Happy Monday Golfers; This week’s blog topic is called, “Making The Most of Practice Technology.”

The facilities at driving ranges and indoor studios are becoming increasingly better with the introduction of ball and club tracking data. With that comes access to some of the best courses around the world, along with plenty of different games to keep you entertained. However, we can often end up at the range just hitting balls with no purpose and no real measurement of performance. So let’s take a look at different ways to leverage our access to practice technology to get better this season.

Playing Courses

The access to these features is brilliant for improving the quality of your practice. Being able to simulate golf courses is really helpful for improving your on-course game as we can simulate behavioral aspects such as your routine, the demands, and the intention of the shot. We also have that spacing effect where we have to wait to hit our next shot and then refocus again along with a pre shot routine.

At the range, we tend to hit balls in a machine-gun mode with no change in club selection or target, which is very different from the way golf is played on the course. The great thing about this is you can play with other golfers and include your handicaps to make it competitive, so we can also add a little pressure. It’s a great way to use your time at the range and is brilliant for the off-season when the weather deteriorates.

Checking Your Yardages

If you have never checked your yardages, this is a good place to start. However, I recommend doing this in an indoor studio where you can use the ball you play with and a club/ball tracking launch monitor. Using range balls to record your yardages is not going to be as accurate in comparison.

Skills Games

Why not try some of the target games which will give you random yardages and proximity to hit to? These are usually calibrated to the targets on the range, making it very visual as well. This is a great way to practice as you are constantly changing shots and clubs. It also adds a bit of pressure and is a great game to play against another golfer. If you have a young junior golfer in your World, it’s a brilliant way to increase engagement.

Call a Yardage

Finally, why not test your skills by calling a yardage and seeing if you can get close to the number? (5% either side is usually a good target) It’s a great way to increase your touch on adding and subtracting speed. To make this game more challenging, pick a club that you would usually use for a much longer shot. For example, take an 8-iron when you would typically take a wedge and see if you can hit the yardage.

Have a great week and stay on the journey to better Golf.

– Coach Tim