How did you improve?

[rustyredcab]

Originally Posted by spidermanning

...  I think I’m going to book some time on Saturday and just take my wedges out to the range and hit my clubs to different points for an hour or two.  Try to ingrain the different swings into myself.

Good for direction, ball flight, and relative distance work -- "I hit my full wedge about X% shorter when I swing 75% ..." -- but you need real balls (not range rocks) and a place to hit them, to get actual yardages. I prepay for unlimited range balls and use of the practice facilities. So I practice for "free" at my home course -- a public course with great practice facilities and rock hard range balls. However, there are two other ranges that have better balls. That's where I go if I'm trying to figure out distances on a range - "I hit a 75% wedge 100 yards." I am also blessed with two practice holes at my home course. I will hit two or three approach shots into greens with real balls and get a feeling about distances. As long as no one is behind me, it is fine to hit a few balls on those practice holes. Not the same as a bucket of balls on the range, but great to test range work. They are short and tight (for my course) par 4's. So, by hitting different clubs off the tee, I can practice different yardages into the green.

When I've been at golf school, I've seen one of my pros late in the day, out in a section of the range with a short area green, marking off yardages (100, 90, 80, 70, 60...), and hitting tons of balls from each distance. He then shags his balls and does it again and again.

[soloredd]

Try to find a course or a practice range with short game areas. By a shag bag and some quality balls (I buy AAAA used balls) and become super comfortable with your wedges. For us mid-to-high cappers, improving short game is #1. Learn to hit soft landers, run ups, etc. You will save yourself a TON of strokes here.

Then work on putting. I'm at fault for not practicing with my putter enough and my scores have reflected it. I've stayed pretty stagnant the past 2 months or so with scoring because of putting. My goal is to get to 30 putts/round and I'm sitting around 34 - terrible.

My last suggestion that has helped me is to find a distance you absolutely can convert from no matter what. Mine is a 8i from 145 - doesn't require a hard swing and I can repeat my results over and over. So, if I error off the tee, my 2nd shot mentality is to try and get somewhere 145 or so.