Preparing for tryouts

[vthokies4life5]

I'm getting a membership to my local golf course in order to prepare for my high school golf team tryouts in August.

Should I play a round of golf every day after school? Or go to the driving range instead? Will playing a round of golf everyday help me become a better player?

[Teyber]

  vthokies4life5 said:

I'm getting a membership to my local golf course in order to prepare for my high school golf team tryouts in August.

as a high school golfer myself:

forget practicing. as long as there isn't one horrible thing in your game which practice would improve, go out and play the teams home course 3-4 days a week afterschool. Play the courses that you often play away as much as you can. Confidence is the most important thing on a course. Get to know the courses you will be playing. When you play, play by very strict rules. practice how you will have to play in matches. Get a copy of a rulebook and read through it before you go to sleep if you can. when you keep score, keep track on every hole things like fairway, green in regulation, amount of putts, and penalties(water, ob, et cetera). keep all your scorecards so you know where you need to improve. you can practice on these things when you have time- or if a area is really bad in particular take a day off playing to practice. Keep it fun and when you are playing in a match, as tiger says the only competition is yourself and the golf course. everybody, including me, freshman year forgets this and plays against the opponents, getting in my head. I think its best to juts be relaxed, focused, and try to go as low as you can without playing makeup golf (o noes he got a par i bogied, o crap i doubled i need to par the next 2 holes... at least his ruins MY game. we are all different) sorry for the long post but i hope this is helpful

[vthokies4life5]

Wow thanks! This was really helpful. I need to put the effort into it so I can make sure I have a spot on the team. Are you currently on your high school team?

[Quinn07]

I am going to have to disagree with Teyber's post. Although it really depends on what type of player you are, I think practice is very important. If I were you I would try and create a schedule of when and what you are going to practice and when you are going to play. You should practice your short game the most; simply learning to play shots 100yds and in should make your golf game significantly better. Becoming confident with your putter is also very important to scoring well. IMO the three most important clubs i your bag are the putter, wedges and driver.

As for playing the other courses, if you are a 15 and aren't going to get any better, it may not matter how comfortable you are on those courses.

However, this is just my opinion.

[vthokies4life5]

Thanks for the advice. I agree that practice is important. And I definately need to work on my putting. I have been thinking about reading Stan Utley's "The Art of Putting" to help me get rid of those three putts.

[Quinn07]

  vthokies4life5 said:

Thanks for the advice. I agree that practice is important. And I definately need to work on my putting. I have been thinking about reading Stan Utley's "The Art of Putting" to help me get rid of those three putts.

That's definitely a great place to start...I have read that book and took a number of things from it.

[vthokies4life5]

  Quinn07 said:

I have read that book and took a number of things from it.

thanks for the feedback. I'll go ahead and check out this book and try it out at the putting green.

[Franco!]

Go practice.
Before my season started, I played maybe once a week, but hit balls everyday.
Hit balls as much as you can, hit putts.
I try to practice all day at least once a week.
That means start at 9 and don't leave the practice area to go home until about 5. Treat it as a job.

[vthokies4life5]

  Franco! said:

Go practice.

Thanks for the advice. In the summer i'll have all the time to work on my golf game so i'll be there all day practicing.

[DBake]

Do both!

Play nine holes then hit the range or putting/chipping green right after. Rotate the nine holes every day, and work on different shots while on the course...use these as practice rounds. I would only play18 holes once every ten days and treat it as a evaluation of how well you are using your practice rounds and range/putting/chipping time. As August gets closer, begin playing 18 more and more focusing on course confidence.

Golf is a Game of Confidence...isn't that a title of a book?

[Teyber]

  Quinn07 said:

I am going to have to disagree with

Im new here and i gotta say- seems like a great community. when you disagree you say so politely

and say why. I think golf is a lot mental and so advice is going to vary person to person. i tend to ramble and sometimes not type something exactly how i feel- almost like i think in a different language. So what i was getting at is i used to hit a bucket of balls every day- sure i hit consistent nice shots, but for ME being in practice doesn't translate into good scores on the course. all mental. for ME its best to go out and just play. Where i agree with you is in wedge play, chipping, and putting practice. This always helps to answer your question- yes im on the team. we lost 5 varsity last year so im the #3/4 player on the team... kind of pathetic if its not a hassle try to find out what the jv/varsity guys at your future hs are shooting, (consistently.. not that lucky 36, et cetera), and im sure you will find you should be safe :)

[neudi]

Here is my basic philosophy: I hate practicing some days and I hate playing golf some days. If you are not going to be into it 100% then it is pointless to try and practice/play. If you go in to take a test and you are not caring what you get, you will not do well. This applies to golf. You have to decide what you want to do that day because if you want to play then you will focus on what is going right and what is going wrong. I would say, see what you want to do that day and put all your effort into learning what you are doing wrong whether you are playing or hitting range balls. Hope this helped :).

[VardonFlyer]

Pracitce habits will vary with your skill level and playing abilities. I however like to practice more than play, its more time efficient, more convenient and more effective. IMO, with that being said some shots you can only learn on the course. Whatever you do practice or play, do with full committment and enthusiasm.

From what I've read this is Tiger's usual practice routine - - WAKE UP, run 4 - 7 miles, Stretch. put, chip, range. LUNCH 9 holes, put/chip. Weight Training, stretch.

Pretty cool, From what i understand Tiger spends just as much time on the green as anything else. you should do the same. good luck!

[HotBite]

  Teyber said:

if its not a hassle try to find out what the jv/varsity guys at your future hs are shooting, (consistently.. not that lucky 36, et cetera), and im sure you will find you should be safe :)

Our varsity players (Every player on the squad) used to shoot 70-76 in tournaments...."lucky 36" is probably not accurate :)

[Ian]

the course i play alot generally has no one on it, so i can go play by myself and play 3 balls per hole, on a par 4-5 i will play both a driver and a 3 wood off the tee and then a 3 iron, then will take approach shots to the green from where each ball landed. On a par 3 i will play the right club distance wise, but try and aim for different shot shapes which will hit different parts of the green.

Im fortunate to play a course that is relatively quiet and doesent have many people on it. Everytime people talk about 6 hour plus waits, i think how unlucky they are. my biggest fear though is i will get a hole in one with no one there to see it :o

[Ian]

i play on my school team also. Its really fun try and get a core group of friends to join it too.

[SasQuatch<3]

practice and more practice
Play all the courses that you might be playing that specific year, or try to at least
and of course have fun with it!

[bcavery]

Course management is going to be what seperates the good from the bad in high school golf. When I played many moons ago there were allot players on each of the teams I played against who could shoot low numbers when they were playing well, but very few that could do it when things were not. You are going to have bad days, bad lies, bad weather. You need to learn how to make the best shot given the situation you find yourself in. I think the best way to acomplish this is to practice on the course and create situation for yourself on the practice range and try to duplicate trouble shots.

My advise would be set yourself up and scheduel of range, short game and on course practice. I would spend the least amount of time on the couse actually trying to shoot a number.