Whats the quickest way to lower my scores? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Whats the quickest way to lower my scores? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Good question on this one. What’s the quickest way to lower your scores? And I guess it’s a question that a few people ask me now and then. When they’re coming for a golf lesson, they say right, Pete, I’ve got to play at the weekend, I’m desperately trying to get my handicap down, what can you do for me, you’ve got half an hour. And obviously in half an hour you can’t do a full swing rebuild; you probably can’t really change much about someone’s swinging half an hour and get it to feel comfortable ready for the weekend. I could change your swing in half an hour, but you’d probably hate me for doing it. And you might not play better immediately, unless you’ve attempted to practice it.

So if somebody said to me alright Pete, half an hour, no chance to practice, playing at the weekend, got to get my handicap down, what do we do? We got the putter, we take the putter, we probably bring the golfer inside six feet and we learn to hold a few more putts inside six feet. I think if you could save two or three shots per round by holding more six footers, three footers that sort of score you’ve probably got a better chance of improving your score quickly by improving that part of your game than any other part of the game. And the key to really being good from inside six feet is good alignment and positivity in the stroke. We see so many people who miss putt from three to six feet out firstly because they’re not aiming in the right direction. Now I’ve seen a lot of golfers, they set up they are lined up towards the tee peg here, and I can tell from back there it’s going to miss because the line on the back of the putter simply is not aiming straight. So most putters would have some version of an alignment aid at the back and it’s really important about pointing dead straight towards where they want the ball to set off. That’s not to say exactly at the middle of the hole because if this put breaks we need to allow a bit of curve. So we’ve got to get that laying right into where we want the ball to start off. Then during the stroke particularly on three and six footers we want to be nice and positive and crisp towards the target. We see a lot of people with these short puts get a bit wafty, they wonder the putter around a little bit. They don’t have the positivity. From that distance, if you hit the ball too gently, it will take every opportunity it can to break – to mess the turn on the break and that’s going to cost to those little shots that are so important in improving your score. So if you’ve got a half an hour to improve your score ready for next week’s game, take your putter, stand within three to six feet of the hole, focus on alignment, focus on a nice positive stroke. Hold more of those crucial distance putts and your score will come down this weekend. 2015-03-31

Good question on this one. What’s the quickest way to lower your scores? And I guess it’s a question that a few people ask me now and then. When they’re coming for a golf lesson, they say right, Pete, I’ve got to play at the weekend, I’m desperately trying to get my handicap down, what can you do for me, you’ve got half an hour. And obviously in half an hour you can’t do a full swing rebuild; you probably can’t really change much about someone’s swinging half an hour and get it to feel comfortable ready for the weekend. I could change your swing in half an hour, but you’d probably hate me for doing it. And you might not play better immediately, unless you’ve attempted to practice it.

So if somebody said to me alright Pete, half an hour, no chance to practice, playing at the weekend, got to get my handicap down, what do we do? We got the putter, we take the putter, we probably bring the golfer inside six feet and we learn to hold a few more putts inside six feet. I think if you could save two or three shots per round by holding more six footers, three footers that sort of score you’ve probably got a better chance of improving your score quickly by improving that part of your game than any other part of the game. And the key to really being good from inside six feet is good alignment and positivity in the stroke. We see so many people who miss putt from three to six feet out firstly because they’re not aiming in the right direction. Now I’ve seen a lot of golfers, they set up they are lined up towards the tee peg here, and I can tell from back there it’s going to miss because the line on the back of the putter simply is not aiming straight.

So most putters would have some version of an alignment aid at the back and it’s really important about pointing dead straight towards where they want the ball to set off. That’s not to say exactly at the middle of the hole because if this put breaks we need to allow a bit of curve. So we’ve got to get that laying right into where we want the ball to start off. Then during the stroke particularly on three and six footers we want to be nice and positive and crisp towards the target. We see a lot of people with these short puts get a bit wafty, they wonder the putter around a little bit. They don’t have the positivity. From that distance, if you hit the ball too gently, it will take every opportunity it can to break – to mess the turn on the break and that’s going to cost to those little shots that are so important in improving your score. So if you’ve got a half an hour to improve your score ready for next week’s game, take your putter, stand within three to six feet of the hole, focus on alignment, focus on a nice positive stroke. Hold more of those crucial distance putts and your score will come down this weekend.