Home on the Range

The time has changed, days are getting shorter and practice is being limited to the weekends and any day I happen to get off early, so here's the plan -

After my last range session a few things are apparent, flexibility and swing plane. They go hand in hand. Since my job now entails driving around and sitting most of the day, flexibility is suffering, but I'm back on my old stretching program in the mornings and evenings to combat this. It's a simple program, only takes a few min and should produce results I can feel shortly. Keeping that up indefinitely shouldn't be a problem. With that should come an easier way to get the club on plane at the top and during the transition.

Buying a net and frame to hit balls into on the back patio, as well as a square pad often seen at driving ranges to stand on and hit balls off of. Between the patio door, a cheap mirror from wal-mart and my smartphones video camera, this winter should actually be pretty productive at a minimal cost. A hundred bucks or so will pay for itself. Every 90 balls into the net is another 9 dollars saved. Of course, that won't eliminate the range because I'll still need to go to check ball flights, distances and my progress, but it'll definitely save us money.

Weekends will definitely have time devoted to finding a course with a decent short game area and spending most of my time there instead of the majority of time pounding drivers to the back of the range.

More goals to come, but my end of the year stats seeing as how with the holidays approaching there won't be much change happening until the beginning of the year -

Distances (average carry, not including roll)

Driver - 285 yds
3 Wood - 260 yds
Hybrid - 225 yds
4 iron - 215 yds
5 iron - 205 yds
6 iron - 192 yds
7 iron - 180 yds
8 iron - 168 yds
9 iron - 155 yds
Pitching Wedge - 140 yds
56* wedge - 120 yards
60* wedge - 100 yards

To be replaced, aside from the bag - 56*, 60* wedges are the top priority, and the 13* 3 wood needs to be replaced by a 15* 3 wood or 16* 4 wood for more carry, distance and accuracy. Adding an 18* hybrid would be a great idea too, but it might produce too large of a gap between it and my 4 iron. Still, my current hybrid is hard to keep down in the wind, which hurts its performance into the wind or in any kind of crosswind.

Lowest score this year - 65 at Pine Oaks in Ocala.
Highest score this year - 77 at Candler Hills the first time I played it.
Longest drive - 335 yards to the front edge of a short par 4. Measured by laser from ball in fairway back to a tree directly beside the tee box.

Current equipment -

Driver - Taylor Made R-11 TP
3 Wood - Titleist (To be Taylor Made)
Hybrid - Titleist (To be Taylor Made)
Irons - Mizuno
Wedges - Cleveland (To be Mizuno or Cleveland)
Putter - Ping
Ball - Taylor Made