Practice Schedule

Hey all,

I'm a 16 year old teenager who has been golfing for two years.  This is my 3rd year and my accurate handicap is now at a 4.  Last summer (I spend everyday from 7am-9pm at the coruse) I would golf everyday.  For this upcoming season my goal is to get to a >+0.0 handicap index.  To do so I feel that I need a very strict and hardcore practice routine daily.  For example, today I spent from 1pm-9pm on the range and putting green, never went onto the course.

If some of you could take a minute and give suggestions as to specific, specific routines I would greatly appreciate it.  To start things off, this is what last year would've looked like roughly.

7:00am   Arrive at course

7:30am  Head to the range

9:00am  Go out for 18

1:00pm  Lunch

2:00pm  Back to the range

3:00pm  Putting Green

3:30pm Another 18

Whereas this year I'm at a much nicer course, much better practice facility and I'm going to spend a lot more time practicing.  ANY SUGGESTIONS are greatly appreciated.  Thanks everyone.

At least one of the "range" sessions should be devoted to the short game area.

Wow must be nice...haha

Something I picked up in Tiger's book:

Some of the best practice sessions are no more than 20 minutes.

In addition, if you practice too much and get tired, you can develop bad habits without knowing it.

Good luck, I hope you accomplish that goal.

Totally agree. If I stay at the range too long my session inevitably ends with me hitting poorly and then me trying to fix phantom faults in my swing!

Gotta remember that 20 minute rule and apply it to myself!

I was a competitive player nationally as a junior and I can tell you one thing for sure: play more than you practice and practice inside 100 yards and specific drills that your instructor gives you more than full swings.  It is really important to have someone monitoring your work that knows the fundamentals of the game at a minimum.  When you do practice always pay close attention to grip, posture, alignment, and ball position.  This includes putting and chipping.  AND ALWAYS GO THROUGH YOUR ROUTINE!  drill your routine from start to finish like a machine, be able to say it out loud as you do it etc...  (visualize the shot, deep breath, walk in to the shot, aim the clubface, set the right, set the left, look at the target, waggle, look at the ball and go...for example)

sometime it's good to play with limited clubs, even just 5 clubs including your putter from the shorter tees.  You'll be surprised with how well you score and how it helps you develop imagination and feel for the game.  I like to go out with a 2-iron, 7, 9, sw, and putter on occasion and play from the white tees which are about 6100 yards or so which for me is short enough that I can reach every par 4 with those clubs for instance.

If your home course is shorter than a course you are playing in a tournament, hit driver whenever possible off the tee leading up to the tournament but drop a ball at a distance short of where your drive ended up that better represents the length shot you'll have into the greens on the longer course.  Example: if you hit your drive in the left rough on a 370 yard par 4 and most of the par 4's on the tournament course are 400 to 420 then drop a ball in the left rough 30 or 40 yards short of where your drive ended up.  This way you'll get used to hitting driver more and hitting longer shots into the greens.

Take stats on your rounds and focus slightly more on the areas where you need but try to keep your practice balanced and don't forget to keep the strengths of your game in check.  Set limits on the time or amount of balls you hit, there is no point in just hitting buckets of balls if you aren't working on something specific.  Also i'm a firm believer that unless you are doing a drill then you shouldn't hit more than 3 balls with the same club and the last 1/4 of your session should be jumping around from club to club like you would on the course.  (driver, wedge, hybrid, 7-iron, etc...)

laser or walk off distances of pitch shots like 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 yards and put some type of marker there like a reflector rod or alignment stick.  Hit pitches to each of these distances with the types of trajectories you'll want on the course feeling the length of swing and speed needed for each.  After a while start to jump around like 60, then 40 then 80 etc...

practice from the rough both around the greens and on the range giving yourself random lies and judging the best way to hit shots.  When you are on the course you'll have a better understanding of what can be done from a given lie in the rough and hopefully make better decisions/judgements and execute better shots.

distance control on putting should always be a priority and holing lots of short putts as well.

once again make sure you have someone monitoring you regularly so you don't get into any bad habits.

good luck.