Practice With Purpose

Another mistake that most golfers make is that they believe showing up to the driving range alone entitles them to becoming a better golfer. Most of us have uttered the phrase, “but I was hitting it so great at the range!” after a terrible round.

The real culprit is that golfers do a very poor job of simulating a real round of golf during their practice. They fall victim to what I call “Zombie Range Sessions”, which usually involves a player hitting shot after shot with the same exact club (mostly their driver) and not stopping to think about what they are actually doing.

Here are a few things that can help improve your practice sessions:

• Randomize your club and target selection – you never get the same shot twice on the golf course, why should you do that during your range sessions?
• Challenge yourself – playing performance games is a great way to make your practice more fun and simulate the real pressure of a round of golf. Make each shot mean something!
• Have a plan – before you show up have a brief overview of what you are going to do. It could be as simple as dividing your time up into different sections of your game.

Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself

I’ll leave you with my most important advice. Golf is supposed to be fun, and many of us lose sight of that from time to time. While the game is very challenging, almost every golfer I’ve ever met has had wildly unrealistic expectations of what kind of performance they can expect on the course.

The pros make golf look very easy on TV, but the reality is that this is mostly a game of mistakes. Bad shots are going to happen, and you have to do your best to accept that and move on.

Personally, I never reached my full potential as a golfer until my expectations of myself matched up with my preparation and skill level. If you don’t have time to practice, or play much, don’t ruin the time you do get on the course by expecting too much of yourself. The beauty of this game is that there is not one right way to play it.