How to Shoot Lower Golf Scores
Shooting a lower golf score is the priority of every golfer. However, many are not sure what exactly they need to work on to accomplish that. Here we value key steps to lower golf scores.
Shooting a lower golf score is the priority of every golfer. Yes, even the person who says “I just like going out with my buddies to play on the weekends” wants to shoot lower scores. They just either don’t want to spend the time improving their game or don’t know what to focus their time on.
Many people to this day believe that to shoot lower means they need to make more birdies. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, scratch golfers average less than two birdies per round.
The reality is that to shoot lower scores, you need to avoid double bogeys and worse.
Double bogeys and worse are scorecard killers. Trust me, I have posted my fair share of “worse” scores. Even as a 3.7 handicap, I posted a 9 on a par 4. Not once, but two times in two separate tournaments this year.
These are the types of disasters you are trying to avoid if you want to post your best score ever.
Of course “big numbers” or “disaster holes” are relative to your current ability. If you are a player who averages 100+ and wants to break 100, you need to avoid triple bogey at all costs. Whereas a scratch golfer trying to become a plus handicap needs to not only avoid double bogeys but keep bogeys to a minimum as well.
You are probably reading this and thinking “Well yeah, of course you want to avoid doubles. Everyone knows that.” So the question you need answered is, how do you avoid them?
In the remainder of this article, we will discuss a few key points that have helped me lower my handicap from 8.5 to 3.7 in a single season.
Hire a swing instructor
Know your carry distances
Pick smart targets
Practice with intention
Use a GPS
None of these ideas are revolutionary or groundbreaking. They are basic principles that have helped me to get better and enjoy the game more. Regardless, they are tried and true methods to help golfers at all levels become better.
Hire a Swing Instructor
First and foremost, if you can afford it, you should be working with a swing instructor. A good swing instructor can assess your swing, break down exactly what you need to work on to improve your ball striking, and most importantly they can teach you how to accomplish that task.
If you have never taken swing instruction before and rely solely on YouTube or advice from your weekend golf partner, you are missing out on a crucial resource. The best part is that in today’s world, you can find an excellent instructor online or in person. These instructors can give you all the tools you need to improve your game.
Trust me, and the hundreds of professional golfers, on this one. If you want to improve your game, spend a few hundred dollars on some coaching. This will improve your game far more than the latest equipment or the newest tip from your 25-handicap playing partner.
Know Your Carry Distances
Knowing how far you carry each club is a critical component to shooting lower scores. This should be pretty straightforward but you would be surprised at how many people do not have any clue how far they hit each club. Moreover, many golfers lie, especially with driving distance, how far they hit it for ego purposes.
The reality is that you need to know how far you hit each club. At some point in a round of golf, you will be faced with a scenario where you need to carry water or a bunker when hitting into a green or even off the tee. If you don’t know your carry distance, how can accurately pick the right club?
I highly recommend that you spend some time with a simulator each year to learn or verify your distances. Hit 10 shots with each club and take the average carry of those 10 shots. That will provide you with a fairly accurate proxy for your carry distance.
Pick Smart Targets
Once you know your carry distance, you can more accurately pick smart targets. Now, most people know that they should not be firing at every single pin. However, ego can get in the way on the course. You need to fight this.
Being intelligent on each shot selection will help you:
Avoid penalty areas
Hit more greens in regulation
If you can become really good at avoiding penalty shots and increasing your green in-regulation percentage, you are guaranteed to shoot lower scores. After all, penalty strokes are easily the biggest stroke adder to anyone’s scorecard. The next closest would be missing greens in regulation (it is easier to 2 putt than it is to get up and down).
Do yourself a favor and be smart with your target selection. Your scorecard will appreciate it.
Use a GPS
To help with shot selection, you should be using a GPS of some sort. While it can be effective to use a rangefinder and the course yardage markers, a good GPS will provide so much more information.
If you want to pick smart targets, you need to know where those targets are located. That’s where a service like Shot Pattern (no affiliation) comes into play. This GPS will give you the yardage to carry bunkers or hazards, the front/middle/back of the green, and more. All of this information is vital to making sure you are selecting the right club and playing a shot that gives you the best opportunity to hit the green in regulation.
The best way I have found to use GPS, specifically with approach shots, is to laser the flag with a rangefinder, then set the flag location on the GPS with an estimated location to the left or right of the green. Then when looking at the GPS determine where I want my ball to land (this is almost always at the center of the green).
By doing this, assuming you know your carry distances, you can be extremely confident in the club you use and the shot you decide to play.
Practice with Intention
Last but certainly not least, you need to practice with intention. You simply can’t go to the driving range and hit 100 shots with a 7 iron and expect your golf game to improve. You need to be smarter with your practice.
One of the best things you can do is track your strokes gained stats. If you do track them and find out you are a great driver of the ball but you are horrid from 120 to 175 yards, you need to practice more from that yardage range. The same goes for any other facet of your game.
Hitting balls just for the sake of hitting balls can give you a false sense of confidence. Be sure you are intentional and work on areas of the game that you struggle with.
For more advice to improve your golf game, follow me on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @_consistentgolf