Cut 11 strokes in a day

[LeftyTrevor]

So, I realize for you low handicappers this will not help you at all but for the high and mid high it may help mentally at least. Last fall I developed a huge slice with my driver and 3 wood thus destroying my game. I have been playing with terrible rounds 100+ while trying to fix this problem. I played with some old men the other day and they gave me a bit of advice that has helped tremendously. Play the 4's like par 5 and the 5 like 6. I tee off with either 5 wood or 5 iron. Hit my second shot not stretching to get the green but just to 100 or so and hit a nice easy shot into the green. The last 2 rounds I had at least 1 putt chance for par all day made a few, most importantly cut out those double and tripple bogies going for a green just out of reach or hitting my second shots from the woods. Anyway, went from shooting 100-103 to 88 on easter and 89 yesterday.

[Zeph]

I've done this when I was over 20 in handicap, but now that I'm sub 18, I have to make pars. I don't hit the driver as much as I would if I could hit it properly, but I always aim to play a hole to par. My 3 wood is good enough as a substitute most of the time. Of course, if I'm in a deep bunker, rough or 250 from the green I won't try to reach it, but I don't lay up on purpose from tee. Driver is the hardest club to hit, it is where most of my shots are wasted, but I've got to learn hitting it better. When I do hit it well, I'm very confident with it.

The tip you got was good, but I would not do it on every hole, that way you would never progress. Do it on par 4's and 5's that are long and hard to reach.

[Deryck Griffith]

To add to LeftyTrevor's good points, I would also say to try and hit or if you miss, "just miss" all of the par 3's. Blowing up on par 3's (missing green, poor chip 3 putt, etc etc) can really hurt the score.

Nevertheless, the tips LeftyTrevor suggested are great for high handicappers playing off of the correct tees. It will help to improve on confidence and added confidence will help you with the driver when you decide to bring it out.

[saevel25]

Yep, i was lucky yesterday on one of the par 3's. I missed it short, scalded my chip shot, but got up and down for boggie. Honestly, if your are not comfortable hitting pitch shots or your driver, hit something more lofted and give yourself a full iron into the green. If you need to lay up to were you feel comfortable. This will stabalize your game until you are able to develop more consistancy in your game. Because it will be hard to advance your game to the next level with out making alot of GIR's, unless you develop a godly short game.

[allin]

So, I realize for you low handicappers this will not help you at all but for the high and mid high it may help mentally at least. Last fall I developed a huge slice with my driver and 3 wood thus destroying my game. I have been playing with terrible rounds 100+ while trying to fix this problem. I played with some old men the other day and they gave me a bit of advice that has helped tremendously. Play the 4's like par 5 and the 5 like 6. I tee off with either 5 wood or 5 iron. Hit my second shot not stretching to get the green but just to 100 or so and hit a nice easy shot into the green. The last 2 rounds I had at least 1 putt chance for par all day made a few, most importantly cut out those double and tripple bogies going for a green just out of reach or hitting my second shots from the woods. Anyway, went from shooting 100-103 to 88 on easter and 89 yesterday.

This is especially true for par 5s. Years ago when I started playing before the advent of graphite, titanium, and longer balls, anyone who was not extremely long routinely teed off on par 5s with a three wood so they could shape the shot to the hole. This set up the lay up and then you had the shot and distance you wanted for your approach shot. I still believe in this approach and will not go for a fairway wood into a par 5 unless there is absolutely nothing protecting the green. This takes some of the pressure off your scrambling and short game, since you are left with easier shots. Although I almost never eagle a par 5, maybe once a summer, I feel I get as many birdies, more pars, and almost never worst than bogey, about as often as I eagle.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Playing for easy bogeys instead of hard pars is the way every high handicapper should play the game. There's no use trying for pars because they are usually luck accidents. But once you can get those easy bogeys consistently, you'll start seeing what shots you need to learn to hit better so you can start converting some of those too easy bogeys into well-earned pars. In my experience it's getting your tee shot in the fairway consistently, getting up and down from greenside, good approach putting, and avoiding blow-up holes that gets you close to a single-digit handicap. Since I haven't taken the step after that, I'll yield to someone who has.

[NJ Kevin]

I could really benefit from this advice. This is my second year playing golf and would like to start keeping score and obtain a better grasp of what I'm shooting. Thanks.

[senorchipotle]

well, if it makes you feel better i guess. personally, i only keep score when i'm competing with someone. my objective is to hit good iron shots, good drives, good pitches/chips, and putt well. my best ballstriking round last year i ended up 10 over. my best scoring round i was 4 over. i can honestly say i was happier after shooting 10 over. scoring is great, but when you learn how to really hit each club, and be able to make the ball do what you want, scoring won't even be an issue.

[treebound]

Years ago I had so much trouble hitting my driver/woods I just left them at home. Got some funny looks until I smacked my 1 or 2 iron down the fairway just fine.

I've used the mentally adjusted par tactic in the past, I've even hit a short iron from the tee to the perimeter of a large pond on a course that had me psyched out (two shots around the pond was better than sinking 5 balls into it 8-) ).

Getting back into the game this year my goal will be to play bogies instead of pars until I get my consistency in check.

Thanks for the tip.

[sean_miller]

To add to LeftyTrevor's good points,

I found a card in my glove compartment yesterday that made your post jump out at me. I shot an 85 on a course that wasn't exceptionally penal and I recall my ball striking and decision making were reasonanly good that month - what the H went wrong? I was +8 on the par 3s. Two bogeys, one double and one triple. On the double and the triple I'd made decent contact but poor decisions from the tee.

Par 3s can be the best chance at birdie (you're hitting to the green from a perfect lie) but a 3 can become a 5 or 6 so fast.

[kpaulhus]

I found a card in my glove compartment yesterday that made your post jump out at me. I shot an 85 on a course that wasn't exceptionally penal and I recall my ball striking and decision making were reasonanly good that month - what the H went wrong? I was +8 on the par 3s. Two bogeys, one double and one triple. On the double and the triple I'd made decent contact but poor decisions from the tee.

I also agree. I shot a 42 on the front 9 and realized I only had one bogey and an 8 on a par three.... its a shame that I scored like that on a Par 3, but sometimes those Par 3's are also one of the top 5 handicapped holes. ie....when I got a 9 on the 17th at Sawgrasss lol

[Philip9210]

Think I may try this my next round, will post results when I try it.

[Fairway_CY]

I tend to take it one step further. I always go to GHIN.com and figure out my handicap for the course and tees I'm playing that day. I then arrive at the course about 10 minutes earlier than I typically would, and I take the time to fill out a scorecard with how many strokes I would get per hole based on my course handicap for the day. If I'm playing to a course handicap of 26... I get 2 strokes on handicap holes 1 through 8 and then I get 1 stroke on every other hole. I then 'adjust' my par for each hole based on that and I play to THAT par.

At the end of the day, my goal is always to be net par or better for the round. If I'm +1 or +2... I can live with it. If I play to anything higher than that... I feel like I left strokes on the course and I practice what I need to for my next round. Last year, that tactic brought me down from a 27.8 handicap at the beginning of June (when I began playing last season due to financial issues) to a 23.0 by the end of August (when my last round for the season was played).

During that time period, I played to a net average of 69.50 and a gross average of 95.75 with net scores of -10, -5, -6 and -4 in the mix. When I got on rounds like that... I felt what I'd imagine it would feel like for a PGA Tour player to shoot a mid to low 60's score. It really kept me involved in the game and kept my head in it... because even with a blowup score of 8 on a par 4 where I was getting 2 strokes... it only put me at a net double bogey and I always felt like I could recover from that.

So far this season, I've played only a single round... but in that round, I was +3 net after the first 2 holes... and +4 after the first 4 holes... and then I rebounded and got myself back to even by the 13th hole. On the 14th, I blew up with a 10 (net quad-bogey) and then got it back to +1 by the end of the round. I ended up finishing in 10th place alone for low net that day... and I knew that the things I needed to work on that cost me during that round were sand play (the cause of the 10) and hitting down on my irons instead of sweeping (the cause of all other problems that day).

By taking that approach (playing to net par)... I feel like I've given myself a goal that not only keeps me involved, but allows me to KNOW whether I'm improving or not just based on my scores. Plus... I'm a stat geek, so... that's just another stat I enjoy keeping.

CY

[treebound]

Now that's an interesting angle to try. So once I get my handicap re-established, if I'm alloted 2 strokes on a hole and I end up hitting a par then that'd be like an Eagle if it were a handicapped tournament. I'm not all that into stats but I might give this a try just for a fun added level to the game.