4 keys for crushing your practice sessions

Want to break 90 this golf season? It might be easier than you think — and your road map shouldn’t even require a swing overhaul. 

To have your big breakthrough in 2025, all you have to do is learn a few basics for better practice and with the right tools, you’ll start increasing your consistency and dropping your scores in no time.

Dial in your practice sessions this season with these four simple keys.

Set process goals

If you want to make your practice sessions more effective, you have to start by setting process goals. In a video with Titleist, Dr. Mo Pickens, sports psychologist to Keegan Bradley and other high-level players, explains that process goals help you focus on the method or procedure rather than the end goal or result. 

“What steps need to be taken to give you a realistic chance to change your stats from where they are to where you want to be?” Dr. Pickens says. 

By shifting your focus from a result (like, ironically, breaking 90 or winning an upcoming interclub match), you allow yourself to better analyze your game and figure out what you need to do to make those “result goals” happen.

A great way to set realistic process goals is to take a look back at stats from previous rounds —nothing crazy, just fairways, greens, and putts per round — to see where your game is and what the areas are where you need the most improvement.

Process goals are also an excellent tool for measuring progress. For example, your goal could be to make 30 four-footers in a row. If you can only get to 20, you have a baseline for your next practice session. 

And remember, you don’t always have to meet your goal during practice sessions. If your goals are properly ambitious, you likely won’t achieve them until you’ve put in a few hours of practice.

Stretch before you swing

A quick mobility warm-up is one of the best ways to prime your body and can even help improve your swing over time. 

And according to Dr. Troy Van Biezen, Scottie Scheffler’s fitness trainer, it’s what amateurs need most in their fitness routine.

“While they [amateur players] are in the gym and they work out, they just don’t have mobility and flexibility to move the way you need to in a golf swing… you have to be able to turn and move,” Dr. Van Biezen said in an interview with GOLF. 

And it doesn’t have to take long. This three-minute stretch routine will increase your mobility and prepare your body to swing a club. 

Focus on the basics: posture, grip, alignment

In an episode of “Warming Up,” five-time major champion Brooks Koepka revealed that there’s one key he thinks about every time he’s on a driving range.

“It’s really simple: PGA. Posture, grip and alignment,” Koepka says.

It’s a key Koepka was given when he was young, and has held onto throughout his golf career. And it’s something you can steal to level up your practice sessions. 

To get into your proper golf posture, stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, soften your knees and hinge from your hips to create a bit of forward bend. 

The grip is more personal, but if you need a refresher, here’s a quick guide to gripping the club from Sean Hogan, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher.

And when working on your alignment, Tina Tombs, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, says there are three things to remember:

1. Always aim your clubface at the target before setting your stance and aligning your body. 

2. Your body should be parallel left of the target line (for righties) and parallel right of the target line (for lefties). 

3. Ball position impacts body alignment. Playing the ball too forward opens your shoulders, while a ball positioned too far back closes your shoulders.

You can read Tombs’ full explanation on aim and alignment here.

Add pressure to your practice sessions

Performing under pressure is a skill that you have to practice, just like anything else in golf. One way to do that is to simulate the pressure you feel on the course by incorporating limit-based drills into your practice sessions. 

Limit-based drills place a constraint on the task at hand, usually by requiring you to complete the drill or start over if you make a mistake. A good example of this is the chipping drill Trillium Rose, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, shared in a video with Titleist. 

To try it out, chip five balls to the same spot. Your end goal is to have all of the balls end up within a flagstick of each other. If you hit one outside the flagstick distance, start over. You should feel your nerves build as you slowly execute the drill. 

It might take you a few tries to complete it, but that’s okay. Remember, you are not only practicing your chipping, but you are also improving your ability to perform under pressure.

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