After playing a round of golf, I replay each shot in my head and consider where I lost strokes on the course. I usually shoot in the high 70s and low 80s, and I can always find at least three bad shots. Sometimes, the problem was that I got too aggressive on a putt and wound up three-putting. Other times, I tried to play a cute flop shot to get it close when I should have just made sure I was on the green for an easy two-putt. Then, there are days when I couldn’t keep my driver in play and out of the hazards.

Often, the quickest and easiest way for mid- or high-handicap players to achieve lower scores isn’t necessarily to take lessons and change their swings, it’s to identify their weaknesses, improve their thought processes, and alter their mindsets so that they choose shots that they can execute. If you can follow a few of the following tips in this article, and keep your ego in check during the round, I know you can save a minimum of two or three strokes per round.

Putting

In golf, we carry up to 14 clubs in the bag, yet roughly 30 - 40% of the strokes during a round of golf are made with just ONE club—the putter! For one club to account for so many strokes, it should be obvious that almost all amateurs need to spend more time practicing on the putting green instead of crushing drives on the range. There are two common issues that cause an otherwise good round to be riddled with double bogeys: the pesky three-putt and the short miss.

The Three-Putt

• The Problem: You putt too aggressively, especially on long putts, because you really want to make a birdie or save a par. The result is that you blast your first putt too far past the hole, and you’re left with a tough second putt. If you don’t make that putt, you’ve got a guaranteed three-putt (or worse).
• The Solution: You need to change your approach to the first putt. As you visualize your putt during your pre-shot routine, picture lagging the ball so close to the hole that everyone you’re playing with calls it a gimme. If the putt goes in, that’s a bonus, but the idea behind “lag putting” is that by being less aggressive on your first putt, you improve your chances of having an easy tap-in for your second putt.
• Practice Drill: On the practice putting green, put down three tees—one at 15 feet from the hole, another at 20 feet, and the third at 25 feet. Then, practice getting the ball to the hole from 15 feet. You should aim to snuggle the ball into a one-foot circle around the hole. Once you feel comfortable with your distance control from 15 feet, back up to 20 feet, and then 25 feet. Then, try to mix it up and drop the ball at a random point on the green, maybe with a downhill or uphill slope, and see how you do. If you’re not getting the ball within a foot of the hole from that spot, drop some more balls and work on your distance control until you feel comfortable!

The Short Miss

• The Problem: You have some nerves on the short putts and have trouble making the putts inside of four feet. You push them wide, you pull them, but you can never seem to hit them straight into the hole. If you miss one short putt early in the round, the negativity tends to stay with you and prevents you from playing your best golf.
• The Solution: You need to practice just a few minutes before the round so that you feel confident over this short, four-foot putt. When you feel confident, your stroke will be steady. You’ll take the club back and forth with ease and you’ll find your line every time—right into the back of the cup.
• Practice Drill: Put five balls in a circle around the practice hole, each ball about four feet away from the hole. The goal of the drill is to make all five putts in a row. The first putt or two will feel easy, but the pressure will mount once you reach the fourth and fifth balls. This is a great way to simulate the pressure you feel on the golf course when you have a makeable four-footer. When this drill becomes easy, try adding more balls (so that you must make eight in a row), or maybe back it up a foot and try to make five balls from that distance. This is a great putting drill, especially if you don't have much practice time available. It should only take a minute or two to get to the point where you've made a few putts in a row and you feel the pressure to make the final putt.

If you like these putting drills and want some more to work on, check out this article.

Short Game

Do you have short game issues? The biggest mistake that average golfers make in their short games is trying to play high, lofty pitches where the ball lands softly on the green and hardly rolls out. The best golfers in the world, like Phil Mickelson, spend countless hours working on flop shots and high pitches like that. The problem is that most amateur golfers don’t have nearly enough time to spend perfecting the flop shot. So, the key to improving your short game is to choose a more consistent shot!

• The Problem: You’re just off the green, anywhere from a few feet to 20 yards, and you try to play a flop shot or a pitch with a lofty ball flight. But, at the last second in your swing, you get nervous about blading the ball over the green, so you decelerate in the downswing, and you end up chunking the shot.
• The Solution: Play a club with less loft and go for a bump-and-run instead. The sand wedge or the 60-degree wedge are tempting because if you catch them right, you’ll produce a nice, high pitch that lands softly by the pin. But if you haven't spent hours practicing this, it can be very hard to clip the ball cleanly for the perfect chip. Instead, take out your 8-iron, grip it like your putter, and take a putting stroke. If the pin is tucked behind a bunker or a bit of rough, then aim more for the center of the green. This is called the “bump-and-run,” and it will produce more consistent results because it reduces the chances of chunking the ball. Suddenly, you’ll be on the green with a chance to make a par putt with much more frequency.

Driver and Irons

Maybe your problem isn’t on the greens or around them. Maybe you two-putt every hole on the course, and you have a reliable short game, but you’re shooting 90 because you can’t seem to get those GIRs (greens in regulation). So, let’s address the two most likely causes.

Struggles off the Tee

• The Problem: Your tee shots are getting you in trouble—especially with the driver. Your driver ends up in the trees, in hazards, and even worse, out of bounds. Basically, your driver ends up anywhere but the fairway. Penalty strokes are killing your chances at making pars and bogeys, and even if you’re in play, you are forced to punch the ball back into the fairway too many times each round.
• The Solution: If you hit your driver on three consecutive holes and haven’t come close to hitting the fairway once, then you should put it away for the rest of the round. This can be a real challenge, because we all have an ego, and we all find some satisfaction in hitting it further than everyone in the group. However, if you honestly want to shoot a few strokes lower, then pay attention. Most people find that they are much more consistent off the tee with a fairway wood or a hybrid. It’s nearly impossible to make par when you hit your driver out of bounds and you’re then hitting your third shot from the tee. You have a much better chance of shooting a lower score if you hit a 210-yard 3 wood off the tee box, then a 190-yard hybrid from the fairway, then have a 40-yard pitch onto the green and a chance to make a putt for par.

Issues With Your Irons

• The Problem: Your drives are fine and you’re usually in the fairway or at least you have a shot into the green, but you struggle to hit the green in regulation. Your second shot lands you in a greenside bunker or in heavy rough with a tricky side hill lie. Suddenly, a par seems unattainable, and you’d be happy to salvage a bogey.
• The Solution: Take one less club. For example, if you have a 175-yard shot into the green and you’d normally take a 5 iron, try taking a 6 iron instead. Long irons are harder to hit, so if you can take a shorter iron, odds are that you'll make better contact. Plus, most courses have fewer obstacles in front of the green, so by taking less club, it means you’ll be in front of the green on the fairway or fringe with a very reasonable lie and a realistic chance to chip it close to the pin and make a par.

Summary

Whether you struggle with putting, chipping, irons, or the driver, the lesson to learn is that you can shoot a few strokes lower just by checking your ego and making some better decisions on the golf course. You don’t need to hit tricky flop shots, you don’t need to attack the pin with your irons, and you don’t need to drain 25-foot birdie putts. What you need to do is keep the ball in play, avoid the hazards, aim for the middle of the green and lag your putts to the hole. Yes, it’s fun to swing hard and hit bombs. But it’s more fun to have the low round in your Saturday foursome!

If you found this article helpful and feel like you need to upgrade your clubs to better suit your game, then connect with me or another Golf Expert here on Curated!