Let’s practice on the course with PGA Pro, Sam Truman

Practice LET’S

How to practice your golf game on the golf course – fun, productive tasks for refining your game this season. PGA Professional, Sam Truman, takes you through multiple games and drills that you can carry out on the course to help improve your game.

Lots of golfers become culprits of spending far too much time on the driving range and not enough time on the golf course. And equally some golfers only ever practice on the driving range and therefore the only time they are on a golf course is when they are under far more pressure in competition.

The game of golf has so many variables to contend with and so many scenarios that we can be faced with on the golf course can never be refined or practiced on the driving range. If we can get out onto the golf course more in our spare time you’ll reap the benefits for when it comes to then performing on the golf course in competition. Here are a few drills that can be carried out individually or can be made into games that you can use to compete against someone else:

BEST AND WORST BALL Probably the simplest game you can play on the golf course that can measure the spread of your shots from different scenarios. Simply hit two shots on every shot down a hole. Your job is to then, depending on which format you play, either play the best or worst ball out of the two. Do this all the way up the hole until the ball is in the hole.

Worst ball challenges your ability to minimise how wayward your shots are, and best ball is a great way to reveal how good your good golf can be and what score that can produce. Best ball also allows you to make any changes to a shot based upon the first ball that was hit.

LEARN TO MISS IT BETTER Although this task is going to seem strange at first, it helps you form skills

of assessing where trouble lies around the green. This task will be far easier to complete around a course that is familiar, or where you have played it at least once.

The aim of this task is to score the lowest score possible on a hole. However, standing over your par three tee shot of approach shot onto a par four, you’re going to nominate where the best place to miss the green would be. This may be in relation to where the flag is that day on the green or where the kindest chip or bunker shot may be from. You equally need to select where the worst position would be to miss the green. This may be in a hazard, a short sided bunker or where the rough or lies could be very unpredictable.

Your job on this task is to try to purposely miss the shot in the area you decide to be the ‘good miss’. If you do so, simply carry on the hole from that position and see what you score. If your miss position was good enough the chip or bunker shot should enable you to have a chance of an up and down. If you accidentally miss your approach and it finishes on the green, you will pick the ball up and throw/roll the ball into the area you deemed the ‘bad miss’. You would then see what you can then score from that new position. If you hit your ball into the ‘bad miss’ area from your approach you would leave the ball and play it from there.

This drill is a great way of interpreting where trouble lies on the golf course and it will force you into practising your short game under pressure.

QUADRANTS This game is a great way to learn how to aim away from a flag into a suitable area of the green that gives you the easiest chance of making a putt and the drill also helps you aim away from trouble around a green.

The game works by analysing either your approach shot on a par four or par five, or from a par three tee shot. Based upon the position of the flag on the green and the corresponding hazards and trouble around the green you’re going to split the green complex into a large quadrant. You’ll therefore have four segments around the flag, and some of the segments may be significantly larger than others depending on where the flag is on the green.

You’re going to choose one of the segments as the ideal target segment and one other segment as the backup. And then you’ll have two segments which are the bad miss segments and in a similar way you’ll nominate one of those segments as the worst miss and the other as the backup miss.

This game can be scored in the following way:

Ball finishes in –

Ideal target = +2 Points

Back up target = 0 Points

Bad miss target = -2 Points

Back up miss target = -1 Points

Once you’ve played either your nine or eighteen holes of this game count up your quadrant game score and see if it relates to a positive outcome score against the course. The more times you carry out the game you’ll start to learn how effective it is to miss the ball in a suitable place.

The games suggested above are a fantastic way of improving your course management skills and help you practice more effectively. Finding a balance between doing practice on the range and on the course will really help improve your scoring.

Sam Truman is a PGA Professional based at The Surrey Golf Lab, Reigate Hill Golf Club and is regarded as one of the best young performance coaches in the region. Current roles include: • Performance Coach – Hugh Marr Golf • Surrey Boys (U12’s & U14’s) and Girls (U18’s) County Coach • Elite Academy Coach for

Whitgift School Under the tutorship of European Tour Coach Hugh Marr, Sam prides himself in providing the best holistic coaching experiences for his players. Sam works with all levels of golfers from the young aspiring junior all the way up to European tour professionals. Sam is able to provide clients with access to the most up to date golf coaching technology at one of the best practice facilities in the UK Clients are exposed to Trackman club and ball tracking and also the SAM Putt Lab Analysis System in the new indoor putting studio. For more information follow Sam on: @SamTrumanGolf @SamTrumanGolf E: SamTrumanGolf@gmail.com