My New Way to Practice...

[Sean2]

When I'm at the range I use to just pound balls. Now I practice with a purpose. I start with the wedges and work my way up to driver always selecting a target. Time permitting I play an imaginary 18 holes of golf. This allows me to mix the clubs I am hitting and helps me focus on each shot, instead of just hitting balls. Time permitting, I then start with driver again and work my way down to LW. I can't switch to another club unless I hit the current club pure. This also requires me to focus. My practices end up being longer, but I hit less golf balls. I also take a lot more time between shots. The bays are heated and there is a place to putt, so I can even do that as well.

 

The purpose of all this is to have my practice sessions mimic golf course golf as much as possible. I don't want to be a range golfer.

[pickerjohn]

In an effort to start thinking about shooting my age, I've in the last few
months started to get serious about why I'm not scoring better, and
as you might well know, it seems to be from 75 yards into the cup,
thats the main problen. I drive the ball like Par, hit my irons almost as
well, and then seem to never recover from a miss.
In other words, I can make bogey from anywhere.
Ther might be a light at the end of the tunnel with the arrival of Stan
Utley's 2 books on putting and the short game. Now heres a guy with a proven
track record and with proper implimintation, I have hope.
Thanks and Good Golf to you.
John

[Sean2]

Weather permitting I probably practice my short game 75% of the time, and that's where I excel. Last season I averaged just under 30 putts a round. My long game is where I need work. I hit the ball fairly straight, I just don't have much distance. As a result I have to get up and down a lot, hence the short game practice. I want to start hitting irons into greens not fairway woods or hybrids. I'm starting to see some improvement and look forward to the spring.

Good golf to you too!

Sean

[Baller]

I like that style of practice. Treat everyshot on the range as if you were actually playing. i do the same unless I am trying to implement a swing change. I think you will see some improvements next year, and actually you are working on mentally being prepared to hit a shot as well. A pro taught me that he basically had his playing partners beat before he stuck a tee in the ground on the first tee box by:

Knowing yardages
Practice like he would play
Mastering the short game
Putting more than he practiced everything else
Being happy with par on HCP holes 1-5

[rony]

[quote name='Avatar' post='815467' date='Dec 7 2007, 09:33 AM']Weather permitting I probably practice my short game 75% of the time, and that's where I excel. Last season I averaged just under 30 putts a round. My long game is where I need work. I hit the ball fairly straight, I just don't have much distance. As a result I have to get up and down a lot, hence the short game practice. I want to start hitting irons into greens not fairway woods or hybrids. I'm starting to see some improvement and look forward to the spring.

Good golf to you too!

Sean[/quote]


WOW! Avg 30 putts a round is excellent. I'm stronger in the short game also but my putts per round average is nowhere near as good as yours, and that's why I can't go lower. Also I find it difficult to work on the wedges off of mats. I need to be able to dig a bit. When I practice the short game off of a football field for example, my wedge shots fly high and true!

[8thehardway]

[quote name='Avatar' post='815467' date='Dec 7 2007, 09:33 AM']Weather permitting I probably practice my short game 75% of the time, and that's where I excel. Last season I averaged just under 30 putts a round. My long game is where I need work. I hit the ball fairly straight, I just don't have much distance. As a result I have to get up and down a lot, hence the short game practice. I want to start hitting irons into greens not fairway woods or hybrids. I'm starting to see some improvement and look forward to the spring.

Good golf to you too!

Sean[/quote]

I'm in the same place and practice the same way. Over the winter I'm going to learn basic yoga stretches for flexability. Just started weight training - right now I'm only lifting the bar but I'll add weights eventually.

I'm also starting to try out swing tips from the golf magazines, rip out pages that sound promising and take them to the range. If it works, I throw the tip in a folder - one for irons, another for wedges, etc then create the shortest possible reminder and put it in the golf bag so I don't forget it.

[againstthegrain]

A good way to change it up is to mix clubs of varying lengths, after warming up. Try driver - wedge, 3i- 8i, driver - hybrid - wedge, etc, etc.

[atlanta golfer]

I have a question on range practice. I also have been trying to hit a variety of clubs and at different targets, changing clubs every shot or every couple of shots, to simulate a real round. The problem I'm having on the range, either from mats or from grass tee stations, is that when I aim at a target that is, say 30 degrees to the right and 100 yards out, or say 20 degrees to the left and 150 yards out, I feel out of alignment due to the visual of the mat edge or the grass tee divider. Putting down a club to show the path helps, but still my eyes and brain go to all the items on the range that are lined up straight and not at my target. On the real course, the green is always "straight ahead" visually but not on the range. Does anyone else have this problem and how do you deal with it?

[Bay1524]

Atlanta golfer. I have that problem ALL the time. Then, to make issues worse, the range I go to on most cases have dividers between each hitting area. This is a nice idea for comfort and security, but really throws me off and I aim right or left because I wonder how loud I will smack the divider if my ball starts out a bit to the right or left. I guess I will have to wait until it becomes warm again and I can use the grass unless someone offers a good bit of advice.

[8thehardway]

The answer to my alignment problem may work for you. I've always been frustrated with "pulling" my wedges even from 30 yards out until an instructor wrote about aligning your target with the sweet spot on the face of your iron instead of the leading edge.Turns out offset creates an optical illusion.

When I look at the sweet spot, alignment distractions on the ground and mat vanish - hard to believe just because I'm raising my focus one inch it makes such a difference.