How Often Should You Play Golf to Improve?

The questions, “how often should you play golf to improve” and “how often should you practice golf to improve” are closely related. After all, if you aren’t doing one at the course, you’re doing the other.

How often should you play golf?

There's no right and wrong answer because we are all different. Some golfers improve their skills if they play golf every day, others need more range practice and play only once per week to improve their game and score.

I would advise you to keep a record of your scores and try both things. One month play as much as possible and the other month to practice more and play only once or twice per week. Many golfers play 2-3 times per week, which is more than enough if you want to still find time for some practice sessions which I strongly recommend. 

If you're curious, I also wrote an article about how often you should practice.

How much golf is too much?

Is it ok to play golf every day? Much like training in the gym, you need to give your body rest. If you work out every day, you will never see proper muscle gain and your body will be in a constant state of flux.

With golf, you need to give yourself regular short breaks to maintain your focus. If you were to play 30 days in a month, many of your rounds would be you just going through the motions.

Rest and practice as tools

With a little bit of rest, you can dial your intensity in and approach each shot properly. Taking a day or two off per week will lead to improved scores than if you played without ever taking a break.

Practice needs to be scheduled. It can’t just be after having a bad round or two. 30 minutes on the putting green means taking more putts than you would in 5 collective rounds. An hour working on chipping is about as many chips as you’d take during a month while playing. The list goes on and on.

If you want to see actual improvement, you need to scale back your rounds played and practice. Here's my top 9 list of the most important shots to practice.

Warming up or practicing to improve?

To clarify, warming up on the driving range and taking a few putts before a round is not practice. Practice is entirely independent from playing. However, there is value in short periods of time on the range and putting green before and after a round. These activities build stamina and help avoid a drop off on the back 9.

Injuries

When you feel pain or discomfort, shut it down. Give your body a chance to fully recover before going back out. Maybe see a doctor too.

People don’t think you can be injured playing golf. They’re wrong. With the amount of stress each swing puts on ankles, knees, hips, elbows, wrists, backs, and necks, it’s a wonder people aren’t injured more often. The most common injury is of course a lower back injury.

What we’re getting at is don’t be afraid to skip a few rounds. Doing so might save your whole summer.

Getting technical

We’re asking how often should you play golf to improve. This answer is more complicated than others, but nonetheless, I have an answer.

I personally play between 2-3 rounds of golf per week and the rest is practice. However, I place a greater emphasis on practicing golf to improve than anything else.

You should spend as much time as you have or can tolerate to improve as a golfer. What you need to remember is that hitting balls on the course is not practice. Your approach needs to be calculated and consistent.

• Hit different clubs the same distances (helps with half shots, etc.)
• Work your way through your bag always aiming at specific targets
• Work on punch shots, draws, and cuts
• If there’s a place, work on shots from uneven lies

And as always, take as many putts as possible from fixed lengths and of varying breaks. Be sure to also have something on the ground (some kind of putting aid) to work on your stroke to keep it as a straight back and forward as you can.

Conclusion

Golf is our passion and hold back on it is one of the most difficult things. Especially if you have friends that play very often as well. If you really want to improve, you need some practice so it's not enough to play often on the golf course.

As already said, try to play and practice with different pace on different months and track your results. This way you will find what suits you and you will improve much more than if you just play or practice without knowing yourself 😉