improvement

i am trying to improve my golf by the week is there any benefit to going to the range as opposed to playing a fourball every saturday morning? i can usually strike the ball well at the range but that form disappears once on the course. maybe i should learn to walk before trying to run!

For me I think the biggest difference is the lie. At the range I am always hitting flat lies off the turf, it never varies. The few times I've been on the course, it really took some getting used to the different lies and grass...

I guess you have to first zoom in on which part you are trying to improve - your swing, or short game, pitching or chipping etc. If you play a round you work on the whole game, but it will not be as effective as focusing on a specific area for improvement.

Simon is right,

You must practice away from the course to improve, you cannot play and not practice and improve as quickly as putting time in at the range/field etc.

Try practicing your long game at the range i.e. tee shots and long irons only, then find a field to work on your short game 100/75/50yds once you can dial in these distances then you will be more confident on the course.

Then the other main and most important aspect is putting, work at home on the carpet where ever you can, 50% of your score will be shot with a wedge and a putter.


Good luck

Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

The purpose of practicing is that you build your confidence in making a specific shot. It also builds visualization on how to perform the shot. That way, when you are in the situation, you can draw on your expereince at the range to help you calm your nerves in pressure situations.

thanks 2 simon,ian and gord have just back from range and just took pw and 7i concentrated with those 2 clubs hitting balls and and trying to groove my swing felt really good by the end of the session. will have to dedicate more time to structured practising!!

The only advise I have to this subject is work on short game twice as much as long game. When you get to the range, DO NOT start hitting full shot immediately. Take the first 10 - 15 balls and hit easy half to three quarter shots, just to warm up and get a feel for tempo, usually with a short iron, PW one day 9i the next maybe GW the next. Don't pay any attention to distance or where it goes, your just warming up, and trying to get solid contact. Once you start working on a specifics regardless of what it is, lay some clubs down, so if nothing else you know you are aligned correctly.

Once out on the course don't be fiddling with your swing, what ever you have that day, is what you have, deal with it, don't fight it. In other words if you are hitting everything right, just aim left, if you hitting short, take more club. The idea is to play and score, not hit perfect shots, nobody hits perfect shot all the time, not even Tiger. Trying to draw a 7 iron into every hole when you are fading 9 out of 10 shots is just stupid. LOL...it is also a form of insanity, doing the same thing expecting a different result.

Next to improve you need to pay attention to what your tendencies are, that will tell you what you need to work on, do you always push you approches, do you chip badly, do you pull putts, don't work on your good shots, work on the things that cost you strokes. When I am playing on my score card in addition to my score, I also have on the next line FH/GH (fairways hit/greens hit in reg), putts per hole, CP chips per hole. I usually keep a separate score card for myself because this will use up all the lines. After several round you will start to see a picture of what is costing you strokes, work on what is costing you the most, once that is brought down to an acceptable level move on to the next thing. Hope this help, good luck

thanks gonavy.
once again a gto member giving concise and sound advice.becoming obvious now that to see real improvment i need to knuckle down to some structured practise down at the range also recording shots on a card like that is a good idea not one id thought of.

thanks again
ian

I have been thinking about the same thing. David Leadbetter, in his book Positive Practise, says you have to learn to practice to play. When you practice, take extra care, to practice as though you were playing - don't bang balls off for the sake of it (although that is fun) don't do it for your entire time while at the range. In addition, you might want to practise certain shots over and over again, for weeks if not longer, until you have got it right, i.e., pitching, chipping et cetera. For some shots work on the mechanics, and for others see if you can hit them without thinking about the mechanics, and so goes the process.


James

I agree with everything that has been said. I want to add that even with the sound practice routines I use, getting on the course is a differrent animal.

I personally concentrate during "a round" to drop strokes as a result of Course managment. I feel this aspect of the Amature game is somewhat overlooked. The first year I played, I dropped my scoring average in half just by thinking my way around the course with a better course managment system. It all comes down to confidence and experiance during a round and this is built up with practice and playing together.

I practice specifics OFF the course and Generals ON the course. Both are important and I try to play as much as I can, as long as I am also practicing my weekness, it can do nothing but help.


I also was Supprised to find out I only play about 20 rounds per season and that, with me trying to play at every chance I get~!

That means I have dropped my handycap from a (+35) jan 2004 to a (+10) by oct2005. thats only 40 rounds of golf. I feel I could have dropped it more if I was able to play the actual GAME of GOLF more often than 20 times per year. Like the pros do.

There is no substitute for the game itself and if you had to choose one or the other... I would choose A round. and not practice.


Just me
g

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iamygod
gt

youre a man after my own heart gary!
only have 1 driving range local to where i live and the practise field is always waterlogged and the range mats and balls are pretty substandard but ive learnt so much in the short time ive been a member and to me my practise is playing a full 18 holes except now i am a lot more focused on what im trying to achieve. i started 12 months ago and play the local par 66 muni my first round there was 126! and after all the help from you guys this week i carded a 78 and it was windy so i must be doin something right!

cheers again
ian

Course management is definitely good to apply on the course, but it doesn't help you put the clubface on the ball. I would also choose to play rather than practice, but you need to practice to improve your ball striking ability. The pros don't just play, they put in WAY more hours of practice than they do playing. If we all put in twice the amount of practice as we did playing, we could drop at least 2 strokes off our handicaps (or more!)

Heck Yeah! gord! your right!
I practice five times as much as I play!! i just wish I could play more and practice less, to make it more like twice as much.! I just love the game itself and how each shot is the same, yet different than any you have had before.
I just love playing in the wind! it makes you truly focus on the environment at hand.. sometimes its hard to really focus on the conditions for me and I get back to thinking mechanics... then I misshit more often when wasting mental effort on mechanics. Getting from a 128 to a 78 is a HECK of a DIFFERNCE... slats... I got ENVY. As I have only broken 80 twice. while scroing Averaging mid 80's!!! ahhh drives me crazy!

g

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iamygod
gt

not going overboard about it g after all its only par66 4660 yds shows how bobbins i was when i started LOL! and ive virtually played twice a week since i started!

Good for you Gary - I wish I could practice 5 times as much as I golfed. I only golf about once or twice a week and I am lucky to get half as much practice in as I play. When I worked at a course I found myself practicing all the time, but now I just don't have the time. I really enjoy practicing my short game as you can make up a ton of games with your practice partner consisting of differnet scenarios and create all sorts of lies and positions that you really need to use your imagination to figure out how your skill set will get the ball closest to the hole with consistancy.

I too am a wiz in the wind. I grew up in southern Saskatchewan where a calm day consisted of a wind under 20 mph. It is EXTREMELY windy there and I really learned how the wind affects your ball. Now that I live in a far less windy climate, the few times a year I end up golfing on a windy day I can really draw on that knowledge to put quite a gap between myself and my partners.

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Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall