"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge

[Patch]

Day 179

Just an easy, cooler morning on the range with my old Ironwood gamers. Just wanted to hit these old sticks again. I used these clubs probably 20+/- years ago. (2-LW) I was looking at my LW. The thing looks like a spatula. I could probably flip pancakes with it.

Only focus was picking a target, and hitting a ball at it. Hit probably 60, or so balls. The reality is, even though I hit these irons farther, I am still more accurate with my current gamers. 

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 220    Rise and Grind...   Spent two solid hours working on my short wedge technique.   Hitting 20 yard pitches, right handed only, left handed only, then both hands with a pause to a count of 3 on the backswing before hitting the ball.  Also spent 30 minutes of this time hitting to 20 and 30 yard targets.   The humidity is so high that I went through 4 golf gloves!!  Glad to be inside under the office fan and cooling off!!   I will probably go out again later in the day when the humidity is lower. "Get better of get beaten!!"

 

[Shindig]

Day 29 Oh my goodness did I hit some great short game shots today.  Played, nothing worse than bogey on any hole;  got up and down from 20-50 yards out several times (some for par, some for bogey).   I had only two holes where I had two "short game" shots:  one where I hit a UW into a green and missed, then chipped, plus the last par-3 where I pushed my tee shot into trees, pitched out then up (to a few feet, where I made the putt for a 4).  I had said for a while that I thought the "blow up by short game" holes were making my short game strokes gained/lost look worse than it is.  Maybe I'm deluding myself, or maybe it's because I had some holes where it genuinely required it due to a poor approach shot.  But then ... I don't know.

I have never seen strokes gained vs scratch in any category pop up.  Too bad my tee shots were awful (holes 1, 10, 17, and 18 had three punch shots for second) and my approaches left much to be desired.   Hole 18, popped up my driver, then duffed my 7-iron layup short of a water hazard.  If I had hit a good drive and a good second shot, I'd have been better than 15 hcp in both categories today since I missed the 15 hcp cutoff by .09 and .2 respectively.  2 GIR, 11 near-GIR.  Putted decently well.  Tee shots left a lot to be desired, especially since four bad drives out of 12 par-4/5 holes.  Hole 3's tee shot wasn't anything to write home about either. 

Here's the Game Golf link: http://www.gamegolf.com/player/Shindig/round/2253358

[saevel25]

Day 3

went to the range, worked on backswing stuff. 

[J M Brown]

Day 4 June 29, 2018

More of the same for me today. I spent 15 minutes swinging with a focus on the club shallowing out past the ball. I started with a slow swings and slowly built speed to full speed.  I’ve notice I have a much easier time controlling the swing at roughly 75% effort. I’ve always had a problem of trying to swing at 110% effort. I’m working on throttling that back to the most efficient speed to maintain better accuracy. 

[iacas]

Day 146 - June 29, 2018 - Putted after getting home from watching the kid play 36 holes (and very well).

[HJJ003]

Day 58:

5 minutes of set up work. Big round tomorrow!

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 221  After 15 minutes of practice on the putting green.   Played a 9 hole scramble.  Hit the ball off the tee, and off the fairway pretty well.  My short wedges are still a problem even with all the practice.   Better than they used to be, but still a long way to go to perform under pressure.  Well there is no rain forecasted until dinner time, so .... off to the range in about an hour.

[Patch]

Day 180

More reps with my old Ironwood clubs this morning. These clubs have caught my fancy. Something different. 

Used 4I through LW. Focus was on alignment, and giving the turf in front of the ball a slight trim after ball impact. (B)

Also hit my 3, 5, and 7 metal woods. Focus was on a alignment, and crisp ball impact. Hit all three clubs off the turf, and tee'd up. (B)

 I have adjusted my bag make up, probably for the rest of the summer, using the clubs listed above. Going to go with the wider sole Ironwoods for a while. Nostalgia maybe?

Took out my 10.5 driver, and replaced it with the 4i. I have been able to get pretty good distance, off the tee with my 3 metal. Not sure yet if the 4i is a usable club for me. A trip to the dry lake bed, using regular e7 balls will give me  better distance numbers on these irons, vs my 7 metal wood.  

After the time on the driving range, I made my way to the practice green for some chip, and putt practice. Focus was on chipping close enough to various pin locations, for  one putts. Chipped 42 balls, and averaged 2.13 strokes.  Too bad this number won't readily transfer to the scoring greens. (A-)

[boogielicious]

Day 14, June 30 - 30 minutes net work doing my priority pieces. 

[iacas]

Day 147 - June 30, 2018 - Full swing work, after about five to ten minutes of long chip work:

 

[J M Brown]

Day 5 June 30, 2018

I worked again on striking the ball before the ground. I’ve been dragging a line in the grass and focusing on taking my divot after the line.  Today I changed it up a bit and addressed the ball. After addressing the ball I would step back and take 5 practice swing focusing on taking a thin divot after the ball.  After the 5th practice swing I would step up to the ball and hit it. 

[HJJ003]

Day 59:

played 18 holes at the Woodlands Resort-Panther trail. Hit the ball fairly well, but my short game was a disaster. Shot 100 even, but gave myself many nGIRs and a few GIRs and couldn’t convert anything. 4 putted twice, and putted off the green once. Yikes. 

[Shindig]

Day 30.  The old indoor putting routine, yardstick, balls, putter.  Didn't hit as many straight as I usually do.  Maybe I didn't read the break in the floor correctly?   tbh, we'll see how tomorrow goes.

[Patch]

Day 181

A little chipping, and putting this morning. Got a little glitch trying to sneak into the start of my back stroke. Focus was on starting the back stroke with front (left) hand. This allows me to start the back stroke, straight back.  I have a face balanced putter. Since I use the same stroke for chipping, and pitching, the issue messed with bot shots.  (A-)

What was starting to happen was I was starting the back stroke with my rear, (right) dominant hand. This was causing a mini yip in my back stroke. The club, in a qwerky sort of way, would move off my putting stroke line. This problem is the result of a pinched nerve in my right shoulder that I suffered several weeks ago. As I continue to heal, the right arm is becoming stronger, and wants to take over. I want my less dominant left hand to guide the club, while letting my more dominant right hand to supply the power into the ball. 

After that, it was 60 yard (gps) shots to a pin. Focus was on a normal tempo swing, while staying in balance through my follow through. Hit 42 balls, but had a couple if mis-hits.  (B+)

Later on, I will be heading to the nearby dry lake to dial in some distances with my Ironwood irons, I have switched to.

Of some note, since I have switched irons, I am also using a little bit of a new full swing. It is the "Positive Impact Golf" (PIG) swing that is making it's way on You Tube. Just an easy simple drill, that helps with an easy swing, that is more or less designed for seniors.  

Edited July 1, 2018 by Patch

[JuanTheGolfer]

DAY 222    Got our for 75 minutes before the rains came.  Worked on my short wedge shots (15-25 yards).   Used an approach to practicing that I heard about from Mel Sole, who is a highly experienced golf instructor in the Pauley's Island area of South Carolina.   It goes like this:  4 balls where you take two practice swings of the drill, then do the drill.   So for my right hand only wedge shots, I take two swings with only my right hand on the club, but not hit the ball.  Then take a swing with the right hand only hitting the ball.   Then 4 balls where you do the drill.  So I hit 4 shots with just my right hand only on the club.  Then 4 balls with both hands on the club.   So it is a 12 ball drill.   I repeated this several times, with right hand only, left hand only, two hands to top of backswing and pause, then right hand only to top of backswing and pause, ....  I enjoyed having a different way to practice the same drills I have been working on.....    Hoping the weather clears later in the day, and until then, I will be working with my Impact Ball and shortened club with mini-swings in my home office.

[iacas]

Day 148 - July 1, 2018 - http://www.gamegolf.com/player/iacas/round/2258098

 

[J M Brown]

Day 6 July 1, 2018

I took my boys to the range today. The practice was similar to yesterday’s. I would address the ball step back and take 5 practice swings that progressively built speed. After the 5th swing I would step to the ball and hit it. I also worked on putting today. I set a ball at 3’, 6’, and 9’. I started with the ball at 3’ and worked my way to 9’. After hitting the three putts I would relocate the ball and repeat the same series.