This is day one of total game improvement week.

Each day for the next week, I’ll be posting a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game. I want us all to make one final push to get over whatever humps are in the way before the year is out.

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Let’s get to it.

Putting

A fun way to work on all sorts of putts in a single session is by playing the “Around the Green” game. It works best on a large practice green with several hole locations.

To play, put a ball down next to one of the hole locations and putt to another. From there, putt to another location, then another, as if it were a putting “course”, until you arrive back where you started. Keep track of the total number of strokes for the “course” and be sure to hole every putt - no gimmes.

To mix it up, change up the order, go backward, and do anything else you can think of to challenge yourself. If your green has too few hole locations, then you can use the same one and just start from different locations (mark them will ball marks or tees if you like).

This game works great as a friendly competition, but individually it really gives you a wide variety of putting situations because you’re forced to deal with putts of every length and you’ll get plenty of practice trying to drop putts within six feet (which is where too many strokes are lost).

It’s important to hole every putt so that you get to work on the short ones and build the confidence that comes with holing them repeatedly in a low-pressure situation.

Short Game

One of the problems in chipping comes from trying to strike the ball with a descending blow but getting too steep and stuffing the club in the turf. You want a nice smooth arc where the bottom is more shallow and flat that lets you hit down gently on the ball, but allows the club to follow through while just brushing the grass.

To get the feel of a more shallow arc, set up to a ball in your normal chipping stance. Then, place a second ball in front of the one you’re addressing a few inches closer to the target.

Take your normal chipping stroke, keeping your hands ahead of the ball, but after striking the first ball, continue on and strike the second one.

This will give you the feeling of keeping your arc more shallow and flat at the bottom, enabling you to brush the grass and make a good follow through. It also encourages you to keep your hands ahead of the ball and not let the club head pass them during the stroke.

Recovery

When you get into the thick rough, the tendency is for shots to go left. As the hosel of the club passes through the rough, the grass “grabs” it. That resistance makes the club face want to close more than normal, creating a hook.

To try and limit that, especially on longer shots, grip the club a little more tightly with the left hand. This will resist the tendency for the rough to grab the hosel and turn the club face closed. Try not to get too tense in your hands and forearms. Just grip tightly enough to resist the turning of the club face in the rough.

Course Management

Most high-handicappers have a serious problem with under-clubbing. There are several reasons for this, but three big ones come to mind.

For one, some have trouble being honest with themselves about their real ability.

Secondly, many players plan for the best, when the best outcome is relatively rare. Unfortunately, hitting a shot perfectly is rare, even for a tour pro. It’s just that their misses are better than ours. But even a small miss equates to a loss in distance.

Finally, high handicap players often under-judge the effects of wind, lie, elevation, and other factors that can lead to a shot that travels a less than optimal distance.

Some of these things come from experience, but being honest about ability and planning for the likely outcome instead of the best possible outcome will help you improve your scores.

Driving

To get maximum distance with the driver, striking the ball with a level or slightly ascending blow is critical. What that means is that your club head reaches the lowest point of its arc during the swing, and has just begun to come back up toward the follow through just before striking the ball.

To help ensure that you do that, at address, set your hands a little behind the ball. That will help ensure contact with an ascending blow, getting the ball up higher in the air with less back spin, to maximize distance.

Sand Play

Remember that when hitting the ball from a green-side bunker, your club never actually makes contact with the ball. The ball rides out on a cushion of sand.

To keep from skulling the ball or hitting it fat and leaving it in the bunker, it’s imperative to make contact with the sand a couple of inches behind the ball.

The point of entry drill will help you with that.

Mental Game

Creating a repeatable pre-shot routine is a must for any serious player. To properly execute golf shots during a round, a player has to be in a good frame of mind. This is true for casual rounds or pressure-filled tournaments.

There are so many mental distractions that a player needs to find a way to overcome. The pre-shot routine helps with this.

It signals the mind and body that it’s time for business. It helps quiet the distractions. It also helps tell the body that it’s time to call upon muscle memory to do the thing that it’s been trained to do. This is especially true during stressful shots where adrenaline is a factor.

The pre-shot routine can be unique to each individual, but it should be brief and it should be completely consistent for every shot. Practice with it over and over and over, so that it becomes second nature and not conscious action. Always use it during practice, not just on the course.

Fitness

To get the most out of golf (and life, really) a good fitness routine is important.

In golf, it’s the major muscle groups that are the most important, especially the core. A great way to build some core strength is through an exercise called the “side plank“.

It’s done by laying on the right side, with the right elbow directly under the shoulder, feet together, and the body in a nice straight line. From there, slowly lift up the hips so that spine makes a straight line (as if you were standing straight up) with your weight supported by your forearm.

Hold for a few seconds, and then slowly return to the starting position. Try to hold for a few seconds at first, and slowly work up to about a minute.

Be sure to repeat on your left side.

Better Golf With Fitness has a photo of the side plank, some other variations, and lots of other great core exercises.

Iron Play

For good contact with short and middle irons, you need to make a descending blow. One tendency is to try and get (or stay) too much behind the ball during the swing. By that, I mean that there’s a tendency to let the weight hang back on the right side (for a right hander) and not transition properly to the left.

If you hit your driver reasonably well (and high) but hit your irons with thin contact too often, then this could be your trouble. You could be getting too far behind the ball and staying there.

On the down swing, get the hips turning to the left and the weight transitioning quickly on to the left leg. At the finish, almost all your weight should be on your left leg, with just the toe of your right shoe on the ground.

Resist the urge to stay on the right leg so much during the hit. At impact, your right foot should already be coming off the ground.

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Further Reading:

Point of Entry Sand Drill (Life in the Rough)
The Side Plank (Better Golf With Fitness)

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