Scratch By 50: How My Practice Has Evolved

Graham Averill has turned 50 this year and he's freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he's decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He now is a 7.5. Welcome to his midlife crisis.

The par-3 was not going to be a problem. Sure, I pulled the wrong club on the tee and left my ball five yards shy of the green in some thick rough but I knew exactly where I needed to put the ball to get up and down and approached the chip with a shocking amount of confidence. Go ahead and mark me down for a three.

A few months ago, this situation would've given me fits. I probably would've chunked my wedge shot, forcing a second chip that I might blade into oblivion. I was bleeding strokes close to the green but now my short game is the strongest part of my game.

Why? Because the way I practice has evolved over the last few months.

I play a lot of rounds (at least two a week) but I practice more often than I play and that practice looks nothing like it used to.

Picture a guy hammering through a bucket of balls and only visiting the short-game area on his way to the clubhouse bar. That was the general vibe of my practice sessions when I started this project. I focused mostly on the driver because it has always given me fits and it was full swing after full swing until I was sweating through my shirt and the bucket was empty.

I had good intentions. I would show up with a plan of splitting my hour-long practice between the short-game area and the practice range and I would even have a drill or two I gleaned from social media that promised to "fix my slice/hook/low point/starting line in five swings." But after a half-assed attempt at that particular drill, I would give up and just try to find the ball flight I was looking for through blind repetition. And I would completely forget about the short-game area.

But I've noticed that my practice sessions have slowly evolved over the last few months and look completely different now. It wasn't a conscious decision but through working with a coach via video and text and using Arccos to track my rounds and put a numerical figure on my weak spots, that hour-long practice has evolved from a full-swing party to an efficient session focused on specific aspects of my game.

First of all, I don't even start my practice session on the range anymore. I start on the practice green, chipping sand wedges and wedges from a short distance to different holes. I'm focused on loosening up and exaggerating my follow-through on these short shots which sets the table for good form when I do move down to the range.

I usually do this for about 15 minutes, changing up my lies and the distance to each target while trying to drop the ball in specific zones and hit specific shots from bump-and-runs to flop shots.

After the practice green, I head to the range and work through a series of partial shots starting with a handful of one-handed wedges. These are casual, half-effort swings where I'm focused on ball-first contact and clipping the ball off the grass.

From there, I'll take a 7-iron and do the stick drill I outlined in the last article for 10 balls. I start with slow movements, running the stick down my lead leg to ensure a proper takeaway, pausing at the top of my swing to make sure the stick is pointed at the ball, and standing tall at the finish without whacking my torso with the stick. I'm just reinforcing good positions throughout the entirety of the swing with this drill and trying to hit the ball straight.

After the stick drill, I move on to punch shots with my 5- and 7-irons. This is basically a continuation of the stick drill without the stick. I'm trying to fly the ball low, aiming at specific targets on the range and trying to hit low stingers that carry 75 yards. The need to punch out back to the fariway happens more often than I'd like and it's always smart to practice shots you'll need on the course but mostly I do this punch-out session because it helps me dial in the meat of my swing.

Notice I haven't taken a full swing yet. I'm probably a third of the way through the bucket at this point and I'm still focused on partial swings. I think that's an important distinction between my old practice sessions and how I practice now. There are far fewer full swings now and every one I take has a specific purpose.

After punch-outs, I'll move through the bag, hitting a handful of full shots with every other club. I typically use alignment sticks and play with foot position and club path to try to dial in a fade and draw throughout the bag. It's not always successful but I think it's important to reinforce good alignment and path since I have a history of issues there. The goal is to establish the different feels for a fade and a draw so I can try to re-create them when I'm out of the course. Again, success rate is not 100 percent because golf is hard.

Now it's time for the big stick. I take the same purposeful approach to the driver where I'm focusing on alignment and ball flight. I start with half swings, checking various aspects of my swing along the way. I focus on a solid takeaway, pausing at the top, swinging to right field and standing tall at the finish. After I feel good about my half swings, I move on to some full-send drivers, but I'm typically only going to hit 10 full shots with the big club.

For the remaining balls in the bucket, I pull out my sand wedge and play target practice with the pins closest to me. There's a 50-yard pin and a 100-yard pin and I'm just trying to drop balls as close as I can to the bottom of those flags.

But, wait, I'm not done! After the bucket is empty, I go back to the practice green and play a round of "up and down" for 10 to 15 minutes where I chip and putt my way through an 18-hole course. Every hole is a par-2 and I'm just trying to get up and down and make it through the course with the lowest score.

And that's my typical practice session. It's not perfect (you'll notice I don't work on putting very much) but it's efficient and has helped me play better on the course. And doubling down on my short game has paid off.

That par-3 scenario at the beginning of this article is the perfect example. I played in a tournament recently and scored well although my driver was fickle. I found fairways and kept the ball in play but I wasn't getting the distance or flight shape I was after. Basically, I couldn't hit the center of the face but I was able to salvage the day because of my short game. And I attribute that success to the evolution of my practice sessions.

Dig deeper into one golfer's struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week's Scratch By 50 where Graham details the five drills that have helped him drop five strokes.