I would say the best advice is, practice, practice, practice. If you're just starting out, there are a million things that can easily be fixed by hitting balls at the range and hitting chips and puts at the practice greens. If you find a place with a nice chipping green your in luck, it will let you practice some longer chips and even sand shots, they will really help you around the green. Look at it this way, I hit my 3,4,5 iron maybe 10-12 times a round, I use my putter 30-40 times a round, where can I easily lose shots, putting and chipping, if I get that putting number down into the 20's thats 10-20 shots right there. If you go to the range and hit a bucket of balls working on your longer irons and woods you'll get better, if you hit a wall picking up a teacher for a couple of lessons can easily put you back on track.