It's often said that practice makes perfect. But that's not always necessarily the case. As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi put it: "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

With that in mind, we reached out to Wade Wilson, a PGA professional at El Niguel Country Club in south Orange County, for his thoughts on what it means to practice perfectly. ​

“When I talk to golfers, they often say they are going to practice on the range or they are going to work on their putting,” he told us. “But the first question I ask them is, ‘What are you going to go practice?’ or ‘What part of your game are you going to go work on?’ Their responses are often quite revealing.”

While Goose Creek Golf Club in Jurupa Valley is challenging enough to be a perennial favorite to host some of the biggest professional events in the region, it’s also welcoming enough to ensure that average golfers can enjoy themselves too.

Nestled in the Hidden Valley Wildlife Area and meandering along the Santa Ana River, the Inland Empire gem is easily accessible from Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties and has hosted qualifying events for the PGA Tour, USGA and others. The par-71 Schmidt-Curley Design routing that plays 6,560 yards from the tips should be a destination no matter where you live in Southern California.

“If you are looking for a pure golf experience based on a creative and effective course design that’s well maintained and a course that’s fun and challenging to play for all levels, this is it,” said Ross Fisher, the PGA Director of Golf at Goose Creek. 

Season's greetings, golfers, your ultimate golf holiday gift guide is here.

Roger Dunn Golf Shops, which has been serving golfers in Southern California for 55 years along with its sister company The Golf Mart, has released its 2020 Holiday Gift Guide, a digital publication full of golf equipment, apparel, accessories, and special savings for the season.

When it comes to extricating your golf ball from a greenside bunker, Southern California PGA Teacher of the Year and Director of Instruction at Journey at Pechanga Randy Chang suggests it’s a lot easier than most amateurs think.

“The dreaded bunker shot. For most of you out there, this is the hardest shot in the game. For most professionals, this is the easiest,” Chang says. “Here’s why: It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get the golf ball out of the bunker. It’s not hard at all.”

​Check out the video below to see how simple it really is…

If you want to crush the ball and hit it far like the tour pros, there’s two things you need to have: flexibility and mobility.
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In the following video, Mike Hansen of Hansen Fitness for Golf in Irvine, will take you through a 30-minute routine that is designed to assist in those areas by targeting the joints and muscles that are most important for your body and golf game.

We asked our readers to tell us their favorite holes in Southern California and received a variety of responses.

And while not all of our entries could be winners (we picked four in October), here are the rest of the submissions. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the four winning entries.

Thank you to all who participated!