Two and a half practices
This week, I managed to slip in two and a half practices. On Monday, I had a full practice at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I started off hitting the ball poorly, had some really nice short iron shots in the middle of the practice, and finished off full swing practice poorly again. I also didn’t hit the ball well out of the sand on this day, tending to hit the ball thin and over the green. I did have a good session in the grass bunker, learning to hit balls on a severe upslope. I also had a pretty respectable putting practice as well, focusing mainly on speed drills with a bit of lag putting practice at the end. I wasn’t pleased with my ball striking on that day, or my sand practice, but at least my putting practice was pretty good.
This afternoon, after work, I managed to slip in 30 minutes of putting practice at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I mainly worked again on speed drills and finished up with some lag putting practice from 30 ft. I was pretty happy with my putting, but I still have one or two inexplicable putts that are either really long or really short. Curious…
Finally, after dinner, I went to the Hank Haney Golf Ranch to hit some balls. I got a medium bucket, intending to get in work on all the clubs in my bag. I started off hitting the pitching wedge quite well, then got out the 9-iron and hit some pretty nice shots with that club as well. I then got out all three CX Micro wedges and hit some full shots with each. Up to this point, I was striking the ball pretty well, good distance control and direction very good. I then ruined that by getting out the long clubs and rediscovering my reverse pivot, which caused those ugly high hooks to reappear. I did eventually work it out, but I had to go all the way back to the lob wedge and work my way back to the longer clubs before I managed to get rid of the reverse pivot, and that nagging hook.
Next, I hit a bunch of short wedge shots at a large bucket that someone had thoughtfully left in a nice position for short pitching practice. I hit about 20 balls from various distances and began to get back some feel with my lob wedge. At first, I hit the balls long, then I hit them short, and finally I got dialed in and hit some very close to the bucket. I then went back to hit my irons and began to strike them pretty nicely, feeling some nice lag with a strong click when hitting the ball. The balls had no side spin at all, although they weren’t all straight; most had a slight pull or push. I then hit a couple of drives, but never really got a really good strike on the ball until the last one, where I pushed a ball over the net to the 2nd green. Oops!
I was pretty pleased with my practices today, especially with my wedges getting back into shape. My short irons were also pretty good today, and my long irons are again getting better. I didn’t hit the hybrid, 4-wood or driver well tonight, though.
Tomorrow, I’m playing 18. It’ll be interesting to see if I can get back to at least breaking 100 again.