How often do you practice?

Practice
#21

Words of wisdom.

The man ( Ben Hogan) watched Lee Trevino hit balls, commented that Lee had one of the best golf swing he had seen. Later on when he was not personally testing the new models of golf clubs produced by his company, he’d say " send it to that little Mexican for testing".
Lee Trevino and Mo Norman had the repetitive, reliable golf swing to win tournaments over their peer. Both their golf swings were unorthodox.
It is golden if one could find a reliable, repeatable golf swing which is not robbing them distance and not causing premature injury.

1 Like
#22

Here’s the next topic…. How did you get your wife to pick the game up? For real though, I’m making it right now.

#23

It has helped me as long as I stay with it. My first year went from scores in the 110-120 range to 100-110. Second year I’ve worked down to consistently Low 90’s, a bad round at a new course is middle/upper 90’s. But I am having trouble breaking into the 80’s, feels like i’m stalled. So I assigned up for some more lessons

#25

Here’s what I can tell you. If you are “stuck in the 90s” I would tell you it’s a course management issue, plain and simple. If you take a scorecard and track your putts. If you are going over 36, you are giving away strokes, work on that. Put yourself into the best possible position to eliminate doubles or higher. If you are going offline off the tee, put yourself in position to get a 3rd shot on the green. Just remember, 3 solid shots of 140 yards each put you in position to make no worse than 5 on a 420 yd par 4. Lessons are always great and I encourage those, what I don’t encourage is non focused lessons. What do you need to work on. I can tell you, I went from 30 to a 6 in no time. It took me 4 more years and a lot of work to get down to a 2. I can relate this to you I had no issues getting into the 70s. I had several opportunities to break 70 and always choked up. I think the 4th time I had birdied the 17th hole and was coming up 18 on 64. I knew exactly where I was and pull hooked my drive and bad thoughts immediately came in my end. My playing partner who I was gambling against walked over and said I want to see you break 70. Let’s get your head on straight. He said get outta trouble, let’s hit 9 iron into position, let’s hit an 80 yd wedge on the green and 2 putt. 5 breaks 70, let’s now take 6 outta the equation. I, for real, was shaking. It was one of the nicest things a competitor ever did for me and helped me focus on how to manage your game. Always keep that in mind. Good luck and keep at it.

2 Likes
#26

To go from 90s into 80s is simply getting rid of the bleeding holes.

You do not need to make a lot of birdies to get into 80s, even into the 70s.
Get rid of the triples and worse and minimize the doubles in the round. Think of what happened when you made those high numbers? Review and steer clear of repeating the same mistake.
Once, anyone learned how to advance the golf ball consistently, there is no reason why the scores couldn’t be in the 80s.
The first time I ever made par or better, was not a spectacular round for me. One birdie, a lot of scrambled pars. Nothing exciting just a nice day of golf.
After one broke the mile stone of getting into 80s and 70s or even below par, the subsequent low rounds would be much easier.
As I said, there is no reason why anyone could not break 90 if they could advance the golf ball. Well, maybe if they play from the longer tees where they don’t have the distance to cover it.

2 Likes
#27

I think my main issue is I’m a headcase. I will have a bad shot and get in my brain and it will continue for 2 or 3 holes. As far as on the course, according to my Garmin, I’m hitting 40% which needs work, 45% of my approach shots are coming up short, which i think is mostly from mishits, though my next round im going to start clubbing up and see how that goes. My GIR is horrible, only 8%. My putting is averaging 1.9 putts per hole. I try to take whatever is my worst problem at the last round and practice it during the next week. But I need to get my brain out of the way and try to enjoy the round when I’m out there. I haven’t figured out how to practice that yet. Maybe less time on the range and more actual rounds.

2 Likes
#28

I never practise but I do play 5 or 6 rounds a week. Playing so often gives me good feel around the greens.

2 Likes
#29

From age 23 to age 31 when we had our first child that was me except I played probably more rounds a week than that and then got to hit balls on the range. Fun times! Nothing beats the ability to play every day. But don’t sell short focused range practice for an hour and a half a day when playing wasn’t an option. How’s it go? Golf is a game that can’t be won or lost, only played. If you can better the architect and Mother Nature odds are you better your opponents trying doing the same thing at that time. I envy you, keep on keepin on!

#30

Just take a deep breath and try managing your game. Break everything down into increments. If you can hit 3 str8 shots 8 or 9 irons with any kind of distance and accuracy you will stay out of trouble off the tee and through the fairway and put yourself into position to break 90 easily. You said it yourself, “I’m a headcase”. Try only hitting the clubs you feel comfortable with and go for posting that elusive score. Once again, not to repeat myself from other posts I’ve made on this site many times. Golf is not a game of how, it’s a game of how many! If you hit 2 8 irons and then wedged up to 12 feet and jar the putt it’s still 4. Unless my math is way off. I’ve seen guys drive a green from 315 on the tee and 3 putt. Still a 4! Just start from there. That was one of my sandwich and beer lessons from My teacher Mr Bishop. The golf swing isn’t what u think it is, scoring (tournament golf) isn’t what you think it is. Some people figure it out, get out of your head and manage your game. You’ll get there I promise.

2 Likes
#31

I have developed a trigger that helps me when I hit a bad shot that pisses me off. I used to still be thinking of the 3 putt on 4 while standing in 10 fairway, so I totally get that. Ask yourself “what time is it” as part of your pre shot routine. I know it sounds cheesey, but hear me out. The answer to “what time is it?” is always “NOW”. Not 10 minutes ago, not 10 minute from now, but right NOW. That reminds me to focus on the present moment.

I personally do better with more time playing a quick 9 instead of going to the range. Simulates actual golf even if you hit 2 or 3 balls on every shot. I like to throw 3 balls scattered around the green and try to get them all up and down. Give it a try. Can’t hurt. For me, I also think this helps mentally because I have to really be engaged more in a shot, and it helps think much less about technique.

1 Like
#32

I like how you take what you could improve on in the previous rounds and practice that!

1 Like
#33

I have the same problem, though I’m getting better. A bad shot would linger for 2 or 3 holes. Now I can shut it down within the next hole. But I need it to go away right after the shot. Working on it.
I think starting this week I’m going to ditch one day of practice and walk 9 after work. If nothing else it will be more fun.

1 Like
#34

It drives me crazy when I think of the shots I missed because of some bad habit or pattern from my last round. So it drives me to work on it. Can’t help myself. This morning i missed 7 putts in the 10-12’ range. All either sitting on the rim or within 2 inches. So this week alot of effort will be focused on both putting those 10’ers and chipping to get the ball closer. That alone would have put me into the middle 80’s Problem is I don’t have enough time to do everything. My putting will get a little better but something else will fall away a little. Again, most likely the biggest problem of mine is my head.

1 Like
#35

Yes. That.

Our host has said it a lot, both in his blog and his book: there are things you can only learn by playing, and if you can’t play very often, you’re going to hit a ceiling pretty quickly. The lies are different, each shot is different, your next shot depends on how good or bad your previous one was. The targets are a lot smaller, and yet far more glaringly apparent, on the course vs the range. Etc…

  1. Give your self 30 seconds to get pissed and angry about a bad shot. Have free rein. (though don’t throw any clubs or destroy the course.) Then let it go and start your preparation for the next shot.

  2. Take enough club to get to the back of the green. Aim where your misses aren’t going to hurt you. Otherwise, try to ‘drape’ your shot pattern over as much of the green as posible. Me, I draw/hook most every medium small iron. So I aim to the right edge of each green, taking wind into account.

The flag? What flag? I can’t hit the flag, but I’ve got a good chance of hitting the green. So I aim for that instead.

Then be a good lag putter and chipper.

3 Likes
#36

Only if the golfer has acquired the basic skill of propelling the golf ball toward the target.
It really depend on what one wish to get out of the game. More practice if one wants more out of the game beyond recreational pleasure.
I used to practice often, but these days I would go play more than I visit the driving range. More in recent weeks as my wife and kids will be getting ready for the summer months for golf.

#37

One of my kids had yesterday off as a flex day of the week, 10-12 hour day - 4 work days per week. So we went to our local driving range per request to tune up the golf swing.
Range balls had gone up 30% per cost of bucket in the last couple of years.
Yesterday was unseasonably hot ( 20 degrees higher than the historical average temperature ). The parking lot was full of cars and SUV/truck when we arrived at 8:30 in the morning. Went from 10 cents per range ball to 20 cents per range balls in 5 years.
My kid asked me how much more to get on the golf course to actually play. I answered, twice the price of a jumbo bucket.
However, driving range is for tuning up the golf swing and the way they packed in the tee time, it’ll be close to a 6 hour round these days, instead of 60-90 minutes on the driving range.

#38

I try to get in a practice session once a week. There’s a fine line between playing and practicing too much I feel. I often struggle to find that sweet spot. practicing once a week and playing roughly once a week (7-10 days) has been the best “comfort zone” for me.

2 Likes
#39

I have been practicing 2-3 days a week, usually about 2 hours each time. And playing once a week. And I was stuck in the low 90’s, just hoping to break into that 80 number. The last 2 weeks I switched it up and instead of practicing I play 9 holes twice a week, and a round on the weekend, maybe a practice session on the other day of the weekend if I have time. Was just recently able to land a 38 after 9 one afternoon and an 84 in 18 this last weekend. So if this continues I know what I’ll be doing from now on. I do know one thing, it’s alot more fun playing than practicing all the time

2 Likes
#40

Heck yeah if I have 2 free hours then I’m playing 9!

1 Like
#41

I’d been known to skip my lunch hour to go to the driving range.

Long ago we had a driving range opened until midnight every day, I’d drive 35 minutes to that lighted driving range next town for a bucket or two when I was bored. Of course, that was before I got a family.