For those golfers, like me, who have made a New Year's resolution to improve their golf games in 2010, the next step in the process is determining how to do this. For all of you who have made this commitment, remember that practice is not optional-it is essential.

All too often, we think that the best way to improve our golf games is by buying new equipment, investing in new training aids and taking more lessons. While all those are important tools to improving your golf games, they will not be effective without practice.

When it comes to golf practice, there is the common way we approach it and the correct method of doing it. Let's talk about both of these methods in the following paragraphs.

During the spring and summer, we will spend one hour a week going to the local driving range and hitting a big bucket of golf balls. In some cases, we may even try hitting a huge bucket.

Before we go to our weekly round of golf, we will head to the driving range-if one is available-and hit a small bucket of balls, and then head over to the practice green to hit some putts. Then, it is off to the first tee and our round of golf.

If we want to be better golfers, we need to spend more time practicing the things that need work. For example, instead of hitting all your clubs at the weekly one-hour session, concentrate on those that have given you the most trouble in your previous rounds of golf. If you are like most golfers, those will be the scoring clubs, that is, those from 100 yards and closer.

During this past golf season, I noticed a very troubling statistic in my post-game analysis-my scores on par threes. I found that I recorded more double bogeys on these holes than birdies. Why? Because my first shot generally did not land on the green. This may be acceptable for a 200-yard par three, but it is unacceptable on a 150-yard par three.

Analysis of my tee shots on the par three holes revealed a major problem-most of my tee shots ended up left of the green. Now, I call this a "pulled shot." My more-knowledgeable golf friends said that I am casting my clubs and I am coming over the top.

What I discovered was that I was "hitting from the top." In simple terms, I was not making a full shoulder turn, but rather swaying back and forth. As a result, I was hitting the shots left. To hit more accurate shots on par threes, I had to spend more time on my alignment, swing easier not harder, and make a shoulder turn instead of swaying back and forth.

I practiced these swing thoughts for two weeks and found that my scores on par threes dropped, but then I reverted back to my old self when I started working on my poor chipping. I did not really notice this reversion until I started doing a more thorough post-game analysis of my weekly golf rounds.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that I need to continue practicing those tips so that I can ingrain them as second nature into my golf swing. The old adage, "Practice makes perfect," certainly applies here. Moreover, scoring on the par-threes helped improve my overall golf scores and my attitude.

Remember, if we want to improve our golf games in 2010, practice is essential to success.