The Price of Admission to Better Golf: Practice (Even When You’re Not Hitting Balls)

I see it every week. A student comes in for their lesson, we dial in a key checkpoint—maybe a flatter wrist at the top, or better weight shift on the downswing—and they leave nodding, “Got it.” Then the next lesson rolls around and… nothing has changed. The swing looks the same. The ball flight looks the same. The frustration looks the same.

The missing ingredient? Practice.

Not just range time—though that matters too—but smart, deliberate, repeatable practice that you can do anywhere, anytime, with zero balls and zero cost.

You Don’t Need a Bucket of Balls to Get Better

Golf improvement isn’t measured in how many Pro V1s you stripe. It’s measured in repetitions of the right positions.

Here’s what I tell my students:

“If you can’t rehearse it in your living room while watching Hulu, you probably can’t do it on the course.”

Try this tonight:

1. Grab a 7-iron (or any club).

2. Set up in front of a mirror or your phone camera.

3. Rehearse your half-to-half swing (from address to waist-high back, waist-high through).

4. Check three things:

   • Face angle (is it square? slightly closed? open?)

   • Connection (are your elbows staying in front of your chest?)

   • Weight shift (do you feel 70% on your lead foot at finish?)

     
     

Do 10 reps. That’s it. 90 seconds.

Do that every night for a week. That’s 70 perfect reps of your new checkpoint—more quality swings than most golfers get in a month of casual range sessions.

The Myth of the “One-Hour Fix”

A weekly lesson is like a gym trainer writing you a workout plan. It’s useless if you never do the reps.

An hour lesson without practice is like reading a diet book and never changing what you eat.

You wouldn’t expect to bench press 225 after one spotter session. Same with golf.

Pros Don’t Avoid Bad Shots—They Out-Rep Them

Every pro you admire has hit thousands of shanks, chunks, and duck hooks. The difference? They kept swinging until the good ones outnumbered the bad ones.

You don’t get to skip that part.

Your At-Home Practice Menu (5 Minutes or Less)

Drill	Time	Focus
Mirror Backswing Check	2 min	Wrist angle, clubface, shoulder turn
Half-Swing Finish Hold	2 min	Weight shift, chest rotation, balance
Grip & Stance Reset	1 min	Neutral grip, athletic posture, ball position
Chip Motion Rehearsal	2 min	Quiet lower body, triangle arms, brush the grass

Do one. Do all. Do them while watching tv.

The Bottom Line

There’s a price of admission to the club of better golf. It’s not fancy clubs or expensive lessons.

It’s repetition. It’s checking positions. It’s hitting bad shots until they’re not bad anymore.

Your coach isn’t asking for hours. Just consistency.

Next time you sit down to watch TV, keep a club nearby. One drill. Five reps. That’s the difference between “I took a lesson” and “I got better.”

See you on the range—after you’ve earned it at home.

Fundamental Golfer is a golf coaching philosophy built on simple, repeatable fundamentals. Follow for weekly drills, checkpoints, and no-BS advice to lower your scores.