Are you a Practice Range Golfer?

What I mean by this is that there are two distinct games being played by golfers.  One, Practice Range Golf.  Two, Golf Course Golf.  What is the difference? 

Practice Range Golfers spend most of their time hitting golf balls and less time playing the game on the course.  These golfers believe that with most of their time spent on the practice tee, they will conquer the game.  We all get pretty good at hitting these shots on the practice tee.  If you hit enough shots back to back to back on the practice range, you will develop a wonderful rhythm and feel, and it doesn’t matter what your swing looks like.  The feeling is that you finally have it.  Your next round will be your best.  Unfortunately, as soon as you hit your first shot, you realize that you don’t have it after all. That wonderful driving range feel and rhythm has disappeared.  Where did it go you ask?  Well, it didn’t go anywhere.  You never had it to begin with.  Golf is not played by hitting a second ball, a third, a fourth etc, if the first shot was poor; at least according to the Rules of Golf.  Back when I was playing tournament golf, I had three months off in the winter.  I decided to spend the time practicing on the driving range with the goal of really grooving my golf swing.  I truly thought that this experiment would finally put me over the top and give me the scoring game that I deserved.  For the next three months I did nothing but hit long shots every day.  Drivers, irons, full wedges, hooks, fades, slices, high shots, low shots, trick shots, every shot that I could think of I worked on.  I became quite good at all of these shots, and after three months I thought that I was ready to go out and set some records.  As you probably guessed, it didn’t quite work out as I thought it would.  My first round was disaster.  My drives were terrible, as well as every other shot.  I felt like I had never played the game of golf before.  I could not believe it.  I was truly astonished and terribly disappointed.  What happened?

In golf, as well as in every other sport, to play it well, one must practice and play it all of the time.  One or the other doesn’t not cut it.  You must bring the practice range shots to the golf course.  The two entities must be blended together over time.  You must practice on the range and go out and play.  If some of your shots are still poor, go back to the range and work it out.  Go play again and monitor what happens.  Eventually the poor shots become better; your confidence improves as well as your scoring.

I will say that eventually, all of that practice that I did for three months on the range did pay off.  It just took a long time to blend the range game into my golf course game.

Try to stay consistent with your practicing.  Practice, play, practice, play and most important, practice your Short Game 2/3’s of the time.