The Practice Tee Beckons

Here we are, two months into the 2006 golf season, and I have yet to post anything about my trips to the driving range. If I'm trying to inch closer to the elusive score of par, as the name of this blog suggests, you would think my practice trips deserve as much attention as rounds played, or perhaps even more. After all, the range is where you eliminate bad habits and develop good ones.

It's not that I've neglected to chronicle my experience at the driving range this season. The fact is, I haven't even been to the range, except for a pre-round warm-up when I played at Bloomington Downs. Incidentally, that was my best round of the season so far, which goes to show that time spent on the range really does pay dividends.

Two consecutive rounds of 124 reminded me that I should visit the driving range, so on Thursday evening I ventured out to The Practice Tee, a grass range located in Mississauga, Ontario.

I took up position alongside my fellow hacks and began with a pitching wedge. After about ten shots, a look at my divots revealed an interesting pattern. Not only were the divots deep, they were all angled toward the left. For a right-handed player such as myself, that means my swing was starting outside and moving inside at impact. No wonder the bulk of my missed shots in previous rounds were "fat" (i.e. where the clubhead strikes the ground before the ball).

The funny thing is, my practice swings were completely different. Looking down after each practice swing, I would see a very light divot, perfectly aligned with the target line. For some reason, I was not replicating this swing when a ball was introduced. I spent the rest of the evening trying to think of real shots as just another practice swing, which seemed to help.

Besides the pitching wedge, I worked on the same things with a 7-iron and 4-iron. When the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out, I hit a few balls with the 5-wood, then called it quits.

Bring on the next round!