The post 6 shots amateurs never practice — but they should appeared first on Golf.

The post 6 shots amateurs never practice — but they should appeared first on Golf.

It’s often said that we tend to practice only what we enjoy — and typically, those are the parts of the game we’re already good at. As a result, the average golfer rarely spends time working on the areas that need the most improvement.

Below are six types of shots that most golfers rarely practice. Give them a little time during your next practice session and you’ll be well on your way to shooting lower scores.

1. Lag putts with lots of break

Most players I see are only practicing longer putts and short putts on relatively flat surfaces — typically with just a 1- or 2-percent grade. But the putts we three-putt most often are the ones that come after a poor lag putt on more severe slopes.

To fine-tune your feel on the greens, try practicing putts over big humps, onto and across shelves, and on putts with significant break. When you do, the flatter putts will feel much easier, and the more difficult ones won’t leave you with a 10-foot comeback for par.

2. Shots from fairway bunkers

Golfers often get into trouble in fairway bunkers when they swing too hard, which causes excess movement and leads to hitting behind the ball. The key to hitting solid fairway bunker shots is all about club selection and controlled movement.

First, choose a club that gives you enough loft to comfortably clear the lip of the bunker. Then, if possible, go with one club stronger than you would normally use. This allows you to make a smoother, more controlled swing — reducing lower-body movement and improving consistency at impact.

Bunker Shots

Swinging at full power out of a bunker often leads to too much motion, making clean contact difficult. Instead, focus on a controlled swing and aim to strike the ball slightly thin. When you do this, you’ll typically make solid contact. Even if you do hit it thin, you’ll likely carry the green rather than chunking it 50 yards short.

A great drill to develop this shot is to visualize a stripe — like the one on a range ball — running around the equator of the ball. Take one or two extra clubs, aim slightly left, swing easy and focus on hitting that stripe. More often than not, you’ll catch the ball cleanly, and it will fly with a gentle left-to-right shape.

3. Shots on hilly lies

Most golfers only pay attention to the lie of the ball when it’s obviously poor, but understanding how uneven or hilly lies affect ball flight is essential for improving your game and achieving long-term success.

When facing a significant slope — whether uphill, downhill, or sidehill — it’s crucial to prioritize balance. One of the best ways to stay in control is by taking an extra club. This allows you to make a smoother, more controlled swing without having to overexert yourself, which can throw off your balance.

As a general rule, if the lie is even moderately to severely sloped, club up. Staying balanced and steady during your swing is far more important than trying to hit a full shot from an unstable position.

4. Shots with a fairway wood

Fairway woods are among the toughest clubs for the average golfer to hit consistently. The combination of a tight lie and a large clubhead often creates the urge to help the ball into the air — usually leading to mishits and inconsistent contact.

Instruction

Choosing the wrong fairway wood for the lie only makes matters worse. It’s essential to select the club that best suits the conditions in front of you. If the lie is tight and the ball is sitting low — barely above the ground — consider switching to a higher-lofted fairway wood or a hybrid. You want the ball to appear more accessible, with the clubhead sitting flush to the turf. This visual cue gives you more confidence and increases the chance of solid contact.

The key to hitting fairway woods well is keeping the takeaway long and low, and focusing on clipping the penny through impact. That mental image helps promote a clean strike and a shallow angle of attack — both critical to making solid contact off the fairway.

5. Shots from the rough

Most amateur golfers rarely practice from the rough, which means they lack an understanding of how different lies affect ball flight and control. Without experience, it’s difficult to make confident decisions when faced with tough lies. Let’s break it down into three common rough lies.

Ball sitting up
When the ball is sitting up nicely in the rough, it’s a green-light situation. You can use your normal swing, and the ball will typically react how you’re used to — though it may fly slightly farther due to the grass reducing spin and adding “flyer” distance. Be aware that the harder you swing, the more this flyer effect increases. With this in mind, consider taking a little off the swing or using a slightly less-lofted club to compensate.

Ball half exposed
This is a tricky lie. Sometimes the ball jumps; other times it comes out dead. This unpredictability is why practicing from the rough is so important to your development as a golfer. The more exposure you get to this type of lie, the better your instincts will be.

To improve your chances of solid contact from a half-exposed lie in the rough, start by steepening your angle of attack to minimize the amount of grass getting between the clubface and the ball. One way to do this is by moving the ball back in your stance about one inch, which helps promote a more descending strike. At address, try hovering the club slightly above the ground to encourage a cleaner takeaway. Lastly, focus on making a quicker, steeper backswing to help deliver the club on a sharper angle into the ball.

Ball sitting down
This is a challenging lie that requires a decision: play it safe with a pitch out, or go for something more aggressive. Loft is your best friend here. It’s better to come up short with a higher-lofted club than to risk using too little loft and watching the ball barely get out.

When faced with a ball sitting down in the rough, start by moving the ball back one inch in your stance to promote a steeper angle of attack. Aim slightly left to accommodate the more upright swing path that this adjustment creates. On the backswing, pick the club up more sharply to set yourself up for a descending blow, and then “chop” down on the ball to minimize the effect of the grass. Expect the shot to come out with a lower trajectory and extra rollout once it hits the ground.

6. Chips with fairway wood or hybrid

The fairway wood or hybrid is an excellent choice for getting up and down from just off the green, whether the lie is good, bad or tight. It’s especially useful when the pin is close to the edge of the green. As golf course architecture continues to evolve with collection areas around the green, you’ll see this shot used more and more on Tour.

Here’s how to set up:

By making a putting motion, you’re allowing the extra mass and length of the club to carry the ball onto the green. With practice, you’ll find that minimal effort is required to get the ball to the surface, so I recommend sticking with the same hybrid for consistency. This way, you’ll become familiar with how the club delivers the ball, making it easier to predict the outcome.

This technique is also effective on steep hills or in medium rough, where you just need to nudge the ball slightly and let gravity do the rest. A note of caution: only use this shot for very tight pin placements near the edge of the green. Longer shots require a different set of fundamentals.

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The post This common mistake kills your bunker game. Here’s how to fix it appeared first on Golf.

The post This common mistake kills your bunker game. Here’s how to fix it appeared first on Golf.

Bunker shots are a huge struggle for lots of recreational golfers. While the pros make the shots look easy, weekend warriors make them seem borderline impossible.

Part of this struggle happens because of a lack of practice. At other times, it’s because casual golfers have a fundamental misunderstanding of the technique needed to hit a proper bunker shot. Today, we’re going to cover a little bit of both.

In the text and video below, Top 100 Teacher Mark Durland explains a common mistake he sees that kills the recreational player’s ability to escape the sand — along with a few tips on how to practice the right technique.

The common bunker flaw

What are you doing that’s killing your bunker game?  You’re hitting way too far behind the golf ball! 

The reason it’s so hard to identify this mistake is that it results in two completely different misses. One miss is simple to detect and occurs when the ball lands two or three feet in front of you. This clearly happens because you take too much sand. 

The opposite miss is when you send the golf ball into the trees or the water on the other side of the green. This often is the result of the same swing fault — but golfers fail to diagnose it properly because the result is so different. They convince themselves it must come from a completely different swing error. 

The reality is you’re still hitting way too far behind the golf ball, but instead of digging, the clubhead is bouncing into the golf ball. Below, I’ve got three great ways you can practice correcting this fault.

1. Use a line

A great way to improve your bunker play is by drawing a six-inch line to the outside of the golf ball. This will help you identify your clubhead’s entry point into the sand after your shot. You’ll quickly discover you hit way farther behind the ball than you think! 

The other benefit to using the line is you’ll hit a proper bunker shot and discover the correct distance behind the ball you should be hitting, whether it’s two, three, or even four inches behind the ball. Once you understand how far behind the golf ball you should hit for a successful bunker shot, simply draw a six-to-eight-foot line in the bunker and get really efficient at hitting the proper amount behind the line. 

It’s a penalty to touch the sand in a bunker on the golf course, but it’s not a penalty in a practice area, so swing away! Learn how and what it feels like to interact with the sand properly and take that knowledge out on the course.

2. Splash some sand

Creating a proper weight transfer is another way to stop hitting too far behind the golf ball in the bunker. A lot of golfers stay on their trail foot in the bunker, or they create a reverse weight shift to scoop the golf ball into the air. 

A great way to stay aggressive and transfer your weight in the bunker is splashing some sand onto the green. This helps you finish with your trail toe in the ground and your belt buckle facing toward the target. A lot of golfers make a wonderful backswing and then hit the sand and stop. The reason they do this is that they’ve seen the ball go way too far. 

To become a great bunker player, you must make a lengthy swing. So, stay aggressive!

3. Erase the dot

Another way you can stop hitting too far behind the golf ball in the bunker is by drawing a small dot in the sand just in front of your ball with the butt end of your club. Of course, you’ll only do this in a practice bunker and not on the golf course. This helps to draw your focus in front of the golf ball to prevent hitting too far behind it.

Conventional bunker wisdom is to focus on a grain of sand behind the golf ball, but unfortunately this leads to some golfers hitting way too far behind it. So next time you’re in the practice bunker, put a dot in front of the golf ball and focus on erasing it on your follow through. This will help you hit closer to the golf ball for some sizzling bunker shots.

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The post How high-tech mobility analysis diagnosed this golfer’s swing flaws appeared first on Golf.

The post How high-tech mobility analysis diagnosed this golfer’s swing flaws appeared first on Golf.

Swinging a golf club consistently is a hard task on its own, but when you’ve got mobility limitations, it can be nearly impossible. The problem is, lots of golfers struggle from mobility limitations without even knowing it.

One such student’s story is highlighted below. Luckily for him, he was under the guidance of one of the brightest minds in the game, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Tom Stickney.

Read on as Stickney explains how he used Proscreen AI to diagnose his student’s mobility limitations to get him on the path to swinging better than ever.

As we get older it becomes harder and harder to move the body, generate speed and place ourselves into solid fundamental positions during the swing. Because of this reality, flaws tend to materialize. It’s these swing flaws that are caused by poor physiology that hamper even the best golfers in the world. Secondly, because these issues are impossible to “see” most instructors are trying to place their students into positions that they cannot achieve physiologically and this brings improvement to a standstill.

Over time there have been a few organizations in other sports that have focused on testing their athletes’ ability using functional movement screens, but it was not widely used in golf training until the advent of TPI created by Dr. Greg Rose and David Phillips. They developed a series of subjective movement “tests” that would show the instructor to what degree their student could move their body in different positions. Wherever there was a weakness — whether it be from stability or mobility — an exercise plan could be put into place based on these tests so the player could eliminate that deficiency and make better swings over time.

With the advent of video-based 3D Motion Analysis and AI new products have come out on the market that have made screening golfers for movement less subjective and more measured. Now for the first time, we are able to map the movement screens of golfers in any setting and show them how much they actually move. This gives us a numerical baseline of the player’s ranges of motion, mobility and stability within different body segments and these results can be compared over time to see how a player’s body reacts as they continue to stretch, workout or do whatever they need to do in order to improve.

Below is a five-minute testing protocol I did using, Proscreen AI on one of my students screening the following movements: Golf Posture, Golf Stance Upper-Torso Rotation, Golf Stance Lower-Torso Rotation, Overhead Squat, Internal Hip Rotation, External Hip Rotation, Back Flexion, External Rotation of the Shoulders, Shoulder Flexion and Single Leg Balance.

These tests show this golfer’s ability to “move” in the three planes of motion that golfers are required to move within and will show us any deficiencies that they might possess.

The screening

In assessing this player’s swing mechanics, it is clear that they are grappling with both left shoulder mobility impingement and limited left hip mobility. These interconnected issues are significantly impacting their overall swing performance. The left shoulder mobility problem is causing the hands to kick out during the backswing, which disrupts the necessary positioning for an effective shot. As the player struggles with their left shoulder, the arms tend to lift and push out, leading to an unfavorable club position at the top of the backswing. This misalignment not only hampers their ability to make solid contact but also complicates the transition into the downswing.

Compounding the issue is the player’s restricted left hip mobility. This limitation further exacerbates the pressure transfer problem during the swing. As the player attempts to initiate the downswing, they tend to shift more weight into their left hip and left heel, resulting in a smaller, more cramped posture through the hitting zone. Unlike elite golfers who maintain an elevated stance through the hitting zone, this player’s restricted lower body movement can lead to a lack of power and fluidity in their swing.

The fix

Addressing both the left shoulder and left hip mobility issues is crucial for this player’s improvement. By enhancing shoulder mobility, they can achieve a more effective takeaway and club position, which are essential for a successful swing. Additionally, improving hip mobility will facilitate better pressure transfer and promote a more dynamic downswing. 

Ultimately, resolving these interconnected mobility problems will lead to a more consistent and powerful swing, enabling the player to perform at their best on the course. A focus on these aspects of their game can transform their overall performance and enhance their enjoyment of the sport.

Through the Proscreen’s KAMS testing protocol, we found that diagnosing the left shoulder and left hip mobility issues affecting this player’s swing mechanics became much easier. This objective assessment simplifies the process of identifying specific faults that might otherwise go unnoticed. Ultimately, KAMS testing underscores the importance of precise evaluation, allowing us to effectively target and address the player’s performance challenges.

As always the player and the coach has two options once they get the analysis results — work on the body in the gym or work around the “swing flaw” if the golfer is not willing to work out. Obviously, working out would be the best option, as proven by TPI, but as we know some people refuse to go to the gym so the only other way we can swing effectively is to work around the weaknesses of the body. However, if we cannot identify the functional movement inefficiencies then there is no way we can effectively teach our golfers.

Nick Biondi of Radley Run Country Club in West Chester, Penn. contributed to this piece.

Tom Stickney is the Director of Instruciton at Jonathan’s Landing Club in Jupiter, Fla. and is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher. He can be reached at toms@jonathanslanding.com.

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The post This sneaky ‘toe tap’ move will improve your chipping instantly appeared first on Golf.

The post This sneaky ‘toe tap’ move will improve your chipping instantly appeared first on Golf.

Developing a solid short game is one of the best ways to lower your scores. Not only will you have more trust in yourself standing over those high-pressure shots, but you’ll also have more confidence on your approaches knowing that if you miss the green, your stellar wedge game will help you avoid a double — or worse.

If you’re hoping to clean up your short game this season, a great place to start is with your setup, more specifically your stance. Many amateurs are taught to set their weight forward and keep it forward when hitting shorter touch shots, but short-game whiz Parker McLachlin says this might actually be holding your wedge game back. 

“The tendency that I see most people make when that pressure is in their front foot, is to push off of that lead foot,” McLachlin says. “Where does that pressure go? To the back foot. Then all of a sudden you chunk it.”

Instead, McLachlin says that you’re actually better off making a natural pressure shift and not restricting yourself as you hit the shot, as demonstrated by Lydia Ko in the clip below. 

“Even on these pitch shots, the pressure should still go into the trail foot so it gives you the ability to push off and get your center of mass on top of the ball or in front of it,” McLachlin says.

Think of it as a smaller version of the pressure shift you make in your full swing. Try making a few practice swings as you feel your pressure shift slightly from your front foot to the lead side of your trail foot. McLachlin says you can use a toe tap drill to ensure you’ve got it down.

Try this toe tap drill for perfect pressure

Set up to a ball with your feet fairly close together. Then, take the club back. Once you reach the top of your backswing, stop. Lift your lead toe and do a little toe tap. Then, go. Hit the shot as normal and you should notice that your contact improves.

“That [tap] gives you the awareness that you haven’t stacked all that pressure forward,” McLachlin says. 

Once you master the toe tap drill, you’ll find that it has many benefits. McLachlin says it’s not only a go-to for perfecting pressure shift around the greens, but that he’s also found it to cure chipping yips and other short-game problems. 

“It kind of frees your mind up a bit,” McLachlin says, “If you’re really struggling with transferring your weight, or getting in your own way mentally, it’s a nice way to take your mind off of hitting the ball.”

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The post Simple course-management tips for breaking 100, 90, 80 and par appeared first on Golf.

The post Simple course-management tips for breaking 100, 90, 80 and par appeared first on Golf.

Everyone has a scoring barrier they want to break through. First, you focus on breaking 100, then you set your sights on breaking 90 and then 80. The final scoring barrier to break is par — a feat only a small percentage of golfers will ever achieve.

Breaking through each of these scoring barriers represents a milestone in any golfer’s journey — and no matter what barrier it is, the elation remains the same.

What does not remain the same is the skills needed to break through these barriers. Sure, you’ll always build off what you learned in your previous conquests, but the skills you need to emphasize for breaking every successive barrier is a little different.

Below, Top 100 Teacher Joey Wuertemberger shares some simple course-management tips and strategies you can employ in your next mission to break through a scoring barrier.

Every golfer has a personal barrier they strive to break (100, 90, 80, par). Achieving these goals can come from improving your swing, but course management strategies are also vitally important. Here are my recommended strategies to help you break your next barrier.

Breaking 100: Keep it simple

Tee it forward — Play a realistic set of tees that are appropriate for your game. Aim for tees that will allow you to have approach shots inside 150 yards. This will reduce stress and increases your chances of hitting some greens in regulation.

Play for bogey — Remember, if you bogey every hole, you’ll easily break 100.  Study the hole before teeing off and play away from trouble. Your goal is to keep the ball in play — even if your club selection jeopardizes distance — and eliminate penalty strokes from your card. When you get in trouble, don’t be a hero! Take your medicine and get your ball back to the fairway immediately and keep your round on track.

Up-and-down in 3 — A simple chip shot can go a long way in increasing our chances to break 100. We’re going miss greens, and we need a trusty chip to give us a chance to putt no more than twice and finish the hole. Try using a pitching wedge or sand wedge with the ball positioned slightly back in your stance and weight favoring your forward leg focusing on a descending strike. When you’re on the green, prioritize speed over line, which will increase your chances of two-putting.

Breaking 90: Avoid double bogey at all costs

Eliminate penalty strokes — Avoid costly water hazards and out of bounds.  Play conservative shots away from trouble and around the greens so you don’t make a round-ruining mistake. Pick smart targets on each shot by aiming at the center of the green regardless of pin locations. A middle-of-the-green mindset will lead to easier up-and-downs and more two-putt pars.

Approach Shots

Understand your distances — At this skill level, you need to know how far you carry each club. My advice is to use the back-of-the-green distance when selecting your club as typically you don’t carry the ball as far as you think you do.

No 6’s on par-5’s — Plan to play all par 5’s as three-shot holes. Get the ball in play at all costs off the tee and focus on laying the ball up to a yardage of your liking. This will help you increase your greens in regulations and will also increase your chances of a birdie opportunity.

Breaking 80: Clean up silly mistakes

Hit more greens — Be disciplined on hitting the middle of the green and start to practice flighting your shots while controlling spin and distance. Accept your natural ball flight to shape your shots, if this means you hit a fade, don’t play for a draw and vice versa.

Dial in your wedges — Inside 100 yards, you should start to develop a system to control your distance and spin. Tour pro’s miss greens with wedges, so don’t dwell on a wedge shot that doesn’t land as you planned. Scrambling well is an extremely important trait at all levels, so spend plenty of time practicing your short game to avoid the “soft bogeys.”

Limit mental mistakes — Learn how to control your attitude and harness your frustrations while on the course. One bad decision can lead into big numbers — so stay disciplined and stick to your strategy.

Breaking par: Take advantage of scoring opportunities

Have course-specific strategy — Have a plan on how you want to attack the course. Know when to be aggressive and when to be conservative. Elite players capitalize on par-5’s. To break par, you’ll likely need to birdie at least one par-5 during the round.

Make six 3’s — Hit the middle of the green on the par-3s and make four pars, be patient and capitalize on the shorter, getable par-4s. If you can make six 3’s during the round, you’re well on your way to breaking par.

Get up-and-down more inside 100 yards — Focus on converting your birdie chances with your wedges and be more aggressive with putts inside of 10 feet. Limiting three-putts and converting putts inside of 5 feet are paramount in this mission.

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The post Want to hit longer drives? Use this drill to increase your attack angle appeared first on Golf.

The post Want to hit longer drives? Use this drill to increase your attack angle appeared first on Golf.

Hitting longer drives than your competitors will always put you at an advantage. Even if you miss the fairway a few more times, getting the ball closer to the green off the tee is always key. Data has proven as much, and that means you should be looking for ways to hit the ball longer yourself.

One of the simplest ways to add distance is by dialing in your swing in order to hit up on the ball. If you can get your attack angle in the right spot, you’ll be hitting it longer than ever before without a bit of speed training.

If you want to increase your attack angle and hit longer drives, check out the simple drill below from Top 100 Teacher Steve Bosdosh.

How to increase your attack angle

Many of the recreational golfers we teach at my academy at PB Dye Golf Club swing their drivers with a negative angle of attack and with an outside-in path. This crates excessive backspin and produces drives that come out low and then balloon up in the air, often with a slicing shot shape. Worse yet, the harder they swing, the more spin they put on the ball, which only exacerbates these problems.

The key to hitting bombs is not always more clubbed speed. Instead, you should be focusing on hitting up on the ball.

Teaching yourself how to do this doesn’t require a radical swing change. All you need to do is set up a simple drill with your headcover and a couple of tees.

Simply peg a tee in the ground about one clubhead length in front of your teed up ball. Push the front tee in the ground only slightly so that the tee remains tall. Then, make a few practice swings as you try to avoid the front tee post-impact.

Feel what you need to do in your swing to avoid that front tee. When you avoid this tee, you will feel a more positive angle of attack, which will rid you of that nasty over-the-top move that produces a slice.

As you continue doing this drill, don’t be afraid to experiment. Try tilting your spine away from the target. Try feeling like your head stays behind the ball through the swing. Try swinging a little more around your body or more from the inside. Try turning your lead shoulder more behind the ball or over your trail foot, and maybe setup at address with more weight on your trail foot.

Once you find the feel that produces the desired result — missing the front tee — stick with it. Then, put the ball back on the trail tee and use that same swing feel. The ball should come out with a much better ball flight and fly farther down the fairway.

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The post What a consistent golfer *really* looks like, according to data appeared first on Golf.

The post What a consistent golfer *really* looks like, according to data appeared first on Golf.

Consistency is king in golf. Anyone can get lucky and hit a good shot. What separates the best from the rest is the ability to do it over and over again.

However, that doesn’t mean consistent golf is perfect golf. In fact, the game is so difficult that consistent golf probably looks a lot different than you think.

In the text below, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Trent Wearner explains what consistency really means, according to a variety of data points from Tour pros that he analyzes every year.

What consistency looks like

I have some great scoring charts that I create every year logging scores from PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players. Viktor Hovland’s chart from the 2023 season and Scottie Scheffler’s chart from the 2022 season are shown below. These charts show their ranges of scores from their best to their worst.

I make charts like these for a variety of players, and I love analyzing the trends among them. Below, I’ve listed some of my learnings and takeaways from this exercise which can help you learn what consistency really looks like.

5 findings about consistency

1. Everyone has their own scoring chart and there is a median number of all of their scores. That means, regardless of whether you’re a tour pro or weekend warrior, you have a 50-percent chance of shooting your median score or lower and a 50-percent chance of shooting your median score or higher.

2. Much to your chagrin, you cannot shrink your bell curve — at least not year in and year out. Fifteen strokes is the average that Tour players have between their lowest and highest scores. The lowest I’ve seen was Justin Rose in 2018 with 11 strokes. The following year his range was back up to 16 strokes.

3. Tour players tend to shoot their lowest scores just once or twice during the year. This is when all parts of their game are firing on all cylinders, with a few good breaks sprinkled in. It is unrealistic to hit this mark on any sort of consistent basis.

4. They also shoot their highest scores only once or twice during the year. This is when all parts of their game are not working, along with some bad breaks. It’s important to understand that while these rounds do not happen often, they are inevitable. It’s all a part of the natural ups and downs of the sport.

5. When you look at the average score of these Tour players and you compare that to their low score and their high score, unfortunately, their best scores is much closer to their average than their worst. Among pros I’ve analyzed, the average low score is just six shots better than their median, while their high scores is nine strokes worse. This just proves that it’s easier to make bogey than it is to make birdie.

2 key takeaways

So, what should you do with this information on consistency? My advice is that instead of obsessing over shooting your best score — or moping over your worst score — focus on lowering your median score. Tour players aren’t necessarily more consistent (relative to their skill level) than recreational players — they are just a heck of a lot better. That said, if you want to improve, you should look at two very important things.

1. First, evaluate your game and find weaknesses. This might be some low-hanging fruit, it could be finding more distance, hitting more greens in regulation, making a higher percentage of putts or getting your short game sharper.  Whatever it is, focus on trying to improve it on a daily basis.

2. Second, no matter how bad your round is going, do not give up. The handicap system serves a great purpose, but since it throws out most of your worst scores, it is not a true barometer for improvement. What is an indicator of improvement is your average score. Yes, it’s nice to shoot low scores, but lowering your average requires you to raise your floor and not allow bad rounds to get out of hand. Being able to scrape together a decent score when you don’t have your best stuff is a skill that is hugely important if you want to become a great player.

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The post 4 key ways Tour pros practice smarter than weekend warriors appeared first on Golf.

The post 4 key ways Tour pros practice smarter than weekend warriors appeared first on Golf.

Tour pros aren’t just better at playing golf than the rest of us, they’re better at practicing, too.

Go to any practice round for a PGA Tour event and you’ll quickly see what I mean. There isn’t anyone on the practice tee mindlessly bashing balls. Everything is done with a purpose.

It might sound redundant, but the way these pros got so efficient in their practice routines is through, well, practice. They’ve been honing their swings every day for years, and they’ve become experts at how best to do so through hours and hours of time spent on the practice tee.

Want to know a few of their secrets? Below is a rundown from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joey Weurtemberger on four ways pros practice smarter than average joes.

4 ways pros practice better than amateurs

Have you ever wondered what a Tour player does differently than you in practice? I can tell you: they use a very structured routine to hone their skills — and you can borrow from their sessions to start shaving strokes like the pros.

Before grabbing a club, Tour players have a clear plan of attack tailored to their game. They know what they need to work on and have specific drills and training aids that will attack those faults. Keeping notes after rounds is vital to identify where to focus your time.

Below, I’ve put together a few ways their practice differs from yours.

1. Build in a proper warmup

Athletes need to prime their bodies before workouts. This doesn’t just mean stretching, but also includes corrective exercises, foam rolling and even some quick cardio to get the blood flowing! On the range, Tour players start with short pitch shots — concentrating on smooth tempo and clean contact with their favorite wedge. They take their time, stay relaxed and don’t rush. It’s key that they don’t start really practicing until their body is good and loose.

2. Get real-time feedback

After they are warm, Tour players create a ball-striking station. They place alignment rods on the ground and have defined targets they are hitting to, starting with short irons and work their way through the bag. You will also see them using training aids to help them achieve a certain feel. This is something I rarely see amateurs doing. But if you really want to get the most out of your practice, you need to be getting real-time feedback.

3. Try block practice

As a general rule, Tour players are looking for shot patterns they can trust on the course. Tour players move onto what is called block practice to develop the skill required to achieve these repeatable swings, completing the same drill over and over until they know they have locked in a particular feel without the help of the training aids. It may be tedious, but it’s essential for ingraining the proper swing feels that will carry over to the course.

4. Simulate on-course situations

Finally, Tour players simulate on course situations with a variety of targets. This is a great time to work on visualization, imagination and fine tune pre-shot the routine. They will often hit shots they know they will need to execute during the upcoming round. This division between developing muscle memory for the skills to hit specific shots and testing your swing under pressure can only lead to one thing: lower scores!

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Practice can get a little monotonous at times, so it’s important you keep things interesting to stay engaged. One of the best ways to do this is by incorporating games into your practice routine.

If you’re looking for a great game to play on the putting green, you’re in luck. Below, Top 100 Teacher Trent Wearner shared a great game you can use to dial in your stoke under pressure. Check it out.

‘Drawback’ putting game

If you have to play just one putting game during your practice, this is it. One of the most common things all golf coaches hear their students complain about is that they can’t take their game to the course. I wrote a book on this subject containing competitive practice games years ago. This game, which I call “Drawback” is the best putting game I have ever seen—plus you can play it by yourself or against any number of friends. 

The setup and rules for the game are as follows:

—Select nine holes to putt to on the practice green. You can use two tees if there aren’t enough cups
—The distance of your first putt must be 25-40 feet
—Hit your first putt, and if it isn’t holed, pull it back from the hole one putter length

For instance, let’s pretend the first hole is a 20-foot put.  You roll your first putt only to have it miss by about two feet to the right of the hole. Instead of putting out from two feet, you must draw it back in line with the hole one putter length (which is nearly an additional three feet) making your second putt turn into a five-foot putt.

If you make the five-footer, you score a two on the hole. If you fail to make it, you draw it back another putter length from where it stops. Continue to draw it back after any missed putt until it is holed. 

As you can imagine, this is a challenging game — but it comes with some great benefits, including:

1. Mindset: Your mindset changes on the first putt of each hole from simply trying to lag it close to trying to make it.  Keep in mind, trying to make a putt from 20 to 45 feet doesn’t mean rolling it past the hole three or four feet. Instead, it means trying to get the ball to just drop over the edge so that if you miss, it might be only one foot past the hole. Trying to make every putt you hit, regardless of length, is a champion’s mindset.

2. Pressure: It’s inevitable that you won’t make very many putts from 20 to 45 feet, which means you’re going to have lots of pressure-packed short putts.  You’ll be grinding on a lot of three-to-six footers, and that’s a great thing to practice. After all, how do you think you’ll do under pressure on the course, if you never put yourself under pressure in practice?

3. Take it to the course: When you’re drawing every missed putt back in practice, it’ll make those lag putts feel even easier to two-putt during your round. When you don’t have to draw back every miss, it’ll make normal lags feel like a breeze.

While it’s likely you’ll three-putt (and maybe even four-putt at times), the benefits you get from playing this game will help you take your game to the course with more success. Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. As a matter of fact, it’s the opposite. You must make practice as difficult, or even more challenging, than what you experience on the course. Drawback is perfect for that.

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Three-putting is one of the most frustrating mistakes a golfer can make. What should be the hard part (getting to the green) is taken care of, only to be foiled by a mental error on the putting surface. Every time I three-putt, I walk away wanting to break my putter over my knee.

Three-putting doesn’t have to be a regular occurrence, though. If you focus on the right things when practicing, you can minimize your three-putting frequency and, as a result, post lower scores.

The biggest key to reducing your three-putt percentage is dialing in your speed control. When you can lag your first putt within a reliable distance of the hole, cutting down on three-putts becomes much easier.

Below, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joey Wuertemberger has outlined a putting drill that will help you dial in your feel on the greens and reduce three-putts.

‘8-4-4’ putting drill

Shooting lower scores starts on the greens. And if you want to maximize your success on the putting surfaces, you need to dial in your speed control.

Doing this is easy: All you need to do is concentrate on your tempo and stroke length. Quantifiable stroke length (along with tempo) is the key to lag putting it close and allowing the makable putts to take the break and fall in the hole.

To practice this, I like to use the 8-4-4 drill, which I learned from fellow Top 100 Teacher Kevin Sprecher and Aimpoint inventor Mark Sweeney. The 8-4-4 drill will teach you proper tempo when practicing while also giving you measurable stroke lengths for every putt.

Here’s how it works:

—Find a flat area on your putting green that allows putts up to 30 feet.
—Place a tee eight inches behind the ball.
—Hit 10 putts with good tempo and focus on taking your backstroke all the way back to the tee.
—Match your backstroke and forward stroke length.
—The putt should roll about 10 feet.

Once you go through this process a few times, you can start to assess any flaws.

If the balls have gone further than 10 feet, your backstroke may be too short, causing too much acceleration at impact. If the balls have gone less than 10 feet, you may have too long of a backstroke, which leads to deceleration at impact.

Once you get the hang of the proper backstroke length, you can start to work on your tempo. For that, I suggest downloading a metronome app on your phone.

Put in some headphones and select a bpm between 76 and 84. While you’re doing the 8-4-4 drill, focus on trying to match your stroke tempo with the clicks of the metronome. Start your stroke on the first beat, reach the end of your backstroke on the second beat and then hit the ball on the third beat. This will help you develop a consistent tempo with your stroke.

The “4s” in the drill’s name comes from adding four inches of stroke length (both back and through) for every 10 feet of additional putt distance. For example, you’d use a 12-inch stroke from 20 feet and a 16-inch stroke from 30 feet. You can add more tees for visual cues when practicing from each distance, or use a mark on an alignment rod.

As you start to get a feel for this technique, you’ll have an established baseline to take out onto the course. And as you start to master it, you’ll see your three-putt percentage drop drastically.

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