Apply a little pressure during your practice. For example, if you're practicing five-foot putts, the following might be an example:

Make < 40%: clean out the garage
Make 40 - 60%: good job
Make > 60%: treat yourself to a nice big steak and a beer

The net time, maybe you bump the percentages to 45/65. Find the point at which rewards are truly rewarding - and difficult to achieve. As with the regular game of golf, you are your own referee. Be honest or your game won't improve as it should.

Where are your eyes when you putt? Commonly, putting problems start when a golfer's eyes move too far inside the ball. To find out where your eyes are, take a normal putting stance. Hold a ball between your eyes and then drop it. If you're properly aligned over the ball, the dropped ball should strike the ball you would putt. If the balls miss each other, adjust your stance until your eyes are over the ball.

Many people suffer from a reverse pivot or a poor weight shift. There's one simple drill that will help you "get through" the ball with your weight on your left side.

This drill is borrowed from baseball. Start with your feet together and then swing the club to the top. As you start your downswing, step toward the target with your front foot just as you would to hit a baseball.

Starting with your feet together will ensure that you get your weight onto your front side as you swing through the ball. This drill is also very good to get the feel of the swing starting at the bottom and stop those golfers that cast their hands to start a golf swing. Try this drill without a ball first or until you have mastered the stepping motion with good balance.

Golf Digest recently published a "Guide to Caveman Golf" for those people incapable - or unwilling - to overcome their "smash it and then go look for it" tendencies. If you are able to overcome your tendencies, you may score better as a result. We don't advocate hitting nothing but your 3W off the tee, but do try to ask yourself a few questions:

• If you hit a 3W from this tee, do you still have a 7I or less into the green?
• If you hit to the fat part of the green instead of going at the flag just over that water hazard, can you lag and tap in for par?
• Do you need to make this putt, or would lagging one up there be sufficient?
• What's more important: being closer to the pin or hitting the highest lofted club you might be able to get to the hole?
• If you go at this par five in two and miss the green, will you be in better or the same shape as you'd be if you safely lay up?
• Would you rather play your next shot from the trees again or from the fairway?

I think you get the point. Golf is a game of risk vs. reward. Being realistic about the risks - and the reward - is the key to playing smart golf.