How do you judge your practice sessions?
Practice isn't just about aimlessly bashing balls - as Royal Blackheath Golf Club head professional Matthew Johns explains, good practice needs a point.
When you walk away from the practice area how do you know if you have improved or not? Many of us would measure our practice by saying "that felt better" but how do we quantify what that actually means?
While recently looking on the PGA Tour site I came across an interesting statistic called proximity to the hole. It measures the distance a player's approach shots finish from the flag throughout the course of a season and gives an indication of how accurate a player is with his approach shots. This is a vitally important stat for the best players in the world and club golfers alike.
Simply put, the closer you hit your approach shot to the hole, the easier the resulting chip or putt will be. In 2008 Heath Slocum led this statistic with an average distance from the hole of 31 feet and 2 inches.
We can learn from this that the best players in the world don't hit the ball right next to the pin every time but equally they minimise the chance of making a bogey by never hitting a long way off line.
Next time you head to the practice ground, find yourself a target that you can hit towards with a club you are likely to play the majority of your approach shots with - if you're a long hitter it might be a nine iron, if you're a shorter hitter it might be your five iron.
Once you have identified a target at the right distance hit 30 balls and when you go to pick them up calculate how far each shot was off target by pacing the distance each ball finished from the flag - one good length stride will be approximately three feet.
Once you have done this you will have 30 distances, simply add these up and divide by 30 to get your average distance from the flag in feet.
Keep a note of your average distance and you can begin to measure your improvement each time you practice. This will have the benefit of making your assessment of your game scientific rather than emotional.
Matthew Johns is head professional at Royal Blackheath. Contact him on 0208 850 1763.
23 February, 2009 | PGA professional Matthew Johns