Joey's Golf Bag

This afternoon, after work, I hit some balls at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather, when I arrived, was mid-50’s, cloudy, with a strong wind behind me on the range.

My plan for today was to work, as usual, on tempo, timing and lag. I started off with the 6- and 4-irons to warm up. I wasn’t striking the ball well at first, hitting weak fades. After I warmed up, though, I striking the ball pretty good. I got out the 8-iron and added it to the mix, hitting balls toward the back flag.

Next up, I got out the wedges and hit half and full wedge shots, pretty cleanly for the most part, except for a fat shot or two with the lob wedge. I then got out the 2i hybrid and the driver, and alternated shots with those clubs and the 8-iron. Strangely, I hit the longer clubs better than the 8-iron. My first drive was a bit of a fade, but I hit mostly slight pushes or pulls today. The hybrid didn’t behave as well, but I hit it better than I’ve been doing lately.

I then ran my pin-hunting drill, hitting a mere 6 of 20 shots with a score of 4 or 5. I really had only one poorly struck ball, but the rest of the shots tended to be pulled or pushed. My two best shots were drives at the flag on the right end of the range. I pounded two near perfect drives, both of which ended up next to the flag, one just to the right of it and one just to the left.

As I ran out of balls, I got out the 7-iron, teed up some balls and proceeded to whale on the balls, hitting high draws up into the wind, causing the balls to carry as far as I normally hit a 4-iron. Encouraged, I teed up a ball and hit a 4-iron. Unfortunately, hit it a bit thin, so got no benefit from the wind. The last ball, I overswung and hit a stinker.

Still, a pretty good practice. I didn’t have any sun left for the short game, unfortunately. The sun did manage to show itself just as it disappeared below the horizon.

This afternoon, I attended the swing clinic at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I was the only student today.

Before class, I spent about 20 minutes working on my usual speed drill on the putting green. I putted pretty well today, despite no putting practice since last weekend. I warmed up hitting 4-irons and we spent most of the time hitting that club toward various target greens. I started out hitting the ball pretty short, but soon had the club grooved in and started striking the ball a little better. He diagnosed my hook for me (I’m not completing my turn around my spine after striking the ball). I also tended to cast the club when I got quick with the downswing, and we worked that out as well.

Next up, I hit some high slices with the driver. He fiddled with my stance and I started hitting the ball down the middle with a little fade.

I finished up by going through the irons, hitting them well for the most part. I also hit a couple of balls with the hybrids, and struck them pretty well with the exception of one topped ball with the 2i.

I was pretty happy with the swing clinic today. Still have much to work on…

Yesterday, after work, I hit a few balls at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was cool and cloudy, threatening rain, with a breeze in my face.

I started out warming up with the 8-, 6- and 4-irons, with an occasional pitching wedge thrown in for good measure. My primary plan on this day was tempo, timing, and lag. I finally found a good drill for lag in Golf Magazine, and discovered that my instructor at Golden Bear Golf Center had me doing a very similar drill at my last lesson.

My initial aimpoint was the far left flag. At first, I was hitting the ball very high and short, even the 4-iron was struck very high. I had some difficulty striking the ball consistently, but when I managed good timing, tempo, and lag, the results were incredible: I nearly hit the 4-iron over the net! From where I was hitting, that would mean a carry of well over 220 yds with the 4-iron, which is about as long as I usually carry a driver! Maybe it’s time to put the Big Bertha 3-iron back in the bag…

Amazingly, I hit the long irons better than any other clubs on this day, hitting the 4-, 5- and 6-irons well, usually straight or with a slight draw. The mid-irons tended to push or fade, and the short irons, well, pretty much spraying them everywhere.

Next up, I got out the driver and pounded a very high, looping slice, nearly over the right net. Oops… need to release the club a little better. I hit some better shots down the middle, but high and short. The wind was responsible for some of the distance loss, but still shorter distance than usual. The 3i HALO I didn’t hit well at all today, tending to hit pull-slices.

I ran the pin-hunting drill again, hitting only 5 of 20 shots with a grade of 4 or 5. Lots of 3s though, so not as bad as the score indicated.

As it was about to rain, I decided to hit the last five balls with the short irons. The first ball was well-struck, a towering 9-iron. Next up, chunk! Next, chunk! WTF??? Last ball, the ultimate humiliation, a shank! 😳

A pretty good practice today, until the stinky ending. I wasn’t able to putt, since it looked like rain.

This afternoon, after work, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center on a fabulous, cool, sunny, breezy day.

I started off alternating 9-, 6- and 4-irons, striking the ball pretty well. I was using one of my new 6-irons, the one with the graphite shaft, and its lower swingweight seemed to have little effect on my ball striking. My dominate failure today was a push or a push fade, only had one hook (with the 4-iron). Next up, I got out the longer clubs, the new Toski driver, the Toski 3-wood, and the 3i HALO hybrid, along with the 4-iron, and alternated hitting balls with these clubs. Initially, I was slicing the driver, but I eventually got it straightened out, though it took a few balls. Ironically, I seemed to hit the 3-wood cleanly, but didn’t see where the ball went on several shots. 😕 I finally started hitting the hybrid pretty well today, tending to pull it a bit. The 4-iron was struck well for the most part, aside from the hook I previously mentioned.

Since I was striking the ball pretty well, I decided to run my pin-hunting drill midway through the bucket instead of waiting until the end. I managed 9 of 22 shots with scores of 4 or 5, and a bunch of 3’s. It was one of the better pin-hunting drills I’ve had in a while, really having only one bad shot in the bunch.

Next up, I hit a few short wedge shots at the close-in purple and white flags, striking the ball pretty cleanly. I tended to hook the pitching wedge, but hit the rest pretty well. I managed to hole one pitching wedge shot, perfectly played just past the white flag, and it rolled back right into the cup. 😀 I also practiced a lot of long chips toward the purple flag, and also hit a few flop shots with the 64° wedge. I also practiced opening the club face of the sand wedge and lob wedge to make the ball travel higher (not that hitting the ball higher was particularly good on a windy day like today, but when I’m striking the ball well, it’s fun to hit a few shots that require a bit of skill).

After I ran out of balls, I ran my usual speed drill on the putting green. I performed pretty well up to about 30 ft, but past that distance didn’t do particularly great at first, but soon recovered. I even managed to lag 3 of 4 from that distance to easy tap-in length.

All in all, I was very pleased with my practice today. Tempo was good and the number of poorly struck shots was low. Quite possibly the best practice since the early summer. The only thing I forgot to practice was bunker shots; I spaced it.

This morning, as the sun was rising, I had a quick practice at The Practice Tee in Plano. The morning was warm and sunny, with a trace of a breeze.

As I had limited time to practice this morning, I warmed up with the 6-iron and then proceeded to test my new 6-iron prototypes while I worked on making a slow, smooth swing. For the most part, my ball-striking was pretty good today, as I had only a few poorly struck balls. My dominate fault was a push or push-fade. Only when I got out the longer clubs did a hook appear, mainly with the 4-iron, when I tried to hit the ball hard.

My testing with the 6-irons were inconclusive, so I got out the driver to hit a few balls. At first, I was hitting long, high, slices, then long, high hooks that became snap hooks, then I worked it back to draws. Not a great practice, but at least I was able to do a little shot shaping with the driver, and recover from mishits.

That’s all I had time for this morning, as time available to practice was very limited. My “hosel rocket” swing stayed away today, thank the golf gods…. As I’m planning to play at Bear Creek this weekend, I’ll need one more full practice session before then. Hopefully, weather will be good tomorrow or Friday.

In my neverending quest to make and use the best possible clubs, I created two new iron prototypes for testing against my current Toski T58 irons. I built two new 6-irons, using the Toski Target T56 iron head, and two different shafts, the True Temper Dynalite Gold SL steel shaft and the UST PRoforce Rv2 75 graphite shaft. I also made each club 1/2" longer than standard and bent them upright 2°. I used Golf Pride Midsize Dual Duometer grips.

I tried out both clubs this morning, along with the Snake Eyes Viper Ti-4 6-iron (Grafalloy Prolite shaft, +1″, 2° upright) that I built a while ago, but my testing was inconclusive. I didn’t see a marked difference in any of the clubs, though I’m leaning toward removing the Viper from the mix, as I don’t like how it sounds when I hit the ball.

I’ll need to do a much more extensive evaluation at a later time. I thought that the lighter shafts and lower swingweights (D-1) would allow a bit more distance, but that’s yet to be proven. I’m also trying out shorter clubs in an effort to make striking the sweet spot a bit easier.

This morning, Jarvis and I practiced and played nine at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was cloudy and cool, with the breeze from the west.

I had a very poor practice today, seemingly unable to hit any good shots at all until the end of practice, where I smoked a 5-iron right at the pin to the left side target green. Other than that, probably my worst practice since I started playing golf.

Jarvis and I decided to match play today. My first shot, a pitching wedge, was shanked into the water on the first hole. Jarvis put his tee shot in the left bunker, got the ball out and nailed a 25 ft putt to go 1 up. On the second, we both played poorly, but Jarvis pulled out the hole to go 2 up. On the third, Jarvis was on the green, but I hit a sand wedge fat and then chipped to about 8 ft. Jarvis left his putt short, I missed my putt for par and he missed his putt, so we halved the hole.

On the fourth, I hit a 5-iron into the center of the fairway; Jarvis chunked his tee shot and then hit the next shot into the hazard. My next shot, a high 7-iron trying to fly over the trees, just struck a branch and left me just in front of the hole. Jarvis conceded the hole and that left him 1 up.

On the fifth, I pulled a sand wedge and hit the tree on the left. Jarvis put his ball on the green, but then proceeded to three putt and allow me to halve the hole. On the sixth, I hit a 5-iron off the tee into the center of the fairway, then a nice pitching wedge layup, followed by a x-wedge shot pushed into the bunker. I won the hole after Jarvis pushed one right into the harzard, to even the match.

On the seventh, I hit a 6-iron thin short of the hole, chipped short and two putt to win the hole after Jarvis hit his second over the green. On the eighth, hit another 5-iron into the center of the fairway, then hit a 9-iron a little fat just short of the green, chipped to 4 ft and hit the par putt, to win, after Jarvis’ par putt missed. At that point, I’d won the match 2 & 1, but we finished out the ninth hole anyway, which I won with a two putt bogey after hitting a 9-iron fat short of the hole.

After the terrible practice, I got my swing back on the fourth hole, and played pretty well after that. That redeemed my day of golf.

This morning, as the sun rose, I had a short practice at The Practice Tee in Plano. The weather was cool (the first true fall weather we’ve had here in Big D) with a little breeze from the west.

The good news of this practice is that I didn’t suffer any shanks today. I wasn’t particularly happy with my short irons today, as I tended to push or push-fade them, the longer irons were good, either straight or fades. The driver was pretty mediocre, tending to hit very high, long slices. But, no shanks! And my wedge play was pretty good, only one or two fat shots, the rest pretty respectable.

Yo, Michelle Wie! Happy 17th Birthday! Good luck in the Samsung World Championship this week!

Here’s an excellent article on her first year as a pro in “A win may be Wie’s birthday wish”.

… when you don’t get what you want.

What a nasty, nasty practice today. I got a case of the shanks! 😥

Today, during lunch, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center on a warm, sunny afternoon, dodging mosquitos. I started out poorly, with a case of the fats with the wedges. I then moved on to practicing with alternating 4-, 6- and 8-irons, which started out well, but then the attack of the shanks appeared. It took a while to work out the exact cause, but I did finally find that my swing was too much from the inside. At the end of practice, I managed to undo the damage and hit some pretty good 8-irons.

I had planned to spend this practice continuing to work on tempo and timing, and instead had to spend it trying to decipher shanks. What a wasted practice.