10 Things A Player Must
Do In Every Competitive
Round
1. Play to play great. Don't play not to play poorly.
2. Love the challenge of the day, whatever it may be.
3. Get out of results and get into process.
4. Know that nothing will bother or upset you on the golf
course, and you will be in a great state of mind for every shot.
5. Playing with a feeling that the outcome doesn't matter is
always preferable to caring too much.
6. Believe fully in yourself so you can play freely.
7. See where you want the ball to go before every shot.
8. Be decisive, committed and clear.
9. Be your own best friend.
10. Love your wedge and your putter.
On The Practice Tee
Every shot should be played at a target, as if you are hitting a
real shot on the course. This is where you work on trajectory
and shot shape, not whether your hands are in the correct
position at the top. Then when you get on the course, you put
those shots into action by playing "golf score." On the course,
you should think only of the conditions, your target, strategy
and non-mechanical thoughts, like maintaining a smooth tempo.
These guys are good, but they’re not perfect!
Tour Example
I watched a lot of golf during my time on Tour with players.
Following particular players during each competitive and
practice round. They was paired with a variety of different
players, from major champions and Ryder Cup heroes to journeyman pros. They all missed fairways, they all hit it in bunkers
and they all lipped out short putts. Although there were many,
many great golf shots from each and every player, not one of
them played flawless golf for 18, 9 or even 5 holes in a row.
What to learn
If the best players in the world aren’t perfect, then neither
are you or I. Accept that you’ll make mistakes — even count on
it. Lower your expectations a little and have some fun. You
might even shoot a better score!
PGA Tour pros don’t always aim at the flag. Tour Example
Walking inside the ropes on practice rounds allowed me to
eavesdrop on lots of strategic conversions between players and
caddies. Often PGA Tour players are aiming 20-to-30 feet away
from the hole. Why? Because they know they’re not perfect and
don’t want to miss the green in a dangerous spot.
What to learn
These guys don’t miss by much, we miss by lots — so why on earth
are we firing at flags? If we just aim at the middle of the
green, we’ll probably end up closer to the hole!
We are firm believers that if we removed the flag stick from
every hole, forcing us to simply aim for the middle of the
green, then club golfers would score much better on average.
Practicing on the driving range
A good range session should involve working on your fundamentals
and hitting a variety of shots to different targets. The range
can give us false confidence and waste time if we let it. Think
about practicing “golf shots”, not “golf swings”. To make your
practice sessions more effective (and fun), try treating the
range like the golf course, by aiming at precise (small) targets
and changing clubs as often as possible. Every shot needs to
count and not just be “another ball”. You need a consequence for
missing, like you do on the course. That famous golf question of
“how do I take my driving range game to golf course?” is not
realistic if you don’t practice on the range like you play on
the golf course. Anyone can stand on the driving range, get
their body into the rhythm of hitting the same shot over and
over again.
The Fundamentals
We can’t emphasize enough the importance of working on the
fundamentals. Always have an alignment stick (or club) down so
you’re improving or maintaining good alignment (so your feet are
aligned parallel left of your target). Before each shot, make
the checks on your fundamentals – ball position, grip, posture,
alignment and stance, followed by a practice swing.
Feeling and
visualizing the intended shot BEFORE you hit the shot!
Visualization and feel
A good practice session involves improving your visualization
for shots and ingraining the feeling for shots. You want to get
into the habit of trusting your swing to produce the shot you
are visualizing. This will help you more than trying to learn
the swing mechanics involved in hitting every shot perfectly
straight. Try to hit draws and fades and hooks and slices and
notice how they feel.
Put pressure on your practice.
You should always play games against yourself when you’re
practicing. We want to feel pressure, even in practice to get
better at handling it on the golf course.
Ben Hogan used to practice by playing a whole round during a
driving range session, changing clubs and targets for every shot
and going through his routine. He’d even visualize where the pin
was cut on the imaginary green. That’s real practice.
Practice is supposed to make you a better player. But unless you
do it with a real purpose and plan, you’ll find it hard to get
better.
Is playing a practice round important?
Establishing a game plan prior to a tournament can ensure you
are ready to play.
Do you take practice rounds prior to a tournament seriously?
After completing a practice round, do you have a game plan for
the tournament? Are you keeping score in a practice round and
then setting a score expectation for the tournament? Ask
yourself these questions as summer approaches and you ready
yourself for the tournament circuit.
Many of you will be playing in multi-day tournaments or highlevel one-day qualifiers like the US Junior qualifier this
summer. Playing a practice round for these types of events will
allow you to create an effective game plan for the tournament.
Establishing a game plan/strategy during a practice round should
be a top priority!
An effective practice round can go a long way to being well
prepared for tournament competition. Establishing productive
practice round habits as a junior golfer will enable you to be
well prepared for your tournaments now as well as for your
college golf practice rounds in the future.
The following are a number of “keys” to consider prior to and
during a practice round:
•
Utilizing the practice round as a means to understand the
conditions of the golf course and to establish a game plan
given your golf skill set; do not make the practice round
about shooting a certain score. Playing a practice round
for a score can create unnecessary expectations for the
tournament.
•
Prior to the practice round, talk to the head professional
and/or pro shop staff regarding any local knowledge tips
and/or pointers about the golf course. Perhaps ask if there
are any key holes on the golf course that typically cause
players trouble or if putts tend to break towards a certain
landmark throughout the golf course.
•
Purchase a yardage book if available in the pro shop. If
not, you can make a detailed yardage book on your own. This
would include landing areas off the tee, carry yardages
over bunkers/water/doglegs, green depths, charting tiers,
low points and slopes on the greens; layup areas on par 5s
and acceptable places to “miss” shots both off the tee and
approach shots into the greens. Charting your own yardage
book certainly requires a bit more work, but assists you in
becoming more vested in the practice round as wells as more
aware of the nuances of the golf course. Creating your own
yardage book or adding to an existing yardage guide
available in the pro shop is common practice during college
practice rounds and is a good idea to develop these habits
during your junior golf career.
•
Establish a game plan off the tee by knowing the landing
areas for par 4s and par 5s. Some may be obvious and not
require much thought, while other landing areas may include
bunkers, hazards and/or doglegs requiring more of your
attention. It is important to know the actual yardage to
the desired landing area, especially holes with potential
hazards/dog-legs, and not just deem it a “3 wood” or
“driver” hole. Conditions in a practice round could be much
different than the actual tournament and these varying
conditions (i.e. wind, temperature, firmness of fairways)
can affect how far the ball carries and subsequently rolls.
Make note of these landing areas and be aware of the
conditions so you can make the best choice off the tee
during the tournament.
•
Hit a shot or two from the rough, fairway bunker, and/or
green side bunkers during the practice round to ensure you
are comfortable with the effect these conditions may have
on the golf ball. Preparing for the unexpected is an
important part of playing an effective practice round.
•
Spend the majority of your time on and around the greens
establishing a feel for the firmness and speed of the
greens. Adjusting to the speed of the greens on a new golf
course is an essential key in having a productive practice
round. Hitting a number of lag putts throughout your
practice round is recommended. Additionally, understanding
how chips/pitches react on their “first bounce” will allow
you to better gauge/judge your short game shots during the
tournament. During this time around the greens, you can
also scan the green to identify potential hole locations,
the low point(s) on each respective green and where the
best place to “miss” from the fairway might be so you can
get up-and-down more easily (eliminating the possibility of
short-siding yourself).
•
If you are playing in a multi-day event, remember to
continuously learn about the golf course during each
competitive round as you may learn something new in the
first round that you were not aware of during the practice
round. This extra piece of information may become useful in
subsequent rounds.
Remember, the goal of a practice round is not to keep score, but
to learn as much as possible about the golf course conditions to
ensure you have an effective game plan in place and that your
game plan is realistic given your golfing skills. Although
practice rounds may not be as much “fun” as the actual
tournament, they can serve as a means to be well prepared for
anything that comes your way during the actual event. Therefore,
look forward to making the most out of your next practice round.