One Hour Full Practice Routine to Level Up Your Game

One Hour Full Practice Routine to Level Up Your Game

By: Patrick Stephenson

Let’s face it—most of us don’t have endless hours to dedicate to getting better at golf. Elite juniors, college players, and professionals often spend countless hours each week practicing and preparing for their next event.

While putting in that much time is necessary to reach the highest levels of the sport, you can still see improvement without such a commitment. If you want to get better but can’t devote hours every day, you’ll need to approach practice differently and be as intentional as possible. Focus on drills that challenge you under pressure and create opportunities for self-discovery.

Here’s our one-hour, fully intentional practice session. If you complete it just once or twice a week, it can significantly impact your game.

The Basic Layout

Each of the following drills is a completion drill, meaning you must complete the challenge presented before moving on to the next one. However, since you only have an hour to practice, there’s also a time limit for each drill. If you don’t complete it within the time limit, move on to the next drill anyway.

The ultimate challenge is to one day complete all the drills on the list within an hour. If you find it difficult at first, don’t worry. The pressure you experience during this hour is beneficial, even if you don’t complete everything.

The goal is to maintain a high level of focus and intentionally during this hour, which is far more valuable than spending hours mindlessly hitting putts, chips, or balls.

Short Putting (12 Minute Maximum)

1. For this drill, you will set four tees around a hole with one at 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet, and 6 feet.
2. Going through your entire routine before each putt you will go around the circle five times for twenty total putts.
3. For each putt a make will help you gain points whereas a miss will make you lose points, the values are below and they are based on strokes gained data.

4. With these point values, your goal over twenty putts is to have thirty points at the end of the drill. This will equate to roughly a net zero strokes gained putting which means, you putted like an average PGA Tour player.

Lag Putting (12 Minute Maximum)

1. Take four golf balls and find a relatively flat part of the green. Instead of putting to a hole, you’ll be putting towards the edge of the green. Start ten feet away from the edge, and your goal is to putt all four balls so they stop within a grip length of the fringe, either just short or slightly into the collar.
2. Once you’ve successfully done this from ten feet, move back to fifteen feet and repeat the drill. Continue moving back in five-foot increments until you’ve completed the drill from 40 feet away.
3. If you finish this drill early, switch to the other side of the green to practice on a different slope.

*Note: if a grip length is too hard for you, you can adjust this drill to a putter length on putts outside of 20 feet.

Easy Chip Shots (12 Minute Maximum)

1. Find three straightforward bump-and-run chip shots of varying lengths. You’ll need your wedge and putter, as you’ll be chipping and putting to practice both skills.
2. Using one ball for each location, chip towards separate holes and putt out. Cycle through these three chip shots five times for a total of fifteen attempts. Your initial goal is to get up and down 12 out of 15 times, choosing locations where failing to do so would be disappointing.
3. Make sure to go through your full routine for both the chips and putts to maximize your improvement.

*Note: If 12/15 is easy for you bump this number up until your goal is to get all fifteen balls up and down in a row.

Let’s Figure Out a Hard Shot (12 Minute Maximum)

1. Around the green, find a challenging shot that you think you could only get up and down 1 out of 10 times. Take four balls and focus on this one spot for the entire time.
2. This drill doesn’t require a specific outcome to be considered complete; instead, you’ll work on it for the entire twelve minutes. Your goal is to be creative and try different techniques to get the ball close to the hole, experimenting with various methods.
3. This process of self-discovery is crucial for learning new shots and finding out what works best for you.

Iron and Driver Practice

1. With the time you have left, focus on hitting fairways and greens at the driving range. You’ll need your driver and a short to mid iron for this drill.
2. After a few warm-up shots, hit a driver followed by an iron shot, just as you would on the golf course. Choose a defined area on the range to represent your fairway and another for your green.
3. The goal is to hit five fairways in a row and five greens in a row. You can maintain a streak for either driving or iron shots, even if you miss the other.
4. Go through your full routine for each shot to bring the same level of focus as you would on the course. Think about what helps you create a consistent, repeatable ball flight with each club, and find small cues to help you get the ball in play or on the green five times in a row.

Key Takeaways

Not everyone has the time that elite tour players or amateurs have, but most of us can find a couple of hours a week to dedicate to our golf game. Completing this practice session 1-3 times per week will undoubtedly help you improve.

Bringing a high level of focus, intentionally, and self-discovery to each of these drills is crucial for maximizing their effectiveness.