Straightening out the driver
I’ve practiced a couple of times since my last practice post, none of which were particularly good. Because of a very busy work schedule, I rarely have time after work these days to practice, so I try to fit in two practices on the weekend.
Yesterday, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center, on a chilly, but sunny, day that gradually warmed up into a really fine afternoon. I started out on the range, hitting 7-irons to warm up. Alan Niederlitz stopped by to say hello, and I hit a couple of shots for him. I spent most of that practice session working on tempo and dynamic impact, but didn’t really start hitting the ball well until the end of the bucket. I then practiced on the putting green, and it wasn’t one of my better putting practices, tending to hit the ball well past the hole. This is an improvement over my usual fault of leaving it short, so I wasn’t disturbed by this new fault. I finished up by running the sand drill in the bunker and then hitting a few sand shots with the lob wedge. I left only one ball in the bunker; out of about 12 shots, 10 were good ones.
This afternoon, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville on a flawless winter afternoon, sunny, warm, not much wind. When I arrived, there were only a few people on the range; by the time I finished up on the range, it was packed from one end to the other, and there was a class at one end and some sort of special event on the other. I warmed up with the 7-iron, then moved on to alternating approach wedge, 9-iron, 7-iron and 5-iron. I had problems striking the ball on the toe and hitting hooks. I tried moving the ball back in my stance, which helped with the toe strikes, but didn’t get rid of the hooks. Finally, I figured out that my hooking problem was caused by being too passive on my lower body. Once I started driving toward the ball with my right knee and making sure to fully shift my weight to the left on the downswing, the hooks straightened out and I began to hit straight shots. Encouraged, I got out the 7-wood and 4-hybrid and began to hit some pretty decent shots with them. Next, the ultimate test: I got out the driver, which had been vexing me for weeks. My first shot was a bit low but right down the middle. As I got more comfortable, I started booming them into the net. The ball flight was mostly a push or a push fade, but very controlled and good trajectory. I was pretty pleased.
I skipped putting, as the green is still dormant and barely puttable, and crowded with people. Not my best practice today, but at least the long clubs are resembling golf shots now.