to get to feeling the shot instead making it a mechanical shot.