Warm Weather Returns
This afternoon, I practiced on a warm, sunny, winter day at the Golden Bear Golf Center. The weather was perfect, should have worn shorts…
As usual, I started off in the short game area, running the sand drill, first hitting short chips with the AW and then hitting longer pitches with the sand wedge. I hit a few balls out of the bunker, but my distance control wasn’t good, except for the last shot, where I opened the clubface and hit a nearly perfect shot just past my target hole.
Next, I hit high pitches and long chips. My touch wasn’t good; I kept having issues hitting fat pitches. I mostly got it straightened out, but never was particularly satisfied with the results.
I got a large bucket of balls and went to the range. Because of the gorgeous weather, it was nearly full from end to end. I warmed up with the sand wedge, and had problems hitting fat shots. I then got out the 8-iron and really went after the ball. That pretty much cured the fat shots. I ran through warmup hitting every other club until I got to the 4-hybrid, and then got out the iPod and hit some balls with Tour Tempo set on 27/9. I felt like that tempo was a little slow, so I put on 24/8, but that was definitely too fast. My ball-striking was pretty good at times, and pretty poor at other times. I didn’t really have a dominate fault today, as I hit a few hooks, pushes, pulls, slices, etc.
I didn’t really get a late lag until near the end of practice, when I managed to achieve some good late releases with the lob and sand wedge, hitting very high shot farther than I usually hit the clubs. I then went up through the bag, trying to keep that late release, but wasn’t successful past the pitching wedge. I also tried to hit some drivers today, but that club was so bad I put it back after only two swings.
I went to the putting green to finish up practice, and spent nearly an hour practicing. I first hit 4-foot putts until I holed 10 in a row, then started on the speed drill. My first four speed drill putts were all holed (from 6, 9, 12 feet, and then again from 9 feet). If I left one short of the hole, I ran the drill from the same point again. I kept up the speed drill until about 27 feet from the hole, then practiced lag putting from 30 and 45 feet. I really needed some serious putting practice after my pathetic performance last Sunday, and I was pretty pleased with the practice.
I had a good practice today, but it is clear that I will have to practice more than once a week if I’m going to continue to improve my game. Fortunately, January is gone, so I’m looking forward to better weather leading up to springtime.