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Pete Huber is a PGA Master Professional and former PGA Tour player. He has been teaching for over 20 years and is currently the Director of Golf Instruction at the Golf Academy of Phoenix. |
Practice makes perfect. That is what we have all been told. Is it really true? Maybe it all depends on what we call practice. Hitting full shots on the range from perfect lies to the same target shot after shot is exercise, not practice. This type of “practice” leads us to believe that we are improving, since it is much easier to get into a nice rhythm hitting ball after ball with the same club to the same target, even though that situation never occurs during an actual round of golf. During a round of golf, we hit a shot every 3 to 5 minutes with different clubs, from different lies, to different targets. No wonder we “can’t take it to the course”! We aren’t practicing anything resembling what we will be doing on the course. Effective practice will transfer to the golf course and produce lower scores. In order for practice to translate into lower scores, it needs to simulate situations and shots that will be faced when playing. Playing an actual round of full shots on the range is one strategy. Pick out a fairway, go through your entire pre-shot routine and tee off. If the drive ends up in the fairway, give yourself a good lie and if it isn’t, give yourself a poorer lie. Then pick a different target, choose a club to hit your approach shot and hit the shot. Evaluate the shot and determine if it would have hit the green. Play an entire 18 holes using this procedure. Evaluate your number of fairways hit, greens hit, your shot patterns (hooks, slices, pushes, pulls) and how many shots were struck solidly. Then go to the short game green and create different scenarios for each of the shots where you missed the green on the range. Hit a chip, pitch or bunker shot and then putt out. For all of the greens you hit in regulation, guess how far away from the hole your approach would have been. Go to the practice putting green and using your full routine, putt until you have completed each hole. What would you have shot? The most common scenarios when using this practice strategy is that the player will feel like they are executing shots more poorly in practice than what they are used to. They will also be playing better on the course than what they are used to! All great coaches in other sports have their teams practice game situations. That way during the actual game, they will not be facing a situation that they have not already practiced. Think up creative ways to do the same in golf and it will make your practice time more fun, challenging and productive.
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