Irons getting better
Warm spring weather has arrived here in Big D, so I’ve been able to hit some balls the last two afternoons. Yesterday, I practiced at the Golden Bear Golf Center. I started out on the putting green, and spent about 45 minutes working on my putting. The green is now mostly out of dormancy, and is rolling pretty smooth. I spent most of that practice time on speed drills, and it was one of my better practice sessions.
Next, I spent some time running the sand drill with the lob wedge, first with a chipping stroke and then with a pitching stroke. I hit a couple of balls out of the sand, getting them all out but not really very good distance control.
I collected some balls and worked on chipping and pitching with the lob wedge. My chipping was pretty good from shorter distances, but not very consistent from long range. My pitching was similar, good from short distance and not very consistent from medium distance. I didn’t hit many from long distance, and the ones I did hit weren’t stellar.
I got a medium bucket and went to the west end of the range. I’ve gone back to practicing with the 550c irons. These are, of course, much less forgiving than my 770CFE irons, but since I get much better feedback with these irons, I plan to continue to practice with the 550c irons, unless I’m playing that day. (In that case, the 770CFE irons go back in the bag.) I warmed up by hitting 3 balls with every other club. My ball striking was pretty good to start, but by the time I got to the longer clubs, I wasn’t particularly pleased. I never really was happy at all with my ball-striking this day. Even my short irons weren’t well struck, kept hitting fatties. The driver, well, yeech is the only word that fit.
This afternoon, I went to the Hank Haney Golf Ranch to practice. I got a large bucket and went to the range. I warmed up, badly, hitting bad shots with the sand wedge. It took about 10 balls before I hit any shots that I liked. I did finally start hitting good shots, and then something clicked when I made sure to put a little more weight on my left foot than my right, and then trying to get a late release. My swing eventually got a lot better, after I spent some time making quarter, half and three-quarter swings with the sand wedge, and then with the lob wedge. I then alternated every other club from the 9-iron through the 7-wood, and was pretty pleased with my ball striking. I got out the driver and 4-wood. The 4-wood I hit straight, but very low (was getting better distance with my high-flying 7-wood shots). The driver continues to be a disaster, either high slices or low hooks. Yeech!!!
With the last 10 balls, I decided to see how many balls I could hit on the green just in front of the pond. The distance was a perfect 9-iron, so I got it out and hit 7 of 10 balls onto the green, hitting the balls very high so that they rolled out just a little after hitting the green. Two of the balls were hit right of the green and one just to the left. I was pretty pleased, as three of the shots were within 10 feet of the pin. I also hit two pitching wedges, to see if I could get enough distance with it to put the ball on the green. The first ball was hit fat and splashed down; the second was well-struck and ended up in front of the pin about 20 feet short of the pin.
I had planned to practice short chips and putting, but the putting green still has not grown in yet, so I skipped putting.
I was pretty pleased with my practice today, much better than yesterday. I’ll be playing a lot of golf this month, so I’ll need to get that dastardly driver working, and soon. The Dye course at Stonebridge Ranch awaits…