by James Ruhnke

Created on: June 10, 2009

Have you ever known the golfer who is great at the practice range but on the actual golf course things fall apart? Is that golfer you? Allow me to try and help.

On a driving range, things are much simpler than on a golf course. On the range, you can use the same club for an entire bucket, your misses do not count, anywhere "out there" is good enough and you can improve your lie or even hit off an astro-turf mat. This is all well and good if you are just whacking balls but it is terrible practice. Whenever you go to a range, go with one, and only one thing to practice on. You may think that you need to work on your driver but in 99% of the cases the fault isn't in your driver but in your golf swing. The best way to find and fix a problem is to hit wedge shots at about 60% of your full speed. Believe me, if you cannot control distance, direction and trajectory with a 60% wedge shot, why hit a driver?

Whenever on a range always make some kind of game with a goal out of your practice. You can try hitting 5 in a row onto a green or 5 in a row with a draw or fade. If you fail you must start over until you "win". This makes your practice easier to carry over to the actual golf course.

Never, ever allow your mind to get cluttered up with swing thoughts when you are playing golf. That is, by far, the number one reason for poor rounds. Instead of thinking target you are thinking about a straight left arm. You'll get a birdie for keeping a straight arm but the scorecard will say, "double-bogey". Instead, have fun, use two mire clubs than necessary and swing loose and easy. I once found how easy it was to break 90 if I simply tried to score a bogey on every hole. I never tried to hit the green on a par 3, for instance, always laid up 3 shots on a par 5, always hit to the safe positions and relied on a good short game to keep the score low. Try it and you will find consistent scores between 86-92.

When you practice, practice and when you play, play. Golf should help you to forget your troubles so don't allow golf to become another trouble. Try to forget everything you see the pros doing on TV. They are playing for a million dollars and, hopefully, you are playing for the fun of it. Play quickly, efficiently and courteously and you will always be welcome in any foursome regardless of your score. Slow play ruins your day and everyone else's. Practice swinging a bad swing only makes things worse. Hit the dang ball. Good luck!

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