Make The Most Of Every Swing

Are you a natural golfer? Few golfers are. Most learn the game through loads of practice and playing as much as possible. They take golf lessons, hit balls, practice shots, and/or read golf tips to hone their skills. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, some golfers can't practice or play as much as others. Nevertheless, these players still achieve low golf handicaps. They do it by making the most of every swing they take.

But making the most of every swing isn't easy when you're playing poorly. That's when it's easy to give up and let your scores mount. But if you want to achieve a low golf handicap, you can't let that happen. You have to fight back. Below are five suggestions from my golf instruction sessions that can help you stave off a complete collapse when playing poorly:

1. Back To The Basics

If you're ballstriking is off, you may be overswinging. Instead of trying to belt one down the middle, go back to the basics. Focus on making better contact, with no thought to distance or target. To do that, aim for the ball's inside-back quadrant. This allows you to make contact with the ball first in a slightly open position—from which the clubface rotates to square and closed. This improves ballstriking. To remind yourself to hit the inside-back quadrant, position your ball on the tee so the logo sits in the lower left quadrant.

2. Stay Within Your Limits

Sometimes, golfers try to do more than they're capable of, pushing or pulling these shots off line. What do you do when you find yourself doing this? If you have a history of pushing or pulling shots in this situation, try this: If you're a power hitter who swings fast, take one less club and hit it harder. If you're a smooth swinger with fluid action, take one club more and hit it easy. This approach allows you to focus on your ballstriking and still stay under control.

3. Make A Commitment

You can't hit a good shot if you're not committed to it. Players often run into this problem when playing poorly. They become indecisive. If you find this happening to you, draw an imaginary line on the ground. The line stands for the commitment you're going to make to the shot before you cross it and step to the ball. Once you've made your shot selection and its clear in your mind, cross the line and address the ball. If you lose your commitment, step back behind the line and re-start the process.

4. Avoid Three-Putting

If you're not playing well, chances are you're leaving yourself a lot of long putts. If that's the case, you're probably three-putting a lot. If you're three-putting a lot, you're probably putting up big numbers on the scorecard. That's bound to hurt your golf handicap. Here's a simple golf tip to stop three-putting. Take your practice strokes looking at the target. This feeds your brain key visual information, linking feel to force.

5. Play it Safe

If you're not playing well, you may be taking too many chances. Instead, play it safe. For example, if a pin is protected by two conditions—let's say, a bunker and a strong headwind that could push your ball into the trap—aim away from the flag. Targeting a safer part of the green keeps you from making a bad mistake. If the green is protected by only one condition, aim closer to the flag, but be careful. Give yourself a sufficient margin for error. If you mis-hit, you won't get badly burned.

Learn to make the most of every swing you take. It's a proven way to achieve and maintain a low golf handicap. If you're playing poorly, don't just give up. Instead, dedicate yourself to regrouping. Develop a storehouse of golf tips, like those discussed above, that can help prevent your game from completely collapsing. This will pay off with lower scores.