Joey's Golf Bag

This morning, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The weather was sunny and hot, a slight breeze from the north.

I put the iPod on 27/9 and started warming up with the pitching wedge. Immediately, it was clear things were not quite right. Unlike the last time I practiced, I wasn’t striking the ball particularly well; in fact, I hit a couple of sh*nks while I was warming up. Yeech! Things didn’t improve much after I’d warmed up, though I noticed that I was now hitting the ball closer to the hosel, so I adjusted by moving the club so that the ball was centered; I’d been setting up so that the ball was closer to the hosel.

I was a little frustrated at this point, so I took aim at a bucket someone had left on the range about 25 yds in front of me and started hitting short pitches at the bucket using the lob wedge. It soon became apparent that Tour Tempo wasn’t really good for me to pitch with. Once I turned off the iPod, my pitches improved dramatically and I hit the bucket once and just one-hopped one over it.

I turned the iPod back on and went back to hitting a mix of clubs, the pitching wedge, the 8- and 6-irons. I wasn’t particularly happy; although I was now striking the ball strongly, I had a hard pull left (very little sidespin for the most part). I then got out the hybrid and driver. With the driver, I first sprayed the ball around with a mix of draws and fades, and never really got it perfect. Distance was a bit short until I teed the ball a bit higher. I wasn’t happy with the hybrid either, so I went back and ran the Jim Flick reverse pivot drill. After a few of those, I teed up some balls and hit 8-, 6- and 5-irons, concentrating on hitting down on the ball. Finally, I hit a couple of good shots. A few more drivers and I was out of balls and very tired from the heat.

I sat down under the porch for a few minutes to rest, then went back to the putting green and hit chips with the 8-iron, pitching wedge and lob wedge. I did better with the pitching wedge (not a surprise since I usually use that club for chipping), but did pretty poorly with the lob wedge. I’ll need a lot more practice with the lob wedge before I start using that club for chipping.

Next, I hit three-foot putts until I hit 10 in a row. This took a while; my feel was not very good today. Finally, I ran speed drills, using a different line each time to work on reading the green as well. I picked a hole on the lower shelf above the first tee, and hit putts on a variety of lines, trying to improve my reads. After about 20 minutes of that drill, I went to the top of the green and practiced 30 ft down-hill putts with a 5 foot break. It took a few putts, but my last putt nailed the center of the cup and I called it a day.

Not a very good practice session today, but at least I worked on all my clubs. I’ll need a lot more practice this week as I’m playing the Cowboys Golf Club on Friday.