Practicing (With a Rangefinder)

Golf is a difficult game and possibly the most difficult game out there. Hitting a baseball at 100 mph might be tougher, maybe. But from an individual sport standpoint, it is a safe argument that golf is one of the more difficult sport to play.

It is a game of skill, concentration, patience, perseverance, stamina. The list goes on and on. Like many sports, you need to get out there and practice your skills and do what you can to improve. Focus on weaknesses and keep your strengths strong. Get to the point where your weaknesses aren’t holding you back and your strengths keep moving you forward.

Golf takes practice. A lot of practice. When you think you have practiced enough, you should practice a little more. You get out of it what you put in to it. Then you need to play and see how your practice in transferring to the course. It’s easy to look like Tiger Woods on the driving range, it’s difficult to get that swing and mentality to the golf course.

Practice Goals

You’ve probably heard the phrase lately “practice with a purpose”. Essentially that means practicing and trying to accomplish something. Not just going to the driving range and beating balls just to beat balls. It’s about putting yourself in real life situations. Hitting that knock down 7 iron under the tree. Hitting the high draw with the driver on the dogleg left. Creating scenarios and putting pressure on yourself to see if you can execute the shot.

Going to driving range with a bucket of balls and standing out there just swinging isn’t really going to cut it if you want to get better. It’s great for warning up before a round. Getting loose. Seeing what kind of shot pattern you may have that day. Getting in the frame of mind to go out and play. But you need to be able to learn from your practice sessions. You want to see improvement after a practice session and walk away with some positive thought. It’s not always going to happen. We have those days when no matter how hard you try, the results just aren’t what we want.

Practice Tips

When you go to practice, go with the intent to get better. Not to just check a box for that day. Whether you are practicing your short game or long game, have a plan on what you want to work on and what results you want to see that day. For example, if you are going to work on the short game (which you should do more often than your long game), create challenges for yourself. Don’t leave the putting green until you have made 30 three footers in a row. 80% of your chips need to be within a five foot circle. Something to keep you engaged during the practice session.

Practice with somebody. Take it a step further and practice with someone who is better than you. This is always a great way to get better. Having competitions while practicing can simulate pressure that you would experience on the course. Take five balls each and have a chipping competition. Putt nine holes and the low score wins. Who can win a closest to the flag competition on the driving range. Long drive contests. Many, many options when practicing with someone else.

Practice With a Rangefinder

You have your bucket of balls and you are ready to get to work. You find your spot on the driving range and see the potential targets out there to hit at. You attempt to find the plaque on the driving range to tell you how far each target is. The plaque is 20 yards from where you are hitting balls and 10 paces in front of your spot. How far is it really to those targets? Do you have any idea?

Well, this is where the rangefinder can come in extremely handy. Instead of having to guess at the yardages, you can get the information with the click of a button with a laser rangefinder. No more guessing. No more getting frustrated when you think you have 120 yards and you can barely get your 9 iron there. Simply grab your rangefinder and scope your target and get the yardage down within one yard.

It is very important to know how far you hit your irons. It’s also very important that you trust your yardages when playing. If you know your distances while practicing, you can take that confidence to the course. You want to be able to know you are hitting your 8 iron 140 yards to a target. You can stand on the driving range and think you are hitting your 7 iron 160 yards, but in reality the target you are hitting at is 150 yards. You see the ball consistently landing near your target, which is 10 yards off where you think it is.

With the rangefinder, you can dial in your yardages. You have the information at hand to know that that target actually is 150 yards. You now know that your 7 iron doesn’t go 160 yards. You can now take that information to the golf course and hit the 150 yard shot knowing you have the correct club in your hands.

Distance Control

Distance control is one of the best ways to take strokes off your game. By having better distance control, you can eliminate some mistakes that add unnecessary strokes to your score.

You hit a perfect drive in the middle of the fairway and leave yourself a 9 iron in to the green. This is a scoring club where you should be hitting the green more often than not (depending on our skill level of course). You hit the ball solid and it lands at the back of the green leaving you 75 feet for birdie.

It’s great that you hit the green in regulation. But the odds of you two putting from 75 feet are not that great compared to having a 30 footer.

On most greens, if you hit the ball near flag high, you should be comfortable that you are going to two putt at worst. You probably won’t have much more than 30 feet for your first putt. Many times, you have 20 feet and can start to really think about making the putt for birdie!

By having good distance control because you know your yardages after practicing, you will have shorter putts simply by hitting the ball near flag high. You can also know that if you have 150 yards to the hole and there is water looming over the green, selecting a club that if you hit perfectly won’t go over 150 yards is the right choice. Take the water out of play by using your distance control to your advantage. Play to the middle of the green and hopefully have that uphill putt you can be aggressive with.

Takeaways

Practice is vital if you want to get better at this game. Practicing with a purpose is highly recommended so you can walk away seeing progress. Try to put yourself in scenarios that simulate on course play. Put pressure on yourself. Practice with a friend or family member. Create competitions. Get competitive with each other.

Utilizing a rangefinder will help you get a better idea of how far you hit your irons. Knowing your yardages will give you more confidence on the course when selecting a club. Hitting it closer to your target because you have better distance control will help you lower scores.

Lower scores means more fun on the course which is ultimately what we are looking for.