If it’s too wet to play, you’ll no doubt be spending a few sessions at the range to keep your swing in shape over the winter. When you do, be intelligent about it. Here are a few good ways to go through a bucket.

Use one club. Your 7-iron is a good choice. Your driver is the worst choice. When you hit the same club over and over, you can concentrate on making the same swing over and over. The only way to learn a repeating swing is to swing the same way repeatedly.

Gradually go through the bag. Hit three shots with your pitching wedge, then three with your 9-iron, three with your 8-iron, and so on through the driver. No do-overs allowed. This scheme makes sure you don’t neglect any one club or favor others.

Take a driver and a half set, say, your 9-, 7-, 5-, and 3-irons, and your wedges. Hit your driver, then an iron, and a pitch with one of the wedges. Start over with the driver, then a different iron, and a pitch with the other wedge. This scheme makes you hit a different club with every swing. The next time you go out, bring your even-numbered irons.

Pretend you are playing your favorite course. Tee off, hit the iron you usually hit your approach with to the first green. Play every hole using the clubs you normally do. Throw in a few pitches. If the range is close to the practice green, walk over, drop a ball at some distance from the hole and putt out. Go back to the range and “tee off” on the next hole.

The one thing not to do at the range is work on swing changes. Work those out at home using the drills the pro gave you. Use your time at the range to hit balls just like you would hit them on the course. Take each shot seriously and make every swing count.

See more at www.bettergolfbook.com

Update 2017: Your day-in, day-out scoring shots are the tee shot, the greenside chip, and the approach putt. If your swing puts the tee shot in the fairway, it will put the iron from the fairway on or near the green. Good chipping and approach putting let you close the hole in two shots, not three.

Compare two kinds of rounds – your best ones and the ones where you only flirt with your best. Even though the difference in your score might be five strokes, the difference in the way you play is like you’re different golfers.

I break 80 once or twice every year. Without fail, my irons are straight all day and my approach putting is superb. I can’t look back on any round when I hit both those shots like that in the same round and didn’t break 80.

So what do you think I practice most? Irons and approach putting! My key to lower scores, I believe, are the shots I hit well when I go low.

Of course I practice short putts, as well as chipping and pitching. Short putts and chips keep me in contention on days my irons and approach putting are having a day off. Pitching? Getting your pitch close is how a recreational golfer makes birdies on par 5s.

But the bulk of my practice is spent on the shots that turn me into a recreational scoring machine. It doesn’t make sense to do it any other way.

Slight detour to The Driver – the Evil Seducer. The more you practice with your driver, the more chances you have of ruining your swing. Just put an 8-iron swing on your driver and you’ll be fine.

Take a close look at your “career” rounds, and figure out what shots got you there. It isn’t because you played better overall. Probably one or two shot types are much better than normal, and it’s the same shot types every time.

Spend the most time practicing those shots, while not sacrificing the others completely.

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