After a four-day hiatus due to a work trip, I was back on the range today, opting to shift my focus from long irons to wedges for the week. I have two tee times scheduled for the upcoming long weekend, and am hopeful for a third if the weather holds up, so I want to get my short game as dialed in as possible. I am on the road for work, and opted to stay at a hotel with a course and range directly across from it, which meant I was able to drive across the street after checking in. Unfortunately, however, the range did not have short targets (closest was 100 yards) and there was no chipping green, but I made the most of the beautiful evening, still 20+ degrees and sunny by the time I got there.
The start of the session was tough. No doubt a result of four days off after hitting balls daily for the two weeks prior, it took me a while to find my groove. The takeaway here is that if my swing was rusty after four days away, what reasonable expectation did I have in previous rounds going weeks or even months without swinging a club, and being surprised when I shanked the ball off the first tee block? Consistency of practice will be key, though admittedly I won’t be able to hit balls daily forever. With 28 of 50 shots on target, I was fairly happy with the way my swing eventually worked itself out, though admittedly took a much longer warm-up (ie. shanking balls before recording results) than usual which certainly improved the results.
SW (+10): I hit 10 of 15 SW shots on target, blading four and hitting another off the toe (+10). I was happy with the trajectory I was getting on my SW, but I noticed again that my distance with the club can vary from 60-to-100 yards depending on how I hit it. The challenge is that the 100-yard shots aren’t being bladed per say, still getting good trajectory, so I’m having a challenge identifying what’s happening. Distance control with this club is incredibly important, so it’s something I will continue to work on.
GW (+8): I hit 8 of 15 on target, pulling one to the left and pushing three to the right (+4), while blading one and hitting one off the toe (+4). I had a heck of a time warming up with this club, likely a result of having only swung it a few times, and will continue to practice as it will be my 80-to-100 yard approach club. Fortunately when I was hitting the ball well, I was getting a good trajectory and straight ball flight which was encouraging.
PW (+6): I hit 5 of 10 on target, pulling three to the left, pushing one to the right (+4), and blading one (+2). On the shots that were on target, I was getting a left to right ball flight which I adjusted for by aiming slightly to the left, however on my three misses left, the ball trajectory was straight, so the misalignment caused me to miss my spot. I will continue to monitor to see if I have a sustained left-to-right ball flight with this club, or if it was a one-off.
9-iron (+6): I had identical results with my 9-iron as I did with my PW, hitting 5 of 10 on target, pulling three left, pushing one right (+4), and blading one (+2). Similar to above, I will monitor my ball flight in future practice sessions this week to determine if this is a trend that I should adjust for on the course, or if it was simply a one-off today.
Overall, it was nice to get back on the range and swing the clubs. At 56% of shots on target, my game was about in line with where I was with the long irons, though I anticipate improvement throughout the week as I get into a groove with my swing. The weather is looking beautiful this week and outside of Wednesday, my schedule accommodating, so my goal will be to get to the range 4 times this week, and squeeze in 3 rounds over the long weekend. By the time round 2 rolls around, I should have 10 range sessions banked – let’s see how this dedicated practice translates.
Breaking Ninety 