You’ve hit hundreds of balls this month. Your handicap hasn’t moved. Sound familiar?
It’s one of the most common frustrations in golf, and it has nothing to do with talent or effort. Most golfers who practise regularly still don’t improve, because the way they’re practising doesn’t actually build the skills they need on the course. More range time isn’t the fix. Better practice is.
Watch most golfers on the range and you’ll see the same thing: a bucket of balls and no plan. One shot with a 7-iron, then a wedge, then a driver, then back to the 7-iron, with no goal attached to any of them.
Practice without a specific target -a technical change, a shot shape, a number to hit – isn’t practice. It’s just hitting balls. Before your next session, decide exactly what you’re working on and how you’ll know if it’s working. “Get better at bunkers” isn’t a goal. “Land three out of five bunker shots within six feet of the pin” is.
You’re only doing block practice
Hitting the same club and the same shot over and over — known as block practice — feels productive. Your strike improves shot to shot, and that feels like progress. The problem is that this kind of repetition doesn’t reflect how golf is actually played. You never hit the same shot twice in a row on the course.
Skill that’s built through block practice doesn’t transfer well to unpredictable situations. Random practice — switching clubs and targets between every shot, the way you would during a round — is harder and feels less comfortable, but it’s what actually trains the adaptability golf demands. If your range session doesn’t feel a bit chaotic, it’s probably not doing much for your score.
There’s no pressure and no consequence
A range ball that finishes in the rough gets replaced by another ball a few seconds later. There’s no penalty, no decision-making under pressure, and no adrenaline. That’s exactly what’s missing from most practice sessions, and exactly what shows up on the first tee.
Build in stakes. Play a game where a bad shot costs you and a good one earns something back. Give yourself one ball per shot instead of an endless bucket. Anything that introduces a bit of nerve and a real result will do more for your on-course performance than another hour of stress-free repetition.
You’re not tracking anything
Without a record, you’re relying on feel to judge whether you’re improving, and feel is unreliable. A session that felt great can produce worse numbers than one that felt scrappy. If you’re not measuring outcomes, you have no way of knowing whether your practice is working until your scorecard tells you months later.
You don’t need anything complicated. A simple note of strike quality, proximity to target, or fairways and greens hit during a practice session gives you something concrete to look back on. Over a few weeks, that record will tell you far more than how a session felt at the time.
How to fix it
You don’t need to overhaul your whole routine. Four changes will do it:
● Set one specific, measurable goal before every session.
● Mix your clubs and targets instead of hitting the same shot repeatedly.
● Add a consequence . Choose a game, a challenge, one ball per shot.
● Keep a simple log of outcomes, not just how it felt.
None of this requires more time at the range. It requires using the time you’ve already got with more intention. Change how you practise, and the scores will follow.
Read More: Great in Practice, Falls Apart in Competition? Fix it.
