⛳️ Struggling for lower scores?

It’s Thursday and you’ve got this coming,

⛳️ One Golf Tip: Struggling? Look at these 5 things first!

We’re next up on the tee, let’s go!

ONE TIP
Not shooting the scores you want? Look here first!

When I have golfers come to me complaining about the scores they are shooting, the first thing I do is try to dive deeper into there rounds to find where they're losing their strokes. Oftentimes, players don't look at it that way and they just give me a high-level summary which oftentimes skips over the parts of their game that need the most work. Here are five things that you should look at when assessing your rounds to try to identify where you are losing your shots.

Please note that each of these points usually has, I guess what we could call, follow-up questions with them. The goal is I look at one area, try to find out what the problem is with that area, and then we plan on how we're going to improve that specific area.

#1: Par 5 Scoring This is the first place I look. Regardless of your skill level, you need to make sure that you are taking care of the par fives. If you are a high-level player, I'm expecting you to play the par fives at even, or more often under par. If you're a high single-digit to low double-digit handicap, I'm looking for you to try to play the par fives at even par as often as possible. If you're a higher handicap, I'm looking to make sure that we're making no higher than bogey on par fives. Par fives are our biggest opportunity to score and we have to make sure we are taking care of them. When I have players that struggle with par 5 scoring, I'm diving deeper to find out if it's a tee shot issue, an approach shot issue, or a short game issue.

#2: No Bogeys with Wedges! This can be for both par fours and par fives, but when we get to a distance where we have a wedge in our hand into a green, how often are you taking more than three strokes to get the ball in the hole? If this is starting to happen several times throughout the round, again I'm drilling down to find out if this is a distance control problem, an alignment problem, or a putting problem. When we have holes that are short enough that we have wedges into greens, we have to do our best to be very sharp in that area. We should always be more accurate in shooting lower scores when we have wedges into greens as opposed to long irons and hybrids.

#3: No blown easy up and downs! Now everyone's definition of an easy up and down is different, but I guess I'll simplify it by saying if there's no obstruction in your way like a bunker or water, etc., if you don't have those in your way, I would classify them as an easy up and down. (Yes, I understand that sometimes we have some short-sided situations that can be difficult.) When diving deeper into this, it really helps us identify if we're struggling in this area due to a chipping problem or a putting problem.

#4: No 3 Putts! This one is pretty straightforward, but our ability to avoid three putts is so important when it comes to shooting lower scores. A follow-up question to this would normally be around if we're three putting, what is the length of that second putt? For example, are we consistently leaving ourselves six, seven, or eight feet for par, or are we missing short putts on that second putt?

#5: Avoid Penalty Shots! The easiest way to add strokes to your score is by taking balls in hazards or out of bounds. Making sure we avoid this is so important. A follow-up question if I have a player that's adding a lot of strokes because of penalty shots is: Are they coming off of the tee or are they coming off of their second shots? If it's coming off of tee shots, I might ask a bit more information around is the dogleg left or a dogleg right and where was the trouble. Normally when players are hitting tee shots into bunkers and hazards, they're generally making a poor decision with where they're aiming or their club selection.

So the next time you finish around that you are not happy with, spend a little bit of time and get very specific around these five points and identify where you are actually losing those shots on the golf course. The best way to plan what your practice should look like or what you're going to work on during your next golf lesson should come exclusively from how you're playing on the golf course!

🎙️ Have you checked out my Podcast? Find it here

What it feels like making a par on #7 Red at Kingsville, if you know, you know!