Driving Range/course gap

[Paul77]

Where are you based Paul? I am totally shocked that in July, your course is waterlogged. The courses round here are crying out for water.

I'm in Glasgow. One course was closed the other day round here due to the rain. mostly all the bunkers are like that on my course. You don't as much take a divot but splash in the muck. It's pretty demoralising. Can't help the weather. Actually my course is the best out of a small bunch near by. Most have puddles on the fairways sectioned off with free drops. We still have preferred lies too up I seen tonight.

 

[the_coach]

good deal of the time issues like this are there is down to folks not really approaching their practice sessions in the best ways for them to be real productive.

it’s not down to the range, it’s down to how that time during the sessions are being used. sure you need to get out & play but only a handful of Tour pros have enough natural talent not to spend time on the practice tee box, & just hit the course.

the enemy of swing improvement changes is most often times just attempting those changes through feel while hitting balls with the conscious mind but without any real ways of monitoring movements, sure you would see what the ball does but not necessarily fully understand what happened with the motion if there's no reference physical points (sticks/water bottles/headcovers/mirrors/video etc)

- by doing mirror work
- recording for your own checks parts of your practice sessions on cell phone
- always using alignment sticks etc
- having like Ben Hogan a practice book to write down both what's being worked on, how & in what shape the last practice session ended both as a record of progress plus give a heads up on exactly where to start the next session from.

so maybes swing motion with reasonable contact is easy to repeat for that short spell of reach & drag balls & no real set-up changes so with some rhythm going ball after ball but that's not real effective practice.
more often times it just results over time as real difficult to produce when needed in another further practice session or when out on the course in play because the understanding of how & why the balls are being hit okay some isn't really there

if you looking to keep the swing in good shape or especially if looking to make changes to improve you have to take some time to start to practice your swing motion by doing a good deal of both position work & slow motion drills, & then using no more really than 70% swing speed to strike a ball.

Hogan himself said ".....whenever I'm working on something I always do it in slow motion, that way I can monitor what I'm doing."

but in order to take a reasonable practice swing motion that works similarly out in play.
it’s a good ways better if folks alternate the 'block practice swing motion work' with 'random game practice' to mimic the pressure out on the course.

small bunches of balls. say 5 sets of 5 balls with an 8i to 'whatever the real average carry' to target with the aim to put all 5 within a 20' radius.
then 5 sets of 5 balls with a pw to the average carry distance all to be inside a 10' radius.
keep a score record & try to beat score.when you can get all 5 sets of 5 balls with an 8i inside 20' set a new goal to 15' & repeat similarly refining harder goals with every club.

as you can make up these 'game practice pressure drills' for all clubs, say with driver 3 sets 3 balls to be in a target 'box' of 40' wide at say 250 out -insert a relevant average distance- at 70% swing effort

you can then hone up the 'game practice pressure' by working to these kind of proficiency goals but through the bag randomly, no 2 balls hit with the same club always a different target goal within a defined proficiency range & make the targets both left, center, right of the practice area so you have to align different ways each time, use a psr.

 

[Paul77]

I'll give that a right good read Coach thanks for the input.

Here's the tee shot on the 2nd hole that I find the most daunting. I actually punted that 7 iron to the front edge today. Pretty proud of myself.


2nd hole tee by paul stewart, on Flickr

 

[the_coach]

what's your aim point on that tee box?

 

[Paul77]

what's your aim point on that tee box?

Well the wind was coming in off the right and into my face on the shot today so I aimed in between the tree on the right and the end of the clubhouse. Should have been a 6 iron because of the wind but we live and learn.

 

[the_coach]

Well the wind was coming in off the right and into my face on the shot today so I aimed in between the tree on the right and the end of the clubhouse. Should have been a 6 iron because of the wind but we live and learn.

okay, sound thinking.

if the shot distance is at the end of the range of the best 7i you can strike, maybes useful next time trying out picking a 6i & smoothing the swing out some & taking some spin off (it ground conditions not real firm)

 

[Paul77]

Thanks. I was about a club shot on every approach tonight with the ground being so wet. All the shots landed and jumped back. It's true what they say. You learn how to strike the ball, then you learn how to play golf

 

[theshrew]

What the_coach says is really good advice for anyone.

From looking at the photo of the hole, lots of people would put off buy that. Trees along side a hole worry some people but the bank and the tree on the right is what your eye is drawn to. You think about it there's a dam good chance you will be in it.

Picture what you want to do, imagine that in your head forget all the trees banks etc

 

[ScienceBoy]

Range is a great place to realise and fix errors.

The gap you see is expectation. You course expectation is set from your very best range work when it should be your best course play.

Work hard on the range, use alignment sticks etc but always think how you can convert it to use on the course. Set your expectations from what you see on the course itself.

Once you align expectation with reality you will feel much better and possibly even score better.

 

[Paul77]

Thanks for that advice coach, dead helpful. I'm not as strict at the range, however, there is some similarities in the way i do things to how you said.

150 balls

Pour the first 50 into the little rubber holder.
Pull out PW
6 balls for every change in stance or club, I line the balls up at the top of the mat
Start with very small chips, 60% weight on my left side, hands forward, chipping into small nets.
Several balls later, I'm increasing backswing and chipping further out.
next set of 6 balls, I take 52 degree wedge, and start pitching to the first green.

This normally progresses into full shots into the green, punting them high and landing in the green. Usual adjustments for the wind etc. I'd say I go 3-4 out of 6 on the green easy. The greens are raised wooden things so the ball tends to run right off the back easy.

I then move to 7 iron and aim for middle green. I pretty much nail 90% of the balls onto this green no bother. After that, there's no other green or target so I just hit 10 balls each with 6, 5, and 4 iron. I then practive punching the ball low with 5, 6 and 7 iron. There's a lot of times where I could land under trees so I practice this shot. Never fails me on the course.

I then get a wee bit lost after this and just start hitting about 20 balls or so with my 5 wood off the deck just randomly throwing balls down on the slightly uneven mat. Usually get bored of that, and start drawing it and fading it with the 5 wood to get a feel for it. The fade was useful last night around a tree actually.

It then ends up with half a basket left and me hitting driver until I'm bored, then go back to irons for the last 20 or so balls. I always try for a target though and use the middle green as a marker for the size of a fairway. If i'm in line with it, I'm on the fairway. If I duff a driver shot I turn away from it instantly and re-address the next shot.