Why do few golfers practice properly?

[dave.]

If you learn to play chess,you don't study Kasparovs hardest moves first,so why do so many players just bash away on a range,without lessons,a clue,a swing,or a brain?

Leadbetter believes that you don't need to hit many balls to groove in a decent swing,and the secret is having a purpose to your practice,and some element of organisation.

So why do so few golfers read golf books and actually learn how to practice?

Have a lesson,read some books and understand the basics of the swing,stance,grip,posture.

Decide on a routine on the range and stick to it.Pratice what the pro has told you.

Stay away from the driver for the first few thousand balls.

Have more lessons,and stay focused on your routine.

Why is this so hard? On the range,you will see one player from 20 hitting 6 irons off the matt.Mostly you will see drivers being crunched from the off and you will hear grunts and groans all over.

Its a rare game golf,a starter can do EXACTLY what the pros do on the range.Warm up,swing with rythym,have a routine,practice with purpose etc etc,yet so few players do this.

Yet EVERY F**KING DAY Mr Driver Bomber Bollocks comes and gives me tips when I'm hitting my titchy little 50 ball daily bucket.GO AWAY and read a book.

Rant over.I just can't believe that so many golfers don't realise the advantage they can have if they practice properly.Obvioulsy if you just wanna go and bash the ball and chill,and can't be arsed with that,then fair enough,respect,but you are in the minority at my range.Its just violence on a massive scale everyday.

[IrishGolfer]

Its just violence on a massive scale everyday.

I like this thought. Driving Range Delinquents (DRDs)! LOL.

[Golf Monkey]

Put down the golf books man and get one on anger management.

[Dave Ireland]

Ahem ..... my golf game has improved no end since I gave up going to the range ... go figure ? ....I'm playing about 3 times a week which seems to be doin the trick .... I do spend half hour or so on the practice greens and short game

I bagged the POTY award in my work society last Friday ... pics to follow of the dust collectors I won ... in addition to a perpetual trophy in commemoration of 1 of our work colleagues who died tragically last xmas eve.

[Playdead]

I would guess most casual golfers just don't get into it enough to "get it". Some just play a couple times a year, hack away and are happy with that, I have friends that do just that. Maybe others can shell out $5 at the range and $25 or so for the occasional round but just can't swing the $80 or more for a good lesson, and listen to a mish-mash of advice instead.

When I was younger my friends and I would head to the range and hack away at hunderds of balls thinking maybe we'd get better. Of course we weren't practicing golf we were really just hitting balls. Maybe we thought hitting balls at the range was akin to exercising, the more you do it, the stronger/fitter you will be. Of course hitting a million range balls won't make you better if you have a flawed swing to begin with.

So I'm at the range late last year and I finally have the epiphany that maybe my swing was really flawed (@$#% up is more like it) and I needed serious help. At that point I was no longer the casual golfer who played a couple times a year, have fun and don't give a shit otherwise.

No no, I was now a golfer who cared about his swing mechanics, blew lots of money on newer modern clubs, buys golf books and magazines, and joined a internet golf forum ! I still have fun of course.

Earlier this year i met up with those same friends at the range and they were suprise how I was hitting the ball now. I tried to steer them toward trying a lesson or at least getting a book, but they just don't care that much it seems. Maybe a few more buckets of balls will help them straighten out that hard 80yd slice

I hope that explains some possible reasons for Driving Range Delinquents (LOL!)

[dave.]

Put down the golf books man and get one on anger management.

I bought one and bbq'ed it.

[Jeff Gallo]

I say its because everyone is out there looking for that revelation that people like me say isnt in the books
Practice isnt about learning to play golf, its about learning how to use the club, I quit practicing a few years ago because i went kinda nuts over it, i would hit 4 and 5 hundred balls a couple of times a week and I stopped because... well lets leave it at this: Do your wrists make this cracking noise when you roll them??
anyhoo I had invested a lifetime's worth of practice and discovered FOR MYSELF the two dimentions of the golf swing #1 PATH and #2 Face direction (the basics of using a golfclub). once you have discovered these things the challenge is no longer one for practice with the club but practice with playing the game. of course i never made the realization that i didnt NEED any more practice until I absolutely HAD to stop doing it for the sake of both my mental and physical health. granted that most people don't make that discovery or even if they've read it (how many books did Harvey Penick sell?) come to a very simplified understanding of it...

Now I speak only for the uneducated golfer here not for the punk-rock hooligans who go to the range to try and "Hit something hard!! Xcore!!" they we should all ignore. But I say you ought to hold a reverence for those who seek a clue while naked in the world of golf but for their own wit. the reward they are seeking is far greater than that of a better score. Of course in some cases we all know it'll never happen but its still better to humor them.

I salute all of you driving range choppers, and wish you all good luck, cause if you can find it you can do what i did today. you can be the kid who through instruction shows up a lifetime of golf in its mid60s which was named number one teaching pro at least once and still resides deep in the top 50. Keep on hacking

[Bravo]

I play much better golf when I am able to practice once a week. My handicap has been creeping upward lately because it is too damn hot to practice here in July and August.

Last Spring I was practicing at the range and a guy who has won our club championship three times was out there. He practices 3-4x per week. Fanatical.

I asked him what he did to practice.

He said he hits about five practice drives and no fairway woods.

He spends 5% of his time on irons 3-7.

Spends 40% of his time hitting 8-W.

Spends 25% of his time chipping.

Spends 25% of his time putting.

He told me his Only goal with his driver was to hit it in the fairway. He buys only the straightest driver he can get.

Shocking.

[obagain]

Gallo,

Are you saying we shouldn't practice? How do you get better with no practice?

[Jeff Gallo]

I'm saying you should practice until you have satisfied yourself that you truely understand what you need to do with the club... after that golf is like riding a bike, you'll be able to drop it and pick it up again after quite a while and be able to do it well enough to meet recreational needs.

by all means if you have a daily wager on the course do everything you need to to keep your swing in good working order.. but let me tell you that once you've created a swing that is perfectly tuned to you you wont have to practice to stay at least competitive with your buddies. Also i find that playing a golfcourse instead of practicing once you 'have a swing' is a more effective form of practice

[Youngun5]

having just found this revelation of being able to stop then pick up where i left off a couple weeks later totally agree

practicing makes me think too much, makes me second guess my swing when its working better than ever

good post jeff

[SilverUberXeno]

Well, when I'm NOT golfing, I try to picture in my head what my swing looks like. Then I try to figure out what I could to do swing more effectively, efficiently, etc.

If you saw me at the range, I'd hit my driver maybe 10 times out of 104 balls. I don't hit a whole lot of 7-8-9, because I so rarely have trouble with those. But a lot of the time I'm trying to straighten out my lower irons and fairway woods.

I try to realise everything I'm going to do on this particular swing, see the result, and change one thing at a time. Hopefully, when the ball flies exactly how I anticipated it would, I'll have the right swing. I try lots of different stuff, and I'd say it helps.

Practice doesn't make PERFECT.. but not practicing hurts like a mother, I think. A canadian one.

[obagain]

Sorry, all that means is you will never be better, and your imaginative shot making will suffer.

If this really worked, why does tiger spend so much time on the range? He is the best in the world and still need practice.
I was showing this to mark brooks and he laughed and said, that is why they will never be where I am.
Granted, if you just play with the guys and don't want to advance your game you will be an ok golfer, plus I will have more room at the range and there will still be grass when I get there.

[SilverUberXeno]

We'll see about that. I'll make sure I hit a few extraordinarily obese shots for you, to make up for the lack of others hacking away.

[Youngun5]

in my opinion practicing does nothing unless you go out on the course, you can't create half the scenarios you'll face on a course while standing on a rubber mat next to paul bunyan trying to chop down a redwood with that driver

i learn a hundred times more about my game on the course than on the range

you don't go out to practice on the course, you play it

just like in the classroom, everyone learns differently, golf can be the same way,

i'm not saying an occasional bucket is totally out of the question b/c it isn't, its just easier for me to learn when every shot counts, rather than "oh that sucked, good thing i got a whole bucket here" i loose concentration and can engrain bad things into my swing

short game practice is mandatory tho, i do practice that