Who practices and who just plays?

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by Wazmankg

Well I'm going to have to put in a couple of hours of serious practice. I'm hacking it all over the place with my irons off the deck, even the short ones. I'm fine off a tee on the par 3s. But off the deck it's fat, thin, OTT-left, flare-right... you name it. This used to be the best part of my game. It's starting to get in my head and mess with the rest of my game. I shot 88 & 91 my last 2 times out, which isn't bad for me. But my chipping and pitching have improved dramatically, which is the only thing that's saved me from going very high. A couple of hours with the wedges in the field behind my house then a range session with all of my irons before my next round should do it... I hope.

I'm just the opposite, I've totally lost my Driver (planning on taking a lesson before I do anything drastic involving a revolver ). I shot 77 last Sunday to win my flight in a 2 day tournament, but I hit 3 drivers that went less than 100 yards, and most of the rest were ugly duck hooks or straight pushes. Of those 3 really bad ones, 2 I still made par, and the 3rd I missed a 12 foot par putt due to a misread. I hit some spectacular 4 woods and 190-200 yard hybrid shots to save pars after a few ridiculous tee shots, as well as to set up a couple of birdies.

Maybe we need to play in a scramble together....

[cnixon83]

i think i have a pretty good balance of practice and play going. i generally get out to the course 4-5 times a week. i always try to hit the range and short game area before i tee off, most of my range time is spent with a LW, i probably hit 20+ balls with that one club. then after my round, if i find a full swing problem i head back to the range. everytime, no matter how my short game is i hit the short game area post-round. if i'm only playing a 9 hole round i'll drop a few extra balls and get a little on-course practice in. my wife just had our 1st child last week... so we'll see how my golfing habits change once she's off maternity leave.

[Wazmankg]

Originally Posted by Wazmankg

Well I'm going to have to put in a couple of hours of serious practice. I'm hacking it all over the place with my irons off the deck, even the short ones. I'm fine off a tee on the par 3s. But off the deck it's fat, thin, OTT-left, flare-right... you name it. This used to be the best part of my game. It's starting to get in my head and mess with the rest of my game. I shot 88 & 91 my last 2 times out, which isn't bad for me. But my chipping and pitching have improved dramatically, which is the only thing that's saved me from going very high. A couple of hours with the wedges in the field behind my house then a range session with all of my irons before my next round should do it... I hope.

Well I figured out what I was doing wrong. It took me nearly a half shag bag of balls to figure it out and another half bag to figure out how to correct it. I was hitting sw, pw, 10i & 9i and it was horrible as I described above. There was no consistency to the mistakes. I decided I was letting the club-head pass my hands too early. So I concentrated on the wrist cock and holding it through impact. This worked but I knew I needed something to avoid having to concentrate on it when I hit a shot. I can think and I can swing a golf club, but not simultaneously... not very well anyway. So I turned my left hand to a stronger position, making it much harder for it to break down early and voila ! ...that was it. I hit another bag rotating through the 4 clubs and hit shot after shot straight with good distance. I was hitting them high too. Even the couple I caught a bit fat went about 80-90% of the intended distance and none were thin. I was hitting from 80-125 yards and didn't miss the tree that was my target by more than 10 yards or so either way. I'll take this to the range with the rest of the bag, but I think I've found the key and I'm pretty pleased.

[JustPlainWill]

I like to practice almost as much as I like to play. I usually play about 18 holes a week usually on Sunday afternoons. I work at squeezing in two or three hour long practice sessions a week into my schedule...although I find myself really having to really work at getting in the practice sessions. I find that my game really suffers if I don't practice at least once a week or miss my weekly game, I can reall tell it. So can my playing partners.....

[titaniummd]

I practice often (usually an hour during lunch) - short game/putting or full swing.

It depends upon if it's raining whether I can play during the week. It rains often in Northern FL.

I play only once a week. When I have visitors we play all weekend.