Everyone would love to shave strokes off their score. 18 handicappers want to be 15 handicappers, 15 handicappers want to get down to 12, and two handicappers want to be scratch. On the PGA Tour, saving one stroke per round can move a player from 100th on the money list to 21st.
Number Five: Take Enough Club
Ask an amateur how far they hit their 7-iron, and they’ll likely say “150 yards.” Watch the amateur hit ten 7-irons, find the average and it’s more likely to be 135 to 140 yards. The one shot that goes 150 is downwind with near-perfect contact – an anomaly to say the least.
Take an extra club, avoid the trouble short of the green, and get yourself pin high. I know it’s a macho thing to hit a shorter club than other people, but it’s a heckuva lot cooler to break 90 or 80 and take some money from your buddies. Suck it up, take the longer club, and put yourself pin high.
Number Four: Swing 80%
There’s a reason a lot of amateurs play well in the spring: they have low expectations, stiff muscles, and they aren’t trying to kill the ball. Tiger Woods has said several times that most of his swings are 80% – he reserves the 90%+ swings for drives or long irons from the rough.
Swinging with less intensity has a few advantages. First, it’s much easier to get into a better rhythm. Second, without your arms and body parts flailing around, better contact is possible. Both equate to more power. Your 80% swing may produce shots that go as far – or further – than your “kill the ball” swings, yet they’ll also be more accurate.
Don’t believe me? Commit to playing a round of golf hitting every shot 80%. Honestly see how you do at the end. I think you may surprise yourself.
Number Three: Improve Your Course Management
Better players still hit the ball into the woods, yet more often than not they escape with par – or at least have a reasonable chance at par. They do this with smart course management. The hero shot rarely works, yet an interesting inverse relationship presents itself on the golf course: the higher a person’s handicap, the more likely they are to attempt a high-risk shot.
Pros are great with their wedges, so they can get up and down from 110 yards. But ask yourself this: if you put the ball back into play, hit it onto the green, and two putt for a relatively easy bogey after hitting your drive into the trees, could you safely eliminate double bogeys (or worse) from your card?
Course management comes into play in other ways as well. Pros talk about “short siding” themselves – missing the green on the side the flag is on, which leaves a more difficult up-and-down opportunity. Pros are usually pin-high and on the safer side of the hole. Golf is a thinking man’s game, so put your Thinking Titleist hat on the next time you hit the links.
Number Two: Fix Your Short Game
Most high handicappers still manage to get near the green in regulation, but three strokes taken out of a bunker or two chips will easily kill any score. Instead of standing on the practice range hitting ball after ball with your driver and 5-iron, spend some time practice the shots from 50 yards and in: pitches, chips, flops, bunker shots, bumps-and-runs, etc.
If you leave yourself a makeable putt even 25% of the time, you can easily shave a few strokes per round. Of course, the definition of a makeable putt changes as you improve your putting…
Number One: Putt Better
Speaking of putting, consider this. On a regulation par-72 course, if a player hits every fairway, every green, and takes the standard two putts per hole, half of his strokes are putts. If a player manages only to one-putt every six holes, he’ll shoot 69. If he can one-putt every three holes, he’ll shoot 66. Four 66s on the PGA Tour will win you a lot of tournaments (and the U.S. Open every year).
Most amateurs would save three or more strokes per round simply by eliminating all three-putts. If approximately half of your strokes are taken with one club, at least half of your practice time should be devoted to it. Take your putter seriously, putt with confidence, and watch the scores plummet.
Just Missed the Cut
Hit More Fairways – If you’re in the trees off of every tee, you’re not going to score well, even if you are Tiger Woods. If you have to take a lesson, hit a 3-wood, or even hit an iron off of every tee, find a way to put the ball in the fairway.
Eliminate Your Bad Shot – Is your big miss a huge slice? Thinning the ball? Chunking it? Hooking it? Find the most penalizing shot in your game and work to eliminate it.
Next Week
I’m not sure – and I’m open for suggestions. What would you like to see counted down next week?
you forgot getting a pencil with an eraser.