How to practise golf so it actually shows on your scorecard

How to practise golf so it actually shows on your scorecard

The average amateur goes to the range, buys a hundred-ball bucket, hits ninety of them with the driver and leaves fifteen minutes later. Then wonders why the card never comes down.

That bucket was not a practice session: it was physical exercise with a club in hand. Practice is something else, and the difference comes down to three things: allocation, structure and measurement.

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Allocation: where the shots are lost

Start with the numbers. In a round of 90:

Area of the game	Approximate shots	% of the round
Tee shots (driver and woods)	14	16 %
Approaches (irons)	20	22 %
Short game (inside 50 m)	22	24 %
Putting	34	38 %

Now compare that with how most people split their practice time: 80 % full swings, 15 % putting, 5 % short game.

The mismatch is obvious. Putting and the short game are 62 % of your shots and get 20 % of your time.

The split you should be using:

Area	% of time
Putting	30 %
Short game	30 %
Mid and short irons	25 %
Driver and woods	15 %

It will be hard, because hitting drivers is more fun. But that is the difference between practising and letting off steam.

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Structure: how to hit a bucket properly

Never two balls in a row to the same target with the same club.

It is the rule that most changes the value of a session. Hitting fifteen consecutive 7-irons to the same spot trains something that does not exist on the course: in a round you never repeat the same shot twice.

Blocked vs random practice:

• Blocked (all balls with one club in a row) feels good during the session and transfers badly to the course.
• Random (changing club and target every ball) feels worse during the session and transfers far better.

Recommended structure for a 60-ball bucket:

Phase	Balls	How
Warm-up	10	Wedges, half swings, building gradually
Blocked technical work	15	One single thing you are fixing. Conscious repetition
Random practice	25	Change club and target every ball. Full pre-shot routine
"Play a round"	10	Imagine 6 holes: driver, then the approach, then the wedge. Like on course

Those last ten shots are the most valuable in the bucket, and almost nobody hits them.

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Measurement: no number, no progress

A session that ends in "I struck it well today" produced no information. One that ends in "8 out of 10 inside the fairway width" did.

Always score something:

• How many balls land inside an imaginary fairway width.
• How many chips finish within a metre and a half.
• How many 2-metre putts you hole out of ten.
• How many bunker shots get out first attempt.

Write the number down. Compare it next week. That is training.

In the Teeup Academy the drills come with scoring, targets by level and progress tracking, precisely so you don't have to carry a notebook.

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Three timed sessions

30-minute session (weekday)

Time	What
5 min	Warm-up with wedges
10 min	Short game: chips to a target, scored
15 min	Putting: distance ladder and one-metre circle

No driver at all. It is the session that saves the most shots per minute invested.

60-minute session (the usual one)

Time	What
10 min	Warm-up and mobility
15 min	Short game with scoring
20 min	Range: blocked technical work plus random
10 min	Simulating 6 holes
5 min	Pressure putting: one from 5 metres until you hole it

90-minute session (weekend)

The 60-minute session plus 20 minutes of bunker work and 10 minutes from bad lies: rough, uphill, downhill, ball above your feet. Nobody practises this and it comes up in every round.

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Range or course: what each one trains

They are not interchangeable.

	Range	Course
Trains	Technique, repetition, contact	Decisions, management, pressure
Advantage	Volume of shots, fast feedback	Total realism
Limitation	Perfect lies, no consequences	Few shots per hour
When	When fixing something specific	When you want to lower your score

The practical conclusion: if you have spent months on the range and your card has not moved, the problem is probably not technical. It is decision-making, and that is only trained by playing. Developed in how to lower your golf score without changing your swing.

And one underrated alternative: play 9 holes alone, late in the afternoon, with two balls. You play every shot twice and see which would have been the better decision. It is the closest thing to a decision simulator that exists.

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The ten-minute warm-up

Skipping it is the number one cause of back injuries among amateur golfers. The swing is a violent rotational movement and, cold, your lower back pays for it.

Minutes	What
2	Brisk walking or general mobility
2	Torso rotations with a club across the shoulders
2	Arm circles and shoulder mobility
2	Hip mobility: lunges with a turn
2	Ten easy swings with a wedge, building amplitude

Before a round, if there is no time for the range: these ten minutes plus five putts on the practice green to calibrate green speed. Infinitely better than walking cold onto the 1st tee.

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Frequently asked questions

How much should I practise per week? Two well-structured 45-60 minute sessions beat five unstructured hours. Quality over volume.

Is it better to practise on the range or play the course? It depends on the goal. The range trains technique; the course trains decisions. If your card won't move despite lots of practice, you need more course time.

How many balls should I hit per session? Fewer than you think. Sixty well-structured balls are worth more than a hundred and fifty in a row.

What should I practise first if I'm short on time? Putting and short game. They are 62 % of your shots.

Is practising at home worth it? For putting, very much. A rug and a glass are enough to work on pendulum rhythm. For the full swing, less so.

How often should I take a lesson? One every three or four weeks keeps you on track without spending your life in correction mode. More frequently only makes sense if you are changing something structural.

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Practising well is not practising more. It is putting the time where the shots are, changing club every ball, and writing a number down at the end.

The Teeup Academy has the drills with scoring and targets by level, and the app has the course network to check whether it is working.

Download the Teeup app and book your next round.