Snap! Went the Shafts
Last night after dinner, I practiced at the Hank Haney Golf Ranch in Lewisville. The evening was very warm and humid, with no wind.
I started out hitting pitching wedges at the center green, which was too far for me to reach with that club. After I got warmed up, I got out the 8-, 6- and 4-irons and alternated striking each club. I was hitting the ball pretty well with all the clubs except the 4-iron; that club is still pretty pathetic.
Next, I moved on to hitting the longer clubs. I’m still not hitting the longer clubs as well as I did before my back injury, but I’m seeing some improvement. On this day, something weird happened. I was using a tee to hit some hybrid and 5-wood shots, working on getting a good release, but I kept hitting the ball thin. I decided to use the 6-iron off a tee and practice hitting down on the ball. My first ball was struck pretty well, a low stinger; I dug up a pretty good sized divot. On my next shot, disaster: I guess I hit down too much, because when I struck the ball, a loud crack and the bottom half of my 6-iron flew 30 ft down the range after the ball. I stood there dumbfounded for a second and then realized what had happened. I retrieved the broken club and went back to practicing, this time with the 5-iron. It never occurred to me that I might have the same swing fault again, but… crack!
I’ve never broken a shaft before, so this was a complete and total surprise. I’m assuming it was the way I was swinging and not a shaft failure. After taking a short break, I went back to practicing, starting with the pitching wedge. I didn’t have any problems after that, so I alternated the pitching wedge and driver, trying to get the driver to go straight again. I was mostly successful.
I then went to the putting green and spent 30 minutes on putting, first putting 10 in a row at 3 feet, then running speed drills. I followed that with some lag putting from 30 feet. I was pretty happy with the practice.
A photo of the broken shafts (True Temper GS75 steel shafts) below:
