Peter Kostis’ one-ball drill will improve your game

In addition to sharing takes on the latest golf news in each episode of Peter Kostis and Gary McCord’s Off Their Rockers podcast, a GOLF production, Kostis, a GOLF Top 100 Teachers Lifetime Achievement honoree, is also passionate about helping recreational players improve their games.

And one way simple way to see better results is via the one-ball drill, which Kostis endorses because it help players practice hitting the shots they need when they need them — an essential skill for on-course success.

“Once you develop the technique of your golf swing, you have to learn how to do it with each club on demand,” Kostis said. “It’s not a matter of trying to roll another [ball] over and repeating that shot.

“Block practice like that is important in developing your skills, but one ball after another with the same club never happens on the golf course.”

Kostis recommends training yourself to play a round of golf on the driving range. Utilizing a launch monitor like his Foresight QuadMAX can be useful in tracking your distances with each club, but the basic gist of the drill is to hit shots on the range in the order you would on the course, making the yardage and club selection as accurate as you can.

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The important thing to remember, Kostis said, is to treat each shot with the same respect and routine that you would during a round.

“I’m not just gonna hit the 8-iron. I’m gonna go through my whole routine,” Kostis said. “I’m gonna take my practice wings, whatever I do normally on the golf course. Get a sense of my rhythm, get a sense of my timing. Pick my target, go through my set-up routine.”

Making the one-ball drill a regular part of your practice routine will pay dividends on the course, Kostis said.

“Practice playing your golf course on the driving range. Create one-ball success patterns,” he said. “Trust me, it’ll help you shoot lower scores and it will really help you feel more relaxed when you go to the first tee.”

For more from Kostis, check out his full lesson in the video above.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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