How To Take 3 To 5 Shots Off Your Golf Score - Fast

You have, no doubt, heard this old Golf Talk expression: Drive for show, Putt for dough. Have you ever really thought about what it means? After all, if you are teeing off on a 300 yard, par-3 hole and hit a 150 yard drive, you are already half way to the green. What’s wrong with a drive like that? Nothing.

The problem is that 80% of our golf shots are taken from 150 yards in to the hole. Applying that stat means that you will take 4 more shots to get the golf ball in the hole – maybe, a nice second shot onto the green, and a three-putt…or, two more shots to the green and two putts. Either way, according to the statistic for most amateur golfers, you just got a double bogey. Having personally experienced this scenario on the golf course, I can assure you that it is really tough to get low scores shooting doubles.

If that’s the case – that most of us shoot 80% of our golf shots in the last 150 yards of the fairway – why in the world do almost all of us go to the driving range and pull out a driver, the golf club we are only going to use 20% of the time? Because, it’s the Big Bertha, the Hammer, the Slammer, the BIG DOG! It does feel good when you hit that golf ball cleanly with that long stick. Unfortunately, the driver is one of the most difficult golf clubs in the bag to hit, so we may not hit the ball cleanly very often.

The most important thing with the driver is to keep the golf ball in the fairway. If you can do that, you are swinging that club beautifully. Forget about distance. Distance can be your enemy if you are hitting the driver 100 yards out into the forest. We’ve all seen Tiger do that, haven’t we? So, expect yourself to do that once in a while, too. If you try to hit it really hard, that driver can be very humbling. Just hit it easy and straight, the distance will take care of itself.

But, let’s get back to the subject for today.

As the title above promises, how can you take 3 to 5 shots off your golf score fast? I did it by taking one golf club to the driving range until I could hit that club pretty cleanly, consistently. Very important word "consistently". It is one of the most important words in playing golf. Setting up to hit the golf ball the same way – consistently. Swinging the club the same way – consistently. That’s why I decided to take only a nine iron to the range to practice – to become consistent with a golf club that could help me lower my scores.

A nine iron is one of the most forgiving clubs in your golf bag. It’s one of the shorter golf clubs, but long enough that it won’t kill your back bending over to hit 50 or 60 golf balls. The nine has a nice large, lofted face with a big sweet spot. That helps you get the ball in the air without toeing or shanking too many.

Taking only one club to practice was very enlightening. For one thing, the other golf clubs weren’t sitting in the bag behind me, beckoning me to come get one of them every time I miss-hit a ball. It was just me and number nine. I could either become its friend and partner, or it could continue to humiliate me into submission.

Amazingly, once I decided to relax and get to learn more about my new friend, it became easier and fun to hit number nine. At first, there were line-drives off the edge, or squirts off the toe. As I paid closer attention to hitting the golf ball cleanly and squarely, though, they began to go straight at my target. The ball was lofting beautifully into the air – and flying farther than I had ever hit a nine. Starting out, I was hitting the nine iron about 80 yards. Over the course of several practice sessions, however, I learned to swing number nine more consistently and cleanly, and the ball was flying 100, 110 and, finally, 120 yards out…and right where I wanted it to go. What a club!

Now, I had a friend that could help get me on to the green with most of my approach shots. Back on the golf course, my scores became consistently 3 or 5 shots lower than usual. Then, they started going even lower as I began concentrating on swinging the other irons the same way I swing old number nine.

So, stop just talking about golf, pull that nine iron out of your bag and head over to the driving range. Swing that beauty until it begins to love you, and you will always have a partner to help you get on the green with fewer shots.

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