Finally, I can practice!
Yesterday afternoon, I finally felt good enough to go practice again at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The day was heavily overcast, no wind, and very humid from earlier heavy rain. I planned to hit some wedges and see if my back would hold out, and if it did, run through the bag and hit a few balls with my new clubs.
I started off hitting 3/4 swings with my new CX Micro gap wedge. I struck the ball pretty solidly, but the distance was a bit low at first, as I was swinging very softly to while I warmed up my back. The fat shot was missing except for a single shot, where I clearly got too quick with my tempo. Next, I hit a couple of pitching wedges, and distance was more normal with this club. Moving up, I used an 8-iron next, hitting fades mostly. I was pretty pleased that I was striking the ball pretty well; the only thing missing was a bit of distance from my month off recovering from my lower back injury. I moved on to the 6-iron, but didn’t strike the ball particularly well.
Next, I got out my Cleveland HALO 3i hybrid. Except for the first shot, a worm-burner, I struck this club well. I was pretty pleased, so I got out my new 949MC 4-wood and my new 525GRT driver. I hit only a couple of shots with each club, alternating between the hybrid, the 4-wood and the driver. I was striking the hybrid very well, although, again, my distance was a bit short. I didn’t hit the 4-wood particularly well, hitting low, but this was due to my long layoff and not the club. I can already see the potential. And the sound it makes is really nice. The driver I also didn’t hit well. Two of the shots were straight worm burners hit off the heel. The third one showed off the potential — I hit a powerful push-fade that cleared the right hand net and ended up just in front of the 2nd green. Oops! Got a bit quick on that one and left the clubface open, but the ball was struck perfectly in the center of the very hot clubface. When my swing gets tuned up, I’m really looking forward to using this club. I’d run out of balls, but not before hitting a couple of perfect shots with the hybrid.
Next, I went to the putting green to see if my new S2R putter and my extensive carpet putting practice would pay off on grass. In short, it did! In fact, I didn’t miss a single putt inside of 12 ft for the first dozen or so balls. I was very pleased with my putting speed, leaving only one or two balls short all day. One or two balls did get well past the hole when I was practicing long putts, but at least that nagging problem of leaving the ball short seems to have subsided. My practice beyond 30 ft still needs much work, but I’m very pleased with my new putter and my putting. Next, I worked on chipping with the 8-iron and pitching wedge and I was pleased that I got up and down 2/3rds of the time.
A really good practice today, considering how long I wasn’t able to practice. Following practice, I came home and went through all of my stretches and exercises that my physical therapist gave me. I felt fine afterward, no ill effects from the practice. I’ll continue to limit the number of balls I hit in the short term (I hit only a small bucket today) until my back is fully healed.