To get the maximum benefit from your golf practice you need to do some planning beforehand.
You need to decide before you start your practice what you want to achieve and the best way to do it.
You need to have a goal and that could be anything from sinking 30 long putts to driving 30 balls a certain distance.

Along with a goal you need a target.
You always need a target, whether that is the cup on the green or a point that you will be chipping the ball to.

Without a target when chipping or putting you might be getting your stroke right but you will have no guide for the distance you will be getting and that is essential for consistency.

Likewise, when you are practicing your driving at the range you will want to look at the distance markers to see how far you are hitting the ball.
Having a goal to aim for will always lift your game and you should be constantly challenging yourself in practice.

It is not good enough that you can hit the ball a long way on the driving range if your accuracy is poor.
It is not good enough if you can chip the ball well but never control the distance it will travel.

If you have a written plan you will be more likely to follow through with the correct practice.
It will help you to focus better and you can record the results, which will help you to plan your next training session.

You will have the information necessary to tailor your practice to the areas of your play that are lacking and using this process will deliver better results faster.

It will mean you will play better with less training.
Not many golfers follow a process of planned training and are essentially wasting valuable time by not having this focus.

How often have you played a round of golf with someone who hasn't played in years and they hit a stellar round that you would be proud of with all your practice and experience?

Have you ever wondered why this happens?
It's not all that unusual for this to happen and there is a simple reason in most instances.

That reason is - People who haven't played golf for a long time, have no great expectations of doing well.
They have probably told everyone before the round starts that they haven't played, so not only have they let themself off the hook to play well, but they have also been given a pass from everyone else.

We all know the importance of practice for consistently playing golf well and with that knowledge in mind we know that it is not possible for anyone to put in a good performance 'if they are rusty'

So with all the pressure off the comeback king or queen they play like a demon, hitting long straight shots and putting from the edges of the green like they are Tiger Woods the second.

What allows them to continue playing well is their subconscious mind set that they are just having a lucky day, and as long as they believe in their luck it will continue.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could eliminate all the pressure that we place upon ourselves to perform and just get out there and hit the ball?
The results would probably be better than anticipated because there would be no great expectations and no matter what the score, we would not have failed.

Once again, it is all about the mind and only we can control it or else we will let it control us.

The more relaxed we can remain throughout the course of the day the more likely the chances of getting a good score.

We all have limited time and the only way we can expect to improve our golf is through practice.
With limited time you need to maximize your practice to achieve the best results on the course.

So what should you concentrate on mastering in your game?

The obvious choice for those in the know would be your short game where you learn to become proficient with the use of your pitching wedge and the 8 and 9 irons.

These clubs can not only get you out of trouble from wayward shots, they can negate a lot of the benefit that others might gain with better drives off the tee.

The mid-range approach shots are the ones that unravel most players.
It is not only the novices who struggle to master these clubs though.
I have seen many low handicap golfers lose games from their inability to control the approach shots to the green.

The high trajectory irons of pitching wedge, 8 and 9 iron are the hardest to master and for that reason many people are reluctant to spend the time required to put in the necessary practice.

There are so many more things to think about that it can be quite nerve racking to remember all the aspects of short-range play.
A little too much swing and you will be over the back of the green or maybe you won't get enough lift or alternatively too much and fall short.

It is so much harder than driving off the tee where most people only have to be concerned with making sure their drive is straight.

So it becomes quite obvious that the most improvement you are likely to see in your game, and the area that you should be concentrating on the most when practicing, is in mastering your approach shots to the green.

The problem with most people who have trouble driving well off the tee is the fact that they haven't mastered their swing before using a driver.
If you are having trouble with your driver a good way to get back on track is to leave it at home and tee off with a 3-iron instead.

While you won't get the same distance initially you will have more room for error and you will have a better chance of hitting the ball a lot straighter.

The idea is to swing your 3-iron in the same manner, as you would do with the 7-iron.

When you have the right control with this club you will begin to get more distance and you will be swinging in a slower more controlled manner.

Once this is translated to the driver you will realize that you don't have to 'hit' the ball.
You will focus more on control with a slower swing and let the club do the work that you might have been expecting your body to do.

Now taking this one step further, you could substitute the 3-iron for your 7-iron.
As strange as this might seem it was the fastest way that one woman I was playing golf with learnt to master her drive.

She played the 7-iron off the tee until she was consistently getting straight shots and reasonable distance.
Her second shot was generally a 7-iron as well, so she was getting a lot of practice with that club.
While the initial shot wasn't going anywhere near as far as a 3- iron, they were straight and on many holes the combination of two 7-iron shots gave the same result for her as a 3-iron and a 9-iron.

After gaining consistency with the 7 she move to the 3-iron off the tee and eventually the driver.

Sometimes it is faster to take a few steps back to progress sooner.

One of the aspects that many people fail to address on the golf course is remaining hydrated.

For many reasons, golfers fail to drink enough water to remain sufficiently hydrated and correspondingly their quality of play suffers.

Whether it is due to the inconvenience of needing to go to the toilet, or the fact that most people just don't even think about drinking enough water when they are playing, it is a fact that your game will suffer if you become, even slightly, dehydrated.

You don't need to consume gallons of water, but you do need to drink sufficient to maintain the correct balance of fluids in your body.

The hotter the climate where you are playing, the more likely you will need to address this issue, as you will be losing a lot more moisture from your body when playing in hot conditions.

It's quite simple to carry a water bottle around with you and get in the habit of taking a small sip before or after each time you play a shot.

One of the first areas to suffer from dehydration will be your mind - the way you think and concentrate.

Your levels of concentration will diminish rapidly as you lose hydration and as golf is a 'mind game' as much as anything else, you can expect your ability to play well to diminish accordingly.

You might find that the illusive handicap you have been shooting for and never quite achieved is actually 'sipping' not slipping away from you.

Yes - I said sipping because having regular sips of water as you play your round of golf might be all that you need to lift your game play to the next level.

I have seen it happen many times when people just weren't aware that they were lacking hydration.

Once they addressed the problem their scores improved - some quite dramatically.

I've played some excellent golfers in my time but none impressed me quite like the old guy I played with on a weekend tournament.

Soon after we started he hit a hole in one and while everyone else was impressed he didn't seem overly excited.

Assuming it was his first hole in one, we all congratulated him only to find out that he had hit many holes in one in his playing career.

"How did he do it so often" was the question everyone asked.
Simple - everyone else was trying to hit his or her golf ball into a small hole and he was shooting for a bucket.

Let me explain. He always visualized the hole as the size of the bucket and having that mindset made it possible for him to get so many holes in one.

After hearing that way of thinking I immediately used the same visualization for myself that day.
I didn't get any holes in one but my putting was out of this world.

Every time I got on the green I knew the ball was going to land inside that huge hole, the size of a bucket, I could see in front of me.

It's a fact that good golf is more about your mind than any other factor.
Sure you have to know how to hit a golf ball correctly.
You need to have a good stance and swing, but those things can be taught to anyone.
If you can master your mind you will master the game of golf and that's why so many people go back to the golf course week after week.
They never seem to quite master it completely and there is a challenge with every stroke.

I am still shooting for my first hole in one, but in the meantime my handicap has come down considerably, except when I let my mind play the wrong games on the course.