Which would be more beneficial playing 9 holes 5 days a week or playing 9 holes say twice a week and practicing on the range 3 days a week? From everything I heard, everyone is always saying play as much as you can, you can’t replicate golf on the range, and so on. Let’s say there’s enough time and cost is the same. Thanks for your thoughts.
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I think practice is important, I don’t think its a good thing to only play. I think if you’re making a change in your swing, practice is critical, you have to not care about the result, work only on the process. But even without change, I think some practice is required to maintain good mechanics. The right balance will depend on the state of your game.
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It really depend on what your expectation is.
I practice a lot when I started to play this game. I still practice a lot into my second decade with this game. I enjoyed practicing plus it took less time than a regular 18.
As I acquired most of the tools for this game and reached the limit for my physical built; I play more than practice. I only get on the driving range to try out a new golf club; work out a kink in my golf swing; or, watch my friends to help them get back on track ( a full length mirror or video with smart phone will also do the trick but they want me to spot them ).
One big revelation in recent years is to compare the cost of practice to green fee. A jumbo bucket is $18, 150 balls. Green fees had sky rocketed to $50 weekdays and $65 weekends, some greedy idiot made the Friday same as weekend rate.
When I had the time, I’d rather get on the golf course than being a range rat.
However, like I said, I enjoy practicing, Not so much in recent years as the last of the driving range using grass tee closed down for housing development. Hitting too many shots off the mat on top of cement floor sends damaging vibrations to the spine.
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I only hit the range when I can’t stop shanking it. Otherwise I play 6 days a week and and on 2 of those days I play 2 balls. I am not improving but have gotten more consistent and I am happy with that. If I want to try a swing change I just try it on the course. I don’t have the problem of not being able to take my range game to the course.because I don’t have a range game.
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Tomayto—Tomahhto! Anytime I go to the practice range or the course, I’m playing golf. If I’m in the yard bashing balls into a net or chip across the yard, I’m playing golf. I bash balls, weather permitting for 2 reasons 1) it helps me to hone my ball striking abilities, 2) I find it very relaxing. When I finally deduced that I was not going to make any tour, I cried for 10 minutes, then went out and bashed balls. For us amateurs you practice and play with a specific purpose in mind mostly because in the back of our minds we strive for improving on our best round by 1 shot. I’d love to play a bogey free round. That’s what keeps me coming back. Will I achieve that? Who knows. I have the game to do it. My ringer round on my home course is -27. Would like to put that Together in a day! At the end of the day, just try to have fun and enjoy the walk. I mean Think about it…. Your actual golf swing takes like 2 seconds. If you score 80… that’s 160 seconds. So the actual physical swings take 3 minutes out of a 4 hour round! Think about that!…. Most of the round we are alone with our thoughts. So whether you play 18 everyday. 9 everyday, range everyday…. Go with a purpose, work on what you feel needs work. Because you think you fixed A then you go to fix B, then you could be back to A again. Etcetera. Most of all have fun!
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Too little information to give an adequate response to your question i.e what handicap are you? What is your average shoot per 18 round?
I like to spread my time between practice and playing i.e. once a week practice, play twice a week. Obviously, it is extremely beneficial to have a few lessons - or an occasional lesson ( to have someone watch what your doing, if its not going right.)
Walk rather than ride. This is more than just exercise as it gives you time and space to think your way around the course - and plan your next shot.
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As a high capper, the more I play the better I play. If I get to play Sat and Sun, I ALWAYS shoot a better score on Sunday. That said, I feel like I need some practice time to make further improvements or work things out. If some 9 hole rounds were more like practice, playing extra balls in spots, then that might replace practice time.
Either way I’m one of those people that needs to swing a club for play or practice regularly or I just won’t play that well. I have a few low cap friends that can go all winter without touching a club and put up a decent score the first round out, but not me.
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A few years ago I was practicing a lot and playing maybe twice a month. That summer I got to play a lot more than practice, and I saw more improvement in my game during that time.
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IMHO practice time is absolutely essential. Non-negotiable. However the right amount of practice vs on course play is a thing only you, the individual golfer, can decide on what’s appropriate for you.
And it may not be a fixed amount of time per week. Why would it be? Do what you feel moves you forward.
Importantly, however, I’d strongly urge you to MIX UP AND VARY your practice sessions! For example, I always spend way more time putting and short game chipping/pitching … and both of these are always to specific targets … so I’m not just working on technique, I’m working on setup, alignment, aim and distance control.
Change clubs, change targets, change swings … eg. ½, ¾ … change the order in which you hit clubs, etc, etc.
Good luck!
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Practice with a purpose, as advocated by so many.
I like to play a few rounds of “driving range” golf during a rainy day or when I do not have enough time for a regular 18.
I would first warm up, then teed up as I was on the first tee of a familiar golf course. Hit the driver and according to the distance and where it ended up, assess the situation by transfer the tee shot to the first hole of the imagined golf course. Decide which approach shot to use and if needing to chip on to the imaginary green or not. Always pick a target appropriate for the distance and the condition.
Except for the putting part, every lie is flat and more forgiving than the real thing. Sometimes, I’ll keep a record of imagined ball position onto the green and finish the putting later on the practice green.
with a jumbo bucket of range balls, I can play quite a few rounds of imaginary golf.
The important part is to pick a target for each shot, accept the result realistically before moving on to the next shot. Sometimes requires a “chip out” from under a “fairway lined tree”.
It gets away from the 10-20 continuous swing with the same golf club, which does nothing good except when working out a kink in the swing.
Range session could be more fun.
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