LET THE SEASON BEGIN! 5 ways to lower your handicap

Well Canada! Another winter seemingly is coming to a close and golf season is right around the corner. What does that mean? Another chance to prove to your buddies that you suck just a little bit less than them and how do you do that? Follow along with this blog where I will be posting about and reviewing training aids, swing tips and more!

Let us start the pre-season off with a goal. Something we want to achieve through the year. Do you want to break 100, do you want to hit 50% GIR, or do you simply want to just enjoy golf that little bit more with good company around you? All these goals are valid and great goals! My goal this year is to pass my player ability test in order to become a coach. I am still awhile away from that but, it basically means I need to be a 9 HDCP and I finished off the season last year at an abysmal 16 HDCP and so I went to work this winter and got my “indoor handicap” to a 5. (PS feel free to look me up on Golf Canada!)

So what does that mean for my goals this summer? It means I need to shave about half of my handicap. Easy! (not really). Now, I need a plan to do that and I need to figure out where in my game I really suck and improve upon that. Basically, I need a plan… So, my plan this season is to basically crunch my numbers and ensure that i pass and here are the 5 ways that I plan to incorporate to drop my handicap in half this summer.

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Number 1. Make Your Shots With Purpose

When we step up to hit our drive off the first tee what are we thinking about? Are you thinking, “oh god, everyone is watching, please don’t shank it please don’t shank it”. Perhaps you’re thoughts are ambitious and more along the lines of, “grip it and rip it”. Followed by a very distinct and loud, “FORE RIGHT”. Well, if either of those are you, you’re like me depending on the day. That however is not good for us, see, there is a great misunderstanding about swing thoughts and even pre-swing thoughts. What do the pros do when they address a shot? Well, they usually stand behind the ball, then move over the ball and then swing. This is super simplified but, what are they actually doing? They are making their shot with purpose. When they are behind the ball they are visualizing the shot and aiming. They are telling themselves and almost preloading the brain to say hey, “all those years of practice, those long hours, I want to hit this ball straight and middle of the fairway”. They also see the imaginary ball fight as they look down the fairway so when they hit their shot they have told the brain what to do and can now act upon that they are also picking where they want to aim their bodies. Now you know were and what you want to do now comes addressing the ball. They walk up to the ball and take their grip, maybe a couple waggles here and there, a look up then back to the ball, a little shimmy. What is all that? Well, they picked their target and visualized it now they need to aim for it. Over the ball, they are looking at their shoulder alignment to the target their club face to the target and ensuring that everything lines up. If it doesn’t, shimmy shimmy. Over the ball you may also want to to be thinking about your grip and if it’s in good shape. Then the grand finally… the swing! What should one think about in the swing? Well for me I used to have no thoughts and apparently that’s just as bad as having too many. I recently took a lesson with a friend who was shocked to find I had no real swing thought and just let it go. They told me use one thing you’ve been working on as a swing thought. Essentially, I have a VERY early release which caused me to thin a lot of shots so now my only swing thought is staying down and thus far on a simulator I feel way more consistent and armed to aim the ball correctly. Now that I can aim and hit consistent it means nothing if I can’t use Number 2 to my advantage!

Number 2. Manage the Course Properly

Ah yes, my 2nd greatest weakness. Before I step up to the tee I look at the scorecard and check is this a par 3, 4 or 5. Based on that and that alone I grab my club. If it’s a Par 3 I check distance and grab the appropriate iron. If it’s a par 4 I grab a driver and if it’s a par 5 I grab a driver. Apparently that’s wrong! It makes sense too. If its a 325 yard par 4 for instance, driver is way too much and we just don’t think about it. I hit my driver on average 250 carry which even just on carry only leaves 75 yards in. That’s nothing but a feel shot as I have no full club in. Feel shots are HARD… So why am I leaving myself a bad shot in? How do we correct this? We play the sticks! What does that mean? Well, it basically means play to the 150 yard stick in the middle of the fairway. Simplified even more, everyone has that favorite club and distance they hit that will be a guaranteed yardage and pin straight. Work smart, not hard. For me I carry my 8 iron 154 yards with a 5 yard draw that i could stick within 20 feet of the pin almost every time. Now, tell me why in the world would John hit anything other than that? It’s because John needs to work on course management to help him achieve his goal this year. So, in this fictitious 325 yard par 4 I need to hit the ball 171 yards to leave me that sweet sweet 8 iron in. That’s only a 7 iron off the tee… That’s insanity John I hear you scream through the screen. It works though! A few years ago I got the pleasure to play a Pro-Am with an amazing player named Blair Bursey who plays on PGA Tour LA the last I saw. This was at a local course fairly tight and some trouble around but, you’ll never guess what I saw them do. THEY WERE GOING TO MOST OF THE TEES WITHOUT THEIR DRIVER! Yes readers that’s right, apparently this is such a good method PGA aspiring players are using it! But, what good would course management be if you dodn’t use number 3?

Number 3. Actually Practice at the Range

My little set up at home!

So far it’s been on course discussion and how to play it but, how do you get to the point where you can put this 2 above into use? You need to practice! I know my yardages and distances really well and can tell you most times when something is wrong. It’s because I spent every day last season hitting balls. Be it on the course or in my driveway with my Garmin Approach launch monitor. I credit my last season handicap dropping from above 20 to 16 because I was training and working on being consistent. I didn’t just hit balls aimlessly though, training was purpose driven see, part of learning and improving is first finding fault. When I was out on the course playing and I had struggled with something I wrote it down (remembering is hard). From there I would get my net all set up the next day and work on that. Yes, I would watch YouTube videos to correct these issues but, be cautious with these. I know my swing and I like to think I know mechanics well enough that some of the videos that will ruin your swing I can filter out whereas you may not be able to. For this it alludes to number 4 but go see a pro so they can show you what to work on! Either way once I had the drill I needed to work on, I would work on that drill until I couldn't swing the club right anymore. I made damn sure that I was going to remember it and so was my swing! It made me a machine on the course and helped my get my career low score near the end of the golf season of 80. Still didn’t break 80 but that’s for this year! Basically, practice is key to be able to execute as, you can’t do what you don’t know how to do. Like I said before this leads into number 4 which issssss. Drumroll please!

Number 4. Go get a Lesson!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I am biased here as I want to be a coach but, before you exit and grab your pitchfork to come find me, how do you practice if you have nothing to practice? Huh? See, I was going somewhere with that and thanks for hearing me out! Lessons are a necessary evil as, even taking a video of your swing your are not tuned to know what to look for or how to diagnose and fix your swing. Imagine letting google diagnose everything for you medically we’d all be dead within a week as every result is usually the C word. It’s the same thing for your swing. Earlier in the article I said I just had a lesson which is true because no matter the level you are at it is always good to have another set of eyes to see something you maybe missed. For example, my most recent lesson was more of a discussion. We were working on making sure I was more consistent and it turns out while mechanically I am sound, there are other things that I could do to make it more consistent and in this case it was that I can work on being a bit more shallow in my swing with a bit more pronation. Sure enough as I was working on the swing feeling my dispersion was tightening more and more as I hit more balls. Long story short get a lesson, even the pros have coaches! But now, the be all end all of lowering your handicap!

Number 5. Putting will Shave Half Your Strokes 

My putting rig. You don’t need the light I just find it helps me see better.

Call me a sellout and judge me all you want. Putting practice is super easy to do at home with a cup on your floor that honest to god you have 0 excuse not to practice. This is singlehandedly the fastest way to cut strokes your scorecard in half. If you’re 3/4 putting every hole you SHOULD be 2 putting. That alone is an easy 18 strokes saves just by putting a cup on your floor and putting it in the cup… WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING THIS?!!?!? For those how can spend get a putting mat. They’re not suer expensive and really can be laid out anywhere in an apartment. But John you ask, “what should we focus on while putting other than getting it in the hole?”. Amazing question reader! You are truly focusing on direction and distance! The double D’s… uhh, wait, err, the 2 D’s? Yes. Yes! The 2 D’s! Simple put, all putts are straight and you will miss a straight putt for 2 reasons. Distance or direction. If you hammer the putt it will hit the hole and jump, too slow you leave it short. For direction all it takes is 1 degree open or closed to miss a putt. Pull out your protractor go on. Its a laughably tiny degree of error so how do we fix? Lets talk distance first. Each green is going to run different but you can scale this easily. First line your ball up at the 5 foot mark and hit the ball taking note where you stop in the backswing (use your back foot a a measure). Did it go in? GREAT! you know where to bring the club for a 5 footer! Didn’t? bring the club back farther. Simply put use your feet as a gauge for how far to bring the club back to create consistent strokes. Now lets talk direction. Go out and get a cheap amazon camera stand that has a cellphone mount and set it up directly over your putter and ball where you intend to hit your puts from. I’m luck because my mat has a line that I can use to interpret the club face if yours doesn’t or you’re using the floor get some tape and that will work. Hit record on your phone and slow-mo that so you can see the club face and soon you’ll be 2 putting in no time! Trust me, this drill changed my entire game. If you can start a putt straight all you have to do is learn to read a green and you will never 3 putt again.

Well folks, there you have it. 5 ways to lower your handicap this season and suck just a bit less than your friend meaning you’ll be taking home more of their hard earned money and really having more fun at the end of the day. There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition from time to time! If you enjoyed the article let me know by reaching out via the contact us tab and I’ll be sure to get back to you!