For Practice, Just Watch the Pros

Last Saturday I attended the 3rd Round of the AT&T National, the PGA Tour stop that was making the last of its two-year visit to the Philadelphia area. My ticket was a birthday present from Mrs Muni Golfer. I had also attended last year's event. Like last year, I spent a bit of my time at the Practice Range watching the pros prepare for their round or work on some aspect of their game post-round. Here are a few observations of one player who finished T15:

One of the players I had targeted to follow this season was Kevin Streelman, a member of the Wilson Staff tour contingent. He was playing in the AT&T National and was scheduled to tee off at 11:11 a.m. in the 3rd Round. I had arrived at Aronimink Golf Club around 9:30 and went straight to the range. Streelman's wife Courtney, who would caddy for him that day, was already on the range with Kevin's bag, going over the yardage book.

Streelman arrived on the range at 10:17, almost an hour before his scheduled tee time. He went into his bag and pulled out a tube of lip balm, which he applied, then grabbed a handful of tees from the bag and put them in his pocket. He then pulled a wedge from his Wilson Staff bag and began to hit soft pitch shots. After a dozen or so, during which he worked up to a full swing, Streelman then switched to a short iron and began hitting balls at a target green on the right side of the range. After about a dozen balls he switched to a mid-iron and repated the same process before moving to a long iron. After his irons, Streelman took out his hybrid and proceeded to hit about a half dozen balls off the turf, before changing to his 3-Wood and hitting about 4-5 shots off a tee. He then switched to hit driver, which looked like an old Cleveland XLS and hit 4-5 tee shots. He finished off with six more pitch shots with a wedge, before leaving the range.

After the range, Streelman stopped at the short game practice area. He hit about 15 chips and pitches from different locations to the near and far pins positioned on the practice green. He hit them all with the same wedge. He then went into the practice bunker and hit about 8 shots out of the sand to the two pin locations. He finished off with 3-4 more chips before moving to the first putting green just outside the entrance to the Aronimink Clubhouse.

On the putting green, Streelman marked two sleeves of brand new Titleist golf balls, then pulled our a small accessory bag, from which he retrieved a putting clip, which he placed on the face of his Odyssey Dart Putter. He proceeded to hit some long and short putts using two of the balls. After about five minutes, he removed the putting clip and continued to practice his putts. After putting, he pulled a wedge and dropped a few balls into some gnarly rough around the putting green and hit about four chips aiming at a hole. Streelman then moved to a second putting green just across from the First Tee. At this second putting green, Streelman stopped and again pulled a wedge to hit several chips at various holes around the green.

 At 11:05, Streelman and his caddy/wife walked to the First Tee, where he received his scorecard and a sheet indicating the location of that day's hole locations. He also took the time to spray himself with bug repellent, greet his playing partner, Hunter Haas and his caddy, before being introduced and officially teeing off at 11:11 a.m.  I didn't follow Streelman after he teed off, but picked him up again at the Eighth Hole. Despite being one-over on the front nine, he carded three birdies on the back nine and shot a two-under 68 for the round.

While on TV you usually only get to see the players hitting shots on the course, it was fun, and very instructive, to watch how they go about preparing for a competitive round and then actually see then put that preparation to use on the course