RORY McIlroy on the course.
Image: AFP
A practice round isn’t just a casual 18 holes, it’s your best chance to learn the course before it counts. Treat it like reconnaissance, not a scorecard chase.
Start with a plan before you even tee off. Get a yardage book or pull up the course on GPS, and note forced carries, hidden bunkers, and the general slope of greens. On the first tee, your goal isn’t birdie; it’s information.
Play two balls if the course allows and nobody’s behind you. Hit one the way you’d normally play the hole, then hit a second using a different strategy. Maybe driver–wedge versus 3-wood–8-iron. You’ll quickly learn which angle opens up the green and which leaves a nasty short-side miss.
Off the tee, document landing zones. Pace off the width of fairways at your typical driver distance and note where the trouble actually starts. Sometimes that bunker you fear is 280 to carry, which you won’t reach. Other times the fairway pinches at 250, meaning 3-wood is smarter.
Hit a few drives if it’s quiet, especially on holes with blind shots or doglegs, so you trust the line on tournament day.
Approach shots are where practice rounds pay off most. Don’t just fire at flags. Chip and pitch from the common miss areas, short right, long left, to see how the ball releases.
Greens often have more slope than they look, so roll a few putts from different quadrants and watch how they break near the hole. Note which putts are quick and which you can be aggressive on.
Finally, play for data, not ego. Keep your own stats: fairways hit, greens missed short/long/left/right, and three-putts. That tells you what to work on before you compete. And walk off the 18th with a clear plan: club choices off each tee, go-to targets on each green, and spots you absolutely must avoid.
A good practice round means you step onto the first tee for real feeling prepared, not surprised. That confidence is worth more than a few extra range balls. Catch you on the Fairways!
-Sewgolum is a PGA AA golf professional, Golf Pro for Saudi Aramco and was voted Top 5 International PGA professional for the year 2022.