If you want to play better golf, you have to practice. Many golfers over the years have tried to get around that simple fact, but it remains as true today as it was the day the game was invented. You can try to 'purchase' a better game through new equipment, but those gains (if any) will be relatively small, and usually temporary as well. The only path toward lower golf scores is found on the driving range, the short game practice area, and the practice putting green. Become familiar with these spots at your local course and your scores are sure to fall.

So, there can really be no argument about whether or not you need to practice in order to improve your game. You do. But how should you be practicing? How do you divide up your time, and what do you work on during each trip to the range? Those questions are a little harder to answer. You obviously want to get the best possible return from the time you put in on the range, so you need to have a smart plan that addresses your weaknesses while maintaining your strengths at the same time.

To get better at golf, you will need to practice. Of course, that probably goes without saying, and you may have landed on this article because you are hoping to get better at the art of practice. It’s one thing to head to the driving range and spend an hour swinging away – it’s another thing to use that time wisely to actually make yourself a better golfer. With the content below, we hope to provide you with some helpful tips and information to guide your upcoming practice sessions.

Before we get started, it’s important to make one thing clear – practicing with a purpose is the biggest key in this entire process. What does that mean? It comes down to having specific goals in mind when you are out practicing. When you don’t know what you are working on, you are probably working on nothing at all. If you get into the habit of having specific objectives for each of your practice sessions, you should start to see progress sooner rather than later.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.


— Five Keys for Productive Golf Practice

We are going to get started by taking a big-picture view of this topic. We’d like to introduce five general keys that can help you get more out of your practice time.

• The 50/50 Split. This is one of the most important concepts in golf practice, so it’s as good of a place as any other to get started. When you head out for a practice session, think about dividing your practice time 50/50 between the long game and the short game. So, for instance, if you are going to practice for one hour, you will spend 30 minutes working on your swing and 30 minutes working on short game skills like putting, chipping, and bunker play. While some players would benefit from spending even more time on the short game, this even split of your time is an appropriate starting point. Unfortunately, most average golfers don’t get anywhere near this even division of their time when practicing. Instead, the typical golfer spends way more time on his or her swing than the short game. Why do so many players struggle so badly with putting and chipping on the course? It’s really quite simple – they don’t give those parts of the game the respect they deserve in practice.
• Specific objectives. We mentioned this briefly in the introduction to this article, but it deserves a closer look here. Before each practice session, get into the habit of identifying a couple of things you want to work on that day. As a good rule of thumb, you can pick out one thing in your long game that you would like to address, and one thing in your short game. For example, you might decide that you are going to work on your ability to hit a draw with your full swing, since you usually play a fade and want to have the option to curve the ball the other way. In the short game, it might be distance control on long putts that gets your attention. With specific goals in mind to guide your practice, you’ll be doing more than mindlessly swinging – you’ll be working toward accomplishing something tangible that can help you play better in an upcoming round.
• Focus. This is a tricky one, because golf should be fun first and foremost. However, if you would like to get better at this difficult game, you will need to lock in and focus from time to time during your practice sessions. If you are just chatting with friends while hitting a few balls and a few putts, it’s unlikely that much real progress will be made. The answer here is to have both kinds of practice sessions. There is nothing wrong with heading to the range with friends sometimes for a social outing – as long as you make time on other occasions to practice by yourself and focus on what you are trying to achieve. During those individual practice sessions, it might help to listen to some music with headphones as you practice, just to block out any distractions that might be coming from other players on the range or in the practice area.
• Stay fresh. It’s tempting to think that standing out on the range for half the day hitting hundreds of golf balls is bound to make you a better player – but that might not really be the case. If you practice for too long, your form is sure to suffer, and you might do more harm than good. Remember, the golf swing is an athletic motion, and you only have so many swings in you for a given day. Players who are physically fit and practice often will likely have more stamina than others, but everyone has a limit. Get familiar with your practice limit and don’t push it too far. Think about it this way – making 50 high-quality swings is going to be better for the development of your game than making 150 swings that don’t live up your expectations.

• Have a positive attitude. It’s hard to remain positive in golf, as there is so much failure built into the game. Even the best golfers hit poor shots during each and every round, so it’s inevitable that the average player is going to fail more often than he or she succeeds. All of those poor shots have a way of wearing down your confidence, and you might wind up feeling pretty defeated as you practice. Do your best to turn this mindset around. Yes, bad shots are a part of golf, but they are a part of golf for everyone – you are far from alone. As you practice, work on seeing things in a positive light, even when you struggle. Celebrate the good shots and understand that struggles are part of the process if you are eventually going to improve. It can be tough to maintain this kind of attitude during each practice session but staying positive can do wonders for your game.

Knowing how to practice can take you a long way in this game. Even if you already take regular trips to your local driving range, you might not be maximizing your ability if you haven’t been practicing the right way. Consider using the tips above to create some new practice habits that will hopefully take you to new heights – and lower scores – on the course.


— Practicing Your Full Swing

During the half of your practice session where you are working on your full swing, you’ll want to do more than just set a ball down in front of you and fire away. That’s not how golf is played on the course, so it’s your job to replicate what you’ll face on the course as accurately as you can in practice. The tips below should help you get more out of your full swing practice time.

• Don’t worry much about distance. Here’s something you might not know about golf practice on a driving range – the distances that you hit your shots are pretty much meaningless. On the average range, you’ll be hitting golf balls that have already been hit thousands of times, so they might not have much life left in them. And, at some ranges, those balls are flight-restricted models anyway, meaning they aren’t any kind of accurate comparison to a real ball. So, when you add it all up, there isn’t much point in paying attention to your distances during practice. Instead, work on things like the quality of the strike, the ball flight you achieve, and hitting your target line. There is plenty to be learned from a full swing practice session, but distance is not one of those items.
• Play from a variety of lies. This is a key point to understand when practicing on a grass range. You aren’t always going to get a great lie while on the course, so don’t give yourself a perfect lie for every swing on the range. You don’t have to give yourself terrible lies for your iron shots, but don’t perch the ball up as high as possible on the grass each time, either. The goal is always to imitate as closely as possible the experience you will have during your rounds of golf and dealing with varied lies is an integral part of this game.
• Alter your flights. It’s important to have a go-to shot on the golf course, so many of your swings should be intended to produce that same go-to flight that you prefer to use. However, don’t get so stuck in that pattern that you never work on doing anything else with the ball. After all, you never quite know what you will encounter while on the course and having the ability to hit a few different kinds of shots can go a long way toward helping you shoot lower scores. For instance, if you are a draw player for your standard shots, try hitting at least a few fades during each practice session to develop your skills in that area. Also, experiment with hitting a few shots higher and lower than usual. Not only will these experimental shots have the potential to help you on the course on the future, but they can also make practice more fun and interesting.
• Switch clubs frequently. Many golfers will fall into a rut during a practice session of just hitting the same club over and over again. While that can be a reasonable approach if you are working on some specific technical aspect of your swing, it’s not a great plan for an average practice session. Remember, you aren’t going to hit 20 or 30 shots in a row on the course with the same club, so you’ll never have a chance to develop the kind of rhythm that you can develop when doing this in practice. Do your best to switch clubs frequently, rarely hitting more than two or three shots in a row with the same club. If you would like, you can get into a pattern of going back and forth between two categories of clubs for part of your session, such as alternating between driver shots and wedge shots – which is something you’ll do fairly often on the course.
• Challenge yourself. Do you find that you tend to gravitate during practice towards the clubs you already hit well? This is natural, as it’s fun to hit good shots down the range, and you know which clubs you are comfortable with and which ones give you trouble. But here’s the thing – the best way to get better is to work on your weaknesses, not your strengths. You can still hit some shots with the clubs that you already like, but spend even more time working on the clubs that give you fits. Players who are willing to address their weaknesses instead of running from them will be better off in the long run.

It's not easy to improve the quality of your full swing. Even with good practice habits, you should still expect this process to take plenty of time and effort. Try to keep an eye on the big picture and look forward to the day when your ball striking can carry you around the course with relative ease.


— Practicing Your Short Game

It might be even more important to have good habits for short game practice than it is for long game practice. While standing on the putting green to practice, it’s easy to be far too casual about the whole process. You need to practice with intent in this area, just like with the full swing, but that doesn’t happen for a lot of players. Toward that end, we have listed some valuable short game practice tips below.

• Focus on distance control with all shots. It’s not too hard to get close to your target line in the short game, since you are playing these shots from such a short distance to the hole. With that said, the real challenge in the short game is getting your distance right. For instance, imagine a 30-foot putt for birdie. If you get the distance right, you should have a pretty easy par putt left, even if your line wasn’t great. However, if you are way off on speed, you might have a five-footer left for par, and you’ll have to work hard to avoid a bogey. So, during practice, be sure to focus your efforts largely on learning how to control the pace of your short game shots. For both putts and chip shots, learn how to use enough speed to allow the ball to reach the hole without letting it go too far past. Developing this skill in practice can save you a surprising number of strokes on the course.
• Build up confidence on short putts. Consider getting into the habit of starting and finishing each short game practice session with a series of short putts. This is one kind of shot you know you will face during every round, and these types of putts tend to test your confidence. To build that confidence and grow your belief in yourself on the short ones, try making ten in a row to start each session and ten more in a row to finish. You can even make it easy on yourself by picking a three-footer on a flat portion of the practice green. If you go through this routine regularly in practice, you’ll have plenty of confidence available when you face a testy short putt during a key part of your round.
• Find tricky lies for chip shots. This is something we mentioned when talking about the full swing, but it is even more important when practicing your chipping. You’ll often deal with tough lies when chipping, because the area around the greens on most golf courses is rarely flat. Look around the chipping area to find as many different kinds of slopes as you can and challenge yourself to hit good shots from difficult places. This kind of practice can help you grow your creativity around the greens, which is a skill that is sure to pay off over and over again. While it’s great to practice from these different kinds of situations, also make time for standard chip shots from flat lies so you can dial in your technique.
• Playing games during your short game practice is a great way to engage your mind and add a bit of pressure to the situation. Think of little competitions to play with yourself – or a friend – such as keeping score while you putt to nine different holes around the practice green. As you go, you can keep track of your best scores for these little games and try to better your performances as your skills improve.

— Sharpening Your Mental Game

A big part of playing good golf on the course comes down to using your mind to your advantage, rather than to your detriment. While you probably can’t replicate perfectly the way your mind will behave on the course while you are practicing, you can take some steps to improve your mental performance.

For starters, take your time before each shot and think about what you are trying to accomplish with that swing or stroke. Many players rush through their practice sessions, and they don’t give themselves time to work on their mental approach as a result. Stand behind the ball for a moment and plot out what kind of shot you are going to hit before stepping up and making it happen. By building this habit on the range, it will be much easier to carry it over onto the course.

Another way to build up your mental abilities is to put a little bit of pressure on yourself. A good way to do this is to practice with a friend who is willing to be competitive and challenge you on the range. For instance, you can take turns picking targets, awarding a point to whoever gets closer on that swing. The stakes won’t be significant, but just the spirit of competition should get your attention and help you focus on the task at hand.

One last option for addressing the mental side of the game on the range is to ask a friend to intentionally distract you while you are working on your game. This isn’t a good idea all the time – sometimes you just want to focus and practice – but learning to deal with distractions is a valuable skill. You could do something as simple as asking your friend to start talking to you as soon as your backswing begins. Normally, this would throw a golfer off and make it hard to hit a solid shot. However, if you work on focusing your mind on the task at hand while blocking everything else out, you might be able to get through it with good results. After these kinds of practice sessions, the normal kinds of distractions that come up on the course will seem like no problem at all. The more work you can do on the range to prepare your mind for the challenges that it will face on the course, the better off you will be in the long run.

As a golfer, you should look at practice as something you get to do, rather than something you have to do. It can be a ton of fun to work on your game, as long as you have the right perspective and attitude about the process. While shooting low scores and beating your friends is a fun goal to have in mind, don’t forget to enjoy the journey and pat yourself on the back as your skills develop. We hope the advice in this article will help you get more out of your practice sessions than ever before. Good luck!