When playing a course for the first time, there is a checklist of things I make sure to take care of to get ready for a tournament. Practice rounds don’t have to be complicated as long as you know what you are looking for. The nature of my practice rounds may change depending on how many rounds the tournament is, but the basics remain the same regardless.
If the course has a yardage book, that is a great resource to have before starting your round. If they don’t, I will use a GPS app to get an aerial view of each hole. I personally use 18Birdies for this. It is free and also legal in many events now, as long as you don’t have certain functions enabled (like wind, elevation, etc.).
Lines and club selection off the tee:
The number one thing I like to make sure of is getting comfortable with the tee shots. I want to make sure I have the right line, identify any hazards or bunkers, and decide on what club to hit. I generally hit driver off every tee in the practice rounds and then can dial it back in the tournament if need be. The data shows that you want to hit it as far as you can off the tee, so unless there is something tricky, I will hit driver as often as I can in the tournament, but that is up for you to decide. If you can get the ball in play off the tee, the rest of the round will start to fall into place naturally.
Speed of the greens:
The second most important thing is to get the speed of the greens. Whether you’re playing your practice round the day before the event or further in advance, the speed of the greens shouldn’t change too much, so you can start to get comfortable with the speed. Courses will typically try to speed their greens up for big events, so just keep that in the back of your mind, but it shouldn’t be too much of a change.
I prefer to play the hole as I normally would, marking my ball on the green, reading the putt, and then going through my routine. If I’m playing with friends, I often like to have some sort of match to keep my focus as well. Something simple like $5 birdies does the trick. Then I will hit a couple extra putts afterwards. This allows me to get an idea of how the course plays and simulate what it will be like in the event.
After I hole out, I’ll hit a few putts on each green. These will be mostly lag putts, say anywhere from 10-30 feet. I won’t hit them to a specific spot, although I’ll get into potential pin positions later, but I do want to have a target. I typically just throw a tee on the ground and wherever it lands is fine. This way I have a specific target to focus on to enhance my touch. I won’t do this on every green, but I want to make sure I hit uphill, downhill, and sidehill putts equally.
Firmness of greens:
There’s nothing really to DO here, it’s just about paying attention. Basically all you’re going to want to do is find your pitch marks on the greens. This way, you’ll be able to see if they are soft and your wedges spin, if they are bouncy and the shots roll out. This will be important come tournament day so you know how to play your shots into the greens.
Chips/bunkers:
This is similar to paying attention to the firmness of the greens. I like to hit a few chip shots to see how the balls react on the greens. If they’re bouncy or if you need to fly the ball most of the way to the hole. I also like to hit a few bunker shots to see how the sand is. Learning if the sand is firm or soft will leave no surprises if and when you hit it into a bunker on tournament day.
Slopes on the greens/potential pin positions/misses around the greens:
Taking a quick look at the green complexes will help you with your approach shots into the greens. Pay attention to any tiers or clear sections to the greens. Typically this doesn’t need to be overthought. You’ll know pretty quickly if there’s something significant in the green complexes. Maybe there’s a slope you can use for a backstop to a front pin. Maybe there’s a bowl on the left side of the green that you can use to funnel your ball to the hole. While we still are going to err towards the center of the greens on our approach shots, knowing where the sections are will help us find a clear target to aim for coming into the greens.
I don’t spend too much time trying to putt to different pin locations. In my opinion, the chances of me getting the same putt in the tournament is so slim that I’d rather spend that time getting a feel for the speed in step 2 above. If the pins are marked the day before, that’s a bonus, but you could spend all day trying to map out every possible pin location, and we just don’t have all day to do this, nor is it completely necessary in my opinion.
Knowing the wind:
Mapping out the wind during the practice round is a good way to help create a plan for your tournament. If the wind is the same as your practice round, then you’ll know exactly how the course is going to play. If the wind is going to be different, pay attention to that too. An example would be if there’s a fairway bunker on a hole that is into the wind. If the wind is going to be down during the tournament, maybe the bunker is carryable. There’s countless variations of this obviously, but it’s worth paying attention to.
I also like to have a compass available, the one on my iPhone works just fine for this. If the wind is swirling during the round, you can trust the forecasted wind and use your compass to figure out from what direction the wind is coming. Doing this during the practice round will help you get comfortable with this process.
Wrapping things up:
Completing this checklist should put you in a great position to make your way around the course on tournament day. It’s good to make a plan, but make sure you stay flexible during the round. Nothing ever goes according to plan, so stay adaptable. These practice round tasks are there to just make yourself familiar with the course. So while we want to know what’s in front of us, we aren’t married to any particular gameplan for the day.
Being familiar with the course will just allow us to be that much more comfortable when tournament day comes around. Good luck!
B
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