I’m not an expert, and I’m not a pro golfer, but I’ve played golf at a decent level for the last 20 years. The following tips and behaviours have helped my game progress enourmously. Adopt them and your golf scores WILL improve, fact. (And the best bit – not one swing tip amongst them!).

1. Know your distances Each approach shot you face on the course is an exact distance to the pin. But ask the majority of weekend golfers how far they hit a certain club and the reply will inevitably be “roughly” this distance, or “about” that distance. Funny that. Golf is a game where people make the most minute adjustments to their swing, but are happy only knowing how far they hit a club to the nearest, say, 10 yards. Ok, so no one hits it exactly the same distance every time, but REALLY knowing the average distance you hit a club will help massively when you’re next stuck between clubs!.

   So, borrow or invest in a measuring wheel. Head to the practice ground, warm up, and then when you’re ready, hit between 30-50 shots with the same club. Wander out to where your shots have landed and find the rough centre of the group of balls. Measure the distance back to where you hit the shots from and note down the distance. Rinse and repeat with next club. You now know your distance. You might be very surprised by the results! (bonus tip: try and do this at least twice a year. Your distances will change in between summer and winter, so it is useful to keep on top them at different times of the year)

2. Long or short? When playing approach shots, look at your target and ask yourself whether the majority of the hazards are in front of the green, or behind the green. You will find that across almost ALL the golf courses you play, the majority of greenside hazards, bunkers, ditches, ponds and lakes will be placed in front of, or in front of and slightly to the side of the green. Often, there is much less punishment for being slightly long of the green than for being short. Now, obviously you are trying to get your approach as close to the pin as possible, but knowing whether you would rather miss the green long or short can inform your approach. You should club your shots accordingly. (and now you know your proper club distances from 1) above, this will be much easier!)

3. Get to the hole to go in the hole This is an obvious one, but it helps to have it pointed out every now and then. Your putts will not drop if they have not got enough gas to get to the hole. Although lagging the odd putt has its place in match-play and on lightening fast downhill putts it must be remembered that the aim of the game is to get the ball in the hole! In your next practice round purposely hit your putts slightly harder that you would do normally. If you do this you will have a few ‘testy’ return putts that you might not normally have, but in all likelihood you will hole a few longer ones that you would not expect to normally.

4. Pre-shot routine. I cannot stress enough the usefulness of a repeatable pre-shot routine. This is especially true when you are coming down the stretch in a good round and you want to be as focused as possible. Golf is a game of momentum and repetition. A good pre-shot routine allows you to keep your momentum and it repeats again and again without conscious thought and letting you drop into the ‘zone’. It will vary individual to individual, but if you try to encompass target selection, approaching the ball, aiming and addressing into your routine, you will eventually free yourself to concentrate solely on the swing you are about to make.

5. Get fitted Still playing with those clubs you picked up at the local sports shop 15 years ago? Seriously? This is not going to be a popular tip, because it will involve spending money, but the fact of the matter is that if you are serious about improving your golf game you need to get clubs that have been fitted to YOU. The problem with off-the-shelf golf clubs is two-fold. First-up, as golfers we come in all shapes and sizes, but off-the-shelf clubs are put together for the ‘average’ build. Odds on you are not the average build! Second, although usually well constructed, off-the-shelf clubs are not assembled CONSISTENTLY: shafts are not aligned the same across a set; progression of lofts and lies are different club to club, grips are mis-aligned, this list goes on. By getting your clubs fitted (or even better, getting a set constructed for you) you ensure that clubs fit your build, strength and swing speed. In addition, you will have a consistency across your set that allows you to ‘trust’ each club in the set the same amount. The improvement in your golf game will be large and noticeable. Primarily, the dispersion of your shots will narrow, your ‘bad’ shots will be less bad, the distance between your iron shots will become consistent and the clubs will all ‘feel’ similar, promoting trust in your game.

Please let me know what you think of this ‘how-to’, using the comment form below, or via my contact page.