Every golfer in their journey to improvement has hit that wall: you play more, but somehow you start playing worse.
It’s a demoralizing feeling. You’re left feeling both frustrated and confused, wondering if all those hours you’ve logged were just a big waste of time.
Last week, I posted on X about why I believe two rounds per week is the sweet spot for making progress. To my surprise, a ton of golfers agreed.
A few comments argued that 3+ rounds a week is the only way to truly improve. Others swore by playing once a week alongside dedicated range time. But most agreed two rounds is the sweet spot for making progress while still keeping the “golf spark” alive.
But still, it made me wonder: is there any research/data on the ideal number of times to play/practice to maximize performance without frying your passion?
Because let’s be honest: You can play too much golf.
Luckily for us, there is some data out there on playing time versus practice time, and what the ideal amount is. In today’s Scoring Letter, we’ll review the key findings, how to interpret them, and how you can ultimately improve more efficiently.
Let’s get into it.
The Floor
Let’s start with the minimum number of rounds. While there haven’t been studies on the “floor”, the consensus appears to be that playing at least once per week is required for improvement.
While you can improve on one round a week, the ceiling for your improvement drops, and the process gets much slower.
One round per week tends to work best as maintenance more than improvement. Feel and timing fade quicker between rounds, and the lessons you learn become more about managing and maintaining your big misses rather than learning to fix newer ones.
Longer gaps (every other week or less) make meaningful scoring gains rare for most people.
Once-a-week players can still drop strokes over a year if they:
Play with purpose (track stats, note specific miss patterns, improve their course management).
Are hitting the range consistently each week and working on mechanics
Review and dissect the round afterward to learn strengths & weaknesses.
(I’ll go more into detail on these later in the article).
The Ceiling
Alright, now let’s look at the maximum number of rounds suggested for improvement. The answer might surprise you.
The only data I could find that addressed this specific topic of # of rounds vs improvement comes from a year-long study out of Golf Insider UK, tracking roughly 250 golfers.
The short answer is this:
Once you get beyond 2 rounds per week, you start to experience diminishing returns.
Surprisingly, the study showed that golfers who played about 1.6 rounds a week versus 2.02 improved more. However, the improvement was self-reported, and the amount they improved was statistically insignificant according to the study.
But nonetheless, the direction of the trend is worth noting: Playing three or four times a week did not outperform playing once or twice.
And then there’s the mental side of things. If you’re anything like me, playing three rounds in a week is a fast track to burnout and sometimes wanting to quit entirely lol.
So that’s another factor to consider.
The Ideal Number of Rounds
Okay so to answer the original question posed at the start of the article:
Is there any research/data on the ideal number of times to play/practice to maximize performance?
The answer is 1.5-2 rounds per week.
Anything less than one round and improvement stalls. Anything more than two and the gains plateau.
Now, this isn’t to say more rounds can’t be better. But purely playing more rounds of golf does not automatically correlate to lower scores. Which I will discuss more later.
But here’s the big takeaway from today’s post: Once you meet the minimum standard of 1.5-2 rounds per week, the biggest determining factor for how quickly you improve comes down to how you play and how you practice.
A golfer who plays just 1.5x per week with a clear plan and intentional focus on key areas will improve faster than someone who plays 3x per week with no specific strategy or goal.
For the remainder of this article, we’ll be discussing strategies for playing and practicing with purpose to accelerate your improvement.
If you’re enjoying this week’s post and want access to the entire Scoring Letter archive, I’m running a little promo to receive 20% off an annual subscription for one year HERE.
