You Don't Want to Go Out and Stripe it on the Range...

[jholz]

With Fowler's opening round, I'm interested...watched the post round presser...which I never do but...

 

Rickie said something this afternoon that just totally encapsulates golf for me. Perhaps even life.

 

"You don't want to go out and stripe it on the range (during warm-up). That's always a bad sign."

 

This is something that holds true for me. I honestly hope to hit semi-crappy shots during warm-up. I tend to play better afterwards. But why???

 

It makes me focus? Gets me into the headspace where I recognize the difficulty of the game? Who knows?

 

If I'm really hitting the ball well during warm-up - it makes me nervous. I get all bunged up out on the course.

 

This seems counter intuitive...but then...so is golf.

 

Does everyone feel this way? It is just some of us? I have no idea.

 

Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

 

 

[Kuuuch]

I think we’ve all experienced this but I definitely prefer to hit it well on the range lol. I don’t really notice it much anymore other than early morning rounds during the winter time. I’ll typically be a little more fade bias on the range and then my usual draw with irons fade with woods on the course once I’m actually warmed up. 
 

Golfs a funny game. Two of my best rounds so far this year my last shot on the range before I had to jet to the tee box I shanked so 🤷

[1s1k]

Last week on the range before my round I shanked five 9 irons in a row. While I like to think it was because I'm working on dropping my arms to sync up with my body better.

 

Went out and shot 73 with 3 missed birdies within 8 feet.  

 

[MonteScheinblum]

This is like bad beats in poker.  If you actually did a statistical analysis, you’d find no correlation between warm up session and score for the round.  That’s why all you do is just warm up.

Edited June 16, 2023 by MonteScheinblum

[MPStrat]

2 hours ago, Kuuuch said:

I think we’ve all experienced this but I definitely prefer to hit it well on the range lol. 

Same.
 

To add to that there is ballstriking and there is score.   
 

There are rounds where I have hit it well on the course and was very disappointed with the score due to bad breaks, putts not falling etc. There are also rounds where I have hit it terrible on the course and scored well due to good breaks and putts falling. 

The point is, if you hit it crappy on the range, don’t lose hope. You might hit it well on the course, and if you don’t, you might still be able to slap it around and shoot a good score
 

 

[Valtiel]

7 hours ago, jholz said:

Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

A few ideas working backwards from what we know about the nature of the swing and swing faults. How this might apply to the individual will of course vary, but if we're talking the meat of the bell curve here I feel like it's pretty easy to pin a few things down. 

Swings with strong tendencies and/or faults inherently require compensations, and those compensations are usually subconscious and always happening in tiny windows of time. To stripe it on the range with a swing that requires any meaningful amount of these compensation requires you to build a little house of cards mechanically speaking that exists in this consequence free bubble that is the driving range. It's the lowest amount of stress you're going to experience hitting a ball with the greatest opportunity for brute force repetition. All the while your subconscious is basically this unburdened background process with lots of bandwidth to start intuitively cleaning up your mess, so to speak. Take for example the typical over the top early extender that comes down steep and has to lose spine angle and stand up to control low point. You might just have a really good feel for that stand up compensation that day for reasons you aren't consciously aware of and you'll convince yourself that those last fives drives you striped means you figured out this stupid golf thing. Then the house of cards gets moved on to the course....

It's been maybe 5-10+ minutes since you hit a ball and all those little cards start to shift around without the repetition to keep them in place. And that is without any of the stress or anxiety that comes from worrying about outcomes. You haven't even tee'd the ball up yet and already the deck is starting to stack against you. Then you mix in simple fundamentals like posture and alignment, things you might just then be realizing you weren't really paying attention to on the range because you were just having fun hitting the ball well. Now you have no idea where you're actually aiming, because ask the average golfer where their body is lined up on the first tee and the accuracy will be....lacking. I'd be shocked if 50% were actually in the ballpark, even the pros keep a close eye on their alignment to keep it from drifting. Now you're standing over the ball and you're physically tense due to both nerves and the likelihood that you whacked your range balls too fast and the sudden stop has caused some stiffness. So now your body isn't ready to move, you're likely not lined up correctly, and your mind is far more clouded with little bandwidth to do what it was doing automatically earlier.  

IMO that all paints a pretty clear picture of why it changes so drastically from range to tee. We want to have fun so we'll tend to gravitate towards fun on the range if we're hitting it well, and that usually pulls us further and further from practicing things that will actually help on the course. Our expectations rise in inverse proportion to what we're actually learning and equipping ourselves for and we walk to the first tee like a third grader that definitely memorized their book report by reading it really fast three times before standing up in front of the class. 

There is another essay or five on what to do about all that and i'm probably only qualified to write less than half of them, but for starters you need to practice exactly how you're intending to play. Pick targets and hit to them like you're on the course. Imagine holes you're going to be playing and hit mock tee shots with the shape of the hole in mind. Just whatever you do, do not hit any more than a couple balls where you aren't thinking about exactly where you want them to go. This is easily the biggest issue, people don't pick and stick to targets when warming up when they are about to do exclusively that for the next 80-100 shots. Put the same kind of pressure on yourself to hit your target on the range as you do on the course. Tell a buddy your target and have him watch you to add pressure. Maybe throw in a little trash talk. 😆

Then all you have to do is shotgun four Heinekens on the drive to the first tee and you're solid. 👌

[phizzy30]

This is a double edged sword topic for me.  I've had days where I've absolutely striped it on the course to have it all come apart on the course.  I've also had days where I didn't have my best on the range but somehow figured it out on the first few holes and have gone low.  I think for me as long as I have the right feel on the range, it usually carries over to the course.  Putting always gets me outta trouble and as long as my ball striking is good to average, I know I can post a decent to excellent score. 

[RobertBaron]

14 hours ago, jholz said:

Can anyone explain this phenomenon to me?

The hubris from a strong warm up angers the golf gods. 

[ferrispgm]

The only correlation I find is that hitting it well on the range to warm up gives people a false sense of confidence.  They started getting over aggressive with their targets on the course and swing harder which usually leads to more errant shots and worse scores.  If anyone thinks hitting it great in warm up is a bad omen....try aiming at the middle of the green the whole round and report back.

[Nels55]

It’s a case of confirmation bias.  It only has to happen once and then it gets in your head and after that you start making it happen.  This is why it helps to be either really stupid or extremely intelligent.  Stupid makes no correlation and intelligent doesn’t think that way.

[st1800e]

“I was hitting it so good on the range”.