Practice is the homework. 

The scorecard is the final exam.

Play on the range

Picture yourself on a course you know as well as the way you put on your glove.  Start on the first tee.  It is a short and narrow par 4 that doglegs left.  Good course management dictates that you hit a 4 iron instead of a driver.  So hit the 4 iron on the range.  Now comes the hard part.  Based on that swing and the ball flight, evaluate the ball’s location for your second shot.  Be honest! 

OK!  So you pulled your tee shot a little.  You are in the rough left of the fairway.  It’s not a good lie.  The trees are too tall to hit over them to the green.  So you make a smart decision to pitch and run an 8 iron out to the corner of the dogleg.  Now take your 8 iron, visualize your target and hit that shot from the range platform. Good shot!  You hit that one just the way you wanted. 

Now you are left with 125 yards to the flagstick.  But the green slopes from front to back.  If your shot lands back where the flag is you may roll off the green and into the lake.  No problem.  A 3/4 pitching wedge will give you a 100 yard carry that should land on the front fringe and roll to the middle.  So see that shot with your mind’s eye… and hit it.

Well you hit that clean but pushed it a little right, maybe eight feet off the green but flag high.  How about a little 9 iron chip for a chance to one-putt and make bogey?  Stroke the chip and you’re done.   Now play the 2^nd hole of the course, on the range.  Get it?

 This practice technique means you are changing clubs after every shot.  It breaks up the tedium of hitting fifty 7 irons in a row.  It challenges and improves your visualization ability.  It makes you think.  It teaches honesty in course and mental management.  And if all that is not enough, it makes practice more fun.