On the course practice

[Bigdadenergy]

And recovery shots, which is one of the most under-practiced areas for ams, but we need it more than the pros.

[Rhinos_Fan]

I just posted this to another section of the Practice part of the Forum but I thought it might be useful here also:

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I find a good way of practicing is to ‘score’ the shots where I’ve done everything I planned to do correctly, i.e. I’ve followed my pre-shot routine without being distracted, I’ve picked my target and stuck to it, I’ve committed fully to the shot I want to hit and I’ve struck the ball as I wanted to.

If all these are all a ‘Yes’ then I count that as a ‘Good Shot’, no matter where the ball actually ended up. This means you are concentrating on the process and not the outcome, which I find helps if you’re trying to improve.

You can set your own criteria for what counts as a ‘Good Shot’, and even have a different list for putting if that’s an area you want to work on, but you should only have one set of criteria for every other shot - you don’t have a ‘Good Drive’ and a ‘Good Iron’ and a ‘Good Wedge’ - that’s too much variation and too much to think about.

At the end of the round I count up how many ‘Good Shots’ I hit and it’s probably about 12 - 18 the first time you try it but it gets better the more you do it and I find this also improves my scoring game when I go back to it because I’m not so fixated on the actual score but whether I’m following my process - the results start to look after themselves.

Hope this helps

[Ndj209]

I think two ball, worst ball is becoming my favorite on course practice when I play by myself. Keeps me fully engaged and I think it’s really helping develop skills.

[kenk]

I used to play at 6,700. It is now too much course for me. Current course is at 6,400. It’s doable, but leaves lots of room for angst. At the end of 2020 season I played on 5,900 course. It was one of the most enjoyable rounds I’d played in several years. After the round, I “joked” to my companions that they’ll never see me on a 6,000 yard course again. It may not be a joke as I get older…

[Craigers]

Play the tees that are the most fun… I can play my home course from the blacks, but it’s a slog for me… it also takes most risk reward out of play as I can’t cut as many corners and will be a long way home on all the par fives.

Played with an older gentleman today, very nice, but an old school marine… he had taken 32 years off and figured out he had more fun playing the front tees than he did the “regular” tees… so that’s what he plays.