"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge October 2017

[woodzie264]

10/07 - worked on pitching with focus on distance control

[WUTiger]

Oct. 7

Played 18 in Round 1 of tourney. Played poorly. Five lip-out putts, 40 mph winds.

Tee off Round 2 in 10 hours.

[onthehunt526]

10/7/17:

Putted for a bit, focused on trying to keep my short putts online. Mostly putts from 6 feet and in.

[Lihu]

Stretching out my core muscles and drinking mate and coffee to stimulate the muscles. Cross fingers for my match up. All this training is culminating to my first game this season (fall/winter/spring).

[onthehunt526]

10/8/17:

Slow three-quarter swings without a ball with a 7i. Focusing on my downswing positions, namely my keeping my right elbow in.

[woodzie264]

10/08 - working on maintaining bookends with swings with head on wall. 

[WUTiger]

Oct. 8

Played second 18 in tournament. Scored better than yesterday but still shot over my HDCP.

On hole No. 1, I drove into a airway bunker, up against forward lip. Had to take unplayable lie penalty, then took my drop at mid-bunker, and started the round with a triple bogie. 

Added 7 strokes to my score by dumping four easy up-and-down bids into bunkers, or leaving shot on fringe of green. Kept quitting on partial wedges. Canned two 20-foot putts, but also three-putted from 6 feet.

After club championship next week, the season is pretty much over for me.

[woodzie264]

10/09 - kettle bell swings for balanced weight shift with focus on centered turn. While not golf-specific, making gains with shoulder rehab 

[Lihu]

19 hours ago, Lihu said:

Stretching out my core muscles and drinking mate and coffee to stimulate the muscles. Cross fingers for my match up. All this training is culminating to my first game this season (fall/winter/spring).

Played horribly, but hit past my partner on almost every drive save for one where I hit this tree on the right side and the ball bounced 100+ yards to the left back just on the other side of the ladies tee box. Lost skins on most holes, but got some back from longest drive per hole type of thing. One skin, but no more skins for the longest tee shot per hole any more, going to have to improve my overall game to score better for next time. Or just admit that I'm a 20+ handicap who drives 300 yards.

So, I'm kind of looking forward to a decent season if I can straighten out my drives. I'm guessing my face angle is not open enough at setup? I remember Erik telling me to open the face more and more at the LSW Clinic. I think it's more closed now which explains my dead straight super high pulls. If I can fix my tee shots with that simple fix, I'd be really happy. So, going to the range with that in mind. I also tried that upward attack for 3W off the tee, and it's also going much farther that way. Again, it's a dead high pulled shot, but at least 15 to 20 yards farther off the tee? Going to try opening the face with that as well.

Doing more of the on plane drills prior to each tee shot. I'm going to start incorporating it into my pre-shot routine for all shots. Also, working on my tempo. Although, my muscles seem to be getting stronger in the core and the exact timing doesn't seem to be as critical any more? Not sure why? I'll try different tempos today. Anyway the pressure is off now, and I have this "winter" entire season to get better.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Lihu

[WUTiger]

Oct. 9

Compared my SW and PW with LW in terms of flex and feel.

PW, SW have KBS Tour / wedge R-flex 110-gram shafts. LW has a KBS Tour V wedge, a S+ flex 125-gram shaft. I like the 60* LW, but I really have to bear down on it to get a solid shot. (Robust shaft?) Other two feel smoother.

If I get new irons next season, I may reshaft all three in whatever iron shaft I get.

If I keep my irons, I will probably just get the LW reshafted to KBS Tour /wedge to match the other two.

Edited October 10, 2017 by WUTiger

[Lihu]

Just took a flu shot and my lead arm is sore, going to the range with my daughter.

Doing the on plane drills in preparation.

[onthehunt526]

10/9/17:

Slow three-quarter swings without a ball with a 4i. Focusing on my downswing positions, namely my keeping my right elbow in. Also hit some nice shots from about 190 out on the practice fairway.

[woodzie264]

10/10 - 6ft putts in the office for bead

[Lihu]

More on plane drills and working on really slow motion swings through the entire motion. Follow through is kind of tough to emulate, but I think this is helping my balance.

[onthehunt526]

10/10/17:

Work on one-piece takeaway with the "butt in the gut" drill. Basically you take your normal setup, and shimmy (sp?) your hands down the club shaft until the butt end of the club hits your belt buckle. It promotes turning back with your shoulders not your hands. I have a tendency to sometimes take the club back too much with my hands. This move causes way too many compensations for me. I sometimes hit some really good shots, but I'm looking for consistency. Not outlier great shots.

[WUTiger]

Oct. 10

For 10 minutes, worked on set-up and swing takeaway in tall mirror at home.

I experimented with tilting chin backward as part of preswing set-up (a la Nicklaus, and being mentioned by local instructors). With chin tilt, I seem to get smoother, more balanced turn on backswing.

Club championship on Sunday will be my last "event" of the year. After that, I can get some video of straight vs. tilted chin shots. Will also check over winter the best loft setting and shaft length for FWs.

[Lihu]

12 hours ago, Lihu said:

More on plane drills and working on really slow motion swings through the entire motion. Follow through is kind of tough to emulate, but I think this is helping my balance.

I have no idea at this point if I'm having swing issues or something? I hit 40 balls with a driver today, and they went everything from dead straight to 30 degrees dead pull with what felt like the same swing. On the good shots armpit pressure is the same, flight was always nice and high and the same except for the launch direction, distance even looked about the same. Direction is over a 30 degree region from dead straight to a dead pull. Plus, I can hear a squeak from my driver. I flexed it and torqued it and nothing appears to be loose. I torqued the shaft about 5 degrees clockwise and counterclockwise from the head to grip, and it's on tight. Going to have it checked out anyway. Maybe it's not quite a good fit any more? It feels kind of overly flexible to me? Super solid feeling contact though.

Afterwards, a person I played with in the past told me that I need to get on the course more often again. He basically said "You need to play a lot more to get better." However, I feel like that's going to be more of the same tree trimming I've done the last 8 rounds I've played. Seems fruitless to improve the rest of my game until that's fixed.

I should ask the course in the east coast for the specifications on the clubs I rented.

On a good note, I'm hitting up to my 5i with a nice and high flight now. Got a few out there with that towering flight. Almost 50% with a nice and high flight? Didn't try my 4i. I was getting kind of disturbed at my driver performance and needed to focus on that before 4i.

Doing more of the on plane drill and slow swings.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Lihu

[RandallT]

Had to take a bit of a break as the family and I drove over the long weekend to help out our daughter in Columbus, OH. Unfortunately, the drive wasn't good on my neck and I'm back to PT on it for a couple weeks, I think.  Be back to practicing within a couple weeks I think. In the meantime, it's lots of stretches, icing, massaging, etc.