"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[iacas]

Day 311 - 2025-08-07

Played 27 holes of golf today. Knocked off a few birdies, too.

Happy birthday Sidney Crosby!

[WillieT]

Day 2 (7 Aug 25) - More work on tempo with mid-irons, moved to wedges for the balance of the drill.  

[DeadMan]

Day 12: did the yardstick putting drill for a bit while watching tv. 

[iacas]

Day 312 - 2025-08-08

Got downtown two hours before lessons and worked for most of it. Hit nothing but foam balls, mostly freezers, recorded my swing from both angles a few times…

[WillieT]

Day 3 (8 Aug 25) - played in the men’s weekly shootout.  Drives behaved nicely (10 of 14 fairways hit, other 4 were no more than 2-5 yds off); approaches were about normal (was under-clubbing slightly), putter was coming up short (not aggressive on rolling the ball, 33 putts taken (several were three-putts)) - came away with some good takeaways to work on. 

Edited August 8 by WillieT

[DeadMan]

Day 13: some slow swings while watching a movie. Trying to get the feel for the wrist stuff. 

[iacas]

Day 313 - 2025-08-09

Played… 10 holes. Oh, added some birdies to the total again. Gotta update the spreadsheet.

[WillieT]

Day 3 (9 Aug 25) - Some late afternoon wedge work (breaking in a new 52° wedge) in the backyard.  Worked on pitching out from “deep” grass as well as short up and downs from about 10 yds.  

[DeadMan]

Day 14: did a stack session. Also had a good range session, working on just getting a good feel for a match tomorrow. Felt pretty good. Finished with some good wedge work.

[WillieT]

Day 4 (10 Aug. 25) - nice rainy day, no outside drills - did mirror work along with a few rolls with the putter.  

[iacas]

Day 314 - 2025-08-10

60 minutes of work before lessons. All with foam balls.

[DeadMan]

Day 15: played 19 holes to win a team match. Shot a 76 with 2 birdies and an eagle. 

[Shindig]

The thought dawned on me this morning:  just because I don't know I'll be able to commit practice time consistently over the next month and a half (owing to being out of town for most of that, starting in a few days) doesn't mean I shouldn't try.  And also, I have enough notes of how to practice at home, aimed at people without their own home setup, that being at a place without the home setup isn't an issue! 

So I looked up my GEARS lesson from three years ago (my most recent lesson) and also my last Evolvr lesson from shortly before that.  Both gave me some setup and backswing notes.   I'll work on that in the short term, and when I can get back to dedicated full swing practice (probably late September), hopefully I'm in a good shape from that.  Onto today's practice.

Day 1: August 11.  In my home practice room, I used a 6-iron (and later an 8-iron, then back to a 6-iron) to setup.  I checked in the mirrors I have setup, and sure enough, nothing like what I was told to do in the aforementioned lessons.  Fair enough, let's do those properly.  Weight close to 50/50, bend over, check torso angle (looking for closer to 45 than the much smaller I used to have) and arms hanging right down.  Look at mirror ahead of me, check that I don't have my head going back;  aiming for closer to straight up-and-down, at least in the 2D view.   Repeat.  After two in a row that checked out, swing from there.  Amazing how just about every swing felt great, although my irons haven't been much of a problem since returning anyway.  Still, this is encouraging!  I did more than five minutes, switching from 6-iron to 8-iron and back.   I plan to repeat this later today, but for the 5 minutes challenge, this is today's entry.   

 

Also on my todo list:  I have to look up how to remove the "5 minutes daily" challenge from my awards, since I haven't had consistent practice since late 2022.   I want to earn another of those 300+ day streaks, hopefully starting today!  Hopefully I have a good news to report on June 6 2026

[DeadMan]

Day 16: did a stack session. 

[WillieT]

Day 5 (11 Aug 2025) - Worked a bit on wedge play from the “yard rough” (grass needs cutting)with the 52°….focused on getting enough distance without flying it into next week.  Wrapped up work on flighting down the ball on short pitches. 

[iacas]

Day 315 - 2025-08-11

20 minutes this morning. TBH kind of a lazy day, but I thought I was going to play tonight. Then @DrizZzY canceled (he played 3 days in a row before in heat so I get it).

[WillieT]

Day 6 (12 Aug 25) - day of taking care of the yard while it was dry - squeezed in some post mowed grass flighted pitches with the 52 and 58.  Love feel of the ball off freshly mown grass.  Then the bottom fell out with a good inch of rain - drill session over. 

[iacas]

Day 316 - 2025-08-12

Got a little work in before Juniors showed up for one of their Summer Sessions.