5 Stokes Off Your Average Score Guaranteed!
For the recreational golfer, the easiest way to take strokes off your game is to play this one game called “Down in 3.” The recreational golfer is someone who plays once a week and maybe practices once or twice per week.
The game is relatively simple. From 30 yards or less from the hole, can you score 3 strokes or less, regardless of the situation? The situation could be a bunker shot, thick rough, a chip shot from just off the green, uneven lies, above the hole chipping down the slope, below the hole chipping up the slope, etc.
The average PGA Tour player gets Up & Down 60% of the time. That means it takes them 2 strokes, 60% of the time to get in the hole. The average recreational player gets up and down about 25% of time.
This game is giving you 3 strokes to get up and down instead of 2, which would still be an improvement for most recreational players.
Have you ever hit a good approach shot into the green on a par 3 that just missed the green, but you still find a way to make double bogey? Maybe a couple miss hits across the green or a 3 putt? Recreational golfers need to understand that bogey is competitive in competition against similar skilled players.
How to setup the game:
Start with 3 golf balls in 3 different locations around the green.
Pick the same hole as your target.
Attempt to hit each golf ball onto the green from each location.
Once all approach shots are finished, attempt to 2 putt at the most to finish the hole.
Your goal for a total score is 9 strokes between all 3 balls. If you get less than that, great! If you get more, keep practicing that situation.
If you want help with this game in terms of technique and how to play, book a lesson to walk through the game.
Once you can feel how little effort it takes for the ball to get to the hole with solid contact around the green, you will have a better chance managing your effort with the full swing so you can also improve your ball striking. Most players over swing and have too much tension, which leads to all sorts of technique issues.
If your focus is on learning to score lower and play the game, instead of just going to the range and hitting the ball better, your scores will come down faster and the game will be more fun.
Play this game a few times per week and watch the strokes come off your game! At least half of your practice time should be dedicated to chipping and putting from different situations if you want to score better. Remember, no matter how well or how far you can hit your tee shots and approach shots, you’re still going to get out of position and you still need to be able to finish the hole.
When I play golf, the fun part is scoring well. I’m fine with miss hits if I am able to recover and make bogey at the worst. I will have plenty of opportunities to get back in the game. It’s like they say for professionals, “you can’t win on the first day of the tournament, but you can lose it.”
The key is to manage your game so that when things go well, you can go low with your score, and when things inevitably go poorly, you can still grind out a score.
Thank you for reading 🙏
Let’s get scoring!
Coach Zach
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