Impact and tempo
This week, I’ve finally gotten some time to practice. On Wednesday, I practiced after work at the Golden Bear Golf Center, and had one of my worst ever practices. It started out good in the short game area, where I ran the sand drill and hit short and medium pitches. I then went to the range to work on my swing. However, after a pretty good warmup, my swing got progressively worse. It got so bad that I went back to the Y-drill from Tour Tempo (no iPod, though, had to make do without it). I finally got a few good strikes on the ball, but by that time the range was closing.
Yesterday morning, I went to Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville to practice. My warmup on the range was even worse than the previous day. I went back to the Y-drill and started hitting balls, many balls with the shorter irons, then working my way to the longer irons. I even did the drill with the 5-wood and Thriver. I’d finally found my swing again. By the time I ran out of balls, my swing was back and I was striking the ball much better. I finished out that practice session on the putting green, running the speed drill and then hitting some lag putts from 30 and 36 feet. By that time, the Texas heat was on full blast and I headed home.
This morning, I put my 550C irons back in the bag, got out my iPod and went again to Hank Haney Golf Ranch. I warmed up on the range, striking the ball decently but not as well as I’d like. Next, I ran a few Y-drills using the 7-iron, but wasn’t happy with the way I was hitting the ball. I got out the iPod, put on 27/9 (voice) and found, much to my amazement, that 27/9 was too slow!
I put on 24/8 and began to run the Y-drill, using a variety of irons. I was doing the drill pretty well, so I progressed to the L-drill. Again, I was striking the ball pretty well, so I proceeded to hit full swings, and was pleased to see my swing improving again. I even struck the 5-iron well, nice and high trajectory. I then got out the long clubs and hit some pretty good shots with all of them. I finished up practice with sand and approach wedge shots, and then went to the practice green to putt. I had a nice putting practice (speed drill and lag putting) and went home before the heat got unbearable.