How the average amateur golfer can improve faster, without practicing more.
Taking a page from another sport or even a business can be a good way to improve your golf skills. A couple of years ago, I ran across an article in Entrepreneur.com that called upon a new order of rules” to govern how businesses dealt with change and adaptation to stay relevant. As I read the piece, it became clear that the same rules apply to golf and to golfers who want to reach their potential. This blog post, The 7 New Rules for a Better Golf Improvement Strategy, came about.
In the business world, there’s been a big shift away from rigid, long-range planning. Adapting an “always-on,” or ‘action-driven’ approach to business strategy. These new rules are about the principles you need to focus on when building a strategy around what matters most—at the same time, allowing for quick adaptations when needed, and recognizing that learning happens continuously.
Believe it or not, your potential to become a better golfer and the process you use to improve your golf skills work in a very similar way.
What’s Your Current Golf Improvement Strategy?
I hear a lot of the same ‘game improvement’ strategies from amateur golfers. Most of the strategies sound like:
- “I want to break 90 (or 80).”
- “I need to stop slicing.”
- “I need to hit it longer.”
- “Next season I’m going to get serious.”
And then life happens. You play when you can. You practice when you feel guilty. You try a few tips you saw online. And your scores stay stubbornly similar. No matter what you do.
Let’s explore the 7 new rules for a better golf improvement strategy. So you can use each to create a better improvement strategy for yourself. As you read the seven new rules for a better golf improvement strategy, realize that nothing happens overnight. And you must take your improvements from the laboratory (practice facility) to the field (golf course) to achieve lower scores and greater enjoyment of the game. Forcing your new golf improvement strategy to be practical and efficient to achieve immediate success.
1) Prioritize Your Biggest “Score Leaks,” Not Your Biggest Dream
The Mistake You Make
Creating a lofty goal, like “breaking 80.” It may feel motivating to make such a goal. But you’re not telling yourself how, when, what, or where you’re going to do all this to achieve the goal.
The Real Golf Situation
You shoot 94 today and say, “If I could just hit my driver better, I’d shoot 84.” I hear this a lot in the ‘strokes gained’ era of golf. But when you look back, the real damage came from:
- 2 penalty shots off the tee
- 3 three-putts
- 2 chips that didn’t get on the green
- 1 blow-up hole after trying a hero shot
The data clearly states you don’t have a “driver problem.” You have a scoring strategy problem!
The Practical Solution – The 2-Leak Audit
Take 10 minutes after your next rounds of golf and answer these two questions:
- What cost you the most strokes today? Was it penalties, three-putts, a failure to get out of the bunker in one shot? Yes, you can count the chunked or thinned missed shot. But pay more attention to the shots around the green and you’ll find that most of the strokes that cost you the most happen inside of 120 yards.
- What would have been the easiest way for you to reduce those mistakes by 25%? We’re not talking about the total elimination of those mistakes, just reducing the total number of mistakes you make.
After answering these two questions, choose only two improvement priorities to concentrate on over the next 30 days. Such as:
- One on-course decision priority – an example would be no penalties off the tee.
- One skill priority – an example could be improving your lag putting so all lag putts finish inside of three feet.
Here’s a real-life example of using your on-course fix to reduce your score immediately. If penalty shots are among your top two leaks, adopt a simple tee shot rule of choosing the club that keeps you in play. You don’t have to be in a fairway all the time. Just playable. Choose the club you can count on that will end up somewhere closer to the hole. Leaving you an opportunity to play your next shot from a much easier position.
This one decision can save you more strokes than any brand-new club or swing thought. Making this rule the most important of the 7 new rules for a better golf improvement strategy.
2) Build an Improvement Plan for the Next 12–18 months, Not a 5-Year Fantasy
The Mistake You Make
You’re planning too far ahead of where you are at the present moment. Or, not planning at all. Statements such as “I’ll be a single-digit someday” or “I’ll just play more” are dreams, not goals.
A better golf improvement strategy that is more easily adaptable and simpler to achieve is to find the happy middle between those “someday” plans and your ‘unplanned ‘ dreams. A strategy that is long enough in time to build achievement momentum while staying short enough in time to realize smaller achievements that add up to the ultimate goal.
The Real Golf Situation
You start the year fired up. By week three, you’re busy again. By month three, you’ve changed your goals. Bet this sounds like you in past years when you thought improving your golf skills was a top priority.
Practical Solution – The 3-Season Ladder
Why not break down the golf season into three seasons? Being simple and realistic as you do. While choosing smaller yet obtainable goals within each ‘season’ that will get you to the final goal or goals. An example of such a plan could be:
- Season 1 (0–3 months): Foundation
Pick one movement priority and one scoring priority, keeping each a more ‘boring’ goal versus an earth-shattering goal. Examples are keeping your tee shots in play, setting up to make solid contact, or putting speed control.
- Season 2 (3–9 months): Scoring
In Season 2, it’s time to build the skills that will actually lower your scores. Skills like wedge distance control, up-and-down consistency, choosing smarter targets off the tee, and approach shots. All have merit, and all can greatly enhance your chances of shooting lower scores during this improvement season.
- Season 3 (9–18 months): Performance
Adding pressure to your training during Season 3 is where you’ll make the most of your time. Skills have already been built, and movement patterns for those skills have been ingrained. It’s time to start trusting yourself under real-time conditions. Whether choosing to rely on your on-course decision discipline, or ensuring your pre-shot routine is consistent, it’s all about learning to ‘play better golf,’ versus learning to hit a golf ball.
By the way, you don’t need more practice time for any of the three seasons. You need to learn to use your practice and play time more wisely and efficiently. You’ll need to provide your practice time with a cadence, a consistent rhythm that you can repeat within your daily and weekly rituals.
3) Innovate Your Golf Game and Don’t Just Copy “Best Practices”
The Mistake You Make
Many amateurs try to improve by imitation. As humans, we mimic very well. But can the imitations of other golfers actually apply to you and your physical makeup and fitness level? Telling yourself, “I’m going to swing like Rory,” or “I’m going to chip like the guy on YouTube,” are admirable. But can you actually do what they do, physically?
One of the biggest mistakes I see my clients and other golfers make is the assumption, “I’m going to play the same strategy as my buddy who hits it 40 yards farther.” Wow, you really think so?
Your golf improvement isn’t about copying the best method or doing what your buddy does. Your better golf improvement strategy of the future relies solely on your ability to find the best method for you.
The Real Golf Situation
You attempt to hit a “standard” chip shot with a lob wedge from a very tight lie. You blade two shots over the green, get nervous, and stop trusting your short game. Sound familiar?
Have you ever practiced that shot from the same condition? Do you have that shot in your arsenal? If not, why did you attempt it?
The Practical Solution – A “Go-To Shot Library”
Do you have an inventory of “go-to shots” you can choose from when faced with difficult situations? Consider this inventory a ‘filing cabinet’ of your experiences and the shots learned through practice, with the ability to achieve these shots successfully at least 80% of the time.
Within your inventory of ‘go-to’ shots, you must include at least two or three reliable shots you can count on under any pressure situation. Simple shots like bump and runs, a low spinning pitch shot, and a standard shot to get out of any bunker are the minimal shots you need in your tool chest. And in most situations you’ll face, you can build other shots from these standard shots by just adjusting your setup position.
The important item to mention is applying one basic rule when it comes to you and your ability to innovate under pressure. Ask yourself the question. “What’s the simplest shot I can use in this situation that gets the ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes with the least amount of risk?”
To understand how to answer that question, you must practice your two or three ‘go-to’ shots, making only one variable change. And as previously stated, it’s easier to make a setup change than a swing change in many of these situations. If you change five things at once, you never learn which change was the one that made the shot work.
4) Make Your Strategy an “Always-On” Proposition, Not an Annual Resolution
The Mistake You Make
You most likely look at the calendar every year and resolve to get better at golf. A once-a-year and shallow commitment to a game that requires the coordination of numerous habits into the different skills required of the game. Your laissez-faire approach to this being a new year, a new set of goals, and possibly new equipment, tends to be set on autopilot from the very beginning.
Better golfers improve because they review and adjust constantly, in the smallest of ways.
The Real Golf Situation
You play every Saturday. You’re frustrated through Sunday. And by Monday, you’ve moved on. Without learning anything from the round you just played. Not to mention all the other previous Saturday rounds.
The Practical Solution – The 10-Minute Sunday Review
After every round or at the end of your golf week, you should start a journal entry and write down:
- The best thing you did during the round and how to repeat it.
- A mistake pattern that showed up twice or more in your round of golf.
- One skill you’ll need the following week, and how you’ll go about improving that skill in the next 6 days.
With these three items identified and answered, you have more data and the power to make your next practice session more purposeful.
Another practical solution is to adopt an “always-on” approach while on the course.Between shots, stop replaying the last swing. Instead, do a quick reset:
- What’s the lie?
- What’s the wind?
- Where is the easiest part of the green/fairway?
- What club produces my most predictable miss?
Doing so creates a strategy that’s happening live, right now. Keeping your head in the game at the present moment, not in the past and not into the future.
5) Learn While Playing, Not Just at the Range
The Mistake You Make
You probably “practice a golf swing” and “play golf” as if each were a separate sport. Then you wonder why your “range game” doesn’t show up on the course.
The Real Golf Situation
At the practice facility, you’re striping seven irons as if you had a butter knife in your hand. On the course, you stand over the ball feeling like you have a shovel in your hands, thinking, “Don’t do this and don’t do that…” Sound like you?
The Practical Solution – Play More “Practice Holes”
Even if you can’t budget more golf practice or playing time, you need to organize better the time you must incorporate “playing” into the routine so you can learn from three or four holes played each time you practice.
When you do get on the course, intentionally turn three or four holes into learning reps.
For example:
- Tee Strategy Hole: commit to a conservative target and club, no exceptions.
- Approach Strategy Hole: aim for the center and accept a putt/chip.
- Short Game Hole: choose the simplest chip method and commit fully.
- Putting Hole: focus only on speed; don’t overthink the read.
While on the practice facility, don’t just hit 30 balls with the same club. Add a “thinking while doing” mentality to your practice by:
- Picking a small and exacting target
- Go through your routine
- Change clubs every shot
- React to your miss, ask yourself what caused the miss, without being emotional.
Doing so, you’re training your decision-making skills and not just your mechanics. Of the 7 new rules for a better golf improvement strategy, this rule is the most often neglected by golfers like you.
6) Use Conversations and Not Just Numbers
The Mistake You Make
Understanding and using objective data can help even the average golfer, to a certain extent. But when you attempt to solve all your golf problems with a spreadsheet, you’ll end up doing one of two things:
- You’ll unintentionally avoid all the feedback staring dead in your face, or
- You’ll drown in all the numbers and analytics because you can’t figure out what it all means.
The Real Golf Situation
On average, you know you hit “only 4 greens” in a round. But you don’t know why? Was it because of poor impact conditions with the golf ball? A poor club choice? You decided to aim at the wrong target or did not aim properly at all? Was it your nerves or the bad lie you thought you had? For that matter, do you even know why you hit the four greens?
The Practical Solution – Ask Better Questions
Whether you’re asking yourself, your golf coach, a playing partner, a caddie, or anyone else, instead of asking “How do I stop slicing?” ask:
- Where is the ball starting, and where is it curving?
- Where was the club face at impact?
- What mistakes show up most often when I’m under pressure?
- What shot shape can I plan on showing up most often, today?
- Where is the smartest target for this shot, on this hole?
Better questions yield more feedback based on real-time data. Asking better questions is a simple yet overlooked tool that every golfer possesses. Yet they fail to gain the advantages they seek, believing they are asking the right questions.
And the simplest of all questions to ask, repeatedly throughout a round of golf if you’re hitting poor shots, is – “Was that a decision error or an execution error?”
- Decision errors are avoidable and a simple method to reduce your scores immediately.
- Execution errors are not as avoidable, but do have an absolute cause rooted in how you set up to execute the decision you made.
This simple question will prevent you from playing “fix-it” golf. Making this rule, one of the 7 new rules for a better golf improvement strategy, the simplest and easiest to employ immediately.
7) Own Your Improvement Plan
The Mistake You Make
Without a doubt, when a golfer or client starts to blame anything or anybody but themselves, the floodgates of failure open widely. It is fairly common for me to hear excuses like:
- “If I buy new irons, I’ll improve.”
- “If I watch enough videos, I’ll figure it out.”
- “My buddy said I just need to keep my head down.”
Even when hiring a good golf coach, such as myself or one of my Staff Coaches, receiving guidance is great and can help you improve. But only you can drive that effort home. Only you can make it happen. Which is why we conclude our thoughts about the 7 new rules for a better golf improvement strategy with the one rule you need to be better at. Taking ownership of the things you have control over. Particularly, yourself and your attitude towards improving.
The Real Golf Situation
How often are you bouncing between tips? Or trying a different swing thought every round? Are you always “working on something,” but that something never seems to stick around more than one shot? If these questions describe you, you’re probably not taking ownership of your improvement and are delegating that responsibility to anyone but yourself.
The Practical Solution – Become the CEO of Your Golf Game!
Here’s what ownership of your golf game actually means and looks like:
- You pick one primary priority per month.
- You protect your mental space from random advice.
- You track only a few meaningful patterns.
- You get feedback from reliable and consistent sources.
- You commit long enough to learn, not just to ‘try’.
If you do work with a coach, don’t wait for all the answers. Ask the questions and then listen. The art and science of listening is the core basis of your learning processes. By asking your coach questions, you are building a partnership with someone who can help you continually take ownership of your improvement plan.
But as you engage a golf coach to assist you with taking ownership of your improvement, realize that these three things must be part of any coaching session:
- What you want most (specific outcome)
- What you struggle with most (pattern)
- What you’re willing to do weekly (time reality)
It’s these three elements that provide the real learning, the lessons, after the coaching session is complete. Facilitating and filling the cracks of the foundation of learning you’re building for your future improvement.
Conclusion
If you want to start your golf skill improvement right now, here’s a checklist you can use right now, based on the 7 New Rules for a Better Golf Improvement Strategy.
- After your next round, identify your top 2 score leaks.
- Before your next round, choose one conservative tee rule.
- At your next practice session, train just one skill that can directly reduce your identified score leaks.
- Every week, conduct a 10-minute review of your rounds, your scores, your statistics, and your practice sessions. And make the necessary adjustments to achieve the desired golf goals.
Golf improvement doesn’t require perfection. It does require a strategy that can adapt to your ever-changing world. A strategy that can adapt because you’re a human being, imperfect in every sense of the word.
If you were a robot, we’d program all this and more into your memory card and turn the switch on. Much easier said than done.
As a human, your switch to golf improvement should always be in the “on” position. Always evaluating, always asking questions, and always making the decisions needed to obtain your potential. If you want to start using the seven new rules for a better golf improvement strategy with one of my staff coaches or me, it’s as easy as picking up the phone or emailing us to schedule a coaching program convenient for your schedule and budget. Why not do so today?
