Practice advice

mooreman09 · 29-07-2014 9:17am #1

If you were to spend 1-2 hours a week on improving your game where would you spend it and divide it up. I'm serious about improving. I'm a novice that's playing 2 months. I've got a couple of lessons and am shooting in the mid 90s at the moment.

I find when I go to the range I am hitting balls for the sake of hitting them.

Keano · 29-07-2014 9:23am

Two words, short game.

snaphook · 29-07-2014 9:35am

Deliberate Practice.

1. Instead of mindlessly hitting balls play rounds in your mind.
e.g. tee shot, approach shot, pitch shot (if you missed the 'green').
Focus on going through the preshot routine each time and picking a specific target.

2. For the short game, it's a good idea to keep a track (with a notebook) about how you are progressing. e.g. try 10 lag putts. How many of the 10 finished within 3 feet?

Week 1: 4/10
Week 2: 6/10
Week 3: 6/10

You get the idea.

3. Bi Weekly skill test.

Every second week test yourself under pressure.

Test 1: 10 tee shots land in the fairway
Test 2: 10 six iron land on the green
Test 3: 10 wedge shots land at the pin
etc

If you keep notes then you can see concrete evidence for where you are strong and where you need improvement.

the lawman · 29-07-2014 9:39am

There are times where I would only bring the woods to the range or long irons. It all depends on what you’re working on. If you are working solely on the driver than bring only a driver and a wedge. And so on and so on. I would never get a lesson without leaving with one precise aspect to work on. It’s a long haul thing and breaking it up into sections is giving me the results I wanted.

I avoid bringing my full bag to the range as I end up just going through every club without focusing much on one area.

In agreement with Keano I will say no matter what area I’m working on I will always have a wedge or two and about 50% of the balls will be with them. That’s the only constant.

First Up · 29-07-2014 9:52am

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Two words, short game.

Agree. If you want to invest in it, the Dave Pelz short game clinics are great but even on your own you can do a lot.

Get confident with your wedges - know how far you hit them and how high and how softly they land. Do it on the course if possible so off real turf and in real situations. Both from fairway and out of rough.

Practice out of bunkers - first to be 100% sure of getting out, then to get better at distance control.

And putting is huge - between 40% and 50% of the shots in most rounds. Its sounds tedious but hit hundreds of putts from 1-2 feet until you almost never miss. When you have that licked, it makes long putts a lot less stressful! Check your scores and see how much better they would be if the 3-putts were eliminated. 3 putts are almost always the result of poor distance control so huge potential savings there. Practice knocking the long ones 18 inches past.

mooreman09 · 29-07-2014 9:53am

Cheers lads. I'll just do what I do with m gym work and start a journal so, maybe bring my weekend rounds into it too.

mike12 · 29-07-2014 9:57am

Firstly have the basics right grip, posture and allignment shoulders hips feet all pointing the same direction down the line of the shot.
If you don't have access to a short game area then Driving/tee shots are the most important part of golf. Learn to hit the ball as hard as you can it is much easier to rein in the power than to try and add more later so as hard as you can hit it and finish with a balanced follow thru.
Get to a field and try and get a feel for the distance of your irons you only need to do it with a 8 iron and then add around 10 yards to that per club. When on the range every iron should be at a target.
A funcitional short game where you can chip the ball onto the green is the first step touch and feel will come so don't get too caught up in not chipping it close up and down in 3 from inside 100 yards is a good level to get to for a beginner.

Ciaranra · 30-07-2014 1:40pm

I start playing 5 years ago and every day used to just bring 1 club with me
Dif club every day and just work on tempo and ball striking i play of 10 know and very comfortable.
Short game is very importand but if your knocking down drives and irons you wont enjoy as much

John Divney · 30-07-2014 1:51pm

A journal really is a great tool, wish I took my own advice an started one myself.

GreeBo · 30-07-2014 10:05pm

John Divney wrote: »

A journal really is a great tool, wish I took my own advice an started one myself.

I started taking notes after each session and found that after a couple of weeks I had every tip possible written down

I am starting to keep score on a certain set of shortgame tests though.

Boskowski · 31-07-2014 10:26am

There is a great short practice regime somewhere on the twoplustwo forum. It goes like make 25 3 footers in a row then move to 15 5 footers in a row then get 25 20 footers within 3 foot in a row and so on. It covers putting chipping and full swing but is about 80% short game.
It gives great motivation too cos after making 22 in a row you really don't want to miss number 23 and start all over again.
Now if only I could be disciplined enough do do this twice weekly I'd be some golfer.

31-07-2014 10:40am

Boskowski wrote: »

There is a great short practice regime somewhere on the twoplustwo forum. It goes like make 25 3 footers in a row then move to 15 footers in a row then get 25 20 footers within 3 foot in a row and so on. It covers putting chipping and full swing but is about 80% short game.
It gives great motivation too cos after making 22 in a row you really don't want to miss number 23 and start all over again.
Now if only I could be disciplined enough do do this twice weekly I'd be some golfer.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/93/golf/ultimate-practice-routine-992787/

Might give it a go, I currently just go to the range or putting green and mindlessly practice, nice to have targets.

First Up · 31-07-2014 11:14am

Boskowski wrote: »

There is a great short practice regime somewhere on the twoplustwo forum. It goes like make 25 3 footers in a row then move to 15 footers in a row then get 25 20 footers within 3 foot in a row and so on. It covers putting chipping and full swing but is about 80% short game.
It gives great motivation too cos after making 22 in a row you really don't want to miss number 23 and start all over again.
Now if only I could be disciplined enough do do this twice weekly I'd be some golfer.

They use a similar drill at the Pelz school - among others.

Boskowski · 31-07-2014 12:21pm

Meilani Harsh Sawhorse wrote: »

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/93/golf/ultimate-practice-routine-992787/

Might give it a go, I currently just go to the range or putting green and mindlessly practice, nice to have targets.

That's the one.
I did it last year but only completed week one and of that only the puttin chipping and the first sand one.
For two months after that my ball striking was still not great but it became virtually impossible for me to scratch a hole.
In fact I played a few rounds without a double and that's with a 17 HC.

Unfortunately I didn't keep doing it through the winter and this year I've been too busy to spend enough time on golf at all. What time I have I just play. So whatever sharpness was there is now gone again.

But it definitely works.

Practice advice

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