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Practice Rounds vs Comp

Metroid

Metroid

Australian Golfer
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
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Location
Australia
Handicap
13.1
Hey guys,

I'm really struggling at the moment to link my practice rounds and my Saturday comp rounds.

Generally I'll practice Tuesday nights, 9 or 18 holes. General rule is to head out, hit a main ball and then play a second or third from the tee, and more from around each green where I might find myself normally on a Saturday with my misses only recording my main ball on the card or via game golf. Most of my practice rounds over the past two months have been 3 to 5 shots better than my handicap of 18.

On a Saturday however its just not translating. I'm playing 3 to 5 over my handicap.

Anyone else found the same thing? What do you do to get out of the comp funk?
 
I like to play the day before a competitive round. I think hitting the range is good but on course practice is better because it creates pressure that you would kinda sorta feel during a competitive round
 
Always play for something with in your group. Add some pressure to your practice rounds. It's not the same as a competitive round pressure but it does seem to help me out.
 
I think the only real solution is to play more tournament golf and get comfortable with the added pressure. I learned that in tournament settings I speed up and my tempo gets off. If I conciously slow myself down and get into a groove, I play similar to a practice round (or better).
 
It just depends on the source of the problem in your training method. It could be that competition simply gets your nerves rattled, so you just need to play more competition.

When working on short game, I will take a dozen balls and throw them around the green at random distances, and hit them in no particular order. My goal would be to get 7 out of 10 in about a 4 foot circle (I think the pros shoot for 3 feet). What that did was make every shot I hit important, and it was a brand new new shot. Different yardage lie, anything. It was a new shot, and the only way I was going to leave was to get 7 of those shots inside that circle.

So perhaps you could incorporate that concept into your practice. It certainly can provide some practice for nerves.

~Rock
 
Metroid said:
Hey guys,

I'm really struggling at the moment to link my practice rounds and my Saturday comp rounds.

Generally I'll practice Tuesday nights, 9 or 18 holes. General rule is to head out, hit a main ball and then play a second or third from the tee, and more from around each green where I might find myself normally on a Saturday with my misses only recording my main ball on the card or via game golf. Most of my practice rounds over the past two months have been 3 to 5 shots better than my handicap of 18.

On a Saturday however its just not translating. I'm playing 3 to 5 over my handicap.

Anyone else found the same thing? What do you do to get out of the comp funk?
Click to expand...
When you do your multi-ball practice round only play the worst shots. This achieves a few things. First, you simulate the pressure of competition where there's a penalty for hitting one poorly (believe it or not, you will feel some pressure standing over a ball). Second, it gives you a lot of practice making recovery shots and course management just before the match.
 
tequila4kapp said:
When you do your multi-ball practice round only play the worst shots. This achieves a few things. First, you simulate the pressure of competition where there's a penalty for hitting one poorly (believe it or not, you will feel some pressure standing over a ball). Second, it gives you a lot of practice making recovery shots and course management just before the match.
Click to expand...

i like this approach, puts a focus on the practice round to face similar situations in competition.
 
I've learned that ANY round where I play more than 1 ball ceases to be any sort of meaningful practice round. There's just no pressure from within or without and no urgency as you stand over a ball. Maybe I'm just a mental midget in this regard but it's just the way it is for me. Practice round always feature minimal misses of the tee, great putting and great short game...which are the 3 first things to go out the window when under pressure.

I find as long as I keep myself to playing 1 ball through 18 holes and I truly care about my score (trying to go as low as possible), only then is my practice worth anything even close to practice.
 
First off, hitting 5 or 3 over your handicap is not that bad. Surely there are a few holes where you could have done better and you need to look into how to make those holes cost less strokes.

You also need to play only one ball in your practice round. Just one ball, and where is goes is your score. That would be pressure similar to tournament play. Don't do gimmes, putt out.

If you play the same course over and over in tournament play, after some games you will observe that there are certain positions that favor low scores and some that will almost assure disaster. Work these positions into your strategy.
 
tequila4kapp said:
When you do your multi-ball practice round only play the worst shots. This achieves a few things. First, you simulate the pressure of competition where there's a penalty for hitting one poorly (believe it or not, you will feel some pressure standing over a ball). Second, it gives you a lot of practice making recovery shots and course management just before the match.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely a great practice method! I started playing Worst Shot this year whenever I have a chance to play a 9 hole practice round alone after work. Haven't done it for 18 yet, have to work up to that I think. It's best when you just play 2 balls, because then you have a defined intention for the game.

When you know that you must play the shot that leaves you in the worst position to the hole, not necessarily your worst swing, you'll be amazed how much pressure you can feel. There's pressure to hit the first shot well to get off on the right foot. But when you do, then you have to follow it up with another good shot. If you don't hit the first shot good, you don't want to make it worse. IMO the best part of this game is what happens around the greens. When you miss a green, you now have to hit two good shots to the hole for a chance of getting up and down. If you do hit the green but leave yourself a 30 or 40 foot putt, now you have to make two good approach putts to have a chance at par. In both these scenarios if you hit a lackluster chip or putt then you may have to make two 6 footers (or more) for par OR if you hit good first chips or putts you may be left with two testy 2-3 footers.

It also brings course management into play in a big way because you don't want to be too cavalier on holes with hazards or when you've hit a less than stellar tee shot.

One caveat - it can be pretty humbling so don't get caught up in the score too much. Just keeping working towards bridging the gap between your worst shots and your good shots to get more consistency in your game.
 
I am decently gonna try the worst ball approach. I usually get out at odd hours and play multiple balls but I need to change that up a little.
I thought about maybe doing some rounds where I only play with odd numbered clubs or even numbered clubs. Thinking that would help me with learning how to make certain shots and use different trajectories


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I seem to have that happen to me as well, usually comes from playing multiple balls, vs one ball!
 
I used to compete weekly at a fairly high level in another individual sport and when I was coming up my instructor told me that matches in and of themselves were repetitions. So if you've only been in 10 competitions for your sport, you really only have 10 reps under your belt. Once he told me that, I restructured all of my training to this set-up and had a lot of success with it. Each step had a specific goal with it. It added a lot of pressure to my practice routine, but it removed a lot more pressure from match day for me.

Individual skill training (focusing on one very small detail, i.e. alignment)
Combined skills training (the whole swing)
Stage training (an entire golf hole)
Match training (18 holes)
Match.

The other thing that helped me a lot with competitions was having an iron-clad set of basic routines.
 
kb1042 said:
I am decently gonna try the worst ball approach. I usually get out at odd hours and play multiple balls but I need to change that up a little.
I thought about maybe doing some rounds where I only play with odd numbered clubs or even numbered clubs. Thinking that would help me with learning how to make certain shots and use different trajectories
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
My experience has been exactly as Wakit's. You hit the first one good, you definitely feel some pressure on the 2nd ball not to screw it up. You hit the 1st one bad and you have to put it behind you immediately to avoid making it worse, which is a different kind of pressure.
 
theoverswinger said:
You also need to play only one ball in your practice round. Just one ball, and where is goes is your score. That would be pressure similar to tournament play. Don't do gimmes, putt out.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I was going to say.

It's the same problem as your range shots not translating. There's a HUGE difference between making the same shot 3 times in a row back-to-back and pulling a club from your bag and only getting the one shot at it. Even if you're playing from different positions, you still made say 3 tee shots, then 3 approach shots. It's not the same as being forced to perform on one tee shot and one approach shot.

Practice like you compete. Take one ball in a practice round with the goal of shooting your handicap. I bet you'll feel the pressure more and shoot about the same as you do in competition. That's good--keep doing that until you're actually shooting your cap and you'll see your competition scores drop.
 
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