Practice Routines for Tournament Golfers:
How Good Do You Want to Be?
- Put Some Purpose in Your Practice. It is not enough to just go hit some balls. You must have a goal and you must be working towards something.
- Add or Take out anything based on your time
- Remember – for every minute you’re not practicing, someone else is and is getting better than you
- Practice- Play – Compete – Learn – Read- Watch – Train
- We are practicing for the Big Moments in Golf… The final 9-Holes of a tournament when you are in contention. The ability to hit a great lag putt on the final hole of an event. To make a clutch 3 foot left to right putt on the final hole to qualify for the US Amateur. To drive it down the center of the 18th hole of the US Open on the final day with water right and bunkers left.
Monday
• 9-Holes at Par 3 Course working on Distance Control with irons
o Play First ball for score.
o Play extra ball from 30-40 yards short of green and keep that balls score
o Hit extra short chips just off side of green if play is slow and you have time to practice
• Putting Session – 40-Minutes
o Make 50 Putts from 3 Feet
o Play 9-Hole 2-Putt Game (Pick 9 putts outside of 20 feet and you have to 2-putt all 9-Holes
• Nightime Gym Workout
o Weights and Cardio
Tuesday
• Range Day – 3 Hour Practice Session
o Warm Up with Pitch Shots for feel and contact.
o Work on Wedges for 7 Minutes
• LW – SW – PW
• Practice High Shots, Low Shots, Vary Distances with each club
• Practice Full Finish vs. Cut Off Finish with each club
o Hit Odd Number Clubs Today (9, 7, 5, 3 iron)
• Practice Ball Flight
• 3 Fades and 3 draws with each club calling shots on command. If you struggle keep working on it until you have a good pattern going.
o Hit 12-18 Woods off the ground working on ball flight pattern. Hit high fades with 3 wood to practice landing the ball softly. Then put 3 wood on short tee and work on turning it over and hitting it farther.
o Driver Drill
• Pick different targets and hit to a determined fairway. Do your full pre shot routine like it’s the opening tee shot of a tournament. Track whether you hit fairway, miss right or miss left for each shot. Do this daily and you can stay on top of hitting your fairways.
o Play a Mock Round on the Range of the next course you plan to play. Good drill for your imagination and to see if you can hit good shots switching clubs rather than pounding the same one over and over again.
• Nighttime Gym Workout
o Cardio and Stretching
Wednesday
• Short Game and Range Day
o Start with Pitching and Chipping
• 30-Minutes of dropping multiple balls in one location and practicing repeating same shot over and ver
• 30-Minutes of practicing Scoring around the green. Use one ball and chip and putt out around a green and keep score. Play as many holes as you have time for or even better compete with a friend.
• 15-Minutes of Sand Practice working on different lies and hitting shots varying your trajectory.
o Putting Session
• Start with 9-Hole Stroke Play Practice to see if you can putt good right away
• Green Reading Drill Using sticks to choose read and see if you read the break correctly
• Lag putt to circle of tees from 30-40-50 feet
o Range Session
• Ball Flight Drill
• Work on Each Club in your bag and try to hit the same shot pattern with each shot. Maybe hit every ball today with a slight draw, or a slight fade.
• Do some weighted clubs swing to increase club head speed.
• Practice hitting the driver with max speed to increase club head speed. Max speed with balance, make sure you stick your finish.
o Night Time Gym Workout
• Weights and Cardio
Thursday
• 18-Holes on Course
o You have now had 3 straight days of practice so go ahead and play 18-Holes for score.
o If you are working on something particular in your game that still needs work and you miss a shot you should drop another ball and try and fix it. It’s important to balance out scoring style practice rounds with practice rounds to work on things.
o After your round you should practice any areas of weakness or replay some key shots you could have improved on.
• Nighttime Cardio Workout
Friday
• Short Session after 4 Days of Good Practice
o 1.5 hrs.
o Putting Session – 30-Minutes
• 50 3-footers
• Lag Putting drill
• 9-Hole Drawback drill (Pull back all putts missed by one club length)
o Chipping Session – 30 – Minutes
• Chip and try to land ball on a towel for landing spot
• Chip 9-Holes for score
• Vary clubs Drill 7, 9, SW
o Bunker Session – 30-Minutes
• Trajectory Drill
• Land on Towel
• Try and make it spin like crazy
o Nighttime Workout
• Weights and Cardio
• Saturday
o AM Short game Session
• Shag bag at practice area
• 2 Hours of Short game Pitching from 30-40-50 yards
o Putting
o Lunch
o 18-Holes on Course
• Play Red Tees and keep score working on going low
• Sunday
o 18-Holes in AM Match with Friends or Competitors
o Lunch
o Work on Areas needing improvement from AM Round