It’s a Sunday night at our golf course in Wisconsin. It’s August, hot and over 90 degrees at 6:00 pm, however, that doesn’t stop folks from coming out to practice. There is actually a surprising amount of people. At the end of the range are some college students hitting only driver stubbornly trying to fly the fence sitting over 300 yards away. In the middle of the range are a few seniors trying to hit the perfect shot—occasionally I see a club slam as they are unable to replicate the same swing again and again. Finally, there is a high school team closest to me constantly trying to best each other and hitting shot after shot rapid-fire with no purpose or goal.

What I’ve described above is all too common in golf practice today. We continually beat ball after ball mindlessly in search of this elusive “perfect swing,” but it is time that the story stops. I’ve found, and the research proves, that hitting ball after ball trying to find that next “thing” to hit good shots doesn’t work. Through this article I am going to explain to you how to practice effectively. I’m sorry to say that hitting off of a perfect lie and perfecting a swing isn’t the answer. I am going to share with you how to take those boring range sessions and make them into something fun, efficient, and productive that is proven to work.

It takes courage to break the status quo but, in golf and in life, it is what separates the good from the great. The status quo in golf practice is to hit balls and perfect your technique, but honestly, that is taking the easy way out. Think about it, how many times have you left the range feeling like you had a great session, only to come out the next day and play terribly? To change these results we have to practice like we play. In fact, we need to practice even harder so when we go out to play we can be easier on ourselves. Let me explain.

Please don’t mistake the word harder for agony. I probably should say practice smarter. Last season one of my college golfers came to me feeling extremely proud because he hit balls on the range for four hours “working on his swing.” Thinking he was a young Ben Hogan, he went on to say how much time and effort he put into the session. My answer to him certainly caught him by surprise as I said, “is that meant to impress me?” My point was that he was getting caught up too much in the time he spent rather than what he was accomplishing. The session had no focus as he was simply tinkering with his swing and scraping over another ball when he didn’t hit the previous one well, and that is not golf.

In golf, you have one shot that you have to execute at a specific time under pressure. There is a scorecard and inevitably expectations that we set upon ourselves. Why in golf do we hit balls on the range with no real consequence, yet expect to be able to stripe a ball down a tight fairway when we know if we hit it OB that a double bogey is surely the consequence? The reality is our practice is lacking focus and not game-like at all. Our practice needs to simulate pressure and game-like situations in order to be most effective. This will make our on-course experience feel much easier if done correctly.

An example of this practice smarter mentality would be going out and making 10 putts in a row from four feet. Those ten putts are going to be made by making your way around a hole on a slope, creating different putts that are uphill, downhill, right to left, and left to right. The important piece here is we are going to track this with a scorecard. If we miss a putt, we still have to go to ten and see how many we make; I/E 8 out of 10, but since we missed two, we’d need to do it again until we make all ten in a row. So what have we changed?

1. We’ve put high expectations on ourselves, training under pressure.
2. We now have one golf ball and different types of putts we are going to hit.
3. We now have a scorecard to track results like we do on the course.

This is simulating play. This is practicing like you would play on a golf course with one golf ball, a scorecard, and added pressure. When I would do this with my students, that tenth putt would be filled with immense pressure because if they missed they knew they’d have to be there for another 30 minutes potentially. Many students and college athletes even claimed to be more nervous over those putts in practice than over any putt on the golf course and that is key to lower scores and playing your best golf! When you don’t practice under pressure, you’re not getting good under pressure.

Let’s revisit my college athlete’s story. Why was I not impressed by this time he spent working on his game? Well, he was falling into the trap like most folks visiting the driving range. It simply lacked focus and was not simulating what would inevitably be upcoming on the golf course. Again, it’s not about the time you log, but the results you get.

With me as his coach, his practices started to look like this after we changed his approach

1. Make 10/10 from 4 feet
2. 9 Holes Chipping: 7/9 up and down in 2
3. On Range: 9/10 to a green 150 yards away.
4. On Range: Hit 7/10 drivers in between a 30-yard target fairway.

In total, practice like the one mentioned above would take around 60 minutes or so to complete, and proved to be much more effective. That was an example session, as we tailored these sessions to work on areas he was struggling on during tournaments. Additionally, we changed up some scenarios to match tee shots at upcoming events, for example, making sure to keep the ball right or left of simulated trouble. So what makes this more valuable than simply “perfecting a golf swing and working on technique?”

1. We are always training toward a target like on the golf course
2. We are always simulating the pressures of the golf course
3. We prove to ourselves that the results are inside of us, taking the pressure off of the actual on-course round, similar to a boxer boxing 15 rounds for a 12 round fight.

So I want you to ask yourself, how am I practicing? Cut down on the amount of time you practice and start to make it effective and efficient. Commit to using one golf ball. Set a specific target that you will accomplish at every practice, and simulate as best you can what you will be doing on the golf course. If you start to do this in your practice whether it is on the course, on the range, or on the practice green, I guarantee you will shoot lower scores.