Divots

After doing an hour of emails this morning at work I escaped for an hour of practice at the local municipal pitch n put course. I also went last night after work and got in an hours play in the twilight (first time this year that it’s been light long enough). These are my first visits up there since last summer; it’s still shut officially as the season runs April to October. However the gate is wide open and dog walkers are making good use of the site so I had no hesitation in using the course.

There is also no question of me damaging the place, it is not looked after even at the best of times, there are holes dug in the greens, bald patches of sand on the greens where the sun killed the surface last summer, in fact it’s a right sad mess but it provides an almost ideal practice area. You are able to hit off grass into a target green and with so many tee and green options you can vary distance and targets at will, in fact play any short game shot you can imagine. Once the summer comes they let the rough grow to shin high, then practice becomes less useful as you spend more time searching for balls in the grass than hitting them, but at the moment it beats the driving range by a country mile!

I took a pitching wedge and 20 balls and set up for a hundred yard pitch shot into one of the greens. I was working on my swing as I have done over the winter, keeping the flex in my right leg, setting the club on plane at the top keeping the connection of my arms/body, then getting my weight through the ball and releasing the club so I take a divot after the ball.

I was doing it very well and had the satisfaction of seeing almost all my divots starting where the ball had been and extending forward. I only hit maybe two slightly fat.

Actually I was so intent on this, that I wasn't really paying attention to where the balls were going only briefly remarking that I was seeing a lot of fade for a pitching wedge and that they were going high and not that far. Eventually I got more interested in the ball flight and to my dismay found that they were all short high fades. I then finally had that eureka moment when I looked at my divots again.

Now this is the first time in months I have been able to hit off grass and take a divot. While they were all showing ball first contact, they were also all heading badly left. I tried hitting deliberately in to out, but nope, divots still pointing left! In fact no matter what I tried I could not move my swing path L.

I have to face the fact that somehow in changing my swing over the winter I have ingrained a very significant out to in move that I never noticed while hitting on mats. Without seeing any video it’s almost a dead cert that I'm coming over the top badly. By thinking back over my range sessions I'm seeing a fade with most of my clubs now, so I have to assume that my swing is OTT and out to in with all my irons.

Time for another lesson to sort out my swing path!

I think I’m going to go back to the expensive video pro based at the local academy, he coaches a European tour player so he must know his business. There is a wait to get to see him but he has done good things to my swing in the past and I need to see what I’m doing wrong on screen.

Until I have had my lesson I’m not going to worry about it and just keep doing what I have been doing. I mean it’s not all bad, I am hitting the ball more solid than ever, hopefully the last piece of my swing puzzle will be fixing the OTT move and getting my path back on line.

Done with the driving range

Yesterday I hit the range, literally! Today I have a mild case of tennis elbow in my right arm as a consequence. What a counterproductive waste of time it was. Not only did my new move not work this time (pushing everything), but I also sprayed the ball all over the place and miss hit loads, never felt warmed up and hit the matts far too hard too often. Seeing as our local range mats are 10 year old thin rubber directly onto concrete trying to take a divot out of them is not a very bright thing to do!

Hence forth I swear to only go to that range for practicing wood shots off a tee.

One other thing that made me laugh, I only had 3 quid with me so I got the cheap one piece balls and they really are rocks, now our range yardage is miss labelled badly, the 150 yard marker is at 130 yards, the 250 yard marker at about 190 although uphill. With the rocks I could not even get a 7 iron to the 150 yard marker. At the end of the session I put down a real ball from my bag and hit the same 7 iron and it went a very considerable distance further than the range rocks with completely different feedback from the club face.

I’m beginning to question again the value of this kind of range work. This is the time that I really; really wish the club had good practice facilities. I would not mind collecting my own golf balls if only we had a large enough space to hit them into!

I have to find a space to practice in that’s on grass, the local council run pitch n’ Putt is not open until April, however I may sneak up there and check out the conditions. I don’t need flags in the greens to practice and if it’s deserted then I can hit shots of up to 200 yards across the field, I just need a teeing off place that is not jungle rough.

It may be my only option.