"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[DrMJG]

Day 254: 

As promised, a day of working on shorter chips to various pins on the practice green.

Only had time for a quick 20 due to work schedule. Touch seemed be better as I was allowing good first putts on the green.  Heck I even sank 3 with the chip!  I guess things DO improve by practicing!

[Patch]

Day 444

Easy morning of practice putting on my home course practice green. Place was crowded, so I employed my "rabbit & dog" routine. 

i keep a red ball in my bag for special uses. This time it was the "rabbit". The "dog" is one of my game balls. 

What I do is to release the red ball behind my back while walking forward a few steps. I don't want to see (read) it rolling. I then stop, and drop the game ball. I then go into my putting routine, with the idea to putt the game ball into the red ball. The dog catches the rabbit if it hits it, or the rabbit gets away with a miss. Yeah, it's kind a goofy way to look at it, but putting to a smaller target has it's advantages.

I do this when the practice greens are crowded, and all the real pins are being used by others. I have seen others use tees as targets.

Spent about 20 minutes doing this, then went inside the 19th for breakfast, which is where I am now.

Maybe I will walk on a little later. 

[boogielicious]

Day 167, March 23

Light day today with some putting in the basement.

[HJJ003]

Day 15:

Long practice session today. And pretty good one for the most part! Warmed up through my bag and then worked on my driver a lot. Hit the ball great working on my feels. Got a bit sloppy near the end so I shut it down and played 18 holes of short game golf. Finished +4 which isn’t too shabby considering I gave myself some tough putts. 

[DeadMan]

Day 162: Played 9 and worked on my putting for about 30 minutes.

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 490    I want to write ditto of Day 489... however!!!   I did spend more than 3 hours on the range continuing to work through the five drills I am using to improve sidebend at the top of my backswing, improving initiating my forward swing with my pelvis, and improving my impact position.    At this point, I am just tired!!  The flu that zapped me almost 3 weeks ago, still have its lingering affects.

[DrMJG]

Day 255:

Focused on mirror work today, mainly checking alignment of shoulders and arms.  As well, I did swing movement practice to make sure I was sliding my hips to start the work towards unloading the action and keeping my hands from advancing too forward.

It always seems a tad awkward to do such movement practice without then engaging to hitting a fe spheres, but, that is all I could do today.

Edited March 24, 2019 by DrMJG

[Patch]

Day 445

Arrived at the short game practice area early this am. I was able to to set up for 100 yard, and shorter approach shots before the crowds showed up. 

The target flag was 100+/- yards away (gps), which meant my 100 yard club would be dropping the ball in front of that flag. The thicker grass would not all any roll out. 

Focuses were on set up, club face alignment (aim) with my intermediate target, and putting a nice easy swing (tempo/timing) into the ball. 

i really put a lot of time into my swing tempo, and timing. It's my belief that a consistent swing speed is one of the key factors in having good, consistent club distance separation between the various clubs.

That swing speed consistency also adds quite a bit to aid in more accurate ball flights. It tends to allow all the various body movements to work together easier. The timing part of the swing. 

[boogielicious]

Day 168, March 24, 55F

Collected MEVO data PW to driver hitting into my net. Nice day today 

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 491   Slept most of the day.... now at 8 p.m. I am finally getting around to putting in some practice. So I turned on my laptop, got suited up with the two sensors, and did lots of reps with the 4 drills that were loaded on my KPlayer.    Can't let a day go by without trying to get better.

[DrMJG]

Day 256:

Today was totally spent focusing on gaining more mastery of my 56º wedge, both off the turf and from a sand hazard.

From the turf started me off in a great mood.  Shots were all between 65 - 75 yards from the pin I was targeting.  And, in honor of an @iacas suggestion, I was more focused on getting on the green than the pin.  

I got solid loft when I was trying for higher loft and quicker stop and nice long runners when I tried for those.  For me the true goal was to leave me somewhat makable putts of no more than 6'.  Quite a few did not, but, I did not over run he green. If I do that on the course tomorrow, I will embarrass myself only with performing many a happy dance!

From the practice trap, I still need work in many aspects; but, all in all I should not hate the results too much.

 Most off the courses I play do not have deep traps with significant lips to worry about.  Todays's practice did.  I set up about 30 shots, some somewhat buried and some sitting softly on the top.  All between 5' - 15' from the lip and with a good 5' landing area to the pin.

 Again, the first goal was to get on the green.  With the exception of one I drilled really, really solidly into the sand right under the lip, all hit somewhat close to the landing area. 15 so so hit fairly flat onto the green and ran between 8-15' beyond the pin, perhaps even a bit mire.

Most of the runners were from the ones which were most buried.  And, truth be told, this was, perhaps, only the second time in the two years since I got back into the game I really focused so much on this aspect of my skills.

My need may be to simply practice this bit more, say once or twice a month. Knock on wood, my lack of even having a fairway trap bite me so far in a round will still continue.

 For the best way to master the traps is to avoiding landing them! 

I have a round with the coach Wednesday and we take time to look at this aspect.

[DeadMan]

Day 163: Mirror work today. Just working on keeping my head a little more steady in the backswing and keeping it form moving forward too much in the downswing. Making some good progress, I think.

[iacas]

Day 414 - March 24, 2019 - Hit a few balls on the range working on my piece while warming up with the Behrend team.

[HJJ003]

Day 16:

5 minutes or so of mirror work on the backswing. Making sure I “feel vertical” to get in the right positions. 

[Patch]

Day 446

Gave my trolley a tune up this morning. Checked the tire pressures, greased the bearings. Gave it a general wipe down. Parking break needs a little attention as the cable is sticking a little. Even Clicgears need a little maintenance.

After that, it was a quick 5.minute drive to the short game practice area at the home course. 

Mostly just warming up for a 8:45 am tee time. Full swing wedges, and putter work. When playing, I pretty much go on automatic pilot, with very few focuses.

Three of us will walking 18 holes this morning. 

[boogielicious]

Day 169, March 25

Mirror work at the gym followed by Super Speed Golf training. Focused on hip turn through impact. 

[DrMJG]

Day 257:

A "non-scored" day at a Par 3 course made up my practice for the day.  I even had a few times where I could replay a chip or 3.

Nice work with my 5h, 7i/w off of the tees. Hit quite a few greens, for me, off the tee.  And when I missed, it was a very short wedge to the pin.  

As I have been practicing my wedge work this week, I was happy with the results on that end.  Putts were the bigger distraction, often leaving small tap ins as a result.  That was OK if the chip or drive left me a few feet off, but some first putts were 20' or more.  Need to work on more delicate tough with my wedgies.

By not even attempting to score, it freed my mind to simply play the next shot.  That was needed today and I am very happy I took that approach.

Next course I will play is rather lengthy; so I will spend a few days working on tee shots and longer hybrids first.

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 492    Sometimes events conspire to get in the way of practicing.  So I get to the range, do a physical warm-up ( I learned from TPI) then hit 4-5 7 irons, and on the 6th one, the clubhead broke off and headed down the range!!  So picked it up, hit several shots with 9, 8 and 6 irons to finish the bag... then over to Golf Galaxy to get the club re-shafted.  I had the same thing happen with my 5 iron the first week of this year, so I knew it would be 5-7 days before it could be re-shafted since they had to order the shaft from True Temper. 

Then headed back to the club to work on my putting, did a lot of work with the Pelz Putting Tutor and Pelz Putter Clubs... so I can get feedback on my stroke mechanics and starting the putt on line.  Then did the 20, 30, 45 foot drill... using only 10 balls this time.  

While on the putting green I spent time with an aspiring professional golfer who is preparing to qualify for the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.  I have been working with him on his putting.  Today we focused on a consistent ball position as he was struggling with pulling his putts!!    He has been playing really well around here, and is out every day for several hours in addition to working out each day, ... he has lost 40 pounds and looks fit and trim.  Great kid.