PracticePracticeAim: To help you plan a more useful and strategic practice routine, which you can use before a big round, although there's no practice quite like playing an actual game against someone!
Ok, assuming you dont have too much of a worry about your snap in general ( I know this a big assumption! ), then the next "lesson" is to "practice, practice,practice"...if you played 3 or 4 rounds every day without fail, it wouldnt be long before your snap was grooved, and youd be racking up the birdies, sadly we dont all have time for that, but the more you can play the more natural your snap timing and the more you learn about the clubs, the courses, the shots and various other little tricks which can help you on your way. I would practice in the wind as much as you can, if not all the time....you must leave your ego at the clubhouse when you start a practice round, who are you trying to impress anyway ? Learning to play in the wind is the absolute top tip I can give as far as practice goes, if you can play in the wind, breezy looks like kiddies stuff and no wind is just a joke....believe me, you can score some hot scores in the wind if you learn to play in it, not to mention the fact that these are the distances you need to learn..in no wind, the distance a club goes is more or less what it goes !, but if you know how far your clubs go into and with the wind and off a crosswind ,you'll soon be playing as if it wasnt there at all, and you will certainly notice how many more players you are suddenly beating! Leave mulligans on for mouse farts but avoid using them to correct bad shots, learning recovery play from tough spots is a very important part of your armoury, and you'll also be left with a false impression of your ability if you mully the bad shots away...having said that if you are playing into a strong wind, and you get the distance totally wrong, it can be useful to mully, but use it wisely ! note down the distance you needed, the lie youre in, the uphill/downhillness to the green, the wind strength and direction etc and green speeds...jot down the club and loft setting you used and where it ended up, then mully till you get the shot close to where you wanted it and note that down, before long you'll see some consistent patterns emerging which will be second nature, for example in LS98 faced with 215 yards into full wind I learned a 3W default loft would be just the ticket...in this way, there arent so many things to learn, but jot it all down to start with until you have a set of rules to follow which will cover all situations. As for tracers, I would say they are a good idea, not only for seeing how high on the screen clubs go ( useful to remember for those trees! ), but what sort of curve the ball goes in the wind, but most importantly for putting to watch the line of the putt, again make a note if you are always under or overborrowing break on putts. If you are going to practice seriously, you must learn from every shot you take, so if your driver drifts off the fairway in a crosswind, be sure to allow a little more drift next time etc...You neednt always do a full practice though, sometimes its just as useful juts to play a round or two to get in the groove, get your snap timing and distance judgement good....but what you put in, youll get out !
Preparing
for a Round
Specifics:
This is obvious. Before you play a recorded round
or whatever as part of a tourney, the ideal preparation is to
play the same round in the same conditions.If you play windy,
there is a wind direction you'll get 90% of the time and theres
the odd time when its totally different. Restart the round a few
times to check which looks like the most normal wind direction
and then play that, you could of course practice the other, but
it's a lot more effort for an unlikely scenario.It's ideal at
this stage to make a few notes for each hole, like where you
aimed off the tee to stay in the fairway, where there's trouble,
what sort of approach shot you are likely to have, whether its
uphill/downhill etc and what the general effect of your approach
is ( is it playing longer or shorter than you first think)..the
pin positions are always the same for a recorded round so make
sure you have that ticked for your practice round, then you can
identify the pins you can attack and the ones you have to be
careful of. You should note any peculiarities (remember that par3
at pebble beach where there is an overhanging tree that catches
your ball even though on your camera view its nowhere near it !),
as well as general notes, which par5's can you reach in 2, which
cant you, any funny shots over trees than you have to be careful
of, as well as those bloody trees you sometimes get near the tee
which catch your drive! Then make a note of the greens, since the
pins will be the same for all recorded rounds you should note
where the flatter spots are, so you can aim for them even if it
puts you further from the hole, make a note of the pace of your
putts, is it about what you "know" through experience,
are there any which are faster/slower than you imagine at first
sight. Are there any bunkers/swails that are very deep and to be
avoided, are there bunkers close to the pin but flat so you
neednt worry, do you get a flattish chip from off the green near
a tricky pin..is it worth taking the flag on. Practice a few
putts from the worst possible place with respect to the pin just
for some insight (use the drop option), which places can you
relax a bit, which are going to require a perfect
snap/shot....the more you jot down, the better for when you play
for real, including before i forget the distances for par3's that
are very up and downhill, should you aim at the pin or just to
one side for the break, assuming a perfect snap..which holes do
you definitely want to run at the middle of the green, not the
pin etc etc.......
General:
Mostly you won't have the time or energy or
patience for all that, and a lot of you will know the danger
spots and quirks of most of the courses. So, not a bad idea just
to skip through the holes ( shot options,next hole) and play the
tougher ones in terms of what I said above, and concentrate on
practising the putts and chips on the greens to get the pace
right in your head.Other than that, the more your notes look like
the ones you would make in the above case, the better. Clearly,
playing some practice rounds/holes before you start is only going
to help you with your snap and timing.
Top Tips:
Practice at all times with the wind on, unless you are preparing for a particular event with certain conditions
Make notes of where you go wrong, where you are right
Try not to use mulligans as it is important to learn the recovery game
Play recorded rounds to see the default pin positions and to look at the green contours relative to that
Hit some chips from off the green in the positions you're likely to be in given the shape of the hole
Look out for real blackspots and avoid these when you play for real