Keep doing this, but don’t worry about putting, leave that until after your driving range session.

Doing this will certainly make your practice time more concentrated and focus you on what you should be doing when playing on the golf course.  And when you get to the golf course you’ll feel as though you’ve played the shots before so that should relieve some pressure as well.

Golf Practice

If you practice golf a lot but don’t seem to get any better on the golf course here’s what you need to do to make your practice sessions pay off.

First of all…you should practice quality and NOT quantity.  Also whenever you practice you should play golf shots as though you were playing on the golf course.  Imagine different shots that you face often and play the practice golf shot as though it’s a real one.

Often golfers who practice golf a lot get in what I term a “practice mentality.” And what this means is that on the practice fairway there is no penalty in hitting a bad golf shot, you just pull up another golf ball and hit it.  You have to make your golf practice sessions harder than your golf games so that when you get to play a game of golf you feel less pressure, not more.

So here’s what I suggest you do to make your golf practice sessions pay off on the golf course.

• Practice shorter sessions, concentrating on quality.
• Hit each golf shot as though it were your last golf shot ever.
• Make up games and pressure situations so that when you get to the golf course you feel relaxed and ready to go because you’ve already done all the hard work.

If you do these things when you practice golf then I’m sure you’ll score better when you play a game of golf.

Now the first chipping drill is a very simple one to practice but it does so much to help your feel.

To do this first chipping drill very simply choose a spot or area on the practice green and mark out this spot with a circle using tees.  Then simply chip with one club and aim to land your ball on the spot.  Keep practicing this until you can hit chip shots and land them consistently in a spot you choose.

Once you’ve mastered the previous chipping drill, then continue to chip to the same spot but use various clubs.  The objective of this drill is to carry the ball the same distance in the air with different clubs and notice the differences of how the ball rolls.

This is a great chipping drill because it teaches you how far to hit the ball in the air, but also how far the ball rolls on the green.

Chipping Practice Drill

And once again, once you’ve mastered the previous chipping drill, then play shots using different clubs from the same spot and eliminate the clubs that make it hard to get the ball close to the hole.   Doing these drills will help your chipping no end.  And here’s one final chipping drill.

Your goal when chipping should be to hole the ball.  But the next best thing is to leave the ball within about 3 feet of the hole.  So to practice this place tees about 3 feet from the hole in a circle.  Now chip from many different places around the practice green and aim to hole the chip shot with the secondary goal of leaving the ball within the friendly 3 feet circle.

Once again, practice these chipping drills and your golf scores will improve and get lower.  Good Practicing.

If you can spend an hour of your time practicing your golf game here is what I suggest you do to get the most benefit out of this time.

When you arrive at the practice area the very first thing you should do is a few stretches to warm up and you should do this for anything up to 5 minutes or until you’re warm.

Once you’re loosened up the next thing you should do is to start off hitting a couple of wedge shots and then slowly go through each club in your bag, hitting a few shots with each one until you reach your driver.  This process should take about 20 minutes.  When hitting these shots you should treat each one as though it’s a real shot on the golf course.  In other words, choose a precise target for each shot and then go through your normal pre-shot routine.

Once you’ve finished the 20 minutes of hitting full shots you should now practice pitching for 15 minutes and you should do this by hitting shots to all different distances.

What I mean be hitting shots different distances is that you should aim to hit one shot 30 yards, the next one 60 yards, one 75 yards, the next 40 yards etc, etc.  And remember to treat each shot, as you would on the course i.e. pick a target and do your pre-shot routine.

Now practice your chipping and bunker play for the next 10 minutes and once again pick a target and go through your pre-shot routine for each shot.  It’s important that you treat each shot as a real one and not some practice shot that doesn’t matter.

When practicing get yourself into the mindset that you have on the course.  That way when you get to the course you’ll be better prepared.

You’ve now got 10 minutes left to work on your putting.  And I suggest you practice putts outside of 10 feet, concentrating on your distance control and then end the practice session with some short putts (e.g. 2-3 footers).  Do this so you leave your practice session on a successful note.  Here’s a summary of your 1 hour practice session…

1 Hour Weekly Practice Session

• 5 minutes of stretching to get warm.
• 20 minutes of hitting a couple of shots with each club, starting with the wedge and then progressing through your clubs until reaching the driver.
• 15 minutes hitting pitch shots different distances i.e. 20 yards, 45 yards, 60 yards, 30 yards etc.  Never attempt to hit a shot the same distance during this 15 minutes period.
• 10 minutes of chipping and bunker shots.
• Final 10 minutes of putting, mainly working on distance control on putts outside of 10 feet and then finishing off this time with some successful short putts.

Finally Remember…Approach Each Practice Shot As Though It’s A Real Shot On The Golf Course!

For this putting article I’m going to talk about preparing to putt your best as if you had a game planned for tomorrow. Obviously within such a short space of time you should not try to improve your putting mechanics. That’s a long-term solution to your putting problems.

So I’m going to cover the mental side of preparation in this article along with how to practice immediately before a game of golf to give yourself the best chance of success out on the golf course.

OK, if you’ve got a game of golf tomorrow here’s the first thing you should do to give yourself the most chance of putting success.

When you go to bed I want you spend at least 5 minutes visualising the successful putts you’ve had in your golfing career. Pick out a great putt you’ve holed and in as much detail as possible visualize this putt over and over again. And keep doing this. Then once your mind begins to wander after say a minute or two then remember another good putt you’ve holed and repeat that successful putt over and over in your mind.

As you’re doing this it would also help if you recite positive affirmations to yourself over and over again like:

* I am a great putter
* I am a confident putter
* I have a great putting stroke etc.

The idea behind doing this is to fill your mind with positive mental images of putting success before going to sleep. This will go into your subconscious mind when you’re sleeping giving you more chances of putting success in the game tomorrow.

Now as soon as you wake up I recommend you do the same thing (i.e. visualize and do positive affirmations) then prepare as you normally would for a game of golf.

All right, now let’s say you’ve arrived at the golf course with time before your tee time to practice (which you definitely should do if you want to play your best).

Well, here is a little plan of what you should do on the practice putting green to help you putt your best out on the golf course.

First you should get out 3-5 golf balls. And these golf balls should be all the same type of golf ball that you’re going to be playing with on the golf course. Preferably new too.

So the first thing you should do is some distance control drills. Do NOT putt these 3-5 balls to a golf hole. An example of a distance drills is to putt the balls to the fringe say 20-30 feet away and try to get each ball to stop as close as possible to the fringe without going over it.

Doing distance control drills like this will give you a good feel for the speed of the green on the day that you’re playing.

Another good distance control drill is to putt to places on the practice putting green with your eyes closed. And after you’ve hit each putt guess how close the ball is going to finish to your intended target (remember, don not putt to a hole) and open your eyes and see how close you were to your guess.

Keep doing distance control drills like this but whatever you do…DO NOT PUTT TO A HOLE!

After you’ve got a good feel for the speed of the greens I then want you to stick a tee in the green and place your 3-5 golf balls about 2 feet away from the tee. Then simply putt the golf balls at the tee, trying to hit it. Do this for about 5 minutes.

Then after this I want you to go and put your golf balls away apart from the golf ball you’ve chosen to play with for that day. Then go back to the practice putting green and use that one golf ball and putt from one hole to the next. But don’t just hit the ball and go after it.

NO!

Go through your normal mental and physical pre-putt routine for each putt. Just as you would out on the golf course. If you don’t have a pre-putt mental and physical routine then you will be needlessly wasting shots on the golf course. So you need to create a pre-putt routine that takes the same time for each and every putt and gives you the most chance of holing every putt.

Now back to the pre game plan. I suggest you practice your putting exactly how you intend to play for about 5 minutes. Don’t do this too long because you’ll lose your concentration and be to mentally tired before you play. But here’s an important point.

End your practice on a good positive note and speak positively to yourself. Say positive affirmations to yourself like:

* I am a great putter.
* I love to putt.
* I am a confident putter etc., etc.

Speak to yourself how you want to be and you’re more likely to do it.

So that’s a plan on what you should do to give yourself the most chance of putting success. Use this plan but modify and experiment with different things to see what works best for you. And when you find a pre round formula that helps you to putt well keep doing it consistently.

You’ll get better, long-term putting results if you do.