Structuring a practice session

[One Planer]

Any tips welcome.

I've made a concious decision to play and practice more this year to this end I (With HID's approval) have come up with the following.

Sunday - 9 Holes
Tuesday - 9 Holes
Thursday - Short game practice
Saturday - 18 Holes (Including Qualifiers)

I plan on adding a range session, during my lunch break one day in the week to work on my driving and mid irons but was wondering how best to arrange my short game practice on a Thursday?

The facilities avaialable to me are:

Practice chipping green (upto 120 yards)
Practice bunker and green.

The practice putting green is in the process of being re-laid at the minute so mainly want to work on short game pitching and chipping.

Any advise swelcome :thup:

 

[Rooter]

my pro has given me some routines to follow, basic principal is to turn it into a game/challenge. so for short stuff would be something like:

1. Warm up, get decent contact on shots and not really worry about distance, direction.

2. Distance control. Start from say 50yrds and hit the distance pitch you want, you cant move to the next distance out until you have hit 3-5 in a row, when you complete move out 20yrds and repeat.

3. Target control. Pick a flag on the practive green and get your pitch/chip to your target, good little thing he said to me "aim small, and miss small" so pick a very small target, ie within 3 feet of flag, or fringe or a dark patch of grass etc... again, aim for 3-5 in a row before changing position/shot.

Overall, its about puting your self under some kind of pressure so you can repeat it on the course where there are potential consequences to a fat/thin/slice/hook, he even suggested forefeits for messing up, ie 5 squats, press ups etc! LOL

Key thing is as you are already doing, keep your practice focussed and pressurised, it will translate to the course much better.

hope that helps you as much as its helping me!

 

[One Planer]

Some nice Idea's in there Rooter, Thanks for that :thup:

 

[Foxholer]

Most coaches advise 2-3 times as much short game (120yds in) practice as full swing/long game practice - as that is where scores are really made.

 

[One Planer]

Most coaches advise 2-3 times as much short game (120yds in) practice as full swing/long game practice - as that is where scores are really made.

This is partly the reason I want to structure it.

I may even drop the Tuesday 9 holes to a practice session and just play the course at weekends.

 

[G_Mulligan]

personally I would ditch the 9 holes on Sunday and spend the couple of hours working on your pitching and scrambling

 

[Val]

If im honest I'd want to be playing more than 18 holes a week, the weekend is for playing, can you not practice on the course? 2 balls from the tee with different clubs, if the first ball goes GIR then miss deliberately with the second etc.

Everyone wants to get better but for me that structure would take away some fun from the game.

 

[One Planer]

Everyone wants to get better but for me that structure would take away some fun from the game.

Quite right. I should have also mentioned balancing a home life (young son) to the mix, hence the schedule.

 

[G_Mulligan]

Quite right. I should have also mentioned balancing a home life (young son) to the mix, hence the schedule.

sorry but you asked for some advice on a practice schedule and 9 holes of golf while fun may not be the best use of time if you want to improve your short game and therefore your scores on a Saturday.