"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge August 2017

[Shindig]

August 4:  not satisfied with the above, and realizing I really should be doing short and and putting, I went to a course near me to work on short game and putting.

 

Played the "play to 50" game from LSW with four balls.  Changed where I was hitting from, but the area wasn't large enough to hit anything other than 56 degree.  Also the green was a little ... less cut than it should be.  Six iterations x 4 balls :  within target distance (13', should have done 14' since that's my handicap, but I don't think I missed by just a foot anyway) on 20 of the 24 (+60) and missed but stayed on the green the other 4 (-4).  So either it wasn't challenging enough (possible) or the green was unrealistic (possible) or I'm losing short game shots elsewhere (very possible).  Last round I lost 4.1 shots on short game.  I left a bunker shot in the bunker on #9 (barely moved it, hit the next to within 10', missed the putt, made double), missed the green with a chip shot on #13 (got up and down from the resulting lie for a bogey), missed the green on shots 2-3-4 on the par-3 15th (#4 was on the fringe, putted to a tap-in), and missed the green with a PW (hit the fringe) from 99 yards on #17.  I did get up and down from a near-GIR (just slightly too much rough away to putt) on #14 -- hit a chip to a foot and just past the pin.

So... maybe it was just a small handful of really bad short game shots?  But then again, 9 GIR + 5 near didn't leave me a lot of short game shots to attempt (especially since several near were fringe).

 

I then practiced 8' putts for a while around a clock.  Their practice green was meh also, so I don't know how useful the feedback was.

Still 4 for 4, this is just an addendum and I'm using this thread as a bit of a practice diary too.  Of course, thoughts on paragraphs 2 and 3 from more experienced players / practicers would be welcome.

[WUTiger]

Aug. 4

Worked on full swing motion for 10 minutes, using tall mirror in hotel room.

When I am at top with proper natural shoulder rotation, it feels like "a little more" is there. BUT!! Trying "more" for leads to O-T-T problems.

[Rsuslow]

August 4th

Worked on my take away in the back yard for about 5 minutes.  Tried to keep the lower body quiet and move the ball towards the ball and not towards the trail knee.

Then went in and hit about 30 balls in my garage into my impact screen.  Worked on getting forward.

[todgot]

August 4:  played 18 holes in a local amateur tournament.  Results were too horrible to talk about right now.  In the last week I've developed full on putting yips.  I'm completely out of the tournament so the next two days are about seeing if I can even play.  

[WUTiger]

Aug. 5

Bad connex, must be quick.

Ran 5K this morning before meetings. Upon return, included golf-related hip, leg and shoulder stretches in my cooldown.

Right ankle, which I sprained badly awhile back, is feeling a lot stronger. Don't need to wear compression sock on R when playing or working out. Getting more balanced and stable stepthrough on downswing.

[onthehunt526]

8/5/17:

Worked on shortening my backswing some. Trying to keep it short of parallel.

[boogielicious]

August 5 - practiced about an hour before the rain. First 45 on the full swing doing drills for hip turn in the downswing. Then 15 minutes pitching. 

[dennyjones]

8/5:

The course had an outing this morning so I hit the range for two hours before playing 18.   I worked about 15 minutes each hitting short sand shots, 85 yard pitch shots, 35 yard flop shots (still can't get one close enough to catch it) and my driver.   I felt good with the practice session but am still struggling with the occasional hook from my driver.  

My differential was 17.1 and I actually had a sand save.  

[Shindig]

Played 18.  I... my putting sucks.  I know it's a weakness but I felt like today could have been magical with a better short game and putting... and I don't think it's recency bias making me say that. 

I hit 5 GIR + 1 fringe + 11 other near-GIRs.  My only two non-(near-GIR) or better holes were the par-4 9th with the tees back at 450 yards (driver to rough, 5 wood to about 50 yards from a forward pin, pitched on to pin high) and the long par-4 13th where I hit driver and then a bad 3-wood and was left with a full wedge left (I said it was a bad 3-wood).  

And I shot an 87 (good for a 16.2 differential).  Only made four pars:  three of the four par-5s and the second par-3.  On both par-3s on the front, I hit a great tee shot that was rolling up (both were with woods), found a puddle of casual water on the front of the green and stopped.  I made a bogey and a par, respectively (both pins were middle).

According to Game Golf on the last round, I lost (driving/approach/short game/putting) 2.87 / 3.73 / 2.07 / 5.31 .  I'm amazed the 2.07 is so low -- I thought I left myself way too much for par on most non-GIRs.  Could I have been gaining strokes in my short game somewhere else?  I also had three opportunities to hit a full swing but from within 100 yards, hit the green the one time it wasn't for GIR, the back fringe one other (very uphill shot) and missed near-GIR in front the other time.  

Or maybe I didn't lose much short game because were my approaches into areas where I wouldn't be expected to get up and down, so hitting a chip from an expected 3 shots to get down to an expected 2 shots to get down is neutral?

[Mico]

Missed yesterday ugh!

5 min Sklz swing trainer just get my swings in. Tomorrow, I get to play for first time in more than a month!

[Rsuslow]

August 5th

More work on my take away and getting my shoulder tilt on my back swing to be 90 degrees to my spine angle through some swings in my backyard while watching myself in the reflection of my sliding glass door.

Then went into the garage and hit some balls into my impact screen focusing on what I was working on.

[todgot]

August 5th:  played day 2 of a local amateur tournament.  Yesterday was one of my worst days on a golf course ever as I yipped my way to a 96.  (Par 70).  So today had to be better and it was... I still struggled with the yips but was able to shoot a 79.  Most likely first off in my flight tomorrow as the leader shot 72-72 with a 7 handicap.  My goal tomorrow is to just have fun, keep a positive attitude and do my best.  

[onthehunt526]

8/6/17:

The City Championship starts in 20 days. After Friday's 2 solid nines (The final nine was really good ball for me ball striking wise), I decided I still need some work on irons, however. So I'm going back to the 75% effort swing, just working on the timing of it. Trying to get the feeling of the positions.

[WUTiger]

Aug. 6

10 minutes - brace against wall +  towel takeaway (be smooth at start)

[dennyjones]

8/6:

Played 18 today when the course opened.  I tried to focus on my approach shots hitting the greens.   Since it was a practice round, I hit a second approach shot into the green when I missed the first.  I had plenty nGIR but need to practice this skill more. 

[Shindig]

August 6.  Went to the range this morning;  worked on getting into the positions I want to be in on A3 and A4.  I know there's something I should be doing for A5 from my latest evolvr lesson, but I'm deliberately not starting a new move (as opposed to the A3/A4 ones, which I have done much of before and fell away from a bit, as pointed out in my latest lesson) until the 14th (as my club championship is 11-12-13 and I don't think I can incorporate a new move in that time).

Chipping and putting area at this range aren't really there (other than some grass to chip from, but on real meaningful feedback, and it's not a large area).  I brought my ruler and putter with me, though, and I'm going to do that drill later. 

[todgot]

August 6:  day 3 of the Wandermere amateur.  My ball striking was not as sharp today and I started with yipping again.  I had a bad front 9 and made the turn at 10 over but played the back in 3 over 38... total was 83 on the par 70 track.  Spent some time after talking to my cousin-in-law about my goals in golf and I'm at a crossroad. My ball striking was pretty good this week but it's hard to play competitive golf when you can't make anything over 2 feet.  Later in the day I putted much better and went back to a conventional grip... more later.

[dennyjones]

8/7:

10 minutes on the wall drill.