‘Secrets’ for lower scores

[ItIsJack]

Please share things you do, that you think everyone should do to shoot lower scores

 

I will start

 

1. Try to leave yourself a downhill putt after a long breaking putt/chip.

 

I got this advice from another WRXer but do no€™t remember who. This sounds opposite to what you want but almost everyone lags it closer when they try this because the ball is always rolling toward the hole. Please try this, it’s amazing!

 

2. Read the greens with your feet

 

Eyes are good at seeing a difference in slope but if the terrain around the green is sloped then it will trick your eyes. My green reading instantly improved and made it easier to be confident and trust my line. I believe I am a better green reader than anyone that just uses their eyes

 

3. Do no€™t aim for the middle of the fairway

 

Aim away from OB, water, trees, etc. If there is only trouble on one side you should sometimes aim for the rough. Sounds obvious but I see a lot of good golfers refuse to adjust enough away from trouble

 

4. Become great at chipping not just good

 

I heard this from a Mickelson interview and it made so much sense. The odds of making a 3 foot putt is so much better than a 7 foot putt so practice here saves a lot of shots

 

I realize many of you already do some of these things but I see a lot of golfers shoot higher scores because they are not

 

Please post your €˜â€€™secretsâ€

 

Jack

[RobertBaron]

2. Read the greens with your feet

 

I've been doing this the past couple of months. It's helped a ton. I've never been great at reading greens, but this takes a lot of the guess work out.

 

5. Don't be a hero.

 

Especially if you're above low single digits. You're not Bubba Watson. You're not going to bend that ball around a tree on to the green. You're just going to end up deeper in the woods. Punch it out and take your medicine.

[WinKiePie]

Take more club. Grip the club lighter than normal. Swing slower. Dunno why but it always makes me hit solid accurate shots. Just not as fun as gripping it and ripping it though.

[SomedayScratch]

Take more club. Grip the club lighter than normal. Swing slower. Dunno why but it always makes me hit solid accurate shots. Just not as fun as gripping it and ripping it though.

 

I would say grip it firmer than normal and swing faster tempo....

[ItIsJack]

I always say swing easier instead of slower. Whenever I try to hit it a few yards further I swing harder and I have a lot of wasted motion and I end up hitting it shorter with poor contact. I think swing easy is great advice and something I have to be reminded of a couple times every week!

[Bomber_11]

1. Play the odds. Just because you carried your 7i 184 one time, it's not the right club when you have a 180 carry over water to a front pin.

 

2. Sometimes a 2-putt is the best case scenario. Nothing wrong with cozying a birdie putt up to tap in vs. taking a run at it w/ your birdie putt and risking a 3jack.

 

3. Aim small miss small, aim big miss big. Pick something small, even with driver. Try to fade it off of a specific tree or 150 marker vs. seeing a big open space and swinging away.

 

4. Don't ever try to add loft or help the ball in the air. That's the clubs job.

 

5. Don't try to steer the ball, especially with driver.

 

6. Leave yourself an uphill putt (sorry OP, just my way of doing things)

 

7. Clean your grooves for reliable/consistent spin and distance control.

 

8. Minimize damage whenever possible. Sometimes you have to accept bogey is the best possible outcome. Don't make triples playing for the miraculous par.

 

9. Play driving iron or 3-wood if your instincts are telling you driver isn't the play. 250 in the short grass > 310 in thick trees.

 

10. Play to a # you're confident with. I think the pros do this a lot and amateurs don't. I suck from 40 yards with a wedge, but I'm great from 75. So if I'm 310 out I'll hit a 235 yard shot to give myself the right # vs. pounding a 3 wood as far as possible.

[Ty_Webb]

3. Do no€™t aim for the middle of the fairway

 

Aim away from OB, water, trees, etc. If there is only trouble on one side you should sometimes aim for the rough. Sounds obvious but I see a lot of good golfers refuse to adjust enough away from trouble

 

I try to do this a lot. Unfortunately in the back of my mind I'm always thinking that I'm aiming it at the right rough or the right edge say and my last thought is well, I want to go left of that. So I pull it and often wind up further into the trouble than I would be if I had aimed straight. My biggest issue is making an aggressive swing at a conservative target. I can't get myself to think of the right rough as my actual target. I actually also think I overdo this and aim too much away from trouble. That means that I am always struggling and don't get the benefit of my good shots. I'm too scared of the 1 in 20 shot. I should aim it closer to the trouble and accept that I'll go in it from time to time, but my average score should be better.

 

I'll hit a 235 yard shot to give myself the right # vs. pounding a 3 wood as far as possible.

 

There's a difference?

[ItIsJack]

6. Leave yourself an uphill putt (sorry OP, just my way of doing things)

Sorry Bomber your wrong! Jk, but for the past couple years I went too extreme on this advice so now I have to correct it. I need to listen more to the advice Monte always gives on avoiding extremes. But of course an uphill second putt would be better

[TheCityGame]

I don't think the point is to leave yourself a downhill putt. The point is that on chips and long putts, you should be coming in from the high side more than people normally do. Ball should slow down breaking towards the hole, not away from the hole. Seems obvious in writing, but I can't believe how poorly some people do it.

[Chowdah86]

Regarding putting: Focus on nothing but trying to roll it close enough for a gimme (if not in).

 

Seems a bit goofy and basic, but I have used this thought for many years with great success. I came up with it years ago when playing a couple of guys who were around +3 and +2. I was having a really rough day with my swing and was just trying to keep up with them despite my troubles. When I got to the green on each hole, (most of the time I was furthest from the hole) I just focused on rolling it right up to the hole, no further, nothing else. That way I could take my tap in and get out of the way. Well, I was lights out putting that day and have gone with the thought ever since. Previous to that, I was in a long slump working on alignment, grip, visualizing lines etc. This just got me using my feel instead of my dumb head.

[ItIsJack]

I don't think the point is to leave yourself a downhill putt. The point is that on chips and long putts, you should be coming in from the high side more than people normally do. Ball should slow down breaking towards the hole, not away from the hole. Seems obvious in writing, but I can't believe how poorly some people do it.

Thanks thecitygame for explaining it better. My lag putts used to look good as it goes by the hole with a nice slow holing speed but it would miss and I would leave myself a 5-10 ft uphill putt. Ever since I heard the advice on here I played the maximum break and the shots look kinda bad as there rolling toward the hole but it always rolls out more than I think and ends up inside 3ft. I think people struggle with this because a good lag putt looks way to high the whole time until it finally stops and you realize it’s right beside the hole. I can’t explain enough how much this improved my lag putting.