Do everything with a purpose. That sounds pretty simple. The reality is that is a lot harder to do than one might think.

My short game coach, Tracy Phillips, help create an incredibly productive environment for me when I was a Junior Golfer. The truth is: you have to practice with a different sense of urgency depending on what your schedule is. My preparation during the off-season was geared towards helping me get ready for the Spring Season or the beginning of the Tour Season. My prep work during the middle of the Season when I only had a week off between events was quite a bit different.

There is one constant between the two: you are preparing yourself to compete and ultimately, to win.

Some of you may be thinking what is the difference? I would tell all of you that my training and prep work during the Off Season was a lot more stringent and longer than my “maintenance training” during the Season.

I had a system that I knew worked for me. I would set my competition schedule at the beginning of the year and base my training and prep work on my tournament schedule. I based my gym time, practice time and my on course time relative to when I was playing so I could keep myself fresh and ready for events. I knew during the Off Season I could train more and spend more hours on course because I had more time for recovery before I started competing.

A typical day for me was hitting 500 balls a day, 500 putts a day, and 250 chips a day. Then, I would go play at least 9 holes. If I had a chance to do it all over again…I would modify that practice schedule quite a bit and spend a lot more time on course and playing. My schedule would look more like: hitting 200 balls a day and spending an hour and a half on short game. Then that would leave plenty of time for me to get onto the course and play and plenty of time for the gym as well.

Another thing I would recommend focusing on is a sense of purpose for every practice or playing session. Set an obtainable goal each day and work towards achieving that goal. If you want to work on your distance control with your wedges, set your wedge practice up to achieve that goal. Set up range ball buckets or other targets in 10 yard increments from 20-80 yards. Challenge yourself and make sure that you work on controlling your distance and changing your targets frequently to work on distance control. You will see the improvements in your wedge game and in your scores quickly if you challenge yourself with productive drills like this wedge drill.

Many of you may already feel like you practice with a purpose. If so…that is awesome. Keep doing it and push yourself to fine tune your practice regiment so that you continue to improve. If you feel as if you have not had a good focus and have just been practicing to practice, then I suggest you pencil out objectives for you to work on in your practices and I assure you that you will see results soon.

Have fun, play great and fairways and greens,

Kelli