Thursday, July 23, 2015

Playing The Fairways GC at Bensalem CC

Practice Range
Bensalem Township Country Club
200 Brown Ave.
Bensalem, PA
215/639-5556

With my golf in dire help of help, I went to the practice range at Bensalem Township Country Club last night to work on my game. I experimented with a new method of practice as I hit a small buckets of balls of the range.


Typically, there are two practice methods when you go to the range: blocked and random. Blocked practice is when you take your bucket of balls and hit virtually the same shot, with the same club, at the same target, over and over and over. Although this method is extremely useful if you are changing a certain part of swing, it is, unfortunately, how most people practice at the range.

The practice range became the front nine at The Fairways

In random practice, you attempt to simulate what you doing on the golf course by not hitting the same club or same shot twice in a row. I used this method last night by playing the front nine at The Fairways Golf Club on the practice range at Bensalem. For example, the First Hole at The Fairways is 341-yard par 4. So I hit driver, which I duck hooked to the left. I estimated that would have left me about 160 yards to the green, so I hit 6-iron for my next shot. And I aimed at a flag that was to the right of my hitting bay. That shot would have come up short, so I chipped with my 53-degree wedge to one the nets in front of the hitting mats. I did this for each of The Fairways nine holes. I hit all the shots on each hole until I feel I would have been on the green.

Twilight descended on the range

I started my practice by some stretching and swinging my 8-iron with a weighted Swing Sock on it. I then hit six sand wedges and six 9-irons to warm up. I then went into random practice, playing the nine holes. After I finished palying the nine, I hit 13 drivers, alternating between my TaylorMade Aero Burner and an old Maxfli Blue Max Driver. I hit them both a bit better than I have been hitting my driver on the course. I finished up hitting seven shots off the tee and mat with my TaylorMade JetSpeed 3-hybrid.

Maxfli Blue Max Driver

Overall, I hit the ball a little better than I have been hitting it on the course. I hit a few good shots and a few bad shots. I was lacking distance and power in more than a few of my iron shots. I will take a positive feeling away from this practice session. I think using random practice will help me moving forward.