Range Time - What do you do to overcome poorer conditions

[kiwigolf72]

I have always found the use of driving ranges interesting.

If you are a mid to higher handicap player, one of the reasons is because you don't quite have consistency in your swing due to some technical issues, standing on a range hitting ball after ball is not going to create consistency.

Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

Using a driving range for a warmup before a round is great, standing there for an hour belting balls is not going to drop your handicap from a 28 to a 20.

IMO if you haven't had a lesson from a pro who has given you specific things to work on then you are kidding yourself that you suddenly are going to work things out on a range, unless you at least know what to work on and how to produce the shot you are after consistently. 

Mid to higher handicap players will shave more strokes off their HC by chipping and putting than trying to get their driver to stop slicing.

 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

24 minutes ago, kiwigolf72 said:

Mid to higher handicap players will shave more strokes off their HC by chipping and putting than trying to get their driver to stop slicing.

 

 

Not really unless they plan to chip the ball from tee to green. You lose more strokes from the tee than you'll save at the green.

[kiwigolf72]

14 minutes ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Not really unless they plan to chip the ball from tee to green. You lose more strokes from the tee than you'll save at the green.

lol

 

[Socrates]

On 9/27/2023 at 3:06 PM, golfarb1 said:

All pga and lpga events are played at top golf courses .

All  top national , regional and state  amateur events are played at top golf courses .
What are the range conditions at a top golf course ?What are the  conditions of the fairways at top golf courses ?
What are the range and fairway conditions at the best courses in your area.?

 

Have you ever watched the pros practice ?. 
Do they hit balls off the dirt created by their divot or do they put the  next ball on the adjacent grass. 
Practice has only two purposes. Either warming up before a round or for working on a specific problem . 
A poor lie will only make it more difficult to 

focus on your specific issues . 
Buy some 1.5 inch tees and tee up the ball just enough so that  the lie itself does not detract from the reasons why you are practicing . 

Very, very few amateurs  are good enough to consistently  compress the ball off of dirt and hard pan . Maybe Lee Trevino learned to hit balls off of terrible lies , but the odds against almost all amateurs learning to do so is  high.
For most golfers , the purpose of golf is enjoyment . Why punish yourself by hitting from poor lies , from which you have  virtually  no chance to hit the ball solidly .

Absolutely agree.  I would find nothing to be gained at a turd of a range unless my one goal was to learn how to hit trouble shots.  Range time for me is limited and I'll hit proper shots off a proper lie - even if it is mats)  My one caveat is that when I was much younger, I worked a course where we hit/shagged the balls back onto the range from all sorts of weird places (all with one club).  I learned how to hit the ball out of all the crappiest and weirdest lies.  I don't need to revisit them until I see them on the course.  I have been to places where the range is junk and so are the balls and I only hit a few to loosen up and then go play.

[Nickb333]

My wife and I took a 2 day PGA school lesson at TPC Scottsdale years ago. The very first thing the pro told us was, always use a tee when you’re practicing full shots. Always. 

[SNIPERBBB]

8 hours ago, Nickb333 said:

My wife and I took a 2 day PGA school lesson at TPC Scottsdale years ago. The very first thing the pro told us was, always use a tee when you’re practicing full shots. Always. 

They Haney reality show a while back, he always has his students hitting irons off tees.

[me05501]

9 hours ago, Nickb333 said:

My wife and I took a 2 day PGA school lesson at TPC Scottsdale years ago. The very first thing the pro told us was, always use a tee when you’re practicing full shots. Always. 

 

The first pro I took lessons from said the same. He said that when you're working on swing mechanics you want to eliminate as many variables as you can. Always seek out a perfect lie or use a tee when that isn't available. 

 

He also said not to hit any damaged or over-worn balls. 

 

Basically you don't want your ballflight to be impacted by anything you can't control with your swing. 

[SNIPERBBB]

1 hour ago, me05501 said:

 

He also said not to hit any damaged or over-worn balls. 

 

Basically you don't want your ballflight to be impacted by anything you can't control with your swing. 

I'm assuming you're referring to hitting those balls on the course not at the range.  Unless you're at a range that replaces balls often, you might never hit a ball at some ranges...

[me05501]

13 minutes ago, SNIPERBBB said:

I'm assuming you're referring to hitting those balls on the course not at the range.  Unless you're at a range that replaces balls often, you might never hit a ball at some ranges...

 

He meant at the range. If a ball is chipped or cracked or has no dimples left, it's fine for a warm up swing but it will deceive you in terms of ballflight. 

[SNIPERBBB]

12 minutes ago, me05501 said:

 

He meant at the range. If a ball is chipped or cracked or has no dimples left, it's fine for a warm up swing but it will deceive you in terms of ballflight. 

Really shouldn't be worried about ball flight/distance on the range. Perhaps if your trying to work on specific distances/trajectories maybe.

[me05501]

Just now, SNIPERBBB said:

Really shouldn't be worried about ball flight/distance on the range. Perhaps if your trying to work on specific distances/trajectories maybe.

 

I'm really struggling here.

 

Do I respect the advice of my coach who had professional tour experience?

 

Or do I change my mind based on input from (...checks notes...) SNIPERBBB from The Internet?

It's a real conundrum. Requires more thought. 

[mgoblue83]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:28 AM, SNIPERBBB said:

I tend to think people are spoiled practicing on mats/manicured ranges. You can almost tell who developed their swings in mats because they are almost always pickers and can't hit out of the rough.

 

Or they hit chunks all the time because mats let them get away with it in practice.

[Jayjay_theweim_guy]

33 minutes ago, me05501 said:

 

I'm really struggling here.

 

Do I respect the advice of my coach who had professional tour experience?

 

Or do I change my mind based on input from (...checks notes...) SNIPERBBB from The Internet?

It's a real conundrum. Requires more thought. 

If you're of sufficient means that your golf coach has "professional tour experience," you likely are practicing at very well maintained facilities.  Go you.

 

The rest of us make do.

[SNIPERBBB]

44 minutes ago, me05501 said:

 

I'm really struggling here.

 

Do I respect the advice of my coach who had professional tour experience?

 

Or do I change my mind based on input from (...checks notes...) SNIPERBBB from The Internet?

It's a real conundrum. Requires more thought.

Unless your a tour pro where you get to have the same balls you play available to you at the range, or you play the same balls on the course as the range balls are, you're not going to get the same results on the course as you do at the range.  At the range you're most times going to be more worried about the contact or movements rather than the actual results most of time. I really don't care if the ball breaks 5 times during its flight.

[Mikey_HACKilroy]

This has taken on a life of its own, hasn't it? 😄 A regular unabused ball will amplify the defective flight of a range ball even more so (ask me how I know LOL).

 

Range work is for mechanics and gaining consistency through practice. It doesn't by itself lower anybody's handicap. I practice pitch, chip and sand shots at the same place. Just last week I was developing a technique to hit out of a bunker whilst actually on the wall (mostly just very steep) for embedded shots.

Yet, if I'm struggling off the tee or on approach (and I have been), the range is the only place I can attempt to identify a problem and resolve it. In fact, yesterday and today I did solve at least one problem on the range. My grip was actually weak and I had let it drift even with the training aid to the point where the prior struggles began to show. I identified it yesterday, tested a solution by placing an emphasis on strengthening the right hand producing satisfactory results, and then today I went back to check the solution.

I'd do the checking on the course, but the right eye makes that complicated as I can't stop to put a compress on it when I need it or take a break when suddenly the eye starts stinging and watering. 😄

 

Anyways, there was a guy showing off to his buddies yesterday under the lights with a few other folks watching (including me as I cleaned up my clubs). He was striking it and it climbed seemingly forever and dropped on a spot with a good bit of consistency. Range balls do act consistently so long as they're in reasonable shape. Otherwise, he couldn't have possibly been that good; dude is legit.

Today, I wasn't gonna let the idea of him best me.... LOL So I set up with a pad of paper, marked D - 8i horizontally and used the lines as columns marked LCR (Left - Center - Right) with notation to identify strike quality. I'm going to start adding these to a tracking sheet so I can keep notes on what I did to resolve a problem when a rut started. Anyways, I warmed up and then went to town from D through the 8-iron.

 

The driver is actually the most widely dispersed club in the bag. I shortened it yesterday and it's gotten a touch worse as I acclimate to the 1" cut and slightly different feel. The most consistent were the 3-4i which is of no surprise because they are the CBs of the bunch. In fact, I flushed those most often). I watched as they followed the same high but not ballooning trajectory just like that guy yesterday. It felt freaking good.

 

The best of the 5-8 was the 6" Iron but the others were quite acceptable in shot quality as well. The 6 was just the best. Anyways, at least for the moment, I feel like I'm back on track. Now I can see if it transfers to the course this coming week.

 

As for practice; people should practice in the way that gives them the greatest benefit. It helps confidence to repeat a result. That's really what the range is for when you're not a touring golfer. Yet, just banging at golf balls without much thought won't get you anywhere. That's not what I do at the range. I'm not satisfied with just mediocre golf, which is probably why I get so disappointed when I get into ruts especially after feeling like I was improving.

 

Ups and downs...... lost of ups and downs..... 😄

Edited October 1, 2023 by Mikey_HACKilroy

[Mikey_HACKilroy]

It's official.... It wasn't the conditions. It's just me. LOL

I drift in and out of good because I overdo it and I don't always emphasize good practice routines. I developed a better routine the other day and had a good session. But today I reverted back to somewhat aimlessly striking golf balls because I forgot my note pad.

I need to limit myself after warming up (with an iron) to no more than 14 driver swings. What I did was develop a mock up of a local course. Basic, just yardages and I could estimate the necessary drive trajectory using memory since I've played the course dozens of times. I estimate based on 2 putts (happens to be my average) for a virtual score (meaningless but worthwhile exercise) whilst indicating penalty rehits as needed to be fair without inflating the estimated score. Obviously, I had to do the best I could with pitch shots in estimation LOL.

After experimenting with the driver the day before, that more structured routine worked. Today's routine worked in the beginning, but I overdid it, tired myself out and reverted to idiot. Yet, I had a lot of good strikes so that's good.

I finally filmed my work the other day and at least it was a good day. I think the practice routine had a lot to do with it. I was finally feeling good about it. (Again, except for the end of today LOL.....)
 

 

[Jajo]

My range just closed their main section of grass tees (reconditioning for next year) and opened a smaller section.  That smaller section is on a slight downslope, and it really messed with my brain last time I was there.  

[Mikey_HACKilroy]

9 hours ago, Jajo said:

My range just closed their main section of grass tees (reconditioning for next year) and opened a smaller section.  That smaller section is on a slight downslope, and it really messed with my brain last time I was there.  

 

Yeah, it's that time of year here, too. They closed down the one grass section (coincidentally the one I was really mad about LOL) to work on the turf and that usually is long term recovery. The other side is being used for grass, and is always full so I use the mats. I have generally had good results with exceptions now and again like yesterday.

[me05501]

On 9/29/2023 at 12:12 PM, Jayjay_theweim_guy said:

If you're of sufficient means that your golf coach has "professional tour experience," you likely are practicing at very well maintained facilities.  Go you.

 

The rest of us make do.

 

There are thousands of people out there with pro tour experience. A ton of them make a living giving lessons. It's not about my means or lack thereof. To wit...

 

On 9/29/2023 at 12:21 PM, SNIPERBBB said:

Unless your a tour pro where you get to have the same balls you play available to you at the range, or you play the same balls on the course as the range balls are, you're not going to get the same results on the course as you do at the range.  At the range you're most times going to be more worried about the contact or movements rather than the actual results most of time. I really don't care if the ball breaks 5 times during its flight.

 

...some of the ranges I go to only provide a hodgepodge of balls including everything from recent ProV1 water balls to literal 50-year old Molitors.

 

I segregate the balls and use the worst ones for warm up swings where the ball flight matters less than getting my motion patterns in place. I won't hit a crappy, worn-smooth Top Flite with driver.

The point of practicing driver is to see the trajectory and shape of the flight. Hitting a ball that won't show you that is worse than pointless. 

[SNIPERBBB]

40 minutes ago, me05501 said:

The point of practicing driver is to see the trajectory and shape of the flight. 

Not really. Main focus for most would be hitting it solid. If that's the point of your session to figure out shape and trajectory, sure save the good balls 

[Mikey_HACKilroy]

Honestly, I consider getting good contact to be synonymous with good shape and trajectory. If I get good and solid driver contact, I know it because of the way it flies. I then take a look at the contact point if I sprayed it to confirm. That's where it can vary at times.

I've had toe biased strikes that actually worked out well, but those are the exception and not the rule.