[ivandiadser]

Well a few weeks ago my Golftec Instructor shot me a text asking me if i would be interested in playing in a Pro/Am with him. After already knowing that i wanted to get back into golf competitively this was a no brainer for me. I told him yes immediately. He told me that i would not be getting any strokes and that i would be considered a scratch golfer which i am not but i told him i was cool with that. So for the next month and a half i'll be training and practicing even more than i already was for this event. The Philadelphia PGA is putting on the Event its the AB Thorn Memorial Pro-AM and its a Four-Ball Stroke Play (better ball of partners) for 18 holes and it will be played at Lancaster Country Club at the Old Course. Its by far the most money i have ever paid to play a round of golf but i think this is something that i may be interested in continuing to do in the future so i want to give it a whirl. And my game is better than its ever been. Here is a Link to the site its pretty awesome seeing my game up on the list of players with my Instructor.

http://phpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/p...1222/index.htm


So for the next Month and a half i will be dedicating much more practice time to get ready for the event. i don't want to embarrass myself or my instructor. I started last night and practiced for 3 hours and i did another 3.5 hours this morning. I will be spending more time practicing and less time playing for the next month which kinda sucks but i know its what i need to do to get to the level that i want to be come time that this rolls around. I looked up last years winners and the winning team was only -6 and took first place so i was talking to my instructor about it and he said yeah its cause the course is so difficult. so i really want to help contribute to our team and give us a real chance at winning. I know i'm not gonna be as good as most of the people playing but i think if i practice hard enough i can get to a place where i might be close to some of the competitors.

i'll be updating this thread with all of my practicing and stuff im doing to get ready for the event.

I'll go over my sessions last night and today.

Got to the range around 5 yesterday night and i went right to the short game practice area. i worked on getting up and down from 60 yards and in for about an hour. then i went to the range and hit balls really working on my swing and tightening it up since its become a little lose from what i was fixing over the past month or so. i then worked on my putting on the putting green for another hour so i spend 3 hours last night there.

Todays Session was much more planned out i listen to my ipod when i practice a lone a lot so i set my timer for 15 minutes. when i got there and every 15 minutes it went off. i started with my 60* lob wedge and chipped from around the green up to about 15 yards away from the green. during that 15 minutes i had to chip in at least 1 ball or i couldn't move onto the next club once my timer ran off. i did this with my 60* lob wedge, my 55* sand wedge, my 50* AW, my 17* hybrid and my putter from on the fringe. i actually drained a ball on all of them before my time ran out. my hybrid i have never used to chip with before so that was an adventure but i wanted to try it for shots where my ball was on the fringe and up against heavy rough and it worked much better than trying to hit a lob wedge from there in tight spots. i use all of those clubs for chipping around the green so i think i will be doing this drill a lot and i really like the game that i have to drain one or i can't move onto the next club.

after that i dropped balls all over the place and pitched to different holes on the 2 greens they have there. set my alarm for 30 minutes and used my 60* and 55* for these shots mainly between 30 and 60 yards. really just working on my accuracy. during this i had a break through with something i really worked on keeping my head down a little longer than i normally do and i was seeing much better shots hitting much closer to where i was aiming. this along with A HUGE break through during my range session i think might bring my handicap down even further in the near future.

after that i wanted to get my mind mentally tough for this competition, its been a while since i really played competitively (besides fun scrambles with friends) its been since i was a SR in high school so i did 30 minutes of what i would consider pressure shots. Here was my first shot that i picked.


i dropped my 6 balls in heavy rough and tried flop shots over the sand to the pin on the left hand side which i had about 5-10 feet to land it in because it was a down hill green from there to the flag. i did this shot a few times i did some tough bunker shots and some other tough lies where i really had to think about what i wanted to do and actually execute my shots almost perfectly to do what i wanted it to do. these shots weren't very successful maybe 1 or 2 out of 6 that i took actually were good shots. but they were really difficult shots and i will continue to work on these for sure.

After that i went to the range and got a medium bucket of balls. i put one ball down at a time and went through my entire pre shot routine on every single ball. there are a bunch of greens at this range and i was pin seeking the whole morning. during this session i think i may have made one of the biggest breakthroughs i might have ever come across by myself self diagnosing my swing. I absolutely love when i figure stuff out on my own. so heres what happened, i am pretty decent iron guy and i hit maybe a small baby fade on occasion or a baby draw or straight. but sometimes i just hit and i miss greens left or right like im aiming bad and other times i am right at the flag where i think i am aiming. So when i aim i set my club head down first to the intended line i want to hit the ball. then adjust my body to be aligned with the club head. i have always aimed like this for a very very long time now. but today i realized that when i am adjusting my feet i step up and down a few times and i am actually moving my club head a little bit and i am also regripping at the same time. it was like a eureka moment for me. i hit the ball without fixing anything and my ball went left of the green where i was aiming at. i mean now dumb is it that im moving my club head and thats why my consistency isn't as good as i know it prob should be. so i made a very concious effort to not move the club head and i was throwing darts like crazy i originally didn't want to hit any balls further out than 150 yards but i did hit about 10 at 200 and even those were lasers heading towards the green and flag out there. if this is the reason i have been just missing greens lately i really think i could drop easy 2 points in my handicap. i mean my irons were that much better after i adjusted and made sure i wasn't moving the club head.

after my bucket ran out i went to the putting green with my SeeMore i wanted to work on my putting some more and my stroke. i was there for an hour i spend 30 minutes doing around the world drills from 5' then 10-12' out and i would put a tee behind my putter about 6"-1' depending on the distance i was hitting it to make sure i wasn't taking a big back swing and making sure i accelerated my swing forward. i was draining everything with this drill. i mean i think i missed 4 putts the whole time. i again went through my entire putting routine every time. i then went and played 2 putt with myself for a half hour going from hole to hole and right before i had to leave i went to all 10 hole locations and if i 3 jacked any i would have to start over and i didn't so i got to go grab some lunch.

i practice a lot already but i really wanna pick it up and take it to the next level. i also want to be scratch and im pretty close so i think if i practice harder i could make that happen also and it would be a bonus. I am gonna devote myself to this until at least the Pro Am and see how i do. i'm really excited about this whole opportunity and plan on practicing a TON till then i wanna see just how good i can get still this year before the weather turns.

I also made 2 big decisions for me today. first was i will be practicing and sticking with one ball for the month i decided on the Bridgestone B330. i grabbed 2 new sleeves and thats all i used all day except for the bucket of balls at the range. the other BIG decision for me was that i will be sticking with my SeeMore mFGP2 till at least after the Pro Am. i have been putting better than i have in a very long time maybe ever and i need to stick with a putter and stop switching like i have been. this will be my gamer till then i may still throw a Betti in for a fun round but my SeeMore is gonna be my gamer especially after last night and todays practice sessions, those 2 putting sessions really made it a no brainer for me. Its Been that good.

well thats all i have for now. but im stoked and hoping i can win. although apparently i can't win cash like the Pros i do win pro shop credit which i am sure i could spend! lol

[baskentt]

glad to see you stepping up to the challenege Buck. Appears you have a good plan in place for your practice, not sure if Ive ever practiced for 3 hours, thats crazy. keep plugging away at it and Im sure you will represent very well

oh and nice job picking up the iron snafu witht he alignment, thats great that you wneded up hitting them so solid after that....sometimes just the smallest things make such a huge difference

[KuRoregioNka]

He must not have had any friends that were good at golf, lol.

Kidding, of course. Good luck dude. I know you're an awesome golfer and it's great that you're dedicating so much time to practicing and much of that to short game. I'm sure you guys will do great in the tourney.

[Joesred]

Sounds very cool Buck, good luck with the Pro-Am. Sounds like you're starting out with a very good practice routine.

[drugstore]

You know I'll be pulling for you sir. Good luck and remember to practice smart. Sometimes it's not the number of balls you hit but the quality of the swings you take.

[Talicoabilk]

Dude Buck this is awesome! I am so excited for you and cant wait to follow your progress

[arcaniagainee]

This is awesome Buck, I'm going to be following this closely as you progress towards this tourney.

[AricGoffgog]

Good luck out there Buck!

[iroxmxinau]

Super cool Buck, man I'd need years of practice for something this big. Congrats, can't wait to follow along!

[mnhloot]

You know I'll be pulling for you sir. Good luck and remember to practice smart. Sometimes it's not the number of balls you hit but the quality of the swings you take.

Tad, my instructor always tells me that. why i go through my routine every time for all shots. unless im working on a swing issue. i really am gonna be spending a ton of time practicing it takes so much longer but i honestly can already see better results.


Thanks for all the support. i'm open for practice ideas and advice for sure this is a first for me so i'm a little nervous but more excited to be honest and im always looking for new things to do for practice i like to mix it up so i don't get bored.

[finasteridonline]

How cool is that. Good luck, Buck!

[pedFlicle]

Congrats Buck. Thats awesome you have that time to devote and are willing to do it. Thats huge. I'm been trying to convince myself to get up at 7 for the last 3 months and go practice in the morning and can't get myself to do it. Glad you are going to document it all on here too.

[nretdjuend]

That is great buckJob. I am really excited to follow along and know you will put more than enough practice time in.

[casefexas]

Pretty cool Buck! Good luck and know that you've got a whole smear of us pulling for you!

[id2008]

Buck I like to play holes when I'm on the range. I'll imagine a course I've played and hit the clubs I would hit off the tee and into greens. It breaks up the range session and gets me more into a real time practice session. Instead of just beating balls with my 3w for 20 minutes I'll hit 3w then 8i or driver hybrid 40yd pitch for a par 5. I pick my targets and go at them or hit away from them and bring them back.

[Senasivar]

This is extremely cool Buck. I know you already bust you butt to be a damn good golfer and I imagine this just kicks your prep to elevated levels. I like how you said you were going to stick with 1 ball for the next month and half, also the same for your seemore putter. I bet both of those decisions will pay dividends for you. I can't wait to see how good your game is in AC because that will be a little over the halfway point. Good luck on the journey

[VIAGRAENLINOBARATOCAMPRAR]

After a quick peek at the event page and the course page, it seems like this is a very private club. IDK if it's possible, but you may want to try to buddy up with a club member to get out there for at least one practice round before the event. It's all good studying a course before an event, but nothing is quite as good as playing a round or two before taking to the links in competition. Either way, good luck in the match!

[gennickhif]

After a quick peek at the event page and the course page, it seems like this is a very private club. IDK if it's possible, but you may want to try to buddy up with a club member to get out there for at least one practice round before the event. It's all good studying a course before an event, but nothing is quite as good as playing a round or two before taking to the links in competition. Either way, good luck in the match!

thanks yeah i think its one of those super private courses also. i was thinking the same thing. especially with my driving and having to cut doglegs and such on some holes. planning on meeting with my instructor this week and asking him about it. i know hes played there before and we will be getting caddies so that should help some but i'd love to get out there a week or 2 before the event.

[allemnendup]

Buck I like to play holes when I'm on the range. I'll imagine a course I've played and hit the clubs I would hit off the tee and into greens. It breaks up the range session and gets me more into a real time practice session. Instead of just beating balls with my 3w for 20 minutes I'll hit 3w then 8i or driver hybrid 40yd pitch for a par 5. I pick my targets and go at them or hit away from them and bring them back.

Buck - great call on the hybrid around the green! I use my hybrid a LOT around the greens. I have gotten a funny look or 2, but the one thing I have going for me in golf is a very good short game, and this really works for me. Also - great pick up on the iron alignment issue! My son, who just started playing, tends to do this - especially the re-gripping. Many times his grip will totally change and throw everything off. He started off with a very weak grip, and got a lesson, where he had to make a pretty substantial change - but I never seen 1 change make such a huge difference. He said it is just now feeling comfortable.

Good luck Buck - and most importantly - have fun!

[atmowasia]

Buck I like to play holes when I'm on the range. I'll imagine a course I've played and hit the clubs I would hit off the tee and into greens. It breaks up the range session and gets me more into a real time practice session. Instead of just beating balls with my 3w for 20 minutes I'll hit 3w then 8i or driver hybrid 40yd pitch for a par 5. I pick my targets and go at them or hit away from them and bring them back.

I was reading that Hogan did this before his rounds. Great thread Buck. Good luck in the pro-am.