Golf Myth – Bring Your Range Game to the Course

Many golfers, including touring professionals, complain that they can’t take their range game to the course. They hit the ball just fine on the practice ground, but their efforts are lost by the time they get to the first tee. The reason for this is simple. The formula is backwards. Golfers should be taking their course game to the range.

What I mean is you have to play the same way in both places. The practice tee is the place where you teach yourself to hit good shots on the course, when it counts. You won’t achieve that goal unless you also simulate the playing environment as closely as you can. Now you can’t bring a golf course and all its hazards and distractions to the range, but you can bring your mental responses to them, and train your mind appropriately.

Here’s what usually happens during practice. You hit one ball after another. Pretty simple. Even though you do that to perfect a particular technique you are working on (and there should be one, otherwise why are you out there?), it’s not difficult to hit a string of good shots when you hit them with the feeling of success fresh in your mind.

On the course, where you don’t get to swing but every five minutes or so, your true skills emerge. Part of being disappointed about not taking your range game to the course is that the range game you take to the course might not be as good as you think it is.

The other thing the practice tee does, and this is even more insidious, is devalue the worth of a golf ball hit. There’s no penalty for a bad shot, and you can hit as many more balls as you need to get it right. On the course, you have one chance, one, to hit the shot you want. That’s not much pressure, really, but it’s more than you have in practice. So let’s try three things that get to both issues.

1. Never hit the same shot twice in practice. If you’re practicing a swing technique, switch clubs and aim to a different target with each new ball. Practice the technique by taking as many practice swings as you need, to feel you are performing correctly, but then step up and hit a golf shot, not the merely another ball.

Same goes for around the green. Hit the 25-foot approach putt, but if you leave if four feet short, hit the four-footer instead of bringing the ball back to try again. What you leave yourself on the green in practice is what you’ll leave yourself on the course. Learn to deal with your mistakes. The same goes for chipping. Chip once, putt it out. This will give you real incentive to chip them closer.

2. After you hit a ball, pull over another one and step off the mat, or step behind the ball on a grass tee. Get ready just like you would on the course. Pick a target, figure out what shot you’re going to hit, get your mind ready, go through the rest of your pre-shot routine, and then you can step up to the ball and hit it.

Don’t just hit range balls. Play golf!

3. Every so often, take a break. Stop hitting golf balls and just sit down for a while. Give yourself time to absorb what you have learned so far (practice), and to ask yourself to pull out a skill you haven’t used for a few minutes or more (play).

In short, the only way to learn how to play golf on the course is to find ways to play golf wherever you are.

You might be interested in this one-hour practice plan or this two-hour practice plan.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.

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