PRACTICE ONE BALL, ONE SHOT 4 You might love to beat balls on the range, but I hate it. I didn’t grow up on a range hitting ball after ball to the same target without giving the results much thought. I grew up practising on the course, and I got a lot more out of that.
course like I did. After you’ve worked on your dispersion pattern (tip No 2), spend the rest of your time trying to hit a lot of different shots on the range. It might be a 70-metre slice that you need once a year to get around a tree, or a low-trajectory shot with a lob wedge. Constantly switch clubs and give yourself new problems to solve. When you teach yourself how to work something out, you’ll remember it forever.
That type of practice taught me how to be creative and adapt much easier to whatever scenarios I encounter during a round. I didn’t realise it at the time, but the way I was working on my game was a form of random practice. There’s a lot of good research showing it’s the best way to practice and improve your skills. I still practice that way, and it’s something you should do, too – even if you don’t have access to a
When I was a junior golfer, my coach, Rick Sessinghaus, would have me hit a shot, and after I did, he would toss another ball down and ask me to hit it to the same spot – but in a different way.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 57
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
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