Finally, the driver goes straight
This morning, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The morning was sunny and a bit cool when I arrived, reaching the mid-80s by the time I finished up.
I started out on the range, stretched a bit to warm up, and then ran through my now standard warm up routine: 5 balls with the sand wedge, just getting going, then 3 balls each with the sand wedge, pitching wedge, 8-iron, 6-iron, 4-hybrid, 4-wood, 3-wood and followed by 5 balls with the driver. I wasn’t striking the ball particularly good with the shorter clubs, but got better as the clubs got longer. When I pulled out the 3-wood Thriver, this time I teed it up like a driver instead of a 3-wood, and pow! That’s really how this club needs to be hit, just like a driver. Now I’m getting a nice, piercing ball flight with better distance than my 4-wood. Today, seemingly because I hit very nice shots with the Thriver, my driver decided to go straight today, with pretty respectable distance.
For my next drill, I got out the iPod and the 8-iron and hit a dozen balls, working on tempo and ball flight. It took a few balls but I started striking the 8-iron a bit better. I then hit a few 6-irons with the iPod on, and hit some pretty nice shots with it.
After a short break, I went down to the end of the range, where there were 3 round nets set up at between a 1/4 lob wedge and just over a 1/2 lob wedge. I spent the rest of the balls firing shots at the three nets, hitting three nets out of about 30 balls. My direction control was pretty solid today, but my distance control was a bit off. Still, it was a very good practice with the lob wedge.
I then went to the putting green and spent about 25 minutes hitting short and medium length chipping. My chipping wasn’t stellar today, though I did hole one chip. I got out the putter and warmed up by hitting 4 footers to see how many I could hit in a row, missing the eighth one. I then went back to 3 feet, and hit 10 in a row. My speed drill was next. My distance control was pretty good, but my green reading was a little lacking today. I finished up with some down-hill lag putting from 30 ft, nailing one and leaving the rest no more than 6 inches from the hole.
I was pretty happy with my practice today. I’ll find a course to play nine on tomorrow and see if my game is improving.