practising

[jeffc]

just wanted peoples opinion on sumething.
I've found using the driving range frustrating because no matter how much you think you have found a groove when you get out on the course you find it all goes cockeyed.
As an alternative when I go to play alone on a quiet day at a local municipal course I hit 3 balls of the tees which is much better practise. I take the first ball as my scoring ball and just pick the other two up.I also make sure I don't hold any body up.I calculate this is equivalent to at least a basket full of balls on the range and improves my swing much better.I sometimes will also repeat a bad pitch or bad putt several times to get a better feel for what I should of done.
The question is, is this bad behaviour/etiquette or just using the course to practise? Maybe you shouldn't practise on the course? but isn't that what we are doing when not playing in comps?

 

[birdieman]

Hitting 3 balls is not going to wreck the course. As long as you're not holding up play no problem. We've all done it.
As far as ranges go in my opinion they are fine for driving but not iron play.
Try whenever possible to practice off real turf, you will get realistic feedback on the strike as you need to be very precise on contact, you can also see divot patterns. On range mats even total mishits go ok and you get horrible jarring of elbows, wrists and shoulders.

 

[Parmo]

It depends on how many people are on the course for myself, if I am a one ball and catching the group in front up, I tend to play a second ball as long as no one is right up my rear. If the course is busy, I don't play a second ball just play.

Grass driving ranges are a lot better for your game I think, I find mats at a driving range ok but grass is the real thing and I can tell the difference a lot in my game after switching to grass.

 

[Ken_A]

The question is, is this bad behaviour/etiquette or just using the course to practise? Maybe you shouldn't practise on the course? but isn't that what we are doing when not playing in comps?

I hope not, I regularly play 2 balls around the course - However, we are not allowed to play off the White tees or play 3< balls as this is practicing on the course and that is not allowed.

It is common practice at my course - but If you are found playing off the whites you get banned from the next three comps (or so I am told).

If you are playing 2 balls you are expected to play at normal speed or simply get out of the wayt of other players - they should never have to wait on you if you are not playing a normal round.

 

[12move]

Great idea, I'm going to try that on the next time I am out and its quiet on the course

 

[jeffc]

thanks guys, I will switch to two balls.
Your comments about ranges are exactly as I have found , I get out on the course and have become mechanical with no rythem. Also after the range I've got no feeling for the irons of turf.
I played yesterday with my head full of range ideas and couldn't hit a decent ball especially irons. By the 10th tee I said stuff it and just tried to get a back and through rythem without thinking about anything else and hey presto I started hitting again even the long irons.
It really confirms my belief of trying to keep it simple, when your head is full of ideas I don't think the body can create a good swing. Apart from the most basic thoughts it has to be more or less sub conscious.
(unfortunately there's no where local for me to practise from a turf surface apart from pitching and putting)

 

[TonyN]

If I duff a chip or pull/push a tee shot, I reload and try again, I have been known to empty my bag trying to get a pitch shot right!

I think its a great idea to right a shot you have done wrong, especially when its a silly one, it brings the confidence back.

I dont really make a habit of playing two balls all the way round. But I do play about 5 at our 17th, the island green!

 

[Cernunnos]

If its a muni or an academy course I see nothing wrong with playing two, three or even four balls, so long as you are not getting in anyones way. Practicing on members type courses have their own regulations. My previous club stated that practice was not allowed on the course.So if I dropped another ball on occasion, to practice a shot after a bad one that counted for my solo round, I made damn sure no-one was behind me or coming down a parallel fairway.

On the academy course I regularly play one, two, or three balls. Like the initial poster, only the first counts to the score for the practice round. Though generally second or third balls are only played as second shots from where my drive with first ball was.

An interesting practice round game on a very quiet course, especially in winter is to play is a solo version of texas scramble, where you take two drives, chose the best of these & then play three balls from the best of the two drives, then the option is to either play as three ball format or in Texas scramble format & keep choosing the best of the three shots each time to count for the score for the round, if I want to work out a stapleford score I halve my handicap as a rough estimate of what I ought to be getting.

Yeah for true texas scramble it would be four balls from each best point, but really like the real game takes way too long to do & I'm certainly not going to go collecting three additional balls each time I play my shots. And its a great way to use up all those naff balls you find round the course during the year. As finding a lost ball on a course is like books from a lending library, you don't mind taking them back & loosing them there at a later date, of course unless its a classic old featherie, in which case it'd be straight down to christies with it.

 

[medwayjon]

I used to practically live at the range when not on the course, I rarely go know and if I do it is to practise the driver.

The reason? Since cutting back on the range my golf has been much, much better, I hit irons and woods off the deck much better and I am also not carrying range injuries onto the course.

 

[brendy]

I had an hour well spent on Sunday morning with my camera (bought a new tripod, sometimes I really spoil myself!!) I think this is far more beneficial than any otgher kind of practice, when I hit a shot I was happy with I made a vocal note of my stance and ball position so I could watch and try to replicate it again some other time when I will undoubtedly be suffering.

 

[Parmo]

Tiger used to practice on the course, and the course took humbridge to it and thats why he moved course as a child I believe.

 

[jeffc]

I had an hour well spent on Sunday morning with my camera

Tried this as well setting my phone up on a bench behind me at the range - horror show but does help found I was coming round over the top whereas I always thought my slice was because of moving my shoulders too early.
Am starting a course of lessons next tuesday so hope that will bring things along but in the future going to stick to only using the range for woods/driver and practising more on course as per my original post.

There just doesn't seem to be the playing fields around where you can practise like when I was growing up.

 

[Cernunnos]

seeing yourself on camera is very good, infact If I could simply borrow my pro's video unit & laptop every few weeks for 20 minutes, I'd probably only need a couple of hour long lessons a year, as the feedabck seeing yourself is an excellent way of seeing what needs doing & what maybe wrong.

Using range mirrors can help when on the range. Again I'll echo the "I prefer to practice on the course", thing. But where else but the range can you guarentee the ground conditions, be they as hard as concrete to hit off. However, my local recreational sports field comes close as somewhere with reletively level ground to hit balls off. Especially on those 5am midsummer mornings when I'm up & at a loose end.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

My pro has some great technology on the mobile phone which he uses to compare swings with tour pros and can draw lines to show plane etc (bit like they do on golf night on sky).

HID has filmed my swing ont he mobile and it gives a pretty decent indication of what is going on

 

[brendy]

My camera is a fuji s9500 bridge dslr style camera, it does 30fps but is first and foremost a 9mp camera so Im thinking of buying something with 60fps so I can slow it wy down and watch my impacts as Im sometimes a little off centre toey.

 

[TonyN]

Using range mirrors can help when on the range.

Every range mirror I have ever seen makes me look like I am stood in a fun house!

 

[Cernunnos]

Duck shoot ....
quack quackquack....rofl

 

[andiritchie]

i does not make any differnce to me on the range or on the course 'practise how you play and play as you practise' comes to mind

as for hitting 2 or more balls i only do it around the green when its quiet

 

[Herbie]

just wanted peoples opinion on sumething.
I've found using the driving range frustrating because no matter how much you think you have found a groove when you get out on the course you find it all goes cockeyed.
As an alternative when I go to play alone on a quiet day at a local municipal course I hit 3 balls of the tees which is much better practise. I take the first ball as my scoring ball and just pick the other two up.I also make sure I don't hold any body up.I calculate this is equivalent to at least a basket full of balls on the range and improves my swing much better.I sometimes will also repeat a bad pitch or bad putt several times to get a better feel for what I should of done.
The question is, is this bad behaviour/etiquette or just using the course to practise? Maybe you shouldn't practise on the course? but isn't that what we are doing when not playing in comps?

Some stuffy folk may take the hump even if they see you, you dont even have to hold them up..lol. I do it all the time when its quiet, though I tend not to use three balls off the tee. I often hit one or two, then down the fairway throw another down somewhere, often in the rough for practice, likewise bunkers too. You are doing no harm if you dont interfere with others play and so long as you are not a destructive player ) I think its one of the best forms of practice.Driving ranges are ok for rhythm/timing and swing practice but not often good for accuracy as on most ranges there is less need to concentrate as you will always land on the fairway also on a range you are hitting from the same familiar spot every shot, uneven tee can change all that in an instant.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I always carry a spare ball in my pocket. Its partly superstition and partly from playing medals and having a provisional at hand (I use to leave my bag down fairways and walk back in my youth when I could play the game). As a result if I'm playing on my own I've always got a spare ball to replay a poorly executed tee shot.

You are not suppose to hit 2nd balls at my club. There are some members who will take great pleasure in telling you this if they see you (they take great pleasure in seeing anyone infringe any club rule, even the tiniest misdemeanour) but most do it themselves at some stage and turn a blind eye. I try not to hit too many 2nd shots into greens or from bunkers, greenside rough etc on those holes adjacent to other greens/tee boxes but on the more secluded holes will often chip. If I'm catching the group in front but have no pressure coming up behind I'll often spend 5-10 minute per hole just hitting different chip shots (making sure I don't damage the green etc)