hello. just wanted to see feedback/thoughts on home practice. i live in nyc and it's hard to get out to a driving range let alone courses. i want to get good enough to break 100 so i thought i would put myself on an indoor practice regimen. so everyday i'm thinking of taking 100 practice putts on this felt practice putting aid, and take 100 full iron swings just brushing the turf of a little hitting mat i bought. any thoughts? potential to ingrain bad muscle memory or net positive?
apartment practice
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Chip Putterman
New
One of the best pieces of indoor practice equipment is a full-length mirror.
TROYNYGOLFER
New
Chip makes a great point, I cannot access the full-length mirror in the house with a swing, but I do have a large window in the front room that I can get a reflection from most of the time. It was working great until the wife happened to notice I was creating a divot in the carpet.
Chip Putterman
New
Troynygolfer, get yourself a lie board and save your carpet.
Chip - Where were you when I needed you? Oh well, at least I can practice putts with several breaks in them.
I live in nyc, too. Range time is hard to come by so I set up a mini driving range in my living room. I hit against a futon, which is covered from the seat and below with a thick blanket (so thin shots don't get out of control if I miss under the futon). It's covered from above and to the right with added pillows (my misses are shanks to the right), and behind that is one of those egg-crate mattress cushions I picked up at Target to absorb misses that go high and right. I'd actually recommend hanging up 2x egg-crate mattress cushions because one doesn't quite absorb full shots.
I hit full swing shots off a golf mat, from PW-5 iron. Anything with more loft than PW is going to sky the ball into the ceiling and less loft than 5-iron hits the metal frame of my futon. I also use two full-length mirrors, one front-view and one down-the-line view to analyze my swing.
This range has helped me tremendously. I started just hitting chips and pitches, and after hitting 300 balls a day they became automatic. If you aim at a specific spot and use the same length backswing it becomes your go-to short-game shot. You have to go to an actual range, though, in order to check your distances, but once you know it, you can shorten/longer your backswing or change clubs to alter your distances.
With full swing shots, it helps ingrain your swing (whether with good or bad fundamentals obviously). That's why I use the mirrors to check myself and I pay attention to quality of contact and even how the ball bounces off the futon. A slice and a hook may hit the futon at the same spot (b/c it wouldn't go on its doomed trajectory until many yards past your futon), but you can tell by the way your ball bounces off the futon. If you sliced it, the ball will bounce to the left b/c of the side spin. If you hooked it, it'll bounce to the right. This is, of course, assuming your futon has somewhat of a flat surface. If it bounces straight back, it's usually a straight shot.
You can set this up without a lot of space. You just need a ceiling high enough. My apt is less than 500 sqft and I literally can't swing a club longer than hybrid without hitting something. But just to warn you, as you figure out where your misses really go, you may end up with a few holes/dents in the wall (which a little spackle can patch up easily). The best thing about it is that it's open 24/7!
I hit full swing shots off a golf mat, from PW-5 iron. Anything with more loft than PW is going to sky the ball into the ceiling and less loft than 5-iron hits the metal frame of my futon. I also use two full-length mirrors, one front-view and one down-the-line view to analyze my swing.
This range has helped me tremendously. I started just hitting chips and pitches, and after hitting 300 balls a day they became automatic. If you aim at a specific spot and use the same length backswing it becomes your go-to short-game shot. You have to go to an actual range, though, in order to check your distances, but once you know it, you can shorten/longer your backswing or change clubs to alter your distances.
With full swing shots, it helps ingrain your swing (whether with good or bad fundamentals obviously). That's why I use the mirrors to check myself and I pay attention to quality of contact and even how the ball bounces off the futon. A slice and a hook may hit the futon at the same spot (b/c it wouldn't go on its doomed trajectory until many yards past your futon), but you can tell by the way your ball bounces off the futon. If you sliced it, the ball will bounce to the left b/c of the side spin. If you hooked it, it'll bounce to the right. This is, of course, assuming your futon has somewhat of a flat surface. If it bounces straight back, it's usually a straight shot.
You can set this up without a lot of space. You just need a ceiling high enough. My apt is less than 500 sqft and I literally can't swing a club longer than hybrid without hitting something. But just to warn you, as you figure out where your misses really go, you may end up with a few holes/dents in the wall (which a little spackle can patch up easily). The best thing about it is that it's open 24/7!
Erik_K
New
David Orr putting tip for you:
Get a ring (say a large rubber o-ring maybe 1/8" thick) or a hack off a piece of PVC pipe, same thickness but make the sure diameter in both cases is the same as the cup.
Make putts from 3, 6, 9 ft - the ball should leave the face at a consistent speed and enter the the ring at a consistent speed.
Erik
Practice Techniques
Speaking of putting into a cup with a narrow opening- the putting green at the range I used to use- would sometimes be so busy that you had "traffic" putting to the holes- so I secured a "sleeve of balls" box to the ground with a tee in the back of it and started putting balls into the box from various distances- always seeing if I could make three in a row and fill the box up- kind of cool to see them slide right in the box.
junkilo
New
I gave this a try last night. pitching balls off a mat onto a couch. little scary at first but good practice.Don't be a wus and use those foam or wiffle balls either
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