So you are an avid golfer. You take online golf lessons, golf lessons from your local PGA Professional, read golf instruction books and use golf training aids to better your golf game. How can you make sure that you are optimizing your time on the practice tee or putting green at the golf range?
To know what kind of golf instruction would be the most "bang for your buck," the first thing that needs to be done is identify which part of your golf game that needs the most work. This can be done best by keeping track of how many drives hit the fairway, how many iron shots hit the putting green, how many putts were taken, how many up and downs and how many penalty shots happen per round. These statistics can be kept very easily on a regular scorecard. Use one line per part as follows: your golf score on the hole, fairway hit, greens hit in regulation, successful up and downs made, putts per hole and penalty strokes. Use an X for a fairway hit, green hit in regulation and up and downs. After the round, total the rows. After tracking these totals for three rounds, you should have a good idea for what you are doing well and where you should concentrate your online golf lessons or golf instruction.
Now you have determined what needs to be improved. You can optimize your golf practice time by developing goals and becoming organized with exactly how the golf practice session is going to follow your golf instruction and which training aids you will need. You can keep track of your progress with The Ultimate Golf Journal by Lisa Back. If you need to work on your full swing, determine what component of your swing in which you will be working. Take one idea for you golf posture and one idea for the golf swing. Spread the balls you are going to hit into groups of five balls each. With the first group of five golf balls, concentrate only on your golf posture. With the second group of five golf balls, concentrate only on your golf swing key or use the training aid. With the third group of five balls, forget the other two thoughts and concentrate on your target. Use your pre-shot routine for each golf swing and change clubs often to replicate playing a round of golf. Repeat this process during your practice session. The third five are important because eventually you will want to take you changes from the practice tee to the golf course. This third set of practice balls will replicate the process of hitting a golf shot during a round of golf. Chart your progress on a notepad or on your computer. This type of organization will direct you to the proper online golf lessons or golf instruction you need to contentrate on to continually improve your golf game.
To optimize your putting practice, first you need to understand that your stroke, direction and distance are the three things that determine if you make a putt or not.
After deciding if you will be following the thoughts of Dave Pelz (The Putting Bible) or Stan Utley (The Art of Putting), when you practice your putting stoke, then practice your putting stroke. Since you are solely working on a putting mechanic, you will be able to focus on the putting mechanic easier without using a putting cup. Without the putting cup, you are not worried about the result of the putt, just the feeling of the mechanic.
An easy way to learn how to start the putt on the correct line is to hit putts from just two feet. Sounds silly and easy enough but let me tell you what it will do for you. In this short distance, you can see the original line of the putt. You can see if the ball is pushed, pulled or on the correct line. The other advantage to this drill is you will see the ball go in the hole time and time again. You have to hit a pretty bad putt in order to miss the putting cup from two feet. Watching the ball go into the hole time and time again feeds your brain positive images and builds your confidence.
Now that you have the putting mechanics squared away and are starting your putts on the correct line, we need to make sure we are hitting our putts the correct distance. Stroke putts of distance (over 20 feet or longer) to the fringe of the putting green or to another club on the putting green that you have placed on the putting green. Your goal is to stroke your putt so that it barely touches the fringe or club. Again, this takes the putting cup out of the equation and allows you to use your natural senses.
Following the suggestions in this article, you will be more efficient during your practice sessions. What does this mean for you? You will lower you golf handicap with shorter practice sessions on the driving range and putting green.
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