Chuck Scoggins, a two-time Georgia PGA Section Youth Player Development Award winner, a Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) Elite Growth of the Game Teaching Professional and Quarter Century PGA Member, is the Owner/Operator and PGA of America Director of Instruction at the North Georgia Golf Academy at Hamilton Mill Golf Club and the Trophy Club of Apalachee in Dacula, Georgia.
Chuck Scoggins on the importance of teaching your students the benefits of purposeful practice:
The North Georgia Golf Academy has locations at Hamilton Mill Country Club, a private facility, The Trophy Club at Apalachee, a semi-private facility, a local indoor simulator facility and a golf simulator set up in my home. As such, we have the potential to engage with golfers at many levels of the game. Regardless of their experience, it is important that they see steady improvement and increased enjoyment in the game. I ask the question, “How do you know you’re getting better if you’re not practicing properly?” Going to the range between lessons to hit a bucket or two of balls at the same target over and over is NOT practicing properly. I teach golfers to practice like they play. Hit a drive in the designated fairway on the range. Then choose a target and hit an iron to that target to represent your approach shot. If you’ve missed the green, practice the chip you’d need to get on, and when you can, practice the putt to conclude the hole. The proximity of the putting green to the range might not allow this, so you may have to save your purposeful putting practice for later. I teach them to play different putting games with putts of various lengths, breaks and undulations. KEEP SCORE! How many of these putts are you making out of 10? Do it again. Are you improving? How do you know? Look at the numbers…the important numbers. After all, with technology overtaking the practice regimens of so many golfers, it’s the fairways hit, greens in regulation, the proximity to the hole of your chips and the number of putts you take that are the important numbers to keep an eye on.
Chuck Scoggins on the business impact of teaching your students the benefits of purposeful practice:
Beating balls to one target is not valuable. Pick three targets – left, center, right – and go through your pre-shot routine before each shot. If you notice a pattern where most of your shots are consistently going left or right, consider taking an extra look at your setup before taking your swing. Educating students on this purpose practice concept is just as valuable as the time you spend together in the lesson itself. “This is what I do when I practice” is a powerful statement to make to your students. Putting them in your shoes often changes their mindset to focus on the task at hand and not just hit ball after ball aimlessly. This concept strengthens the golfer’s mental game, providing structure that incorporates everything you do on the golf course. We have to show our students how they’re going to get better by practicing smarter. Then we have something that we can build on, leading to increased retention and an ever-growing teaching business.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email charles@pga.com.
