I pride myself on playing with golfers of all abilities, no matter what handicap, age or stage of their golfing journey. There are some common trends I see among higher handicappers that cause them to waste shots during a round. These scorecard killers are simple things that could easily be undone. Here’s the seven I see most frequently…
Carly Cummins
Carly Cummins is one of the golf industry’s best-known female writers, having worked for golf magazines for over 20 years. As a consistent two-handicapper who plays competitive club golf at Parkstone and the Isle of Purbeck courses in Dorset every week, Carly is well-versed in what golfers love. Her passion for golf and skill at writing combine to give her an unbeatable insight into the women’s game.
Poor Putting Pace Control
Putting is nearly always the number one cause of wasted shots that I see during a round of golf. I am guilty of recording the odd three-putt myself. The most common cause for taking more than two putts on the greens is poor pace control.
The first putt is the critical marker. No matter how far away you are from the pin you should be concentrating on rolling the lag putt with the correct pace to get it to the hole to give it a chance of going in and not leaving it short or racing it past.
So many golfers I play with obsess over the line – even when they’re 50 feet away! In reality, although aiming is important, it is far more critical on short putts than long putts. You could be a few feet wide with your read, but if you have rolled the ball with the perfect pace then you’ll still only have a short putt to hole out.
There are a number of ways you can improve pace control. Making sure that you roll a few long putts on the practice green before you tee off might sound obvious, but even if I arrive with only two minutes to spare I always do. The practice green will give you an indication of how slow or fast the surfaces are rolling on that day. If you get to the 1st green without rolling a single practice putt you are guessing.
The best pace control putting lesson that I ever had was from a PGA professional who told me that the tempo of my putting stroke should remain the same no matter what length of putt I face. To alter the distance the ball rolls, simply alter the length of your stroke. This has always worked for me.
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Coming Up Short
Selecting the correct club for the yardage is the one thing I believe…
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