Golf Training Program for Beginners

Every year golfer’s begin searching for a new golf training program that they can follow to improve their skills and lower their golf scores. When designing your golf training program, you’ll want to make sure it covers multiple areas of the golf game, including fitness!

golf training program to break 80 (1)

Here are the areas I’d recommend adding to your golf training program:

  1. Improving your distance off the tee
  2. Improving your driver’s accuracy at hitting fairways
  3. Improving your long irons & short irons control
  4. Wedge shots from inside 100 yards
  5. Up and downs around the green
  6. Putting from inside 6 feet
  7. Lag putting from 25 feet to 60 feet away from the hole
  8. Overall core strength
  9. Overall leg strength & balance
  10. Overall flexibility

Now that you have the 10 parts to a successful golf training program, the next step is designing a golf practice routine for each part.

What Drills to Add to Your Golf Practice Routine?

What drills should you include? How many reps per drill should you complete? These are two common questions to ask yourself  before you design your golf training program.

In general, when I create a new golf training program I try to include a combination of high repetition golf drills and pressure or streak focused golf drills.

  • For example, a high repetition drill would be like “Nick, go attempt 100 putts from 6 feet and record how many out of 100 putts you make.”
  • An example of a pressure/streak golf drill would be like “Nick, I need you to sink 10 putts in a row from 4 feet. Once you complete this, then move back to 5 feet and sink 10 in a row.”

As you can see, the difference is whether you’re counting attempts or counting makes in a row. Makes in a row is going to place pressure on you not to miss and start all over.

In my golf training program, I always include the circle drill when practicing putting to add in pressure because if you mess up the circle drill, you have to keep restarting! I’m sure you’re familiar with this tedious putting drill but if not then below in the putting section you’ll learn about it.

Okay, let’s start diving into the different parts of the golf training program and give you a sample golf practice routine you can follow to help you break 80.

Resources:

Fitness Golf Training Program Outline

Before we get into skill improvement drills at the golf course, we need to take care of the body and improve our golf fitness. Improving your golf fitness can help your golf swing believe it or not…

According to Titleist Performance Institute (TPI), some of the most common swing limitations amateur golfers have are:

  • Loss of Posture (64.3%) – any significant alteration from the body’s original set up angles during the golf swing
  • Early Extension (64.3%) – when the hips and spine start to go into extension or straighten up too early on the downswing
  • Casting/Early Release/Scooping (55.9%) – any premature release of the wrist angles during the downswing and through impact
  • Flat Shoulder Plane (45.2%) – when the shoulders turn on a more horizontal plane than the axis of the original spine angle
  • Over-the-Top (43.5%) – when the club is thrown outside of the intended swing plane with the club head approaching the ball in an out-to-in motion

Your golf swing technique certainly can contribute to some of these statistics, but it’s also likely that physical limitations are part of your problem. Here are some common physical limitations you may be suffering from:

  • Inadequate core stability
  • Lack of glute and/or abdominal strength
  • Lack of shoulder and hip flexibility, mobility, and/or stability
  • Lack of thoracic spine mobility
  • Inability to separate the upper and lower body
  • Wrist flexibility
  • Limited overhead deep squat

So let’s focus on a few of the reasons improving fitness may help you:

  • Power – being able to hit longer distances
  • Control – muscle control that helps you control your swing
  • Flexibility – all the bending and twisting that a swing requires
  • Injury Prevention – golf exerts a lot of energy on muscles, bones, ligaments, and joints
  • Stamina & Endurance – remaining strong the whole round and not fatiguing which could result in poor performance or injury

To boost your core strength, glute strength, arm strength, and overall flexibility here are a list of exercises to consider adding to your fitness golf training program. Click the link to download each PDF.

Golf Stretches to Perform

List of Exercises

I printed out both of these PDF’s and have them taped on my wall in my room. Every morning I wake up and work on the stretches from the first list. Then when I head to the gym, I have an excel spreadsheet made that mirrors the workout PDF so I can run through all the lifts and track my weight & reps. Consider adding both of these documents to your fitness golf training program.

Additional Resources:

In addition to those two downloads, here are a few additional articles to browse for more tips and golf fitness exercises.

Golf Training Program Part 2 – Skill Improvement

As you work on your golf fitness from home, you’ll start to see it impact your skill improvement at the golf course as well. To further improve your golf skills and lower your golf scores, you should be practicing a few times per week if possible.

High school golfers will be at the course more frequently than those of us who have jobs and other life commitments, so you’ll need to adjust your golf practice routine accordingly to your schedule.

Below you’ll find one sample golf practice routine that we’ve pulled from our Breaking 80 Golf Training Program.

This intense 12 week golf program gives you a step by step golf practice routine to break 80 that you simply show up to the golf course and follow 3 days per week. If you can’t make it 3 days per week, no worries. There are 36 practices total so just complete each one in order as you go to the golf course.

golf swing tips

In addition we have two other golf training programs you can follow if your handicap is below 10 or above 20. If you fall in between a 10 and 20 handicap then we recommend the breaking 80 golf training program.

Sample Golf Training Program to Break 80 in Golf

Fairways in Regulation

Today’s Golf Drills to Improve FIR %:

  • Hit 1 ball with Driver to fairway zone/target
  • Hit 1 ball with Fairway Wood to fairway zone/target
  • Hit 1 ball with 4 iron to fairway zone/target
  • Do this sequence for 10 sets (30 balls total)

Instructions: On the course you only get one shot to pull off at a time so this drill makes you focus on the one shot because your next shot will be with a different club just like on the course. Record how many out of 10 you get within the fairway zone for each club.

Estimated Completion Time: 25 minutes

Greens in Regulation

Today’s Drills to Improve GIR %:

  • Hit 3 balls with 7 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 3 balls with 8 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 3 balls with 9 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 3 balls with Wedge. Record GIR.
  • Hit 3 balls with 7 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 5 balls with 6 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 5 balls with 5 iron. Record GIR.
  • Hit 5 balls with 4 iron. Record GIR.

Instructions: Find targets that match each clubs approximate distance to hit to and record greens you would have hit if they were normal size greens out on the course.

Estimated Completion Time: 25 minutes

Golf Scrambling Drills (Up & Down for Par)

Today’s Drills to Improve Scrambling %:

  1. Above and Below the hole Practice
    • Complete 25 up and downs to a downhill hole
    • Complete 25 up and downs to an uphill hole

Instructions: Use one ball to maximize focus. Simulate times on the course where you hit a ball over the green and face a downhill chip shot or times where you come up short and have an uphill chip shot. Good scenarios to master up & downs at. Focus.

Estimated Completion Time: 30-45 minutes

Golf Chipping Drills

Today’s Objectives:

  • Improve distance control
  • Improve focus on getting balls within 3 feet of hole for easy putting

Today’s Drills:

  1. Distance Control
    • Chip 50 balls (5 sets of 10) to a long distance hole. Record number of balls you get within 3 feet out of 50 and calculate percentage.
    • Chip 50 balls (5 sets of 10) to a medium distance hole. Record number of balls you get within 3 feet out of 50 and calculate percentage.
    • Chip 50 balls (5 sets of 10) to a short distance hole. Record number of balls you get within 3 feet out of 50 and calculate percentage.
  2. Fun Chipping
    • Chip 50 balls to a short hole (10ft away or less) and see how many you can chip in out of 50. Try to beat this number Day 2 and Day 3 of practice.

Instructions: Compare results & percentages of all 3 days practices at end of week.

Estimated Completion Time: 45 minutes

Golf Putting Drills

Today’s Objectives:

  • Pressure Putting – Improving make consistency
  • Fringe Putting Improvement
  • Lag Putting – Improving ability to putt within 3 feet of hole from far away
  • Breaking Putts – Improving at 4 feet and 6 feet

Today’s Drills to Improve Putting Statistics:

  1. Warm-Up
    • Make 100 putts from 3 feet
  1. Breaking Putts
    • Make 25 left breaking putts from 4 feet
    • Make 25 right breaking putts from 4 feet
    • Make 25 left breaking putts from 5 feet
    • Make 25 right breaking putts from 5 feet
    • Make 25 left breaking putts from 6 feet
    • Make 25 right breaking putts from 6 feet
  1. Fringe Putting
    • Get 40/50 putts to a medium distance/far away hole from the fringe within 3 feet of the hole to pass.
    • 25 putts to a short distance hole from the fringe. Record makes on worksheet.
  1. Lag Putting
    • Lag 50/50 within 3 feet of hole from 20 feet. Restart if you fail.
    • Lag 45/50 within 3 feet of hole from 30 feet. Restart if you fail.
    • Lag 45/50 within 3 feet of hole from 40 feet. Restart if you fail.
  1. Pressure Putting
    • Make 20 putts in a row from 3 feet
    • Make 10 putts in a row from 4 feet

Estimated Completion Time: 90 minutes

Why You Should Join Our Golf Training Program

While it’s tempting to try and do everything on your own, there are two huge reasons why joining a pre-built golf training program is a smart move.

  1. You’ll save lots of time trying to figure out how to improve your golf game on your own
  2. You’ll save lots of money

In other articles on the blog, I’ve shared my story of how I went from never playing golf before and scoring way above 100 for 18 holes all the way down to scratch golf and under par scores – – in just a few years time. More importantly, I talked about how much time I wasted doing things the wrong way.

Once I finally figured out the most important parts of the golf game and how to practice to improve at them, I saw my scores begin dropping rapidly.

I also saved lots of money because I no longer had to buy buckets of range balls or pay $60 every week for a half hour swing lesson. Consider how much money you currently spend on your golf game: golf clubs, golf balls, swing lessons with an instructor, rounds of golf, beer, and many other expenses.

What if you cut back on a few swing lessons or a few packs of Titleist golf balls and used that money to purchase a golf training program that will help you improve your scores and see results in all areas of your golf game? I think it would be money well spent and time saved.

If you’re ready to make a difference in your golf game this season, check out our three different golf practice routines to break 80, 70, and 90. When you buy one of our step by step golf practice programs, it comes with worksheets and lots of bonuses you’ll learn about on this page here.

Golf Practice Plans (Follow these Programs)

Golf Video Courses

Don’t miss out on these amazing training programs. They’ll help lower your golf scores.

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