We've launched the new forums! Read more here

The THP Range/Practice Thread

I suppose I am in pre-season practice mode. Today was my 3rd sim session (started Feb 1), and the swing (and speed) is starting to come back to life. First session after 4 months, the swing was a hot mess. Second session I started well and then faded to all of my flaws. Today was good start to finish. Today I also played the back 9 on the sim-version of The Farms, one of my favorite sim courses.
 
Five consecutive days of practice, each with a COMMITTED 16-30 minute wedge session and even though I’m working out some swing demons, I can tell a difference.

Should rest this weekend….probably wont haha
 
Jman said:
Five consecutive days of practice, each with a COMMITTED 16-30 minute wedge session and even though I’m working out some swing demons, I can tell a difference.

Should rest this weekend….probably wont haha
Click to expand...
Have been following along closely. Looking forward to seeing your progress in 2024.
 
Setup a lesson for Tuesday to try and figure out the huge power leak with the driver right now.
 
Launch monitor time tomorrow, and hopefully answering some questions:
- should I put a 3w in the bag, or is the 5w close enough that I don't need it.
- want to test my old driver shaft against new
- maybe old 7i vs new 7i

If I am lucky the fitting cart is available too, build a hybrid and see if it works for me
 
Took the weekend off, but back at it today!

16 minutes of wedge work on release 1 and release 2

14 minutes of 50 and 70 yard targets

15 working mid irons

Testing on wedges and golf balls for review

Sim round

Then some PinSeeker.
 
A lot of good today.

A lot of ugly.

Just battling finding tempo, and staying in posture. But, a week in, there are more good swings than god awful ones, but bleh is still the majority.

Work work work work work.
 
Was at the range today really concentrating on trapping and punching shots today. Then went to partial wedge shots. I was starting to take full swings just to close things out when a couple came up and started to hit shots next to me. No big deal. The guy was older and his wife was there watching him. Whatever not my circus and not my monkeys. Well then she starts asking which club he is hitting. So he says PW and she is watching. Then he says 8i. After he hits a few shots she asked why the 8i isn't going farther. He mumbles something that I can't hear then hits another shot. She said yeah that is still not going further. At this point I am keeping my eyes in my bay as I don't want to be involved at all. He then says he is going to his 6i. Well the 6i does not go in the air at all. She then asks why were the clubs so expensive. I go to the club washer as I am about to laugh. I check out his bag and it is a PXG staff bag with a bunch of PXG clubs in it. I am not judging just an observation. I don't know PXG clubs well enough to know what they were but they were all PXG's. I then start taking driver swings and she said she is going home and he can meet her there. I have never seen that type of interaction before and never said anything to the guy. It was odd is all.
 
Consistent range session yesterday after work. Nowhere close to perfect, but seeing some consistency in my ball striking has me happy. Continuing to engrain feels and swinging no more than probably 80% on the high end, but a higher percentage of center-face strikes is seeing increased distance over my typical 90-100% swings.
 
Redd said:
Consistent range session yesterday after work. Nowhere close to perfect, but seeing some consistency in my ball striking has me happy. Continuing to engrain feels and swinging no more than probably 80% on the high end, but a higher percentage of center-face strikes is seeing increased distance over my typical 90-100% swings.
Click to expand...
I like that type of range session. Start with the ball on a low tee unless the grass is very good.

Using strike tape to check for center contact I start swinging slowly and then increase the speed until center contact is missed and/or ball flight is poor.

Just below that speed is then my "limit" for consistency.

Bonus points if you can hit 7/10 on the center with a long iron.
 
Spent the past few days working on 20-50 yard pitch shots with my wedges. I hit these shots over a bunker, with a 4' hill next to it. The pin is located 10-12 yards behind the hill.

Focus is on a nice easy swing, and letting the different club lofts, and back swing lengths do the work on the distances needed.

Also, I have started on a slight grip change for different situations. A little stronger to avoid problems on the right. A little weaker for problems on the left. These problems can either be on, or off the green.

As always I throw in some putting practice. I've been putting pretty well lately. I adjusted the putter's shaft to my stroke, and I have great fit now.

In between practice sessions, I've been playing 9 holes while still nursing a less than healthy knee. Just playing through some pain for some gain you might say.
 
WLG1952 said:
Spent the past few days working on 20-50 yard pitch shots with my wedges. I hit these shots over a bunker, with a 4' hill next to it. The pin is located 10-12 yards behind the hill.

Focus is on a nice easy swing, and letting the different club lofts, and back swing lengths do the work on the distances needed.

Also, I have started on a slight grip change for different situations. A little stronger to avoid problems on the right. A little weaker for problems on the left. These problems can either be on, or off the green.

As always I throw in some putting practice. I've been putting pretty well lately. I adjusted the putter's shaft to my stroke, and I have great fit now.

In between practice sessions, I've been playing 9 holes while still nursing a less than healthy knee. Just playing through some pain for some gain you might say.
Click to expand...
What was the adjustment you made to your putter shaft to better fit your stroke?
 
Birdman03 said:
What was the adjustment you made to your putter shaft to better fit your stroke?
Click to expand...
The putter I have had a loose shaft when I purchased. By moving it away from me, or towards me would change the where the the square to my line point was.

By standing on a square tile floor,, using the tile lines, I would square my stance up, then by moving the shaft out or in, i would square putter face with a tile line using my stroke. That tile line matched where my ball position would be.

Once I had everything squared up, I'd mark it, and go to the putting green . it took two trips. Once I had it dialed in, I epoxied it.
Some putters can't be adjusted this way.

On my blade putter, i used for 20+ years, using the floor tile lines i found I needed to grip the the club with a slightly open face to start my back stroke, to return it to square. I suspect some might find starting with a closed club face help return the club to square.

Others might find the square face with a different ball position in their stance.
 

Attachments

  • 20231229_162311.jpg
    20231229_162311.jpg
    62 KB · Views: 0
Just spent my lunch break at the range. Potentially one of the "best" range sessions I've ever had. Started off very rough, but couldn't get a feel for what was going wrong. The club champion from my home course happened to walk up, watch me hit two shots, and then made a recommendation that seemed to change everything. WIthout realizing, I have slowly crept my stance closer to my golf ball over the past few months so was standing too upright. He made a slight change to how far I was from the golf ball and I immediately saw better compression, much improved trajectory (I have been hitting very low), and improved distances. Proceeded to hit two of the most consistent buckets I've hit in a LONG time.
 
Headed to the range after work today. Need some practice chipping and then to full swings. I like where my game is right now but still lots of areas I can improve!!
 
So with maybe a month left in the offseason, it was time to admit something.

I skipped out of work for an hour on Friday, and went for a golf lesson.

I don't grip a golf club properly. I grip it so horrendously poorly, that it affects my entire setup. I'm always had problems getting my shoulders in the correct position, apparently this is because of how I hold the club.

I'm tapped out on what I can get out of my current swing. I don't generate a lot of speed, and the hope is that by changing my grip to a a proper, lets say "Hogan grip", that I might be able to unlock something more.

For The Grandaddy, I went a week before the event, and took a lesson that I just needed to get put into a position where I didn't thin/fat my way around the entire course after almost 3 months of not hitting a ball due to injury. We didn't mess with the grip then, we tweaked ball position and hand position to fake being in a better position. The results were good, and that is how I have been swinging the club for 2 months since, but I figured it was time to fix this.

The motivation is there to get it fixed, and get it to stick. I want to get the best that I can out of my entire Grandaddy setup, so while the timing isn't the best, if it affecta a month of practice I would rather that than have it affect a season's worth of golf.
 
Today was the first day trying to integrate a proper grip in my golf swing. Why? To hopefully get more out of my swing. In the end, to get more consistent and rely less on variables.

I know it isn't going to be pretty, and probably isnt the best time to do it with a whole set of Grandaddy clubs that need using/reviewing.....

So here it goes.

PW to start things, trying to go easy and make contact. Shots like #4/9/11/14 are both really encouraging and scary at the same time. What I am not a fan of is the variability of strike right now, the highs/lows.
20240225_092934.jpg20240225_093017.jpg20240225_093006.jpg

Next up the 7 Iron20240225_094354.jpg20240225_094406.jpg
Again, the inconsistency is killing me, but that is the result of 30 years of swinging a club one way, and one day swinging differently. Hoping once it becomes more comfortable that the miss gets better, and the better shots improve more.

Driver is where I am most worried. Up to this point in the offseason I had made improvement with driver (to the extent that I could with a flawed grip). Today? Absolutely horrific ball striking with driver, to the oint of doubting at times if I could even hit the ball. Lost the feel for where the head is in the swing, which isn't great. Especoally liked shot #26, with 5 yards carry and 159 yds total lol.
20240225_092942.jpg

Its a process, it isn't pretty, but there was plenty of positive this first time out to keep at it.
 
Just_Brad said:
Today was the first day trying to integrate a proper grip in my golf swing. Why? To hopefully get more out of my swing. In the end, to get more consistent and rely less on variables.

I know it isn't going to be pretty, and probably isnt the best time to do it with a whole set of Grandaddy clubs that need using/reviewing.....

So here it goes.

PW to start things, trying to go easy and make contact. Shots like #4/9/11/14 are both really encouraging and scary at the same time. What I am not a fan of is the variability of strike right now, the highs/lows.
View attachment 9244818View attachment 9244819View attachment 9244820

Next up the 7 IronView attachment 9244822View attachment 9244823
Again, the inconsistency is killing me, but that is the result of 30 years of swinging a club one way, and one day swinging differently. Hoping once it becomes more comfortable that the miss gets better, and the better shots improve more.

Driver is where I am most worried. Up to this point in the offseason I had made improvement with driver (to the extent that I could with a flawed grip). Today? Absolutely horrific ball striking with driver, to the oint of doubting at times if I could even hit the ball. Lost the feel for where the head is in the swing, which isn't great. Especoally liked shot #26, with 5 yards carry and 159 yds total lol.
View attachment 9244824

Its a process, it isn't pretty, but there was plenty of positive this first time out to keep at it.
Click to expand...
Every shot is pulled left quite a bit (assuming you are right handed). You should consider having a look at your swing path on a DTL video.
 
Me on course the past month:

UGhhH! WhY aRE mY DIvOts sO tOe dEeP?

Realization through video after the golfpod showed up:

BECAUSE YOURE RAISING YOUR HANDS AT IMPACT dumba**


😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
 
Jman said:
Me on course the past month:

UGhhH! WhY aRE mY DIvOts sO tOe dEeP?

Realization through video after the golfpod showed up:

BECAUSE YOURE RAISING YOUR HANDS AT IMPACT dumba**


😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Click to expand...
You need to give yourself a hug lmao
 
I spent time after work at the range and worked a good bit on short game and got in a good groove with chipping. Then seemed to figure out driver and am hoping it transfers over to the course.
 
This feels personal

1000012791.jpg
 
Went to the range a couple of days ago to try and get a better idea of where the ball is going. I have played a big draw on my irons for awhile and recently I am starting to hit the ball straight which means way right of where I want to be. I put some time into my alignment and trying to make sure I have the proper thoughts in my head before I swing. I really spent some time on the preshot routine and not just banging golf balls.

I have been to the Tour Striker Academy so I have worked with Martin Chuck so this video really pointed out that I need to practice more like I play and not just bang golf balls at the range.


Starting around 31:30 for preshot thoughts and routine. Also spent some time with the lower shot based on 23:00 on.
 
I've been putting work into my chipping lately to ensure my technique and touch is where it needs to be!
20240310_141127.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top