A full practice!
Yesterday, at Golden Bear Golf Center, I practiced on a warm sunny morning. There was no trace of a breeze, and the mosquitos were swarming. Fortunately, I had visited Wally World to get some mosquito repellant.
I started off hitting 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 wedge shots toward the red flagged green. My distance was inconsistent, but I expect to need a lot of practice before the wedges round back into shape. Next, I hit a few pitching wedges to gauge distance control. Distances were shorter than expected, but I expect they will improve as a get back into practice and my new workout routines take effect. I then went through the bag hitting a number of shots with each club. I tended to pull the short irons and push the longer ones. My best long club, again, was the 3i HALO hybrid; still need work to get the driver and 4-wood in gear. With the last set of balls, I hit some shots with randomly selected clubs; very inconsistent. My ball striking wasn’t sharp today, but I expect it will improve as I get back into a steady practice routine.
Next, I went to the putting green to the east of the clubhouse (the other green being closed) and spent 30 minutes practicing putting, mostly speed drills. My putting was not good until I developed a new putting routine, which consists of swinging the putter back and forth so that the clubhead doesn’t lead or lag my hands. Once I have that feeling, I put the putter head behind the ball and putt. This seemed to improve my speed immediately. I finished up putting with some putts from 30 ft and by the second set of 3 putts left all three balls no more than a foot behind the hole without any short. I was very pleased with my putting practice.
Next, I went to the short game area and practiced bunker shots from the new bunker with railroad ties (a la Pete Dye). My first shot didn’t exit the bunker, but I saw what I did wrong and all the rest of my shots were well executed. I still need to work on distance control, but my immediate goal was just to put the ball onto the green near the pin, and that was successful. For my final drill, I went to the grass bunker and hit chips from an uphill lie. I was also pleased with that practice.
A very good day of practice yesterday. I will be going to practice every other day while my lower back continues to recover from injury, and then I’ll be able to get back to more frequent trips to practice.