Maybe I need to stop playing for a month?

For the past six months, I haven't done much in the way of practicing. Sure, I've hit warm-up balls and warm-up putts, but most of my practice has admittedly been after a round, and not after every round, working on whatever I did poorly that day, whether it was ball striking or putting or chipping. My summer schedule completely fell apart, and I wasn't able to do near the amount of practicing that I wanted to do, although I did end up finding an extra day to play. Maybe I should have spent that practicing. It's too late now.

It's kind of interesting. I spent some money recently on a new driver and new shafts for my other non-putter clubs, following a fitting at Max Out Golf. It was easily worth it, since I did pick up some good distance and shot pattern consistency with the driver. My iron shots now hit the green and stop, or in a few cases, spin back towards me. I was so excited the first time my ball spun off the front of a green! In a bit of irony, I think I now hit my long irons better than my short irons with the new shafts, but I'm not sure how much of that is my imagination.

Oh, and my scores. I've lately had a few rounds where I feel, afterwards, as if I've completly blown it overall, without having a hole or two to blame. I completely failed to get up and down from good positions several times. I've gone from averaging 4-5 saves per round to 2. And it's not like I'm hitting more greens to make up for it.

But it looks like I can't have my cake and eat it too. Thanks in part to my lab-mates' schedules, I don't have 5 consecutive daylight hours off during the week until mid-December (not counting holidays). That means any chance I have to play 18 holes is going to be on a weekend. I'm going to turn that into a good thing.


I'm going to get back to the fitness, which I've let dwindle over the past few months. I haven't gone back to re-evaluate my fitness needs since July, in part because it's expensive and in part because it's an hour away and I'm not making the trip to Orange County anywhere near as frequently as I used to. The past month or so, my fitness routine has gotten to the point where it's half enthusiastic. Since I can't play 18 during the week, I'm going to get back to fitness during the week. Especially since I've found my body feeling weak by the 15th hole the past few times I've played. Cardio and muscular endurance, as well as my usual stretching, need to come back into the schedule.

And when I have a few hours off, and my work is done, I'm going to get back to practicing. In fact, I'm thinking that the next few times I have a chance to play 18, I might just spend 4 hours on practice instead, in addition to regular small practice times. I'm not saying that I'm going to turn into Vijay Singh, but maybe my golf routine has to get closer to resembling Tom Kite than Ben Crenshaw. Kite was a regular practicer, while Crenshaw preferred to play as his practice.


Now, this is a post and not a diary entry, and I do have some questions:

1. How good of an idea is it to turn potential play times into practice times? Is this going to be good, or is it going to be the equivalent of a budget based on self-denial? This assumes of course that I practice well - range shots to a target, chip shots trying to hole them (and get up and down when I don't), and the putting drills that helped me so much six months ago, otherwise it's all bad.

2. How long is bad to stay off the course? I know my short game hasn't been what it used to be lately, but will I lose in course management what I might gain from saves?

3. Has anyone else here done this? That is, taken time off of *playing* golf in order to improve at golf, as opposed to merely hanging up the clubs for a few months? The latter isn't something I'll be doing, but I am thinking of completely staying off the course itself until November.

4. Any other thoughts for me on this topic?

That's something that only you can really answer. I would rather play than practice. However, my game needs practice time as well and I suspect few golfers can pull off play only golf and get better and consistent in the long run. I learned that the hard way. I have made the commtiiment of 1/2 hour 5 days a week of indoor stuff like grip, stance, chipping, etc. Additionally I go out early at least one time a month and practice before playing and one time a month hitting range balls and then playing nine only.

Again, that's something only you can really answer. I do slow down a bit in December an early January but I have learned that it's best if I not go more than three weeks without at least playing 9.

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Not me. Golf is my drug. I get the bends when I'm not on the course. I need a fix frequently.

I would practice with the wedges only. not only will this help your short game but it will help your overall golf swing.

When you practice concentrate only with your wedge and try to hit the ball solid so that you will hear the click sound of the ball making solid contact on the club face of the wedge. This will do two things, help you gain confidence in your mechanics and make you a better chipper around the greens so that you can improve your percentage of getting up and down during a round.

If you are limited in time the only other thing I would work on is your putting. concentrate on distance control and making solid contact with the putter face.

During your round of golf do you keep statistics of the following:

fairway hit
green hit on regulations
putter per round
up and down during a round