How many holes a day to improve?

[golfdu]

How many holes should I play a day to improve faster, 9 holes or 18 holes (6 days on, 1 day off)? I am curious on whether practicing vs playing more would be better for my game. I plan to play in worst ball format exclusively to simulate the pressure and difficulty of competitive play.

Edited August 25, 2017 by golfdu

[Foot Wedge]

Have you received instruction yet?  Playing a whole bunch could potentially ingrain bad habits.  I made that mistake.  I moved close to a cheap little course and figured for the price of a handful of lessons I could do the the yearly under-25 membership and play as much as possible to improve.  

This did help me get to the point where I was playing some fairly consistent golf, but I was really just developing a hodge-podge swing built from tips and compensations.  I could put together a decent round, but if my rhythm was a touch off I fell apart quickly.  Much like a car being held together by duct tape.   It runs...for now.  

My $0.02 is to first take lessons.  It's a lot harder to put a REALLY bad swing on the ball if your fundamentals have been worked on and solidified.  Now if you've already taken lessons and just want the reps, then play to your heart's desire as long as you're not powering through fatigue each round.  You'll get sloppy.

[David in FL]

I agree.  The quickest way to improve is to find a good instructor and work diligently with him/her.  There's nothing wrong with playing along the way, but play alone won't improve your game very quickly, and could slow down your progress...

[mcanadiens]

1 hour ago, Foot Wedge said:

 I could put together a decent round, but if my rhythm was a touch off I fell apart quickly.  Much like a car being held together by duct tape.   It runs...for now.  

I'll agree with this. In my case, it's way cheaper for me to play than to pay for lessons, but it hasn't resulted in much of a golf swing. 

[upndown21]

Lessons are not that expensive as I have recently found. Get an assessment of your swing and a couple priority pieces and then you can work on them alone for a couple weeks before going back for a check up.

[DaveP043]

I'll pile on with all the rest.  Playing golf every day, in the absence of instruction and focused practice, can only take you so far.  As the others have said, if you have flaws in your swing, as most of us do, you'll probably reinforce those flaws and make it more difficult to change them later on.  My suggestions for improvement start with instruction.  Locate the most important thing to change in your swing, and work on the practice range to change it.  Evaluate the various portions of your game (full swing, short game, putting) and spend some extra time working on the weakest part.  And play some, because its fun, and because you should continue to evaluate all the parts of your game.

[golfdu]

I just thought of an idea from the responses so far. What if I play worst ball and stop playing when I make a bogey and focus and practice on what caused the bogey in the first place for 30-60 minutes and then start playing worst ball again, on the same hole that I bogeyed?

For example, I hit a bad drive from the 2 tee shots which led to missing the fairway and green and bogeying the hole, I stop playing on the course and go to practice on hitting better drives on the range for 30-60 minutes then play the same hole again, less likely to hit a bad drive.

Another example is hitting a bad second shot after hitting a good drive and bogey, stop playing and practice on the club that I missed the green with on the range, making it less likely to miss the green again. If I hit both the fairway and green but 3 putt for bogey, stop playing and practice on same distance and break angle of putt that I 3 putted from on the practice putting green, making it less likely for me to 3 putt again.

Because short game shots are mostly results from bad shots missing the greeens, they are too random to practice off the course, it is better to play your misses on the course and attempt to get up and down for par in order to move onto the next hole, it is its own practice. 

This idea is only practical with unlimited access to the course and practice range and unlimited time but it really is perfect practice!

[scotth]

I don't think the above is very realistic.  You could end up spending an awful lot of time walking or driving cart back to practice area from course.  

Plus say you did hit a bad drive and end up in the rough, hacked out of the rough and then chipped on and 2 putts for a bogey (assuming it was a par 4)

Which part would you go back to range to practice?  

• Driver because you missed fairway from tee?
• Rescue shots from the rough because you missed the green?
• Chipping because you did not get close enough to hole to 1 putt?
• Putting because you 2 putted the green?

I had one of my best rounds of the season yesterday yet off the tee box on the par 4 and 5's missed more than half the fairways.  However, with a swing that is getting fundamentally better all summer was able to get on the green or quite near and chip very close for a large number of pars.

Have to agree with the others, lessons and practice will cut strokes much faster than just practice.

Edited August 28, 2017 by scotth

[Lihu]

53 minutes ago, golfdu said:

I just thought of an idea from the responses so far. What if I play worst ball and stop playing when I make a bogey and focus and practice on what caused the bogey in the first place for 30-60 minutes and then start playing worst ball again, on the same hole that I bogeyed?

For example, I hit a bad drive from the 2 tee shots which led to missing the fairway and green and bogeying the hole, I stop playing on the course and go to practice on hitting better drives on the range for 30-60 minutes then play the same hole again, less likely to hit a bad drive.

Another example is hitting a bad second shot after hitting a good drive and bogey, stop playing and practice on the club that I missed the green with on the range, making it less likely to miss the green again. If I hit both the fairway and green but 3 putt for bogey, stop playing and practice on same distance and break angle of putt that I 3 putted from on the practice putting green, making it less likely for me to 3 putt again.

Because short game shots are mostly results from bad shots missing the greeens, they are too random to practice off the course, it is better to play your misses on the course and attempt to get up and down for par in order to move onto the next hole, it is its own practice. 

This idea is only practical with unlimited access to the course and practice range and unlimited time but it really is perfect practice!

Your logic is good for short game, but for long game (which is the hardest to get right) you'd certainly be better off with focused practice.

Long game for a beginner/novice is something like 90% and short game the rest.  After you get a decent swing, then something like 65% long game, then 25% on short game and 10% on putting works pretty good.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Lihu

[Golfingdad]

2 hours ago, golfdu said:

I just thought of an idea from the responses so far. What if I play worst ball and stop playing when I make a bogey and focus and practice on what caused the bogey in the first place for 30-60 minutes and then start playing worst ball again, on the same hole that I bogeyed?

For example, I hit a bad drive from the 2 tee shots which led to missing the fairway and green and bogeying the hole, I stop playing on the course and go to practice on hitting better drives on the range for 30-60 minutes then play the same hole again, less likely to hit a bad drive.

Another example is hitting a bad second shot after hitting a good drive and bogey, stop playing and practice on the club that I missed the green with on the range, making it less likely to miss the green again. If I hit both the fairway and green but 3 putt for bogey, stop playing and practice on same distance and break angle of putt that I 3 putted from on the practice putting green, making it less likely for me to 3 putt again.

Because short game shots are mostly results from bad shots missing the greeens, they are too random to practice off the course, it is better to play your misses on the course and attempt to get up and down for par in order to move onto the next hole, it is its own practice. 

This idea is only practical with unlimited access to the course and practice range and unlimited time but it really is perfect practice!

Interesting idea, but it seems really disjointed and inefficient.  Whatever flaws exist in your swing are there regardless of whether or not you have a good hole.  And your swing is generally your swing on all of the long clubs (I mean anything you hit with a full swing) so why not just play as much as you want and then practice afterwards each day.  And when you practice, practice like ...

and ...

 

[iacas]

3 hours ago, golfdu said:

Because short game shots are mostly results from bad shots missing the greeens, they are too random to practice off the course, it is better to play your misses on the course and attempt to get up and down for par in order to move onto the next hole, it is its own practice. 

This idea is only practical with unlimited access to the course and practice range and unlimited time but it really is perfect practice!

As I understand it, this is the Mike Bennett Practice Round Plan. He'd play a few holes, hit a "bad" shot, and immediately leave for the range, his camera, etc. to "work on" his swing.

It's a terrible idea.

Sometimes you hit a bad shot. If you played the other 18 holes, you might never hit that bad shot again. Sometimes luck leads to a bogey. Or whatever.

Terrible plan, Frankie. C'mon, you know better!

[Patch]

There is no substitute for "quality" golf swing instruction. It's a time saver to a better game. 

If you can't find a decent instructor, then I might suggest reading up on what the various causes are for poor ball flights, and how to prevent them. If you know what causes a poor ball flight, you'll be more incline not to make those swing mistakes.

Throw in some course management reading to help in that area. 

It's a tough way to learn the game, but it's not unheard of becoming your own instructor. 

[Runnin]

8 hours ago, iacas said:

As I understand it, this is the Mike Bennett Practice Round Plan. He'd play a few holes, hit a "bad" shot, and immediately leave for the range, his camera, etc. to "work on" his swing.

It's a terrible idea.

Sometimes you hit a bad shot. If you played the other 18 holes, you might never hit that bad shot again. Sometimes luck leads to a bogey. Or whatever.

Terrible plan, Frankie. C'mon, you know better!

I can attest because I actually used to do something similar.  As a kid I'd play 18 holes then go to the range to work or my worst shots from the day.  I thought I was such a good student of the game.  I didn't realize that I had no idea why I made the bad shots in the first place.  I was working on the mechanics, too much right hand, too little right hand, etc.  It dawned on me decades later that I was probably only reinforcing swing flaws that were the result of simple pressure and shot anxiety, not really serious swing flaws at all. 

I think a much better approach would have been to pick out my best 2 or 3 shots from the day and try to repeat them.  Not that you shouldn't work on your mistakes and weak areas, but I think I overdid the swing tinkering and eventually took the experimentation to the course, ruining my game.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Runnin

[Marty2019]

Great topic.  Here's my opinion.  

Tee shots are usually hit from a nice flat lie, so they are easy to practice on the driving range.  It's also the most important shot, so it deserves a lot of practice. 

Fairway shots should also be practiced on the range, but with the realization that depending on the part of the country you play in, you may not get a whole lot of nice flat lies like you get on a driving range.  I played in North Carolina last week, and I think most of my fairway shots were from uphill, downhill, and sidehill lies.  The only way to learn those is by playing. 

Chipping and putting.  You can practice chipping and putting, but the best way to really practice the short game is by playing, and the reason is, there is so much variety to deal with.  The lie, the distance, the amount of green to work with, the variety is so vast, that really the best way to practice the short game is to play a round of golf. 

Lessons are extremely important.  So is practice.  But I have recently realized that the best way to improve at playing golf is to play golf.   Hitting a ball out of rough, under a tree, and rolling it up onto a green isn't something people can practice on a driving range.  First tee shot jitters?  Play more often- you'll get used to teeing off.  Can't take your range game to the course?  Just play more.  It'll come to you. 

Get some lessons, practice some, but play a lot.  That's my (latest) formula. 

But playing until you hit a bad shot and then running over to the range to work on it?  I screw up enough shots that I'd be running to the range after every hole.  Maybe it'd be better if you just took some notes during your round and work on all the stuff you screwed up later.  

[saevel25]

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 4:28 AM, golfdu said:

How many holes should I play a day to improve faster, 9 holes or 18 holes (6 days on, 1 day off)? I am curious on whether practicing vs playing more would be better for my game. I plan to play in worst ball format exclusively to simulate the pressure and difficulty of competitive play.

There is a balance in playing golf and practicing golf.  At a certain point golfers have to be able to translate what every ability they show on the range to the course.

A golfer does need to learn how to get the ball into the hole with the least amount of strokes they are able to. You really can only do that by playing golf. During the golf season, its good to use the range to re-establish certain priorities you are working on. Also, it is a good place to just work on contact and hitting your target line. I wouldn't go full head on dive into swing mechanic mode during the golf season.

Worst ball is fun to play. Try playing golf with one club for the entire round. You really can only get use to competitive play by playing in competitions.

[26point2]

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