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The Driving Range, an important tool
By: Bruce Munch
Head Professional, White River Golf
Club, Rochester, VT.
The least tension you will ever have
with you golf game will be at the driving range. (Why don’t you go there more
often)? One of the things I see most often is a player who come to the range and
immediately pull out the driver and hit a bucket of balls. Then the driver goes
back in the trunk, and off they go. For the amount of good they just did their
game, they should have stayed home. When you are at the range, remember that you
cannot work on ten things at once. The best pros in the world tee it up when
they are working on a swing change and they allow about 6 weeks before they
think they can take that change to the golf course, and they practice a lot more
than we do. Be patient! Golf can be tough, If it were easy they would have
called it Tennis!
Golfers will often make a great
practice swing and then make a bad swing on their chip shots and putts. More
than likely your practice swing, or lets call it a rehearsal swing, was
perfect because there was no pressure on that swing. Trust that swing, more
than likely that was the swing you needed to produce the shot you wanted.
Changing your mind on the real swing will probably be worse than the
practice swing you just performed. If you were in a play and had a great
rehearsal, would you change the script for the actual performance? probably
not! Any time your practice can duplicate the pressure you feel on the golf
course, that is good practice. Try this, when you practice your putting, put
8 tees in the ground at the 8 points of the compass. Start at north and work
your way around. If you miss, you must start over. When you get to the
seventh or eighth shot, knowing that if you miss, you must start over, the
pressure you will feel will be the same pressure you feel on the golf
course. Any time your practice duplicates the pressure on the course, that
is good practice.
Go to the driving range, work on
your game, you will have more fun when you play!
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