Travis
Whether you're a stathead or simply hoping to shave a couple of strokes, these are five vital regions to gauge what's working and what needs work.
As referenced over, your objective ought to constantly be 2 putts or less per opening. If you are averaging more than that, the first step in reducing your number of three-putts is to work on making second putts easier to manage on the practice green. Improving your approach shots will help reduce the number of putts you have to make if, despite technically hitting a lot of greens, you still end up needing to make multiple putts of 30 feet or more.
Finding the short grass makes the game much easier. As someone who has attempted nearly every punch, flop, left-handed, and backwards shot imaginable, I can attest that aiming at the flagstick rather than trees will lower your score. A good standard for the average golfer is to hit 50 percent of the fairways. Simply try to focus more on hitting them straight rather than the back net.
This statistic measures your distance from the tee to the green. If you reach it in the prescribed number of shots (one shot on a par 3, 2 shots on a par 4, and 3 shots on a par 5) or less. Top players typically hit more than half of the greens in regulation; however, if you hit fewer than 6-7 greens per round, it's time to get out your irons and work on your distance and accuracy.
By the day's end, the one number that eventually matters is the last score. However, did you had at least some idea that while recording a score for the motivations behind detail following, you can take out galactic scores? Previously known as Fair Stroke Control, the USGA organized a rule that while posting a score for disabling, the maximum score you ought to record on any opening is a net twofold intruder (that is, twofold intruder in addition to any impair strokes).
Without considering the course's and tees' relative difficulty, your score is meaningless. A handicap index comes into play here: It gives you a net score, which is a clearer picture of how you actually performed, and it takes into account the difficulty of the course as well as your skill level based on previous scores. The best way to gauge your skill is, in the end, to observe how your handicap index changes over time.
