Do You Really Practice Playing Golf, or Just Hit Golf Balls?

One thing I’ve noticed when we are all talking about golf is that we hardly ever talk about practicing golf. Do you practice, or, do you do what I used to do – just whack the hell out of a bucket of balls at the range? Well, sorry, but that’s exercise, not practice.

Practice is attempting to play exactly the same way you want to play out on the course. It doesn’t matter what sport or activity you’re involved in, that’s what practice is. Drop by a local high school football team’s practice session some time and watch what they do. They’ll usually start with warm-up exercises and calisthenics, running, bump and runs and throwing or hiking the football. Once they go through all that preliminary stuff, however, they separate into teams, and the real practice begins. That’s when they run the same plays and strategy that they are going to use in their next scheduled game. If a play doesn’t come off well, they rerun it and rerun it until it does. Ideally, the plays become so impressed in their minds that they don't even think about how to run them as they run them. The ball is snapped, and they just play.

They do the same thing in basketball or baseball. Basketball players don’t just stand in one place and shoot the same basket over and over. They try to replicate what they are going to do when it’s “Showtime!”. Then, when they are in the real game and need a particular move or shot, the subconcious takes over and runs the play. They’ve been there and done that – in practice. They don’t “practice” while they’re performing, the practice allows them to just perform.

Give this a try. When you’re on the driving range, always hit the ball the same way you do when you’re out on the fairway. On the course, you always pick a target to hit the ball to before swinging. So, do exactly the same thing on the practice range. I don’t know how you do it, but I stand behind the ball and visually line it up with a target, e.g. the yardage marker or a place out on the range I want to hit it to. Then, I find something like a spot, a twig or a divot just in front of the ball - maybe three or four feet - that is directly in line between the ball and my target.

When I address the ball, that spot or twig becomes the virtual target for the club face. I look at the spot, out at my actual target and back to the spot and the ball. When the club face is pointed right at the virtual target, I take the practice shot. My buddy Jack Challender, a Natural Golf Certified Instructor, taught me that several years ago, and I use the same process every time I hit a golf ball. I’m “playing” golf every time I swing at a ball, no matter where I’m standing.

In an earlier post, we talked about golf and The Mental Putting Game, this practice technique is also a mental process. If you practice “playing” every shot on the driving range, you’ll develop a routine that will give you confidence when you step up to the ball out on the course. You won't have to think about what you are going to do. You've done it a thousand times "playing" in practice. Just step up, go through your routine and make the shot.

Moe Norman, the famous Canadian Pro who Lee Trevino said was the greatest ball striker in the history of the game and creator of the Natural Golf swing , used to say that the longest walk in golf is from the driving range to the first tee. Practicing like you’re playing can make that walk an exciting one, and make you Golf Talk for a long time.

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