90s shooters comprise the majority of golfers, but they all went to inch down into the 80s. How do they do it? Let’s ask some off GOLF’s resident low-handicaps, who are here to offer some helpful advice, golfer-to-golfer.
1. Improve your crisis management
Luke Kerr-Dineen (2.2 handicap): So many 90s shooters usually have a pretty good swing, but what holds them back is one or two blowup holes a round. More often than not, these holes aren’t caused by one bad shot, but rather a bad shot or two, followed by a couple stupid decisions. You can’t magically stop hitting bad shots — it’s going to happen — but you can stop a bad shot or two turning into a blowup hole, so work on stopping. When you’ve got a 10 footer for par, don’t hit it so hard that it ends up six feet by. If you have a chip with nothing between you and the green, putt it instead. If you hit it into trouble, take out your wedge and chip out. It’s not sexy, but it will turn those double and triples into bogeys.
2. Choose The Right Tees
Josh Sens (2.5 handicap): Play from the proper tee. We could all spend endless time fine-tuning our technique. That’s a worthy goal. But making a swing change is like seeing a shrink: it requires time and money, and there’s no guarantee it’s actually going to work. Choosing the right tee is a change we can all make instantly, with no effort other than letting go of our egos. If you can’t break 90 and you’re playing courses much longer than 6,200-6300, there’s a good chance you’re playing from too far back.
