What is the best way to reduce your score

Hi GRians,

I believe a lot of high hcpers here will love to know n learn the roles of reducing their strokes on the green to achieve their best score.

I have been playing just barely under 100s since feb2014, squeezing 2-4 range session of 1hr weekly (if possible) and ard 2-3 games every month. But I just can't seem to break 90s even on my best day!!

Driver - ave 210-230m; trying hard to keep on the fairway
Hybrid - seldom use it as I tend to draw the ball when I force it.
Irons - fairly well up 6i, will thin when I rush my shots.
Wedge - still trying to dial in those 110m - 70m shots, usually to the right.
Putter - ave 2 - 3 putt; still trying to find the tempo.

Can the low hcpers share their secrets to playing low scores?

Current practice;
- Dun have to drive far, just keep it on the fairway.
- slow down on my swing.
- Work on my 5w n 4h so I can close out those long par4 n par5.
- More GIR
- Chip close to the pin so I need lesser putt.

I hv only one go to approach for myself..that is to.chip nearer

But not sure if this work for u

Disclaimer...i am nt a low hcpper

Been working hard on my pitching n chipping for those under 40m to the pin distance.

I think it is largely also due to my ever inconsistent swing la.

I am also in the process of improving my game...
Personally I think the most direct way of shaving strokes will be putting. Start targeting max 36 putts per game. Once you get better, go for anything 30-34 as a target. Next, short game, anything within 100m. Decide on a game plan to tackle stepped distance within 100m... Eg 30-40-50m, 60-80-100m. Driver next... Target to just find the fairway... This will avoid incurring unnecessary penalty strokes from OB and water. Above is my approach for my game at the moment. Just sharing  hope it's good sharing for some bros who are struggling to improve like I do  cheers!

One aspect that I have being working on besides swing.. is course management. 

Knowing which hole to attack and which hole to hold back.. what club to tee off.. and get myself out of trouble.

e.g 
- knowing bunkers within my driver range.. tee up with 3W or Hybrid. 
- Knowing loads of bunker in front of the green, take a longer club and make sure hit over better than leave it short. 
- In a wild shot.. chip out into fairway better than going for the pin and risk losing the ball.. 
- play my confident iron and lay up instead of going for the pin and get into trouble.

Course management, discipline in chipping and limit putts to 2.

envy u all. my greatest improvement would be to actually hit the freaking ball!!!

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

Bro Willy, I'm not a low hcp but I can feel your pain having been in the same situation before.
Without knowing your game, no one can really give you suitable advise, at best its some general pointers or personal experiences (me included).

IMHO, you need to chart your game and know your strength / weakness......eg
 - how many FW in a round, left or right or centre?
 - how many GIR in a round?
 - how many penalty strokes per round due to OB, hazard, lost ball etc?
 - how many stroke lost due to inability to get out of the bunnker in 1 try?
 - how many strokes lost due to duff chip?
 - how many 3 putts per round?

The above are just examples and there are more.
Having identify your weakness is of no use if you do not have the time to practice.
Likewise, when u practice, you need to practice the correct way. 
Having professional help is often better than trying to figure out yourself.
Heh the pros are there for a reason and we have our day job.

From the way you describe your game
 - driver 210m to 230m, this is good distance but is it mostly on fairway, fairway will give us much better chance to GIR than rough/hazard
 - draw for hybrid, isn't it good? Or u are referring to a hook instead?
 - thin shots for irons?.....too fast, lost posture/spine angle
 - wedge. wow you can shoot 110m with wedge?  This is very good.  Anyway wedge no need far but need to be chun
 - ave 2 to 3 putts for putter.  This stat is a bit confusing, so is it 2 or 3?  This is potnetially a 18 stroke diff in your scores

Also, if like what u say......you are playing just barely under 100s since feb2014, then I think it is better to target playing below 95 consistently first.
Its not so easy to shoot 98 and then suddenly 89....it has to be progressive
Just wondering, are you playing white or blue cos this makes a big big diff too.

All the best bro.  Will jio you to play Laguna prob towards end of the year.

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

I would disagree.. in some way... and really depends on context. Again no saying that driver is not important.. but it is not the single element to lower scores. 

We are playing off white as hcp.. so driver can find fairway good enough, no need to be long. If driver cannot.. eliminate wild shots and play your most confident irons.... you can still bogey a hole if your putting and short game is sharp. 

IMHO key to breaking 90 is eliminating all the high scores and aim for a bogey round and get few par in par 3s.

TDO wrote:

Play 6, cancel write 5. Play 5, cancel write 4.  

LOL.. like that we all can be better than the PGA pros liao!

oldie-newbie wrote:

envy u all. my greatest improvement would be to actually hit the freaking ball!!!

Your day will come.. I have being playing this game on and off for 10 years liao.

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

This would be an interesting experiment to carry out...

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/what-would-you-shoot-if-a-pro.html

Just to share, 

I am currently not hitting my 3w well.  Misses will be tops/hooks/slices.

When I hit it well, distance is about 200 to 220m.
However, since I do not hit it well most of the time, I will usually opt for my 190m hybrid to ensure that I do not screw up the score for a particular hole. 

Case in point:  par 5. Good tee off, on fairway. Left with uphill 200m to the green. Actual distance is about 210m. I will need to hit a solid 3w to put it on.  OB only at the back of green.  So if I top/slice/hook the 3w shot, I will still not be penalized too badly.  I will opt for the 3w.

Result: I topped the shot and was left with 150m for my approach.  Ended up with a par.  Still ok.

Another par 5.  This time, I am left with 250m to the green after tee off. No point for me using 3w as it will not reach the green anyways. I will opt for my 190m hybrid so that I can keep the ball in play and try to put it on with a wedge on my 3rd shot.

If I were to use the 3w, thinking to put it as close as possible to give me a shorter 3rd shot, I am not playing smart. A mishit will either leave me with a long iron approach, or possible jungle or OB shot. This reduces my chances of a par.

Based on the above 2 scenarios, I weigh the consequences of my decision based on risk and reward.

I know what my weak clubs are and will only use them when the mishit shots have low risk outcomes.

Plan how to play the hole based on the possible results of mishit shots.

timlim wrote:

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

This would be an interesting experiment to carry out...

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/what-would-you-shoot-if-a-pro.html

cool article, thanks for sharing.

timlim wrote:

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

This would be an interesting experiment to carry out...

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/what-would-you-shoot-if-a-pro.html

10 stroke difference. This is the difference between long and short hitter. While it's unlikely to carry out the same experiment in our home course, we can always try teeing off from the red and see the diff. May not be an apple to Apple comparison but idea is the same

Denmeister wrote:

Just to share, 

I am currently not hitting my 3w well.  Misses will be tops/hooks/slices.

When I hit it well, distance is about 200 to 220m.
However, since I do not hit it well most of the time, I will usually opt for my 190m hybrid to ensure that I do not screw up the score for a particular hole. 

......

Read somewhere before.. I think was butch harmon.. nvr hit a 3w as 2nd shot unless you know that you can reach the green.. as 3W is the hardest club to hit.

skybobo wrote:

timlim wrote:

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

This would be an interesting experiment to carry out...

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/what-would-you-shoot-if-a-pro.html

10 stroke difference. This is the difference between long and short hitter. While it's unlikely to carry out the same experiment in our home course, we can always try teeing off from the red and see the diff. May not be an apple to Apple comparison but idea is the same

But one should focus on O'mera's score.. with Andrew's drive.. he can still shoot a 75.

Agree.  So morale of the story is no need long drive to break 80.
With long drive, if the rest of the game are not up to std, still cannot break 80.

I once saw a guy....after tee off left abt 40m to the green.
He end up double bogey after duffing on his chip twice.

Bomby, its not you

skybobo wrote:

Agree.  So morale of the story is no need long drive to break 80.
With long drive, if the rest of the game are not up to std, still cannot break 80.

I once saw a guy....after tee off left abt 40m to the green.
He end up double bogey after duffing on his chip twice.

Bomby, its not you

Anyway.. I have done that before as well...    I once two on a par 5.. and end up with a bogey..  

All good advice above.  For me, what I struggle with is developing a consistent miss, be it a pull or a slice.....if it's going both ways (and i don't know which way it's headed) then it's impossible to score well....my preferred shot is hitting a baby fade with my driver, FWs and hybrids....and a pull draw with my irons.....the minute it starts going the opp, then i'm in trouble.....

If all goes well, i can aim at the left edge of the fairway and then let the ball come back to the middle....even on a bad miss, it will end up on the right edge of the fairway.....same thing for the green...just aim to one side and pull draw it back to the middle......side note: always take an extra club if there's a hazard in front......

If you're able to develop a consistent miss, then you will be opening up the fairways and eliminating hazards etc.......

As always, it's easy to give advice but I'm truly struggling with this myself....

As for the old debate abt which is the most important club, driver or wedges or putter, look at it this way.....getting your driver under control prevents big numbers (hitting ob, into hazards, etc whereas your wedges and putter are your scoring clubs and the easiest to work on......

bro willy@i think there was a post written by bro slinger on how to achieve 90. He advised to aim for bogey every hole eg...par4 3 on and 2 putts. Don't be greedy.
I feel that it is one of the best posts for all of us high hcpper but I cannot remember the thread.

Here's my 2 cents worth.

In a typical Par 72 course, we play the following shorts (assuming we are good players la):

Drives (using Driver or FW)              :   14 shots  (19.4%)
FWs, Hybrids, Irons                        :   22 shots  (30.6%)
Putts (assuming 2 putts every hole)  :   36 shots  (50.0%)

Just as in preparing for our exams, we would put more effort on the subject that carries the most marks so in this case, logically, it should be putting. But how many of us actually give adequate time to this? We prefer to learn to bomb our drives, right?. For those who cannot two putt or less consistently, I would advocate that they spend more time to practise distance control, reading the greens, developing a smooth putting stroke, etc. This will surely reduce their score.
Next would be the FWs, Hybrids and irons, particularly the shorter irons. Hitting into the fairway (e.g. 2nd shot on a par 5) is generally easier than hitting into the greens as you have a wider/bigger area to aim. We tend to make more mistakes hitting into the greens because they are smaller and usually are well guarded. So more effort & practice to improve accuracy and course management comes into play e.g where to land your shot so that you have a safer & easier approach to the green.
Drives account for only 20% of the game so should rank lower in importance but nonetheless, it sets the tone for your following shots. I would rather hit it shorter and be in the fairway than try to hit it long and get into trouble (plenty available out there) and thus getting more worked up and pressurised.

So, know your weaknesses. Then work harder on those.

Cheers!

skybobo wrote:

timlim wrote:

chuangyee wrote:

Practice driver. This is the biggest difference between us and the pros.

This would be an interesting experiment to carry out...

http://www.golfdigest.com/blogs/the-loop/2014/08/what-would-you-shoot-if-a-pro.html

10 stroke difference. This is the difference between long and short hitter. While it's unlikely to carry out the same experiment in our home course, we can always try teeing off from the red and see the diff. May not be an apple to Apple comparison but idea is the same

10 strokes is quite a bit right?! Anyway O'Meara's drives are 260 yards, quite doable in today's standards. 
After reading this http://lowestscorewins.com/buy my game plan changed quite a bit.