What Is Golf Practice?

Most golfers think they know what practice is, but what they’re really doing is just exercise. Hitting a large bucket of balls until your hands are sore might feel productive, but it rarely translates to lower scores on the course. True golf practice isn’t about wearing yourself out, it’s about having a plan that intentionally builds skill. This guide will walk you through a new way to approach your range sessions, covering how to structure your time, what to work on, and the drills that matter most, so every minute you spend practicing actually makes you a better golfer.

The Myth of "Just Hitting Balls"

Let's get one thing straight: grabbing the driver and hitting 50 straight balls off a perfect mat at a 300-yard-wide range has almost nothing to do with the game of golf. It’s a common routine, and a deeply flawed one. When you’re on the course, you never hit the same club twice in a row, you’re never hitting from a perfectly flat, manicured lie, and your target is rarely as forgiving as an entire field.

Mindlessly repeating the same shot over and over primarily trains your muscles for one specific movement from one specific condition. The moment you face an uneven lie, have to switch to an 8-iron after a drive, or feel the pressure of a tight fairway, that perfectly grooved range swing often abandons you. Why? Because you haven't practiced adapting. You've only practiced repeating. Effective golf practice is about building skills that transfer from the practice area to the golf course.

The Two Pillars of Effective Golf Practice: Block vs. Random

To make practice valuable, you need to understand the two fundamental types of training. The magic isn’t in choosing one over the other, it’s in knowing when and how to use both.

What is Block Practice?

Block practice is what most people think practice is: hitting the same shot with the same club to the same target repeatedly. If you have a specific, isolated swing change you’re trying to make - say, changing your grip or working on a new takeaway motion - this is the time for block practice. Its purpose is purely to help your brain and body learn a new pattern through mass repetitions.

• When to use it: Only when ingraining a dedicated mechanical change.
• How to do it: Grab a 7-iron and hit 20-30 balls, focusing only on that one specific change. Ignore where the ball goes for now. The goal is the feel of the movement, not the result.
• The Trap: Feeling successful in block practice is easy. You’ll start flushing it. The danger is spending your whole session here and developing a "range swing" that isn't adaptable.

What is Random Practice?

Random practice is where you build real, on-course skill. It involves changing the club, shot type, and target for every single ball you hit. This forces your brain to go through its full pre-shot calculation every time you step up to swing, just like it has to do on the course. It feels more chaotic and you might not hit as many “perfect” shots, but it is substantially more effective for long-term improvement and score reduction.

• When to use it: In every single practice session, ideally making up the bulk of your time (around 75%).
• How to do it: Never hit the same club twice in a row. Hit a driver, then a wedge, then a mid-iron. Pick different targets. One shot to the left side of the range, the next to the right.
• The Goal: To train your ability to "reset" and execute a totally different shot each time. This builds adaptability and confidence.

Building Your Practice "Workout": The Key Components

A great practice session is structured like a good workout. It has a warm-up, a focused strength block, and a cardio/conditioning phase. Here's how to structure your next trip to the range for maximum benefit.

1. The Warm-Up (5-10 Minutes)

Your goal here isn't to work on anything technical. It's simply to get your golf muscles activated and find a sense of rhythm. Don't start with driver.

• Start with small, easy swings with a sand wedge or pitching wedge.
• Focus on solid contact and tempo. Feel the club head strike the back of the ball smoothly.
• Slowly move up through your bag, maybe hitting 3-4 balls with a wedge, a 9-iron, a 7-iron, and a hybrid or wood. Stick to a smooth, 70% swing.

2. The Technique Block (10-15 Minutes)

This is your dedicated block practice time. Have one thing and one thing only to work on. If you don't know what to work on, film your swing from "down the line" and "face on" and analyze it or ask a coach. Let's say your focus is on starting the downswing by turning your hips instead of casting your arms.

• Pick one club (a 7- or 8-iron is perfect).
• Take slow-motion, half-swings focusing solely on that feeling.
• Hit 15-20 balls with this singular focus. Tell yourself, "The only thing that matters on this next shot is the feel of my hips starting the downswing."

3. Random/Performance Practice (30+ Minutes)

This is the most important part of your session. It's time to stop thinking about mechanics and start playing golf. The key is to make it a game so there’s a consequence, even a small one.

Practice Game 1: Play Your Home Course

Mentally "play" the first nine holes of your home course. Stand on the range tee box and visualize the first hole.

1. Hole 1: Par 4. Pull your driver. Pick a narrow "fairway" on the range (e.g., between two yardage signs). Hit your drive.
2. Based on how you hit it, decide what your next shot would be. Did you find the fairway? Great. Let's say you'd have 150 yards left. Now grab your 150-yard club and hit towards the 150-yard sign.
3. You continue this process for 9 holes, switching clubs and targets on every shot. This is powerful because it makes you handle the awkward in-between yardages and routines.

Practice Game 2: The Up-and-Down Challenge

This is for the short game area. Don't just drop a pile of balls in a perfect lie.

1. Take 10 balls and throw them into different positions around the green - one in the rough, one in a bunker, one on a tight lie, one to a short-sided pin.
2. Play each ball as a real up-and-down scenario. You have to chip or pitch, and then you have one putt to "save par."
3. Keep score. Challenge yourself to get up-and-down 3 out of 10 times, then 4 out of 10 next time. This adds pressure and exposes where your short game really stands.

Don't Forget the Short Game and Putting

It’s tempting to spend all our time hitting long shots because they’re more fun. But roughly two-thirds of your shots happen from 100 yards and in. The fastest way to slash your handicap is to dedicate at least 50% of your total practice time to this area.

Your "workout" needs to include chipping, pitching, bunker play, and especially putting. Don't just roll putts mindlessly. Use drills that have a purpose.

• For Speed Control: The lag putting ladder. Place a tee at 10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet, and 40 feet. Practice hitting two balls to each tee, with the goal being to stop the ball within a 3-foot radius of the target. This trains your distance control much better than just trying to hole putts from those distances.
• For Pressure Putts: The Clock Drill. Place 4 balls in a circle around the hole at 3 feet away (12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock). You must make all 4 in a row. If you miss one, you start over. It sounds simple, but you'll feel the pressure building on that last putt.

The Mind Game: Practicing Your Routine

Finally, real practice includes the mental game. Every shot you hit in your Random/Performance practice should be accompanied by your full pre-shot routine. That means standing behind the ball, picking a precise target (not just "the green"), taking your practice swings, stepping up to the ball, getting comfortable, and making the swing.

Rapid-fire hitting trains you to be careless. Practicing your routine trains you to be deliberate and focused, which is exactly what you need when you're standing over a tough shot on the 17th hole with the match on the line.

Final Thoughts

True golf practice transforms your time at the range from simple repetition into purposeful training. By combining a small dose of technical block practice with a large dose of realistic, randomized game-play, you build skills that show up on your scorecard and not just on the practice tee.

Building these effective habits is what turns range time into lower scores, but it starts with knowing what to work on. Since every golfer's needs are unique, we designed Caddie AI to act as your own personal coach. You can ask what drills might help your specific swing fault or even snap a picture of a difficult lie on the course to get an instant recommendation, bridging that critical gap between how you practice and how you perform.