Saturday, August 22, 2009

Practice Golf Right And Better Your Game

There is a right way and an incorrect way to practice golf. And many people think the right way is to copy the swing of their favorite pros. After all, they are the greatest at what they do. Then naturally you can switch on the golf TV station and get countless hints and instruction from professionals of all degrees.

Well it is time for a reality check. Unless you were born with an astounding amount of talent, odds are you won't be on the tour in the near future. The odds of anyone getting to that level are tiny. Your goal should simply be to improve. Yea it would be terrific to play like Tiger, but to imitate his game, or that of any other pro, is clearly a mistake.

If you are similar to the majority of people, you do your practice on the weekends and after you get off work. Practicing and playing is their occupation. And for certain their commitment to their profession rivals yours. The hours they spend practicing are astronomical. But since most people don't play golf for a living, they don't have the amount of time available that the professionals do. It would be terrific if you did, but let's work within the realm of the time and energy you have accessible.

You no doubt marvel as you witness on television when a shot lofts high, then lightly hits the green and comes to rest just feet from the hole. And you probably get a bit jealous when a shot backspins its way to the cup. We could spend months working on this, but as a weekend golfer, there are more productive ways to spend our time that will result in lower scores. We should concentrate on the fundamentals and work within our individual style.

So let's study how we do our golf practice. Chances are nearly all of that time was spent on the driving range, driver in hand, attempting to hit it far and straight. But precisely how many drives do you hit while playing a round of golf? Sure it's an important club, but others are more critical. See where we're going with this? You should spend much more time working on your short game.

We understand it's challenging to get excited about practicing the short game, but it will be simple to get excited about the lower scores you'll be posting. Pro golfers likely spend 80% of their practice time working on the short game. There are so many different things to work on here, and the pros will work on them all from every conceivable angle. We already said it's best not to replicate their swing, but their practice habits is something we all can learn from.

This may describe you. You have the farthest and straightest drive among the golfers you play with, but your scores are still 90 or higher. Spend some time practicing your short game since that's plainly where the problem is. Get better on and around the green and your scores will drop.

It's time to make a change. Don't travel straight to the driving range when you leave work. Work on your putting. Put some additional effort into your pitches, chips, shots from the trap and your wedge shots up to 75 yards.

Here's something to consider that should make this crystal clear. Did you know that during a typical round, more than half of your strokes are from closer than 75 yards. This includes putts, chips, etc. So doesn't it seem logical that you need to spend at least half your practice time working on these shots? Now consider that in all likelihood less than twenty percent of your strokes are with a driver. Your practice time needs to be primarily spent on the shots you hit most.

Sure hitting drives on the range is fun, but it's not nearly as much fun as watching your scores drop by as many as 10 shots per round.

The optimum way to practice at home is by obtaining a golf practice net. You can read additional golf tips like this, as well as read course and golf equipment reviews and information by going to AllThingsGolfBlog.com.

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