Improve Your Score with Better Course Management

November 15th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Whether you are just starting to learn golf, or you have been golfing for many years and you’re just looking to refine your game, this will provide a good direction of focus for this season.

If you want your score to drop by any significant amount, you should learn to hit your 150 yard club, and learn to hit it very well.

By “hitting your 150 yard club very well”, I mean being able to step up to the ball, and KNOW that you can hit any green that is 150 yards away. Every time, any condition, with no pressure.

You need to get to the point in your game where you can hit those 8 or 9 irons very consistently and accurately. Anyone can do this. Believe it or not, 150 yards is not very far away, and most greens these days are very big targets. The short irons should be the easiest club in your bag to hit. And if they aren’t the easiest clubs to hit, you should work on them until they are.

Once you master that shot, everything else is a simple adjustment. Your swing will be on, and you can simply add or take away a little club to adjust for varying distances.

That’s step 1.

Step 2 is designing your game to work around your “guaranteed 150 yard shot”.

Let’s say you are on the average 400 yard par 4. If you have that 150 yard shot in your bag, then it should be very easy for you to get onto the green in 3 shots.

Think about this…(I know you wouldn’t really do this) but if you have the 150 yard shot, you can hit it off the tee, and again for your second shot, and end up 100 yards out hitting 3 from the fairway.

Now you’ve put yourself in a good position, which is what course management is all about. And better yet, if you have the 150 yard shot down, your 100 yard shots are likely to be working a lot better as well.

Even if you get yourself into trouble off the tee, just lay up to 150 yards out, and use your 150 shot to get on the green. This will do a ton of good for your golf game. You’re on in 3, and you can still save par or make bogey with a 2 putt.

Start small, and master the 150 yard shot. Then build your game around it. If you do this, you won’t have to worry about so many bunker shots, chip shots, and all the other specialty shots that make this game so frustrating.

If you can get this shot down, you’ve taken the first step to breaking down your game and lowering your scores. Then you work on your putting, and then you work on your driver.

Now, I realize golf isn’t as easy as I’ve made it out to be above, but it really can be if you have the 150 yard shot. I can guarantee that you’ll be playing the best golf of your life this season, if you keep focus on improving that 150 yard shot. It is essential!

That’s it for this newsletter. I’ll be in touch in the next few weeks with some putting tips that should really have you stroking the ball.

If you would like to refine your swing this season “The Simple Golf Swing” is a great place to start. You can get it below. I guarantee that it will cut 7 strokes from your average score almost immediately.

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