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The THP Range/Practice Thread

After having hit the ball like a champ last Monday, playing reasonable on Wednesday I had indoor practice today. Nothing, and I mean nothing went right. Hitting everything off the hosel or pushing the ball out to the right so feeling like I'm right back where i was a couple of month ago. Pretty frustrating, but i'll be back out there tomorrow hoping things look a little brighter.
 
Got a good range session in before the rain. I was able to spend an additional 30 minutes on the putting green as well.
 
Practices like the one today are so encouraging. Swung the two new clubs from Maltby, a 6i and a 3h, both felt great. Tried to concentrate on backswing path and wrist hinge and then a slower transition and increasing speed through impact. Felt like I was getting good weight shift and hands in front at impact. I'm not sure if that's what was actually happening, but I felt really good. Didn't want to burst that bubble by taking video.
 
I've been working on an slower and smoother tempo with the 6i and trying to relax my wrists throughout the swing. Tonight I took the mat outside so I could see what kind of ball flight I was getting by swinging that way. Turns out it produces an impressive slice.

In addition to an extremely open face, the path is really cutting across the ball. I thought getting my weight forward would help improve the path, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

So I'm back to the feeling of extending my trail arm through and after impact. That seemed to help.. a little, but man, it's not looking good for the better start to the season I'd been hoping for.
 
Range sessions the past 2 days trying to get comfy with a grip change. No problem on the range. Gonna need to get my head wrapped around it because our in the track my feeling is not as comfy.
 
does anyone else play 2 balls at once during practice rounds? I don't but an older gentleman I see pretty regularly at my local course does...I am contemplating trying this out when there's no one else around.
 
I hit around 90 wedge shots today. I used my SW, and PW.

I did this in three separate sessions of 15, 30, and 60 yards. These are all +/- yardages.

Although hitting good shots was important, my main focus was on my hands leading the club head at impact, and turning my hips, and upper torso correctly on the downswing.
 
Last night was a night where you did not want to hit a thin shot......stinging fingers for the next few shots if you did (and I hit a couple whilst warming up)

Once I got warmed up, I worked through the half dozen clubs I took to the range. It was mainly the long clubs (driver, 3W, ZU85 2i) although I also brought a couple wedges as well to work on hitting targets with different length swings

Overall it was a good session despite the cold, driver was pretty much a stripe show, 3w off the tee I was hitting nice little draws, 2i was a little bit hit and miss for some reason so that will get some work next time
7i was hitting my target 99% of the time, then I had my PW, 54 and 58 to work on hitting to the same target with each club
 
Very poor practice session outdoors today. Started out trying to focus on shaft lean as I'd been doing indoors, ended by failing to make decent contact. Lots of keeping my weight back, something I hadn't been doing indoors.
There's something I'm altogether missing with the golf swing. The only time I get good ball flight and decent distance is when I pull the ball. I'm simply unable create an out-to-in swing. When I aligned a bit to the right, I hit a couple good shots. But that's a bandaid fix - and it's not like it was working that well.

New season, better attitude, same difficulties. Kind of hard to stay positive.
 
Didn't know that with GCQuad I could pick a course/hole at select shots to practice. Worked on driver with Pebble Beach 18 and used a couple of Cog Hill holes to practice 160, 140, 100, and 70 approach shots. So much better than hitting on the "range."
 
Some much needed range time to shake loose some cob webs, and work stress

20200304_174018.jpg
 
I've started recording my swing in practice sessions and have realized that my swing flaws have crept back in
 
Nice sim session today. Spent 30 min setting up shots and working on small wrist and elbow changes in my backswing. Those changes paid dividends with face control at impact. Played Pebble Beach front 9 and shot -1. Sim round but still nice for me.
 
I managed to make my divots all in line at the range.
 
Here is some advice a single digit hcp player told me.
The way he got better by determining the distance of each swing + club.
He would hit several shots with an iron with a 9 o'clock swing, then a 10 o'clock swing, and a 11 o'clock swing.
Then he would pace off the distance the balls went for each swing.
He said he put white labels on the shaft with the numbers: 9 - __yds, 10 - __yds, 11 - __yds
Every iron in his bag had tape for all three swing yardages.
On the course he determined the yardage and decided on the loft to match the wind conditions/elavation, then referred to the tape on his irons.
This gentleman was in his early 60's and only had one or two bogeys whilst the rest of his holes were pars.
 
Goin4Par said:
Here is some advice a single digit hcp player told me.
The way he got better by determining the distance of each swing + club.
He would hit several shots with an iron with a 9 o'clock swing, then a 10 o'clock swing, and a 11 o'clock swing.
Then he would pace off the distance the balls went for each swing.
He said he put white labels on the shaft with the numbers: 9 - __yds, 10 - __yds, 11 - __yds
Every iron in his bag had tape for all three swing yardages.
On the course he determined the yardage and decided on the loft to match the wind conditions/elavation, then referred to the tape on his irons.
This gentleman was in his early 60's and only had one or two bogeys whilst the rest of his holes were pars.
Click to expand...
Goin4Par said:
Here is some advice a single digit hcp player told me.
The way he got better by determining the distance of each swing + club.
He would hit several shots with an iron with a 9 o'clock swing, then a 10 o'clock swing, and a 11 o'clock swing.
Then he would pace off the distance the balls went for each swing.
He said he put white labels on the shaft with the numbers: 9 - __yds, 10 - __yds, 11 - __yds
Every iron in his bag had tape for all three swing yardages.
On the course he determined the yardage and decided on the loft to match the wind conditions/elavation, then referred to the tape on his irons.
This gentleman was in his early 60's and only had one or two bogeys whilst the rest of his holes were pars.
Click to expand...
Its
Goin4Par said:
Here is some advice a single digit hcp player told me.
The way he got better by determining the distance of each swing + club.
He would hit several shots with an iron with a 9 o'clock swing, then a 10 o'clock swing, and a 11 o'clock swing.
Then he would pace off the distance the balls went for each swing.
He said he put white labels on the shaft with the numbers: 9 - __yds, 10 - __yds, 11 - __yds
Every iron in his bag had tape for all three swing yardages.
On the course he determined the yardage and decided on the loft to match the wind conditions/elavation, then referred to the tape on his irons.
This gentleman was in his early 60's and only had one or two bogeys whilst the rest of his holes were pars.
Click to expand...
I AGREE 100% EVERY PLAYER HAS TO KNOW WHAT DISTANCE EACH CLUB GOES ..
CARRY & APPROX ROLL
Especially the wedges the flop- pitch - chip...

I have a range finder that I use only in practice . I just bought a Garmin S10 for $100 works great on the course. I can tell u by heart the CARRY & ROLL for each club .
But that's in ideal conditions.
So now I'm learning to adjust for wind . It is challenging!!! But I love it . I love to practice...try different shots
 
I have played around 45-50 rounds since the beginning of last year and I can state that I still don't fully know my distances. I am getting better at them, but not there yet. I think I have too much inconsistency in my iron game and swing to really know these.

Thinking of irons and hitting down making a divot after the ball, one thing I have found around here is that it is very difficult on the hard ground. Not only that it is hard on my body too when the clubs hits the ground. I think I will need to learn an adaptable swing to compensate for hard ground in this area. The ground in this part of the state is not all that forgiving. Well at least not on some of my shots. :ROFLMAO:

I remember watching Moe Norman and his divot was thin like a slice of bacon he would say. He could hit ball after ball and it took quite a while for him to leave any kind of divot. I would love to be able to get some control like that for these course around here, but cannot hit a million balls like he did to achieve that level of precision.
 
Played a small Par 3 course after work and had the whole place to myself. I teed up 2 balls each hole to try and work out these kinks.

I still couldn't find consistency but I think I found something...My grip pressure. I had a stretch of 2 holes where the ball flight was kind of mid-flight, not something you expect on a Par 3. The miss was left when prior rounds the miss was right. I noticed on the first ball I would grip the club tighter at impact. Then on the 2nd ball with a light grip pressure the ball went higher and further, hey who woulda thought!!

One Par 3 was 197 and I hit both hybrids smooth. High and straight, one left of the green, the other in the front greenside bunker.

So with the next hole I swung both irons calmly and had a much better result. Trusting the lighter grip will be my point of emphasis.
 
Honestly couldn't remember the last time I hit a ball, but managed to escape today before picking up my kid for a small bucket. Took my PW and 7i.

At first I could barely get anything airborne :eek::eek: Took me like a dozen balls of troubleshooting to start making contact in areas near the sweet spot. Had my swing fault on full display, apparently - early extension since I was coming in heavily toe down. I think it has a little to do with the backswing but more to do with sequencing. Worked a bit and started to make better contact. Sound off the irons improved as did ball flight in terms of height. Distance difference wasn't huge, which speaks to the forgiveness of the irons, but there was a lot more satisfaction. Went through a similar exercise with the 7i and finished with a decent strike.

Buddy REALLY REALL REALLY wants to play tomorrow but I don't know if I have time and honestly know the best thing for my game atm is more range time. Will probably play just to make him happy.
 
after my round, hit about 60 or so on the range with the SC300...that thing is so far off with distance...hitting balls past the 150yd marker with my 7 iron...SC300 is saying 127-130yds...
 
chile said:
after my round, hit about 60 or so on the range with the SC300...that thing is so far off with distance...hitting balls past the 150yd marker with my 7 iron...SC300 is saying 127-130yds...
Click to expand...
Maybe you should contact the manufacturer to see what is up with it. Also make sure the software is up to date. It may be defective. Mine is very close within a small amount which is workable. It does give the occasional shot that is way off like I hit a PW 175 yards or something, but those are only one-offs - maybe one out of 50-75 shots.

The driver can be off some, but not too bad. I just have to make sure the device is setting at the right distance which I find makes the biggest difference in properly captured shots. Also marked up scarred balls don't always register right. I think there are some youtube videos show the sc300 being tested with Trackman and being accurate up to around 180 yards.

When I went in for my fitting at CC my SC300 numbers were right on track within about 1-3 yards of the device that CC uses. I was certainly glad of that.
 
Did some game improvement in the garage on the SkyTrak. Probably did a bit to much and will feel it tomorrow, but may have had a eureka moment!
 
I had a lesson for the first time in a couple months yesterday. My instructor saw a pretty big issue right away and showed me on the video he took on his phone. Well, now I think I know what happened to my shoulder. Long story short we are basically rebuilding a decent amount of my swing.

With that said, I went to the range this morning at another local course because I happen to be right by it with some time to kill. The new stuff I am working on feels better on my shoulder but I had no control. I sprayed balls all over that range trying to break my bad habits and force some new muscle memory.

I got home this afternoon and had a bit more time to kill. I usually have some cheap used balls around I hit into the woods behind the house and then retrieve so I decided to try some more. It was a lot better this time around. I basically gave up on concentrating on every single thing we were trying to do and just focused on the biggest change. I just felt I had way too much running through my mind and was forcing everything unsuccessfully.

This time was a bit different. Contact was probably better then I have ever had and control started coming more naturally as I just totally didn’t think about it at all. It is far from perfect but a massive improvement in a quick timeframe for what to me is a large change. I am using a lot less effort and I feel like I am hitting it about as far and in some cases further. Ball flight is much better as I am delivering the club better and not adding loft with my swing. I wasn’t spraying balls all over the place either.

I did not hit a driver in the yard so I am not sure how that is going to go either. I am hoping to play tomorrow so we shall see if I can translate any of the good stuff to the course and hopefully the driver.
 
We took our weekly lesson today; I was swinging my irons very well so pleased about that.

The course was way more dead than usual but there were people around. Our local pro said he’s been busier than normal as many people who were sent home from their job came out this week to take lessons.

it’s good to see the courses trying so many things to minimize risk. Walking is definitely better than carts and even seeing some courses lift up the hole sleeve and if your put touches the rim, it counts as going in (so you don’t have to reach into the cup).

We just did our normal practice but was very nice to be outside
 
I really thought this year might be different (dumb). The one step forward, two steps back is getting old. Even a trend of really good practices sucks because it comes with the knowledge that not only will the success not last, it will turn into something so bad as to turn the whole experience into a giant waste of time. This game should be perfect for me, but it isn't. I've got to figure out a way to cut my losses.
 
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