Practicing your golf game properly is vital to improving. Knowing how to practice increases self-confidence, reduces scores, and lowers golf handicaps. It also increases the fun of playing as you see your scores drop on each round. I consider it so important that I discuss how to practice with all my students during golf lessons.

Unfortunately, some students don’t always follow my advice. They either focus on the wrong things during practice or they practice without purpose. Some students do both, preferring instead to flail away with the driver on a driving range time and time again. When their scores don’t drop as quickly as they’d like, they stop practicing, forfeiting any chance of improving.

You have only so much time to practice, so you must make the most of it. To optimize practice time, try organizing your sessions into a structured program with specific goals clearly in mind. The program needs to focus on fundamentals and address your weaknesses. Developing an organized program speeds learning, maintains focus, and cuts strokes from you golf handicap.

Here’s one organized practice program I suggest in my golf lessons:

Adopt a set of exercises and drills to practice at home. They should concentrate on grooving your fundamentals, like your takeaway or your backswing. My golf tips highlight drills and exercises that fit nicely into a program. The phone book drill, for example, improves your putting stroke:

o Drop two phone books on the floor. Position them far enough apart so

your putterhead just squeezes through them. Place a ball between the

books, assume your putting posture, and make your stroke. Use the books

as a visual guide to match the lengths of your back stroke and forward stroke.

This approach ensures a smooth stroke with perfect tempo. You’ll find it

difficult to guide your putter between the books unless your stroke follows

the intended line. If you strike the side of either phone book, your stroke strayed off-line.

Go to a practice range as often as you can. Split your time between your short game and your long game. If you can’t work on both in one session, try working on the short game in one session and the long game in the next. Your goal might be to perfect your pitching in the first session and to master long distance driving in the next. Also, organize your time within each session. An organized session could look like the following:

o Hit some warm-up shots for five minutes to loosen up your muscles. Start with a short iron, then move to a mid-iron. In my golf lessons I suggest starting with a pitching wedge, then dropping down to a 7-iron, but you can use other clubs as well. Hit several shots with each until you feel comfortable swinging the club.

o Next, spend about 15 minutes or so working on areas of your short game needing improvement, like chipping. Try dividing the time into four 15 minute mini-sessions, with each mini-session devoted to one phase of your short game– pitching, putting, chipping, or bunker play.

Use drills during the 15 minutes that focus on improving weaknesses within that phase of the game. For example, use this drill to practice chipping from the rough shot:

o Place a ball just outside the first cut of rough on the green’s fringe. Make sure the grass is about one to one and one-half inches in length. Instead of hitting the ball, practice just sweeping the tips of the grass. Use a low sweeping motion employing just your arms and shoulders. After ten sweeps, move immediately to the ball and chip it using the same motion. Then move the ball back to higher grass and repeat the sequence.

In the next hourly session try focus on your long game. You can work on hitting your woods and long irons during this session. Spending 5-10 minutes on warm up shots, then 10-15 minutes each on your woods and long irons. Once again, use drills should be designed to improve a specific problem.

Work in some realistic game situations in your practice sessions. For example, try chipping over a wading pool in your backyard to practice hitting over an obstacle on the course. Another good technique is to actually play holes on the driving range. So, let’s say the first hole you’re going to play on Saturday is a 440 yard par four. When practicing during the week or prior to the round, you would actually “play the hole” but starting by hitting your driver, then maybe a 6 or 7 iron for your approach shot and then maybe a small chip in case you missed the green. The more of these you can program into you session, the more you’ll prepare yourself for hitting a shot under the pressure of actual game situation.

This program is just an example of how you can structure your practice. It might not be appropriate for every golfer, but I think you get the idea of how to organize a session or session. Developing an organized program–and following it closely –produces results. The more you work on it, the more you’ll build self-confidence, reduce scores, and slash your golf handicap.

For most of us, golf is an individual — not a team — game. Each golfer in your group is playing against the course, and nothing that they do has any real impact on your own game. You can actually play your regular group without ever talking.

But because of this, golfers always are looking for ways to add some interaction to the game. Best ball matches, alternate shot and scrambles are some popular formats. But for most golfers, the way to make things more interesting (and interactive) is to place a few side bets.

The most popular bet in amateur golf is probably the $2 Nassau. It’s a two-sided bet: player against player, or team against team. Nassaus lend themselves to a variety of team play formats. Scramble, four ball and alternate shot matches are common. Teams also can decide to play with, or without handicaps.

The Nasssau gets its name from the Nassau Country Club on Long Island, where the format was invented in the early 1900s. The game also is known as “2-2-2”, and “Best Nines.”

With awards for winning each side (front nine, back nine) and for all 18, the Nassau is essentially three separate bets. In a basic $2 Nassau, the player or team winning all three events would win $6.

For those areas where betting cash is considered immoral, or illegal, Nassaus typically are played for two of something: golf balls, drinks, etc. Winners of all three bets could then win a half-a-dozen balls, or a six pack.

Scoring Nassaus is something akin to that of match play golf. When a player or team has the low score on a hole, they score one point. A tie is a “push. The team or player with the most points at the end of each nine wins that side. The two nines are totaled for the 18 hole award.

But if that’s all there was to a Nassau, it is unlikely that it would be so popular among golfers. The real fun of a Nassau begins with the “press.”

Any time a team or individual is down by two or more points, they can “press” the bet. That means that an additional bet is placed for the remaining holes on the side. The original bet still stands, however. Players involved in a Nassau typically are obligated to accept a press.

Here’s an example of how it works: After six holes, Team A finds itself down by two points. They decide to press. Now, in addition to the original wager, a second bet has been placed for holes seven, eight and nine. If Team A wins two of the three, they still lose the original bet by one point. However, they break even because they won the press. If they lose two of the remaining holes, they end up paying off both wagers. In the best case scenario, they win all three remaining holes, and win both wagers.

In some Nassau formats, the press is automatic when a player or team is down by two.

One problem with Nassaus is that it can be difficult to keep track of the wagering. At the end of 18, it would not be unusual for players to have placed six or seven separate wagers.

Nassaus also can become quite expensive — even with the initial $2 limit. A Nasssau that has been pressed, double pressed, and triple pressed can quickly add up.

Players usually avoid mass confusion and bank-breaking payouts by limiting the presses to no more than two per nine holes. Some matches also allow presses only on the last four holes of each nine.

If the number of presses is controlled, Nassaus can be a very friendly betting format. The players who are down (presumably the less skilled players — at least on that day) control the pace of the wagers. And because the bet is broken into two nines and a total, a bad nine won’t ruin the whole day.

The next time you’re out on the course with your regular foursome, try a Nassau — if only for a couple of sleeves of balls.

A last couple of words of caution: Betting is not legal in all jurisdictions. Players should be aware of local regulations before placing a wager. And players should always remember to never bet more than they can afford to lose. Set a budget at the beginning of a match and stick to it.

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