Playing vs. Practicing

[lhsgolfer2]

what's on your agenda?

Improving your golf game is tough to do, and you hear different views on the best way to accomplish it. Both of the professionals i have spent time with have told me that it is important to balance your time between the golf course and the practice facility in order to see the most improvement. However, we have witnessed both work throughout history. Guys like Ben Hogan and Vijay Singh spend hours and hours hitting thousands of balls on the driving range, and they only play in preparation for a tournament or in a tournament itself. On the other hand guys like Trevino and Payne Stewart hated to practice, they wanted to be on the golf course enjoying the game. I'm curious as to how todays youth decideds to improve their game?

i play golf, practicing is not fun and i do not enjoy it, it is like a chore. when i have to hit balls i want them off the tee and into the green, i want them out of bunkers, i want to write down 3s and 4s and 5s on my scorecard and have a total when i'm finished. The practice facility is just repitition, too boring for me.

your thoughts?

[CivEngr08]

why not play games while practicing? If you have a good sized short game area why not take 3 balls and try to get them up and down. If you can, count it like a par and if not, then a bogey. Go around to different places and try to get everything up and down. You could start off on a chip shot, then go to a short pitch, then a flop, then a short bunker shot, a longer bunker shot, and then a long pitch. At the end, you'll have a "score" and it'll let you know what things you can improve upon in your short game.

 

You could also do this on the range and on the putting green. I've been doing this for years and I never feel like its a chore to practice and it definitely takes out the repetition of hitting ball after ball after ball on the range.

[thomaskelly]

Even split. The course I'm a member of would become tedious if I played it three or four times every week so I spend a heck of a lot of time practicing either on the putting and chipping greens or hitting irons on the practice field.

 

That my game still sucks is a source of no small irritation. Progress is depressingly slow. If practice truly does make perfect, I should be one hell of a player by my one hundred and thirty-seventh birthday.

[gandor]

mine is split just because my work won't allow it but if i dont need to go to work i'll be on the course instead. nothing like hitting balls with different lie on the fairway or on the rough. knowing there's ob and hazards make me more focus every swing. keeping score makes me more challenged and sets some goals. i think like everybody else when i started i was so addicted hitting balls after balls but when i started playing on the course it completely changed my view. now i only enjoy out there playing.

[golftitleist]

Generally in the summer its range/short game in the morning and then 18 in the afternoon, assuming I don't have a tournament. Once the school season begins its nine hole practice rounds or tournaments on weekdays and range/short game on saturdays and sundays. Obviously I take the occasional day off, but I actually like practicing, I'd rather beat balls than play a round half the time, it's probably bad though, I tend to mess with my swing too much on the range.

[SHERO]

I love both. When I'm on the course I use it as a range/short game area anyway so I suppose I practice on the course.

[Gregg T]

I'm at the course everyday and I may play 18 once a month. I enjoy just hitting a few hundred balls, then going back to the mens club and watching ESPN, then go out and putt for an hour, then go back to the club and watch some golf, then repeat. It helps when you have a bunch of kids around the course doing the same thing.

[afewover]

i dont mind goin out on therange and practicing but i feel like you get way more out of playing on teh course as you have to put everything into play. i try to go out by myself during the week and play two balls and put myself in as many bacwards situations as well as good ones and work my way towards the green. the range is great to tune things like swing and stance but the course is where it all comes together.

[BryanFTW]

Personally i dont like hitting balls either..

It is really tedious and i like going out on the course and having fun with my friends. And i know you cant learn what you do on teh course on some dumb hitting facility.