Preparing for tournament play.

I am looking for a daily practice schedule that will help my 16 year old son polish his game for junior tournament play.

He is signed up for 10 Houston Junior Golf Association tournaments between June 1 and August 1. In the 16-18 year old group.

We’d like to set a goal handicap and work with a practice routine to achieve it.

Here’s the situation…
He is 16 and has been playing full rounds for about 3 years.
He shoots in the mid 80s, his lowest is 78.
He plays 4-10 rounds a month right now with his Grandpa or me mainly.
He is using Ping Eye irons and a (Christmas gift) Ping G2 460 10 degree driver.
He has had 4 prior lessons with the club Pro. In the last 2 years.
He is 4 lessons into a 20 lesson package at Golftec. (Video system)
He has unlimited range balls for 3 months with Wed & Saturday clinic if he wants (different Pro at clinic vs club Pro)


My first idea is this…
ON THE RANGE choose a target and try to get 5 balls in a row within a 10 yard radius.
Warm up using his best irons for 15 min
Switch to one of his worst irons for 15 min (3 days same club then switch)
Switch to woods for 15 min
Switch to driver for 15 min
Switch to wedges for 15 min
Switch to putting for 15 min.
If possible we would like to have some way to track practice session results.

We have no special ideas for the practice rounds; just play the best he can. I’d like to play for something that can create a trophy of some sort to mimic competition.

He thinks he improves more on the course rather that at the range sounds like a boy talking to me. I’d be curious to hear what competition players think.

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Mike

Miken.

He needs to play much more golf. 4-10 rounds a month isnt enough for a young guy looking to compete. Try and get him out for a few holes every couple of days. Shooting 78 is ok but I would imagine at the level you are talking about there will be a lot of sharks in the water. 16-18 year olds playing competitively will be mostly category 1 players, a lot of them 2 handicap or better. The scores he is putting together suggest he can shift the ball a healthy enough distance more or less in the same direction. He needs to start sorting out his course management as well. This can only be done on the course.

1. Dont let him practice ball striking on the course, thats range work, when he's on the course he has to make do. You cant practice in competition. Let him learn to compose a score even when he isnt hitting the ball as well as he can.

2. Use the remaining Golftec lessons to mould his swing into something repeatable and reliable.

3. As a target, set him score targets. I would suggest shooting 78 regular as the first step, then move to shooting 75 regular. Finally let him play "Level Fours" which means he uses 4 as the par for every hole. If he shoots level fours he has 72. This at almost any course will give him a 2 handicap. When he is at this level, get him playing as much competitive golf as you can. Enter everything and get him used to the difficulties of keeping a score going over 18 or 36 holes.

Remember not to leave out short game practice. For better scores, you have to divide time 50:50 between long game and short game st the very least. Personally I try to divide it 60:40 in favour of pitching chipping and putting.

Let him play as much as he wants but its as important to allow him not to play when he doesnt want to. Its easy for a young mind to grow stale and become a bit slaphappy. Its impossible to shoot scores in that frame of mind.

Good luck,

D.

I agree with mizunoman, practice scoring on the coasre and ball striking at the range. Short game is very important, I know myself I can hit my driver and irons just as good as people who play off very low handicaps, but they beat me around the green. I am an 18 handicap player that hits 8 greens in reg on a round, and only has chipons for the rest of them.

Thank for your inputs.....What are your thoughts on playing par 3 courses for short game work, in preperation for tournaments?

It all depends on if its a true par 3 course (ie 100 yards and over holes) or a pitch and putt course (less than 100 yard holes)


If its the former, it wont really help all that much if its the latter then it should be ok. Personally I wait until a late evening round (or really early morning) when the course is quiet. Then I drop a couple of balls inside 40 yards from the green and practice my pitching. Then I always try and hit a few chips around each green from different places. Always hit a few putts as well.

It helps to find a good short game area at your course as well. But any putting green is good enough for chipping practice.

D.

I agree with what was said above.

Just some thoughts on practice rounds.

1. I tend not to keep score during a practice round. I found that I was comparing my competitive round to what I did the day before. This could be distracting and worrisome especially if the early holes of the tournament did not start as well as the practice round.

2. Use the practice round to get to know the course, especially around the greens. The pin for the tournament is not going to be in the same spot it is during the practivce round, so don't worry about putting to it. Practice putts in each quadrant of the green to get an idea of speed and break.

3. Try some bunker shots, if you're playing your practice round for score you mey not be in any.

4. Take notes. Record trouble off the tee, club selection on par 3s, general slope of greens, etc. and refer to this during the tournament. You've got to be your own caddy when it comes to this.

Good Luck.

P

Thanks again.
We may not get to play the tournament courses prior to the competition; I thought we would see if any of them had yardage books to study as preparation. We played three rounds this weekend at 2 different courses. Like all golfers, Tim wants to hit his drive as far as possible, but when it gets away from him it's costly. The thing we tried to work on was placing the ball a certain distance out so that his next shot would be with his most accurate club. He likes to go for the pin most of the time; I like to make sure I get on first, and then work the hole. The other thing was chipping, when to chip and run or use the flop shot. So I guess you could say we worked course management. Golf is great for bonding with the family, especially at his age (15) when parents aren’t so cool any more.

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Mike

At the level he's playing at and the age he's at, just make sure he enjoys himself. I played a lot of golf between 10 and 14 but felt forced and stopped enjoying it so simply turned to other sports. It wasnt till I moved to university and started playing out of sheer enjoyment that my handicap came down.

For the first two years I was playing 5 rounds a week in bounce matches with mates then and 2 evenings at the range with 1hr on range and 1hr chipping and putting (I only had 2 days where I had lectures!) Then I joined a club and got a handicap of 12. 2 years later I've left with a handicap of 4.
Id recommend that when you play rounds with him, try to make sure your playing with good golfers- the best way to learn is by watching them plot their way round the course and trying to match them- Both my flatmates were scratch golfers and I got fed up losing to them! You'll find he'll soon start to catch up

Take your practice round like the pros:

Play target golf - hit to specific spots on the course.

Hit shots to leave yourself your favourite distances from the green - if you like full PW shots, hit drives and approaches to put yourself in that vicinity.

If you can, play two or three shots from the same location, and shape them differently to see how they react.

Remember for putting, speed is more important than line - learn the greens.

Like Althouse said, if there's bunkers, practice in them. It might be good to bring a few clubs into the trap.

Short game seperates the high score from the low score. Make sure you spend at least half of your practice hitting pitches and chips.

Good luck at your comp!

I was a junior who everyone thought would go pro. At 19 I hung the clubs up after watching my father have a heated argument on the course over a game.

At 39 I dusted them off and started playing again.
Let him make the game and practice serious not you, if I shot 4 under dad thought I should have been 6 under. No matter what I did it was never good enough, what a relief when girls and motorcycles came along.

But the short game is where results occur and the fastest way to get your score down.
Dont change his normal routine ie sleep food etc to close to a tournament.
What helped me alot was stress the night before and I couldn't sleep so turned up tired and feeling terrible. That defeated me before the first tee. If only I'd been told earlier that no one sleeps before a big game, just try to rest the body wether you sleep or not doesn't matter.
Change the game a bit, no woods off the tee every second or third round. Make him play out of his comfort zone and shots from positions he's not used to.( make the young mind think rather than just swing)
But he really needs to hit the golf course more often.

Not really answering your questions sorry, but theres no quick fix. Get the pro's to draw up a program for him to follow including exercises.

Good luck