Practicing Golf With a Purpose
If you are like a lot of golfers out there, you spend an inordinate amount of time working on your game. Golf publications, sessions with teaching pros, the latest practice gear, and the latest equipment fill up your garage. Also, you practice a lot. You are not afraid of the driving range and putting green, even working to the point of having blisters on your hands. The problem is, though, no matter how much you practice, you just are not seeing the results you expect on that Las Vegas golf vacation.
Don’t fret, this is true for a large number of golfers, and in the end it comes down to one thing, you must practice your golf game with a purpose. You are probably asking yourself, what does that mean? Or you may say, I do practice with a purpose – to get better at golf. As you read this, ask yourself if you are really employing the techniques proposed. My guess is you aren’t.
Driving Range Golf Tips
As good as it may sound to your golf buddies, hitting bag after bag of driving range balls will not make you a better golfer. In fact, it may make you worse, because often you are reinforcing your bad swing, making it even more difficult to create the golf swing you really want.
The way to get the most out of your driving range time is to use this golf tips: hit every ball on the range just like you were out on the golf course. This means not only visualizing hitting it to a fairway, green, or hitting a specific target, but employing your pre shot routing before hitting every single ball. If you don’t have a preshot routine, start one. It not only gets your mind ready to hit the next shot, but after time it will set in motion a series of events that can be ingrained into your muscle memory, increasing the likelihood of hitting the shot you want and thereby increasing substantially your consistency (and lowering your golf scores). Watch Tiger, he does it the same every time.
In addition to utilizing a preshot routine on every shot, aim for a specific target. You can’t know how well you’re hitting it if you’re not aiming for something. You could be aiming way off and not know it. It is so much easier to identify and track your progress when aiming for a specific target.
Finally, unless you have a lot of time, hit no more than 50 balls on the range in any one practice session (usually equal to a small bag of driving range balls). That many balls should take approximately an hour, if you’re doing it right, and after that, the chances of your mind wandering and your old habits returning goes up exponentially. Hitting range balls is tiring, and you don’t want to practice tired (at least until you’ve ingrained your swing). Quit while you’re ahead if you want to make big gains and lower your scores.
Putting Green Golf Tips
On the putting green, it is vital that you use the same tips as described above for the driving range. A pre-putt routine, aiming at a target, and limiting your time (I would put in another hour max) can contribute to large golf game improvement.
In addition to that, read Putting Out of Your Mind by Bob Rotella. It will change the way you think about putting, offers some great practice tips, and will improve your game tremendously.
Finally, putt from the inside out. Get good enough with your stroke that you are confident that you can make everything inside three feet. Once that is accomplished, move out to five feet. Then become comfortable and confident rolling in ten footers. Its the mid-distance par saving putts that will greatly impact your scoring.