Many recreational golfers arrive at the course with enough time to prepare their for a round. How you use that time matters. Most players get a bucket of balls and spend that entire time on their full swing. Irons, woods, hybrids, and of course the big dog driver. Then if there’s time, hit three or four putts on the practice green.
Most quality courses have a practice range, a short game area for chipping and bunker shots, and a practice putting green. The range gets the most use, followed by the putting green. The short game area is usually a ghost town. If we stop and think about the types of shots we’ll actually face on the course, this warm-up routine isn’t an accurate representation of the round ahead.
Shot Breakdown for a Typical Round
Based on shot-tracking data, here’s a typical breakdown by shot for a reaction golfer:
· Full swing shots (driver, wood, hybrid, iron, layup): about 46%
· Short game shots (chips, pitches, bunker shots, recovery shots): about 16%
· Putts: about 38%
The full swing—the part of the game that gets almost all the practice attention—makes up less than half the round, at about 41 strokes. Putting alone is nearly as big a slice as the entire full swing. Combine putting and the short game and you get 49 strokes, more than half your score, coming from the two areas that get the least practice time.
Placing so much mental focus and mechanical practice on the full swing, and almost none on putting, the short game, and recovery shots, while wondering why your score isn’t improving, is a massive blind spot.
Practice What You Play
Take an honest look at your course play, not just your full swings, but all shot types. Over time this data will show you exactly what needs work.
Then rethink your practice sessions to match. If short game and putting account for roughly half your strokes, they deserve roughly half your practice time, not the leftover ten minutes before you tee off. Split a 60-minute session into three 20-minute blocks: full swing, short game, putting. Or better, let your own shot data set the ratio.
This is a simple shift, but it’s rarely made. Act on it and you’ll face every shot on the course with more confidence, and watch strokes come off your score.
For more on how to make your practice sessions more effective see Intentional Practice.
Source
Assessing Golfer Performance on the PGA TOUR, March-April 2012, by Mark Broadie. https://business.columbia.edu/sites/default/files-efs/pubfiles/4996/assessing_golfer_performance.full.pdf
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