"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[Shindig]

Day 106.  Today was a good day.  I had plenty of 5-10 minute breaks, which I filled with various shot practices:  the slow 7-iron swing you've seen me comment on a few times, plus some quarter and half swings with wedges.  I also took an extended break mid-afternoon to go to a putting green near me and do the 4' drill.  12 coins took me 21 putts today 😞 

But... I realized something.  In the past, I'd do nothing with the information beyond "how many putts did I use?"  .  Today, after two trips around the cup, I had two coins left.  After I made them for the drill, I hit several from each spot until I made at least three in a row.  I don't know why I picked that number, but I did.  I'm going to do that, if I remember, for future coin drills -- any coins standing after two go-arounds (from 4'-6', if I extend outward I might change this) will necessitate extra practice after I complete the drill. 

[boogielicious]

Day 233: Range work today. Tried to collect MEVO data, but the range grass was light light rough. So I switched to working on setup and not EE. Then finished with short game and sand work.

[WillieT]

Day 3 (10 Jun 21) - thanks to steady rain, revisited my mouse trap putting drill, working on accuracy (between the toy mice) and lag (how far past the mice).  Worked on tempo using metronome.  A good way to work on putting routine on a rainy day. 

[Bob M]

Day 67 (6/10/21) - Played 18 holes at NKGC today and shot 87, my first time breaking 90 since returning to the game in 2019 (after a 10-year hiatus).

[onthehunt526]

Day Sixteen, June 10, 2021

Played 18 today. Hit 14/18 GIR, 1 birdie, 1 bogey, 1 double, 73. 9 of the 14 birdie putts I had we’d call makable range. Where you would think you’d make 1 in 5 or better. I converted 1 birdie putt. Probably lost 2+ strokes putting today.  Especially when you shoot 73 with 33 putts.

[iacas]

Day 530 - June 10, 2021

Hit a bunch of 9I and then finished up with some good flushed 6I today. Focused on the shoulders today as a way of relieving pressure from the thumb and not letting me bend the right elbow enough.

[Shindig]

Day 107.  I did some usual 7-iron practice (as per above) and some half shots with PW at home.  I then went, this afternoon, to a nearby executive course (whose practice facility I really like), putted a bit, and then went to play 18 holes (par-59).  I hadn't played this course in about a decade, and... the mats on the front nine are bad and there's no nearby grass to hit off of.  It's really bad. 😞 And the fairways are a little not-closely-cut on the par-4s, so I didn't get a lot of roll.  But the course is otherwise in good shape, especially the greens and surrounding the greens.  I drove the ball well, but then again, had only five drives, so there weren't many changes to get in trouble.  Probably because I spent the first nine holes hitting off of terrible mats, my SG:A stat is worse than my usual here, but I left the ball in good places and had some good chips and some good putts, including getting up and down from 45 yards out (sand wedge to 17 feet, made the putt) for birdie at a short par-4.  That I have strokes gained putting is the weirdest thing of all for me.  Why can't I putt this good on the practice green, and can I putt this well during my match play round on Saturday?

[Darkfrog]

Day 540 (Yesterday):

TST was not working (website down?) on my phone or work laptop from ~10-1130pm so went to bed without posting.

Had a lesson where we worked on a bit of backswing stuff, and also spent a good deal of time working on driver (been a problem lately). Then had an hour booked on the GC4 afterward, where I worked on lesson concepts, and at the end mapped out  distances for partial wedges again.

[boogielicious]

Day 234: More range work today. Focused on ball position mostly, especially with the driver. Moved on to sand and 20-70 yard wedges. Finished with wedges around the green.

[WillieT]

Day 4 (11 Jun 21) - played 9 today at the local course.  Pared down bag to D - 3h - 6i - 8i - 50 - P and it really made me think through course management and how to set up for the next shot.  Used the "back of green" distance on the approach shots to gauge distance.  Even had a couple of shots bounce off the back of the green instead of landing short.  Encouraged with the reduced back and the thought process it brings.   

[Shindig]

Day 108.  I went to the nearby executive course (the one with the great practice facility).  On the putting green, I did a 4' drill (20 putts, not great), then a 6' drill (21 putts -- much better ... I made 8 of the 12 on first go-around, then missed the remaining 4 on second go around, made 3, then made the last one).  After each, I did practice several from where I missed on (second go around 4', third on 6').  I then did 25 and 30 foot speed practice, and went to a different holes to do 4' and made it in 18 (7 on first pass, 4 on next, last one on third attempt).  If I can putt like this in tomorrow's match I'll be ecstatic.

Speculation for why I was better, hoping for a critique at some point:  during my practice round yesterday, I realized my right index finger was not fully on the grip, particularly at the join where it meets the palm, so I made a point of doing so.  I started putting better.  Who knows if this had any real effect.  

[onthehunt526]

Day Seventeen, June 11, 2021

Putting because putting is a simple motion... After yesterday’s 33 putt round. I grabbed the old yardstick and did the putt down the ruler drill. (I burned so many edges yesterday all my second putts were between  9-24 inches passed)... 

[Darkfrog]

Day 541:

Worked on backswing priority piece with driver and LVP camera. Did a little downswing work with 7-iron into the net, no camera.

[Bob M]

Day 68 (6/11/21) - 9-hole league tonight; it went ugly early and stayed that way....oh well there is clearly work to do to get more consistent!

[WillieT]

Day 5 (12 Jun 21) - Pitch shot work w/9i in the backyard.  Worked on takeaway / follow-thru mechanics, focused on coming straight back with in to out downswing.  Started out with most shots to the right of target and finishing the session with the ball crisp off the club on line or just left of the target.  Finished the drill using 5 different balls just to see how they acted: old “wound” Spalding TopFlite (very soft feeling); a couple of different model modern TopFlites (very clicky off the face); MaxFli (similar to the TopFlites) and a ProV1 (very similar to the wound ball in feel).  Doesn’t mean anything - just fun to hit. 

[DrvFrShow]

Okay, this is going to be boring, but here goes. I've been doing this every day for the past two years. I do this every day during the winter months. 

Day 1 June 10: while I was waiting for the water to boil last night, I took out my wedge and use one of the lines on the kitchen tiles for the center of stance. I set the club down and make sure I have the proper grip on the club. Once I have that, I worked on a proper takeaway movement making sure I rotated with my shoulders and not my arms and stopped with the club parallel to the floor. There I checked the club head to make sure it was parallel to my spine angle. I returned to setup. I repeated. This time I went to first parallel. I checked my wrists. Then I returned to set up. Then I returned to setup. The next time I went to the top of the swing. I make sure that I turn my hips properly and don't sway. I check my wrists at the top to make sure the left wrist is flat and check my grip. Next I return to set up and go through the entire swing in very slow motion. I make sure my hips clear, that the shaft returns on plane, and I stop at impact to check the position of the club head. If my hips have rotated and cleared, the club head should be correct to club path. It takes about 5 minutes to go through 1 swing. 

Posting this because the site crashed when I was posting.

Day 2 June 11: After my wedge fitting. I did slow more slow motion swings in front of a mirror with the club when I got home. This time working on getting use to the feel of the pitch shot that I use. I'm always checking P2 on this. I had a habit of going inside and that usually ended in disaster. Again my goal here is to make sure the club head is square to path at impact. Everything I do has to relate to impact position. 

[Bob M]

Day 69 (6/12/21) - Practiced my backswing today, making sure that I was starting from the correct setup and moving the club through the full back swing by position. In particular, I wanted to make sure that the clubface was pointed toward the ball when the shaft was parallel to the ground. I did this with my driver and 7i-SW.

[onthehunt526]

Day Eighteen, June 12, 2021.

Played 18 today. First ever bogey free round. 1 eagle, 1 birdie, and 16 pars, 68.