Jun
06
2007

Keeping Practice Rounds Interesting

Posted by Double Eagle in Practice Tips

Stack and Tilt Golf Swing Videos by Medicus Golf

I saw an episode of Playing Lessons from the Pros featuring Bruce Fleisher on The Golf Channel recently, and he talked about a fun thing he does during practice rounds to make it interesting and competitive.

What he does is, on an approach shot, he’ll intentionally miss a green to a certain spot. This allows him to put himself in different random up and down situations, even when he’s playing well. If he’s playing well and not missing too many greens, then his short game isn’t getting worked too much. This is a way to do that.

On top of that, if he’s playing practice rounds with others, they can make a game of it: calling their miss and trying to get up and down. It would be easy to devise a point system where a player is docked a point for missing his miss and hitting the green.  That would keep it interesting.

I like this little game for several reasons:

  • It’s a fun way to make practice interesting.
  • It’s a good way to have a competition with your playing partners that has a different flair to it.
  • When you’re hitting the ball well, it gives you a chance to work your short game. It might be great to hit 15 greens in regulation in a practice round, but that also means your short game and recovery skills aren’t getting much work.
  • It’s a way to sharpen your target awareness. At first thought, you might think it’s dangerous to train yourself to miss greens, but I disagree. Every shot in golf is to a target of some kind. It doesn’t matter if your target happens to contain a fiberglass pole with a piece of rectangular nylon fabric at the top, or if it’s somewhere else. If you’ve got good target awareness and are pulling off the shots you want to hit, then it’s a positive.

I don’t know that I’d do this for every practice round, but I bet it can be a lot of fun. I’m going to give it a try. Try it yourself and let me know what you think.

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There are currently 5 responses to “Keeping Practice Rounds Interesting”

  1. 1

    HappyRock said:

    I will be interested to hear how this actually plays out when you try it.

    Posted on June 6th, 2007 at 11:18 am

  2. 2

    Greg Bartz said:

    While I won’t have to worry about not getting any short game practice do to hitting all the greens anytime soon, I do do lots of similar stuff when I play.

    In one game your approach shot is not an option. You have to draw your approach to the even numbered holes, and fade to the odd numbered holes. If you’re playing with friends everyone follows the same scheme.

    Another good one is knock down. In this game, you always take two to three more clubs than you need and hit a knock down approach shot.

    The result of these games is similar to the intended miss game, you get lots of practice getting up and down.

    Posted on June 6th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

  3. 3

    Double Eagle said:

    I love those games! The draw/fade game sounds like a lot of fun. The knock-down game sounds fun too, but also would really help to prepare a player to play in windy conditions. Hitting knock downs is the best way to deal with wind.

    Posted on June 6th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

  4. 4

    Greg Bartz said:

    One of the main things these games teach is a good mindset. Hitting these shots often takes you out of your comfort zone. Hitting a fade into a green with layout and wind favoring a draw is a difficult shot. So it’s kind of like a twenty-foot putt in that no one expects you to make it and you stroke the ball somewhat disconnected from the results. You simply have to trust your swing and have a go at it.

    Oh yeah, one more thing… The general conditions in the Southeast Houston area are often windy. We always have a 1-2 club wind and often quite a bit more. Most of the locals I play with have a very low ball flight.

    I have a very high ball flight and I’m just now learning the knock down and the Tiger “Stinger”. What makes these shots so difficult for me is that it’s very hard to get the distance right.

    Posted on June 7th, 2007 at 9:18 am

  5. 5

    Double Eagle said:

    Getting the distance right can certainly be tricky. Getting an idea of each club’s calm day knock-down swing distance should help you do the calculations. If you groove a good, repeatable knock-down distance for each club, then all you need to worry about is figuring out how much the wind is going to factor in, and whether you need to take a little off from your repeatable swing for that club (trying to muscle it when you need to go a little further than your grooved distance is not a good idea because that causes more spin, and magnifies the problem).

    Easier said than done, though. Good luck!

    Posted on June 7th, 2007 at 1:59 pm

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