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Practice pays (sometimes)

Libre

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2007
185
107
Country
United States United States
I was at the range before my round and someone had left a whole buch o' balls plus I had the bucket I had bought and I had plenty of time so I got inventive.
I started hitting shots with my 5 iron for all different distances and trajectories. I spent a lot of time trying to hit a target green about 100 yds away with a modified punch/chip sort of stroke. Got to where I could hit a low running shot and put the ball on the target green with that 5 iron fairly consistently.

First hole, good drive but sliced my 6 iron approach into the trees on right.
Got to my ball, there was a clear line between the trees to front of green about 100 yards away, but overhanging branches preventing me from hitting a normal pitching wedge.

I remembered my practise, pulled out my 5 iron, got into the same stance I was practicing, made the stroke - PERFECT! Right to front of green - acutally front fringe. Chipped, 1 putt for a boge.

I was mighty pleased. Downhill from there, but the first hole was just great.
 

Fourputt

Littleton, Colorado
Sep 5, 2006
973
0
These are shots that I've always tried to have in my bag. For one thing they are just plain fun. I get the greatest enjoyment out of using my imagination on the course, and I regularly put my ball in places where it is often the only way to extricate myself. :laugh:

My handicap hasn't hovered in the 10 to 12 range for the last 18 years because I hit fairways and greens all the time, it's because I am quite practiced at using creative means to get out of jams... :emot-ange
 

gregfletch

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2006
92
0
Good Post!

I'm a high handicapper so I find myself in the woods at least a couple of times a round. I carry a 3 hybrid and practice the half-swing low punch shot with it a lot. It definitely helps to feel like you can hit that shot!
 

zaphod

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2007
2,160
0
that absolutely is the most enjoyable part of golf for me. Congrats on pulling of the shot for real:idhitit:
 

Eracer

No more triple bogies!!
Oct 31, 2005
12,405
8
That's the way to take the range to the course. Good job.
 

lamebums

300 yards into the woods.
Jul 4, 2007
646
4
Way to go, man. You've broken one of the greatest barriers we have - taking our range game to the course.

I myself am another story. When golf is free and it cost money for range balls, I prefer to play... :laugh:

Unfortunately most of my time on the course is spent in places the designer never even imagined a golf ball could be hit to. And those situations are impossible to replicate on the range - you can say I've gotten pretty good at inventing shots as the year goes on. Most often it's either a punch or a super-lob shot over a huge tree but I've had the weirdest shots this year - I had the ball land on top of a dead muskrat in a bunker once...
 

Nate Adams

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2006
48
0
Good on ya'....too often we don't practice the trick shots and when we are forced to play them, we stink. Hit my approach shot to the green on #9 the other day and it ended up short...almost rolled into the bunker but stopped about and inch from the edge leaving me a very unusual shot. Not having practiced the shot, I tried to pop the ball out with my wedge while standing out of the bunker...of course I hit it thin and off she went across the green to double-bogey land. I dropped another ball in the same spot and tried a different shot that really worked well...choked down on a wedge...one foot in the sand...one foot out...who knew!!
 

gwlee7

Ho's from Rocky Mount, NC
Supporting Member
Jun 15, 2005
1,402
1
Knowing how to hit these type of long chip and runs drives the people I play with crazy. I used to belong to a course where the 9th hole would have about a 100 yard second shot if you hit a half way decent drive. The problem was that even very good sandwedges would release all the way to the back of the green since the green was sloped from front to back. Enter the 100 yard chip shot. I could stand at the 100 yard marker and hit a knocked down six iron that would bounce twice and then just roll and stop about 10 to 15 feet onto the green. The people I played with would go nuts thinking that they had to hit a high wedge in there and I could sit there and just bounce shot after shot onto the green.

This shot comes in handy all the time and I make it a point to keep it practiced up.
 

IrishGolfer

Fac ut gaudeam
Supporting Member
Sep 1, 2004
6,542
4,976
First hole, good drive but sliced my 6 iron approach into the trees on right....about 100 yards away

Hey L

Just to clarify, after a good drive, you were left with ~160 yards to the green and hit a 6 iron approach shot, right?

Did you slice this appraoch 100 yards off line? Really?

Good recovery btw.
 
OP
Libre

Libre

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2007
185
107
Country
United States United States
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #10
Not 100 yards off line pin high - no. Maybe 10- 20 yards off line, with 100 yards to front of green.
I should have worded it a bit differently in initial post.
This hole is about 420-430 - don't have the card with me so I can't check right now.
I was 220 off the green (not visible around dog to the right) after my drive of maybe 190-200.
I hit a 6 iron lay-up, hoping to leave myself with a short wedge to green. That's the one that went into the trees. It wound up going forward about 100 yards but 20 yards to the right.
Pretty horrible, to slice a 6 iron lay-up from the fairway into the woods, I know. But that's just the way I play golf. Actually I probably tried to cut the corner of the dog a little too close and that, coupled with the slice landed me in the trees.
 

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