Lock down drills..

Hi Tyler,

A four week lock down in New Zealand. All golf facilities are shut down.

Had to build a small setup in my garage to avoid cabin fever and spend some time on my swing.

Can you share some good garage drills to get feed back on your swing when you do not have a launch monitor?

As I dont have a launch monitor. I am a little worried being in the garage for four weeks and ingrain some flaws.

What im looking for is:

Face contact: I use some foot spray on the club face to get feed back on impact.

Face to path: more tricky, any suggestions?

Hitting my lines: I have 3-4 meters from my lie to the net. I hung a robe vertically in front of the net as the ideal line. I then get a feed back if I am hitting left or right of my intented starting line

Low point control: hitting of a mat is a pain. Very hard to tell where your low point is. Any suggestions here?

Thanks,

Rasmus

Hi Rasmus,

This lockdown is going to a challenge for us all. But if you've got a little set up then you are definitely ahead of the game.

I'll do a little video to help answer how I'd look at practice. But in general, I really like the way that you are thinking about it.

If it were me, I would break my practice into a normal progression just like the range (mechanics, skills, then games). For mechanics, I would use video as well as solidness of contact. The spray helps with contact. You can also putt some duct tape about 1-2 inches behind the ball. That way if you hit the matt before the ball you'll be aware.

Then when you get to skills, you can work on start line or trajectory. Even without a launch monitor, you can use some simple Trigonometry to approximate the launch angle. Here's how to do it.

Measure the distance from your ball to the net. That’s X. Let’s say you are 10 feet from the ball to the net. The height you’d want to hit the net is approximate.

Wedge (30 degree launch) = .57*X = 5.7 feet high
7 Iron (16 degree launch) = .29*X = 2.9 feet high
5 Iron (12 degree launch) = .21*X = 2.1 feet high

Then you can practice refining your pre shot routine to help with alignment and hitting your vertical ribbons. It's definitely not the same as being outside, but it should help with the rust.

Good luck!