As Justin Thomas’ father, PGA professional Mike Thomas, puts it: “The longest walk in this game often is from the range to the first tee.” Most golfers’ range work, cycling through clubs and repeating comfortable shots, doesn’t prepare them for the course.

If you already work on your setup, backswing, and ball-striking, you have the raw material. What you likely lack is a weekly structure that turns isolated technique work into lower scores. The plan below organises practice into five focused sessions: strike, start line, wedges, putting under pressure, and on-course transfer.

What You Need Before You Start

• Range access and a practice green
• A handful of balls, tees, and an alignment stick or mirror
• A phone or notebook for brief session notes
• A launch monitor is useful but not required

The single most important prerequisite is an honest assessment of where you lose strokes. Thomas and his coach Matt Killen review stats before every practice block. You don’t need tour-level data. A few rounds of noting your misses, whether they’re pulled wedges, three-putts from medium range, or poor contact with mid-irons, will tell you enough to set priorities.

Session 1: Strike and Swing Pattern

Use this session for technical work. Pick one club and one target. Use blocked repetition, hitting the same shot to the same spot, to check contact and motion. If you’re working through a setup or backswing change, this is the session to embed it.

Limit the blocked phase to 20–30 balls. Then finish with 10–15 shots where you change the target or club on every ball. That small dose of randomness starts the transfer process even within a technique-focused session.

Session 2: Start Line and Face Control

Mis-aimed putts waste more strokes than most golfers realise. Thomas starts every putting session with an alignment mirror, confirming his left eye sits just behind the ball and his eyes align with the target line.

After the setup check, use a gate drill: place two tees slightly wider than your putter head, centre the ball between them, and roll 10–15 putts to a target within 10 feet. Narrow the gate as consistency improves. Then add a second gate one foot in front of the ball, roughly two ball-widths wide, and roll putts through it. The goal is a reliable start line before you ever think about reads or speed.

Session 3: Wedge Distance Control

Thomas identified approach shots from 50 to 75 yards as a weak window in his game, then spent focused time there. You should do the same with whatever wedge range costs you the most strokes.

Hit half shots, full shots, high shots, and low shots to the same target. Then move the target and repeat. If you have a launch monitor, use it to verify carry distances and spin. If not, pick landing spots on the range and judge your dispersion by eye. Vary trajectory instead of grooming one repeatable swing. On the course, you rarely face the same wedge shot twice in succession.

Session 4: Putting Pace and Pressure

Start-line work (session 2) handles direction. This session is about speed and consequence.

A ladder drill builds both. Set tees at 3, 6, and 9 feet on a straight putt. Make 15 in a row from 3 feet, then 6 in a row from 6 feet, then 3 in a row from 9 feet. If you miss, restart that distance. The escalating difficulty creates real pressure, which is the point. Comfortable putting practice rarely survives the first tee.

For longer putts, place a club or alignment stick just beyond the hole to define a speed zone. Roll putts from 15–25 feet and aim to hole them or finish inside the zone. Count your successes out of 10. That gives the session a measurable pass/fail target.

Session 5: On-Course Transfer

This is the session that justifies the other four. Change your club, target, trajectory, and lie from shot to shot. Use your full pre-shot routine on every ball. Score the session however you like, but add consequence: a three-ball test where you pick a target, define a scoring zone, and need at least two of three shots inside it works well.

Thomas recommends paying close attention to your shot shape on the day.

If it’s not happening on the range, it’s not happening on the course. Accept the pattern you see and plan around it.

If this session falls on a playing day, shift to warm-up mode: 30–40 percent wedges, then longer irons for shape, then a quick putting-speed check from various distances. Thomas says if you only have time for one thing before a round, calibrating your putting speed is the single most useful choice.

Reviewing the Week

After five sessions, jot down one weakness that cost shots, one strength worth maintaining, and one focus for next week. That 60-second review keeps the plan evolving rather than stale. Better practice starts with matching each session to a specific skill, then making part of that work look like golf again.