(07-26-2023, 07:38 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: Two reasons: The first is psychological. You know at the range that if you hit a bad ball, you can just reach over and pull in another ball and try again. There is no pressure to get it right the first time.

The second is physical. How often do you change clubs between shots? Like most of us, probably not until you’ve grooved in the club you’re practicing with after 10-15 swings. Play the range like you would play the course: driver, mid-iron, then wedge. Play three or four holes in succession from memory of a course you know.

This in turn leads to another reason range sessions rob from course play. How often do you practice your short game? We can spend hours with the long clubs and little time with the short ones.

While we’re on the subject of golf, I want to talk about the my new irons that I played for the first time yesterday. Oh.My. Gawd. I’ve gained up to two club lengths from my old clubs (which I never liked but were free). 162 to a center pin. The 7 iron sailed the green. The 8 iron rolled to the back of the green. I’ll need to recalibrate my distances now. I told my son these clubs can’t be legal.

Wilson D-9s, 4-GW, with graphite shafts.Fantastic clubs. Long and forgiving.

I think you're right about all that.  I hadn't played in a while, and when I got on the first tee, I felt some tension.  I think certainly I need to play more often.  

162 with an 8 iron is pretty impressive.  If I have 162, I'm hitting a hybrid.  I hit my driver about 220-230, but I have no distance with my irons, and even less these days because I'm trying to just hit them solidly and consistently, which is enough of a challenge without trying to hit them a long way.  I used to hit it further, but never as far as you apparently are.  

When you play from 5500 to 5800 yards, all you have to do is hit it straight.  That was my goal this summer- develop a "fairway finder."  I have it on the driving range, but not yesterday on the course.

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