The Anatomy of a Practice Round-by Chris Petefish
At
Course of Action Golf, we receive a lot of questions about practice rounds. Whether it’s how important a practice round is or what should a player do during a practice round. I myself used to have no idea what an effective practice round entailed, but I learned the details of course preparation and I am going to share with you how to gain an edge over your competition.
Common Question:
Do I really need to have a practice round?
Quite simply, yes. Ask yourself, would you go into a big exam without studying or doing a practice test? Probably not. And if you do, the result will not be as good as if you had prepared. But what if I have played the course once a few years ago? You may have a decent idea what the holes do, but golf course conditions change a lot. The firmness of the fairways and greens change the entire strategy of a round, not to mention the wind direction. No matter if it’s your local junior tour event or an elite junior invitational, many times the separation is in the preparation. I was recently watching the WGC Mexico event and I heard the announcers talking about Tiger Woods. Tiger was eating a snack while walking down the fairway. They said during his preparation for the week he assessed that given the high altitude of Mexico City, he would only eat food walking downhill or otherwise he would expend too much energy trying to eat walking uphill. Not only that, he measured that his ideal heart rate would be constant if took 80 strides per minute when walking during the week. Now that might sound ridiculous to you and even, I laughed a little, but it is actually brilliant. And a reason why he is arguably the greatest player of all time. Tiger leaves no stone unturned to gain an edge over his competition. Imagine the confidence it would give you to know that you’re doing something that no one else is? And let’s be honest if the guy that has won 80 PGA Tour events is monitoring his energy levels walking uphill and downhill, the least you could do is play an effective practice round. With that being said, I am going to share some advice that will give you an advantage over your playing competitors, so you can walk the fairways knowing you are more prepared than them.
What Is an Effective Practice Round?
Now that you know you need to play a practice round before an event, let’s talk about everything you need to do during the practice round. An effective practice round should make a player feel completely prepared for whatever the course throws at them during the tournament.
Step One: Practice Round Tee Times
First and foremost, make a tee time. Call the golf course a week in advance and make sure the course is available the day you want to play a practice round. This isn’t a problem with big junior invitationals, but some local and regional events are played at country clubs that could have an outing or a member championship the day before the tournament. If possible, schedule your tee time as close to your first-round tee time as possible. This will simulate close conditions to the tournament round.
Step Two: Elevation Yardages
To have an effective practice round, yardages are essential for off the tee as well as being pin high into the greens. When an event is being played in your area with similar elevation, just make sure to know your everyday carry numbers. However, if the player is traveling to a place where the elevation above sea level is different, then you need to calculate your new carry yardages. A player should account for a 7% distance change for every 2500 feet in elevation. For example, Player A carries an 8 iron 150 yards at 2500 feet elevation. They will now carry that same 8 iron 160.5 yards at 5000 feet elevation. Go through this process with every club to find the new carry yardages for a given area. This also includes 7% less if you go from 2500 feet to sea levels for areas such as San Francisco or New Orleans.
Step Three: Yardage Book
Yardage books are essential for tournament golf. They are your road map. Everything is digital these days, so imagine a long drive somewhere you’ve been once without Siri or google maps. Sounds stressful doesn’t it. Yardage books are often sold in the pro shop for around 20 dollars. Make sure to save those books because they can be used again when you play an event there in the future. If you do not want to spend 20 dollars on a course book, I understand. This doesn’t mean you will not have a book. You will be making one from scratch. With this route, you’ll want to go buy a small handbook that is small enough to fit in your back pocket. You will be writing down each hole by hand; making the shape of the hole with any bunkers, trees, or water in play with yardages to each entity. Same with the greens. In a hand-written book, make sure the write down the shape and depth of the green with any contours that are worth noting. I’ll be discussing more in depth what exactly to put in that yardage book soon.
Step Four: Never Ever Keep Score During a Practice Round
Just about one of the worst things you can do during a practice round is keep score. It’s called a practice round for a reason… to practice. Reminiscing on my junior golf career, I can’t even tell you how many times I saw kids keeping score in practice rounds and how this derailed them in the actual event. I fell for it once or twice too. There are so many problems with keeping score during a practice round, but I will explain three of them. First being, it sets expectations. Those junior golfers I just mentioned would tell me how they just shot 68,66,70 or whatever in their practice round and couldn’t believe they just shot 79 in the actual event. Well I’ll tell you why. There is no pressure during a practice round. There are no consequences for a bad shot compared to a tournament and many good junior players can rattle off birdies when they play free. Second, that 68,66,70 they just shot the day before sets expectations for the upcoming round. “I just shot 68. I’ve got to do that again today when it counts”. Even if you are not saying it out loud. Your subconscious has already set the precedent that that is what you should at least shoot today. I saw countless junior players tell me how great they played in their practice round, create unnecessary expectation and when they had an early bogey or two, they pressed and started going for tucked pins with long irons to get back to 68 and instead blew up to their eventual 78. And finally, most premier events and maybe some local events will purposely put the practice round pins in the dead center of the green or on the far edges on 3-4% slopes. This is because they want to protect the actual pin locations for the event. So, keeping score is pointless because you either have the easiest pins on the course making it easy to shoot low or the hardest pins on the course which will make you question how good you are playing.
Step Five: Wind Direction
As a part of this series in preparation, I will be doing an entire segment on wind mapping. For the purposes of this article I will introduce the concept. Wind mapping is something that did not occur to me until the end of my junior golf career that I wish I had known. When playing a practice round look at a weather site and study the wind direction for that day. Most yardage books have a layout of all the holes with a compass. See how the wind that day affects the holes you are playing. Most importantly, look at the wind direction for the tournament rounds. If you’re lucky, the wind will be the same direction all week which makes it easier to plan your strategy off the tee and into the greens. I will discuss in further detail all the tips and tricks of a wind map soon.
Step Six: Target Lines
During a practice round, choose a specific target to aim at for each tee shot. Off a par 4 or 5, a specific target can be a tree, a rock, a sign, or a building that is in the distance. Again, make sure to account for any wind direction changes as it would alter the target line for the tournament. Make a habit of choosing a target line that is off the ground. Training your eyes to lock onto a target that is higher will help your golf game from a mental perspective. Lastly, make sure to WRITE DOWN your specific target line in your yardage book. It doesn’t help to make a specific target line if you cannot remember what bush or leaf of the tree you pointed out the day or week before. Seeing the specific target line in your book gives the player confidence as they will step up to the tee with a clear plan for the hole.
On par 3’s, target lines may vary on the pin location. However, a great tip is to write down the wind direction and speed of when you hit your shot during the practice round. Let’s say Player A has a 180-yard par 3. The wind is 8 mph straight downwind. Player A hits a 7 iron that ends up pin high on the green. The player needs to write down in his yardage book that a 7 iron was hit to pin high with 8mph wind downwind. Now when Player A gets into the tournament round on the same par 3, he knows exactly what was hit the prior day and the wind direction. Let’s say on the first round of the event, the wind direction has changed and there is a breath of wind hurting on this par 3. Player A looks at his yardage book and sees that his 7 iron the day before was the correct club for downwind. The player confidently chooses a 6 iron and hits the shot. This habit will create more certainty off the tee and will lead to better results when confident in the club selection versus second guessing on the tee box.
Step Seven: Putting Green
The yardage book is your road map of the golf course. The most important part of that book is the greens. Study the green of each hole and write down a check mark of any good places to miss the green. This could be a place that leaves a simple pitch shot or an area that leaves an uphill chip shot even if it is in the rough. Most of the time these areas will be short of the middle of the green unless the green runs front to back. I would put a dash when you see an area you do not want to be during the event. And if the yardage book does not indicate slope on the green make note of any general slopes which will be handy when evaluating the best place to putt from.
Step Eight: Pin Location Dots
If your event has pin location dots. Treat them like gold. These are like having a practice test that ends up being the exact same thing as the real test. Once you reach the green and locate the dots, completely abort the current flagstick. It means nothing to you; the dots are your new best friend. Your focus is now centered on figuring out where on the yardage book these dots belong. (How many paces from the front of the green and from the left or right) From here, find the best place to putt from and put a star or something indicating this spot. I’d also hit putts from the four sides of the dot. (North, South, East, and West) and draw an arrow of what the putt does. Now you’ll have a good idea which way a putt breaks when you see it in the event. If a player does multiple practice rounds and there are pin location dots; forget every single practice round pin during that practice round and choose one of the dots to aim at for your target into the greens. What better way to prepare than to hit to the same exact pin location for the tournament? But sometimes the teacher doesn’t give you the same test as the practice test and you have the guess what’s going to be on the test. This is what happens when the tournament doesn’t give you the precious dots. Try to think like a tournament director and ask yourself, “where would I put the pin locations if I was running this event. You’re often more correct than you would think. Guess where the pins may be and get a feel for how the green breaks in that area as well as places to miss. I’ve played with many people who were not prepared and would say things like, “I wish I had known there was a mound there, I wouldn’t have hit that club (into the green)”. Meanwhile I’m thinking, “Well that mound has been there the whole time. It didn’t just appear…”. This person was clearly unprepared and you will be surprised to know this person was a professional golfer. You can beat a lot of people by simply being more prepared than your competition.
In conclusion, practice rounds are an essential part of being prepared to win a golf tournament. I have shared some of the most important things to do during the practice to be best prepared for the event. The yardage book is your road map for the golf course and it is necessary to write down specific target lines for each hole and the wind direction for that day. We learned to write down the best places to get up and down if a green is missed and to find future pin location dots if provided. Keeping score in a practice round is not the best use of time and take in account the elevation. These pointers are the foundation of an effective practice round. So enjoy the confidence in knowing you are more prepared to beat your competition when you step up to the first tee.
