The THP Range/Practice Thread

Kinda a frustrating day yesterday at the range. Nothing felt right, my 6i felt completely alien to me and everything felt rushed/forced. Need to find a way to unwind from work before I grab a club so it doesn't carry over.

Today is short game practice day. Plan to spend some time honing my stock chip distances, and i'm working on adding a bump and run into my short game.
 
Having never taken lessons and looking to improve with a pro, I bit on the discounted package of 8 lessons at the local range with reputable pros. Quick 30 minute session - what an eye opening experience. He told me for someone who has never taken lessons my swing is actually great but my grip was all out of whack. Spent all 30 minutes changing up the grip and talking about hands and wrist. I'm going to try to do the other 7 lessons over the next couple months. After that, I totally understand the value of checking in with a pro for a quick sessions once in a while to stay on track.

The pro asked me what my overall goal was and I said well for starters it'd be nice to break 100 haha. FWIW, he said he thought with my swing he thinks I should be below 100 already. So that's a positive note to motivate me.
 
Hit a large bucket at the range today. I was taking 4-5 half swings and working on moving the hands through first and keeping them in tight to the body and letting the club release. Then I'd hit 2-3 3/4 swing balls and then back to the drill. It was a very windy day (blowing straight at me) so this practice also let me see how this little punch shot can work for me too.

Planning on doing this again tomorrow.
 
Hit the range for an hour or so yesterday to try and get my swing back in a bit more sync

Wind was into and off the right so judging the shots was difficult as it picked up quite a bit, but I only saw a couple shots move left to right - most started on my target line and drifted left on the wind so quite happy with the session

Messed about a little bit opening up my 58° wedge and hitting flop shots off the mats got fun with good results so might even try it next time I am out on the course
 
Range day with @Scrappy Scambler

we both worked some stuff out. Lots of wind made it interesting though.

I love hitting the range balls that are past their prime. Its funny to see their dive bomb flight or knuckle ball flight.
 
I was back at the range today for a large bucket and was practicing on getting my hands through earlier and releasing better. The work is starting to pay off, but also can turn into that week, right shot still at times. Playing tomorrow and Wednesday, but will be practicing the other days of the week.
 
Went to the pitching area this morning and worked on 30 yard through 120 yards shots moving 10 yards each time. I hit about 20 shots from each spot and trying various clubs on the longer shots. Then went to the range by my house and hit a large bucket with the hybrids, fairway woods and driver.
 
Went to the range today. Here in Seattle, it's around 32, and snow showers. Right when I arrived, it started snowing. It was a new feeling hitting balls in the snow! (Covered, heated range but there was wind blowing in so snow still hitting me) Trying to get used to this new neutral grip that was corrected to be from a very strong grip last week by an instructor. Grip feels a little more natural today but the rest of the swing feels off now. part of the process I suppose. Trying to get to the point where I can have some confidence in hitting the ball. The new grip, however, has eliminated wild left/right misses (The instructor said exactly this). The grip, I was told, would keep the balls in a narrower left/right area and I can work on other things to gain consistency and distance from there on. I hope I'll get to that point soon. I did hit some of the best drives I've ever hit today, for me, it's crazy seeing the ball shoot out dead straight. Top tracer had flat carry at 220yds on the best shot which isn't monster I know, but a really good result for me.
 
Kinda a frustrating day yesterday at the range. Nothing felt right, my 6i felt completely alien to me and everything felt rushed/forced. Need to find a way to unwind from work before I grab a club so it doesn't carry over.

Today is short game practice day. Plan to spend some time honing my stock chip distances, and i'm working on adding a bump and run into my short game.
How often do you go to the range? Any do you have a routine? I try to carve out time for a large bucket, and hit 6-8 balls with every club, then spend a little extra time on long irons, PW, and anything else that wasn't making clean contact.
 
I'm using my Power Package training aid every night. Taking lessons about 1-2 weeks.
 
Played The Old Course at lunch. MSU Forest Akers driving range has Top Tracer Range. Heater kept it nice enough to take my puffy jacket off after a few holes. One of my fingers still got a little numb. Highlight was a nice drive over the hotel on 17.

Was struggling with the driver a bit. Figured out a little something to hit several good tee balls in a row. 50 yard pitches were pulling a lot early on. Figured that out as well by the end. Really enjoyable practice session to break up the work day.


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Great session tonight right after a 40 minute HIIT / cross training class. A little fatigue let me swing with a nice tempo and it felt easy tonight. Best range session I've had in a while
 
@isuckatgolf I typically get a large bucket and alternate days hitting my 5-7 or 6-8. This is after hitting 15-20 shots at whatever distance the closest flag is that day. Still trying to figure out distances with my new JPX Hot Metal Pros. Then I'll usually have 6-8 shots with driver and 4W towards end of session and then from those clubs to the wedges again. Then off to putting green for close in chips and putts. I definitely need to put in more time on the short game, but am somewhat holding out for an outdoor lesson on these aspects of my current game. I've been averaging 31 Putts, so don't feel like that is "killing" my game at the moment. I am still missing plenty of greens pin high or flying them with my new clubs, when I flush them.
 
How often do you go to the range? Any do you have a routine? I try to carve out time for a large bucket, and hit 6-8 balls with every club, then spend a little extra time on long irons, PW, and anything else that wasn't making clean contact.
Yeah Im Fortunate enough to go about twice a week (live in Texas). And yes, I spend first 1/3 rd working on swing motions or exaggerating different feels. 2/3 rd is hitting actual shots to targets thinking less about swing work I was just doing, but still a little. The three final 1/3 I do an internal competition to see how many shots our of 10 I can convert. I generally get 60-70% every shot is different and I try not to think about swing thoughts.
 
So I don’t post in this thread much but had some crazy goings on at the range today. Now keep in mind one of the big issues I have always had is getting my right elbow way up high in my backswing. I feel like this comes from playing baseball as a kid and being taught that move for more power. This tends to lead to inconsistent ball striking, over the top swings, poor path, and just a failure overall to return the club and my hands to a good position at impact. In other words, it gets ugly.

I have been making a conscious effort to keep that right elbow under control and my path and ball striking has been extremely good. I have been working on a few other minor things too but that has been the main thing.

That leads me to today. I had a little time to kill this afternoon so I stopped at the range to hit a few. I did my normal warmup starting with a few pitch shots with my Gap Wedge and then some full swings. My main intention was working on some long irons and hybrids. Normally I would either hit a few PW next or skip to my 7i but for some reason I decided to just go from GW to 9i and after a few balls 7i then a few more and 5i.

This is where it got a bit crazy. I pull the 9i and flush one further then normal. Ok that’s odd so I hit another. Another pure long strike. I mean my divots consisted more of discolored turf then down to dirt pure.

Confused, I pull the 7i. Same deal pure strikes one after another and significantly longer then normal. After a few 7i, I realize I just feel faster. Couldn’t put a finger on it but just felt fast and was not losing my swing path I had been working on.

5i was next which I can rarely hit well. Not today though. Flushed with perfect path and contact and again much longer then even my rare solid strikes previously.

For the sake of experimenting, I grabbed the 4H. It’s pretty consistently 200 yards for me with a solid strike. Today they were pure time and time again with a few nearing 230-235.

I finally realized something. I used to have a huge turn but it was out of control because that right elbow would fly up. Today, I was maintaining the correct posture and path like I had been working on but I was taking a larger turn then I have in a long time. It wasn’t even something I was intending to do or trying to do I just was. I guess I am starting to get comfortable with what I have been working on and just went back to a longer turn without even thinking about it.

I am just concerned now because I know me and I will start swinging to hard to see those long flying balls and then it will all go down the tube again. Now I have to make a conscious effort to relax and just continue my relaxed swing and remember that the longer strikes are coming from the larger turn and that is why I feel faster not because I was trying to kill it arm swinging.

Just wanted to share a bit. I was completely shocked there for a while and to a certain degree still am.
 
Had today off but just wasn’t feeling a round of Golf. No motivation to play 18 despite some availability with morning tee times.

So I decided to just chip, pitch, and putt today. I came away feeling good and happy to just practice that.

I struggle with tight lies and typically just grab the hybrid and knock it on the green 100% of the time. Few times when I’d try a chip I’d just chunk dirt and hit the ball 5 feet in front of me.

So I tried a firmer grip from tight lies and had some success with it, enough to continue trying it and see how it’ll work.

Went to about 40 yards off the green and took out some fat divots while striking the ball nicely. I did have 1 shank, but it wasn’t off the hosel, think I just held onto the club too long.

Finally ended with putting and walked away very very happy. I’m sticking with this knee bend that I started doing recently and a firm grip. It helps me keep the putter low and I was very happy with the roll, even on some 40 foot putts.

Walked off and went home content. Good practice.


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Hit the range again today - hitting it about 3 times a week right now. 2 lessons in as well. I'm finally feeling like things are coming together a little bit. I still have a long ways to go, of course. But I hit several good ones with the driver today and actually somewhat consistently hit my woods off the mat which I always had a problem with. I happened to be at the range at the busiest time and top tracer was not available. I'll be going back tomorrow morning and checking out how I'm hitting it. I think I'm carrying my driver 220+ right now? this is a huggee deal to me!)

That said, shorter clubs, 7 and down, which I never really had problems with, I didn't hit well today at all. It's just an ongoing process I suppose. Planning on hitting the range again tomorrow morning for a quick session and probably another lesson on Friday morning.
 
i was able to get some swings on video this week. i sent them to some grandaddy teammates because we have some serious sticks in our group. they identified that my backswing was short (has been as long as i can remember), but also my hips were too passive.

@NoShanks sent me this clip of a drill/feel to get the hips properly engaged.

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it made a lot of sense. so i went to the range today and got a few range balls to practice with.

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i wanted to take 3 full backswings before each shot. and focus on the only downswing move as the hip rotation above. i hit every club in the bag, and plowed through over 200 balls in a little over 2 hours. i was so happy with the results! i feel like i’m onto something here.

even after all of those balls, i was still making good swings and seeing nice results. this was my 8i after hitting the last 10 balls. progress.

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Did some practice swings into my net. Really trying to find my address position with my improved wrist softness. I’ve realized lately that my address is not consistent. Need to get more range time to work on it.
 
I hit about 500 putts in the basement today and another 200 chip shots. I'm trying to get things tuned up for my boy's Super Bowl weekend in Phoenix. I'm super encouraged by the changes I've made in my putting set up.
 
I took advantage of the CC membership benefits and booked an hour on the sim. Decided to focus on the driver swing so only hit a few irons. HIt maybe 30 shots with PW and 7i and they were on fire. Great grouping and pretty consistent attack angles. I've been working on keeping my hands closer to my body at impact to have more of a negative swing direction at impact to help AoA and face to path. And its working. Had a series of 4 shots back to back with my 7 iron where the avg carry was 172 yards, spin around 6000rpm, and my total ( sum of all 4 shots ) off the center line was 5 1/2 feet. Average AoA of the 4 shots was -5.2 and swing dir was -3.2. Right in the range where I want them to be.

Then moved on to the Driver. This was feast or famine for me. The best thing I can say was that the shot shapes were all consistent small draws to hooks, but my ball striking was horrible. Swing speed was low and ball speed was about 4- 5 mph lower than normal. I had a few shots that I struck well and was up in my normal 106-108 mph range. Just wasn't having a good day with the driver.
 
Snuck in some time to hit a bucket this aft. Worked on trail elbow position and took my time with my drill the hitting the ball. Had a lot of great shots and nothing heading right or left.
 
Took a the new/prize irons to the range, had to adjust to the lighter weight but they felt really nice

Started off a little low
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But then really felt I could get steeper and was making great contact.. there's 5 shots on this:
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Sending my iron set off to be reshafted in the morning. They will probably be gone about a week and a half. In the meantime, I have a new wedge, 4I, and driver that should all be here this week. I thinking this is a great time for me to work on driver, long irons, full wedges, partial wedges, chipping, bunkers, and putting. Lately the focus had all been irons and I am thinking I might be able to make some other progress without even having my irons around to distract me. Should be a lot easier to practice with a purpose. My plan until my irons return is spend a range session on just the driver, one on just the 4i, one in just the new wedge, and then a day on the putting green. Might mix in a small bit of each on each day but have 1 day each to focus on just that thing.
 
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