Avoid mistakes and improve your golf game - DUH!

Avoid mistakes? No S _ _ T, Sherlock!

Go ahead and say it. But before you click away, let’s take a look at the profile of “Average Joe” golfer, his scoring tendencies, and see how mistakes impact his scores.

Joe is a 15-19 handicap whose average score is 90. On the plus side of Joe's performance, he makes five pars a round and throws in an occasional birdie every 2.5 rounds. These good holes obviously indicate some talent, and enough good shots to keep him coming back. He has a solid game, often refered to as “Bogey Golf.”

This label is only accurate as it refers to Joe's total score. If he could limit his bad holes to no worse than bogey, he'd actually be a significantly better player – six shots better, to be exact. These six shots come in the form of four double-bogeys and one triple bogey per round. “Improve” these five bad holes to bogeys – and presto! – Joe is improves to the 10-14 handicap range.

What mistakes should be avoided?

That’s simple, avoid them all. But that’s just not realistic. I have found that every golfer is unique in how they find their way to the end score. But if you fall into Joe’s handicap range and/or routinely spoil your card with the big numbers mentioned above, I suggest you start analyzing your bad holes to identify your mistakes. Over a series of rounds, I promise you will see a pattern emerge. Once you do, discuss it with your pro and develop a strategy, practice regimen and mental approach to avoid them.

Try this:

Whenever you record a double-bogey or worse, indicate the type of shot or major facet that was the main cause or that led to the score. I recommend you use the following notation system. You can record these statistics on a blank line of your scorecard or in the margin under the appropriate hole(s).

• T = a drive or tee shot on a par 4 or 5
• A = approach shot; any attempt to hit a green from 50+ yards
• C = chip of pitch shots
• S = shots out of the sand within 50 yards of the green
• P = a 3-putt or worse from inside 25 feet

Do you find that you make a similar mistake each time you play a certain hole on your home course? Perhaps you can’t seem to miss a prominent water hazard or are drawn to the same OB stakes. Whether it is a given type of shot, a demanding hole or a combination thereof, once isolated, you and your pro will be able to address the problem. If you are good enough to make five pars a round, you are good enough to shape your game or your strategy around your most common mistakes and improve to the next level.

(If you find that Tee Shots are an issue for you, I have built a new feature called Driving Miss Diagnosis into the game analysis provided at www.ShotByShot.com. I recommend that you give it a try.)