I would be the last golfer on the planet who has the credibility to render any instruction or advice as to how to play, practice or improve, but this piece will render some opinions that might be helpful.  How to you think about practicing your golf game?  It’s always a good idea to visit the 20th hole. The 20th hole is the vault and repository of your entire history of golf–the good, the bad and the ugly.  Your visit requires the selection of the practice agenda and menu of what you want or need to work on.  Heading to the range aimlessly merely to smash balls as far as you can will probably only increase your heart rate and add no value to your game.

The 20th Hole always reveals the absolute truth about the state of your game.  For a particular session, decide on areas of emphasis or drills to achieve consistent results such as ball flight or fade and drawing the ball.  Your goals for the session should always be achieved or you might leave in a desperate, wounded state. Golf is as much a mental test as a physical test. As a former basketballer–I always ended the session by making 5 three pointers or ten free throws in a row.  The session should always improve your confidence for an upcoming round with that memory added to the 20th hole.

My approach to the practice session is to start with the pitching wedge, and keep cracking at it until distance, ball flight and accuracy are achieved. It’s the club that I use to dial in the swing and tempo.  Usually, I’ll pull these shots to begin with until I’m able to dial in tempo and the out to in movement.    I will then move to the 8 and then the 6 iron with the same requirements. I’ll then pull the driver, which is the worst club in my bag. Age and a new hip has sapped club head speed significantly so until club head speed improves, it’s rather useless hitting drivers that are always straight but now struggle to cover 200 yards. After hitting 10 drivers straight and short, we revert back to the various wedges to achieve consistency. I move to my favorite weapon-the 5 iron–which travels175 yards for some unknown reason given the distance malaise of my driver. I don’t touch the 4 iron, but on the course-I never miss it. I usually don’t bother with the hybrid clubs as they also tend to be reliable tools on the course. I’m  currently having difficulty with the ball flight of my 3 wood, which is a critical club for me given my current driver distance impairment difficulty.  The 20th hole resonates–this problem does not offer a solution- the Club Professional will have to deal with this one.

After hitting about 75-100 balls in the aforementioned sequence, I head to the practice putting green. I’ll brag that putting is my savior in this game. I believe I can make any putt and usually have less than 30 putts in any round.  I see all of these new contraptions designed to enable you to line up and want nothing to do with them.  I tried a few of them and watch the balls go all over the place.  I watch the pros with their new squatting approach to the line, and it’s almost laughable except for the time they take encouraging amateurs to do the same.  Putting practice is important mostly to ensure that the horrible faults don’t seep into the stroke–such as head lifting through the stroke, taking your eye off the ball and misjudging  the pace of the green.

After 25 minutes of putting–always make a 15 footer to finish, it’s on to the chipping area, which is critical to my game. I have to leave this area happy or the whole session will be a downer. The 30 yard–50 yard chip is part of the game I really like, but I live in constant fear of the dreaded “bonk.” I need continuous reinforcement of this shot.  I should practice bunker shots, but I have so much confidence, that I don’t generally practice these shots (I should). We close with a required 7 and 9 iron perfect shot to assure all of the pieces are in working order and can be stored in the 20th hole vault.

Goals for the next round:  no missed shots-defined as shots that deviate from this routine

Practice with a Purpose!