Taking my swing from the range to the course

[fawley]

I'm currently a 5 index golfer and am having a decent season so far. My course is a par 70 (course rating 71.5 or 72.5, slope 135-ish from the two sets of tees I play most often), and I'm shooting mid to high 70s for about half my rounds, lows 80s for the rest. Five out of my last six rounds have been in the 70s including a season low 75.

 

It's not like I'm playing terribly, but I feel like I'm leaving something on the table with my ball striking.

 

I made a few swing changes this year that are finally starting to stick, and I'm hitting the ball solidly on the range. Stock ball flight on the range with my irons and hybrid is straight to a small draw. If I hit 20 balls I'm likely hitting something like 6 straight, 11 draw and 3 fade, with the fade ball flight being my real miss. The fades have a high, weak flight and finish short and right of my target. If I hit 20 balls with my driver, I'm probably getting 3 draws, 7 straight, 5 fades, all of which have a nice ball flight and would put me in the fairway in good shape. The other 4 or 5 are the same miss I have with my irons with a high weak flight that's likely going to put me out of the fairway and in trouble. I'm continuing to work on my misses which are typically the result of my body sliding toward the target and / or early extension, and I'm making progress.

 

That progress isn't transferring to the course in the way I'd like though. On the course, instead of the nice tight draw or straight ball with the vast majority of my iron shots, I'm probably seeing more than half of my shots leak right, with a lot of those fading far enough to put me in a less than ideal situation. I'm finding it hard to manage that miss, because if I'm aiming far enough left for that miss to be acceptable, I'd often risk putting myself in trouble by making a good swing and having the ball go straight or draw slightly. It's even worse with my driver. The 4 or 5 out of 20 missing way right jump to 10+. My course is tight and tree lined, and that miss generally means I have no shot at the green and I'm probably making bogey on those misses unless I can get up and down from however far out I am after I've pitched back into the fairway.

 

I'm really struggling to figure out what it is that's different about my swing on the course. I have a good pre-shot routine, there's no particular lie that I find I'm having more trouble with than others, and I'm trying to make the same swings as I do on the practice tee. It's just not translating for me.

 

Has anyone else struggled with this and found a solution?

[BottleCap]

From my own experience I think the best thing you can do is work with a good instructor, it'll save you time.

 

I had that fade issue going for a while. I figured it out when I visited a range close to my in-laws a few times and noticed an instructor there and all his students were hitting what he called "cuts", which looked like the fades i was hitting. Watching them i noticed they had a pronounced pivot which was getting the club head outside the target line, which started the ball left and would come back.

 

Later when I took a slow motion video of myself, i noticed i was doing the same thing, my sequence was off, my shoulders were too quick and was throwing the club head outside the target line. What worked for me was focusing on shallowing out the club with my hands as my first move, i was able to get the sequence back, now my miss is a push, but I can live with it right now since everything is on the same side.

[fawley]

From my own experience I think the best thing you can do is work with a good instructor, it'll save you time.

 

I had that fade issue going for a while. I figured it out when I visited a range close to my in-laws a few times and noticed an instructor there and all his students were hitting what he called "cuts", which looked like the fades i was hitting. Watching them i noticed they had a pronounced pivot which was getting the club head outside the target line, which started the ball left and would come back.

 

Later when I took a slow motion video of myself, i noticed i was doing the same thing, my sequence was off, my shoulders were too quick and was throwing the club head outside the target line. What worked for me was focusing on shallowing out the club with my hands as my first move, i was able to get the sequence back, now my miss is a push, but I can live with it right now since everything is on the same side.

 

Thanks. I regularly work with a good instructor, and I think we've identified and corrected (or are in the process or correcting) the things that most frequently cause my big misses, to the extent that they appear only infrequently on the range. On the course, they're much more prevalent though, and I'm trying to figure out why and how I can address that.

[Hilts1969]

I'm currently a 5 index golfer and am having a decent season so far. My course is a par 70 (course rating 71.5 or 72.5, slope 135-ish from the two sets of tees I play most often), and I'm shooting mid to high 70s for about half my rounds, lows 80s for the rest. Five out of my last six rounds have been in the 70s including a season low 75.

 

It's not like I'm playing terribly, but I feel like I'm leaving something on the table with my ball striking.

 

I made a few swing changes this year that are finally starting to stick, and I'm hitting the ball solidly on the range. Stock ball flight on the range with my irons and hybrid is straight to a small draw. If I hit 20 balls I'm likely hitting something like 6 straight, 11 draw and 3 fade, with the fade ball flight being my real miss. The fades have a high, weak flight and finish short and right of my target. If I hit 20 balls with my driver, I'm probably getting 3 draws, 7 straight, 5 fades, all of which have a nice ball flight and would put me in the fairway in good shape. The other 4 or 5 are the same miss I have with my irons with a high weak flight that's likely going to put me out of the fairway and in trouble. I'm continuing to work on my misses which are typically the result of my body sliding toward the target and / or early extension, and I'm making progress.

 

That progress isn't transferring to the course in the way I'd like though. On the course, instead of the nice tight draw or straight ball with the vast majority of my iron shots, I'm probably seeing more than half of my shots leak right, with a lot of those fading far enough to put me in a less than ideal situation. I'm finding it hard to manage that miss, because if I'm aiming far enough left for that miss to be acceptable, I'd often risk putting myself in trouble by making a good swing and having the ball go straight or draw slightly. It's even worse with my driver. The 4 or 5 out of 20 missing way right jump to 10+. My course is tight and tree lined, and that miss generally means I have no shot at the green and I'm probably making bogey on those misses unless I can get up and down from however far out I am after I've pitched back into the fairway.

 

I'm really struggling to figure out what it is that's different about my swing on the course. I have a good pre-shot routine, there's no particular lie that I find I'm having more trouble with than others, and I'm trying to make the same swings as I do on the practice tee. It's just not translating for me.

 

Has anyone else struggled with this and found a solution?

 

Sometimes it can be little things and not swing related as such. On the range you may get into a rhythm easier if you start with wedges and work up. Also you tend to hit the same club multiple times in succession. Also the range doesn't have tree lined fairways so the fear of hitting it big left is not there.

 

I can hit driver on the range trying to rotate hard left even trying to put a big hook on it and it goes straight. You would think when I get on the course I should do the same but those trees, OB or lake soon alters my mind set.

 

A high right weak shot can be a swing fault but also a case of steering/easing off. If you have a miss especially either way letting it all go on the course can be hard.