Practicing Golf Off the Golf Course

With all the inclement weather we have had and more rain in one day than I had seen in my life growing up in Arizona, I thought it would be a good time to write an article on how to practice golf indoors when you can not get out to the golf course.

Some of the most quality practice can be done off the golf course without going to a golf course or driving range. Look at Steve Stricker moved back to Wisconsin while he is still playing on the PGA Tour. He has won numerous tournaments and competed on every Ryder Cup team, while playing out of the coldest weather state in the country! A second example on the college side would be the University of Illinois. They have been top 5 in the country the last few years, and at times have been ranked number 1. Illinois is similar to Wisconsin with the weather patterns, having snow on the ground for nearly 5 months out of the year.
So how do these players achieve success in tournament golf without having access to a golf course nearly 5 months out of the year? They focus on the details that most players in the south overlook because they have a routine of hitting the driving range everyday.

Here are 3 tips of how to practice away from the golf course, especially on those rainy Houston days.

1. Mental Game Golf Training – there are many ways to work on your mental game at home. Visualization drills, post tournament review sheets, goal setting, golf practice plans, analyzing statistical data, etc… are all very beneficial to improving your golf game. Often times these things go over looked when you go to the course everyday, mostly because you are tired when you get home and think going to the course and physically practicing rather than working on the details and equally important aspect, the mental game.
2. Putting Technique – If you go to any golf store, you can purchase a putting arc or something similar to work on your putting technique. You can work on the stroke and your alignment. It is actually more beneficial to work on your putting stroke away from the putting green because when you are at the golf course, you want to solely focus on making putts, not worrying about your stroke. This allows you to train your brain to only focus on making putts while at the course and train your stroke when at home.
3. Mirror work with Full Swing – Mike Weir made this very popular when he moved to Utah. Mirror work refers to using a long mirror to analyze your golf swing without hitting a golf ball. You can check the different positions in your golf swing, take away, top of your swing, downswing path, etc…. This is very helpful to improving your golf swing technique, because it allows you to slow down and perform the technique correctly, rather than going to full speed when you are on a driving range and doing what is comfortable.

Hopefully this will help you make improvements to your golf game on days that its rainy here in Houston!