Add some purpose to a perform practice session at the range.
Performance practice
As part of your performance practice, this is a range-based game that adds the sort of decision making you'll need on the course. With specific distances and pin positions, the purpose is to engage your full routine: planning, preparation, execution and response. With a little imagination, you can make the range more like the real thing, with the help of the challenges that follow.
How it works
Take full bag of clubs to the range, or at least those for 120-200 yard shots. A rangefinder would also be useful if your range doesn't have targets with marked distances.
10 holes - 15 minutes
You play the 5 par threes at Worplesdon G.C. twice in this game, but the second set all have different pin and/or tee positions. Given the planning required, and the fact that each shot is unique, allow 15 minutes to play this game, maybe at the end of a session.
Look at each hole as if you would on a planner, work out whether you are going to make the pin your target, or strategically aim to a different part of the green to avoid the bad miss. Only when you have chosen your target can you calculate distance and pick the appropriate club.
From the existing features on the outfield of the range, imagine the green and surrounds challenged to you in the hole you're playing.
3 pts available on each hole
1 pt for hitting your intended shot. This means, broadly, the ball travelled on the line, shape and height you intended. So if you pictured a shot that started at the middle of the green and drew to a left pin, but instead you pulled it there, no point earned.
1 pt for hitting the green however it got there.
1 pt for avoiding the bad miss. So even if you didn't hit your intended shot, nor hit the green, you still get a point for leaving yourself in a reasonable position to get up and down, a valuable skill.
A bad miss is usually short-siding yourself (i.e. missing the green on the same side the flag is positioned). It depends a little on the terrain around the pin and your relative short game strengths and weakness. You can be the judge of whether the shot was a good miss or a bad miss. The main point is that you are considering this at all in practice, helping prepare you for the real thing. Good luck.
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