FROM THE TEE

Practical steps to reduce your handicap

What resolutions can you make this year that you might be able to keep? I’ve never taken a New Year’s resolution serious enough to keep From the Tee Let’s come up with some solutions to change the negatives listed above into positives. If you can do this, maybe you can become the singledigit handicap player you would like to be. • Sometimes, there are reasons for legitimate it for more than a week or so. Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever kept one at all. Thankfully, I have said to myself, “I’m not doing that again,” or “Maybe I should be doing this every day or more often.” If you’re a New Year’s resolution maker and keeper, try to pick a few good ones to keep that pertain to your golf game.

Making a resolution like, “I’m going to lower my handicap to a single digit this year,” sounds great, but you better have a distinct plan. Think back in your last three rounds of golf. • In those past three rounds, recall putting on each hole. Count them up. How many greens did you three-putt? How many 3- to 5-footers did you miss? • In those past rounds, recall your trouble holes. Were the high numbers really due to bad shots or bad decisions? Were you in a tough spot and chose to try the one-in-a-million shot? • In those rounds, count how many wedge shots you hit into the greens. Of those wedge shots, how many did you hit close to the hole and then one-putt? • In those three rounds, how many bad drives did you hit? Were they made from poor swings, or were you trying to hit a little harder or cut the corner? Were you considering something that made the shot more stressful than normal? • In those past three rounds, how many approach shots did you hit with your ball coming up a club or two short of the target? Do you know your distances with your irons? Do you think you are long-drive contest champion at times? Are you mis-hitting your approach shots?

Anyone can have a bad day. You could have slept poorly the night before your last round, but if you slept poorly the night before each of your last three rounds, you need a sleep specialist. three-putts, but 99 percent of the time, you shouldn’t be three-putting. Three-putts usually are a product of a poor first putt. This poor first putt is usually due to hitting the ball too hard or too soft. In other words, your speed and touch were not good in your putting. In a 30-foot putt, a golfer rarely misses by 10 feet to the right or to the left, but oftentimes, a golfer will miss them 10 feet short or long, putting too much stress on the second putt. Here’s a solution and resolution: Twice a Dave Jennings week in the New Year, go to the golf course and putt from hole-to-hole, considering speed only for 36 holes each visit. This really won’t take too long at all. In a few weeks, you will see a great improvement on your lag putting. Also, make 20 three-foot putts in a row, using one ball. Should you miss a putt, start over. This little drill will help you gain confidence and overcome pressure. • More often than not, bad holes or bad shots are caused by poor planning or no plan. Bad decisions happen more often to golfers with little experience than to those who have been playing for years. If your ball is in such heavy rough that you can barely see it, and your target is 215 yards away over water, do not think that you are going to hit your 3- or 4-iron solidly enough to get the ball out and carry it to the green. That’s just a bad decision. Your solution and resolution: Pull out your sandwedge and lay the ball up into a more manageable position. You can recover from a bogey easily. Recovering from triple bogeys and worse is nearly impossible. • The easiest sign of a good player can be seen in how he hits wedge approach shots. Good players are usually quite talented in getting their balls close to the holes with their wedges because they have practiced these shots at some

point in their careers.

Solution and resolution: Once a week, go to the range and practice full, 3/4 and 1/2 wedge shots with a different wedge. At first, try to get your direction down; then, acquire a feel for the three varied swings. With three wedges, you will have nine shots you can count on when you’re on the course. • Not many shots are as important as the tee shot. As we get older or don’t have 40 to 60 hours to devote to our golf games every week, we just can’t compete with the Tour players; however, we can still drive a ball well and keep it in play.

Here’s how: In your warm-up session before playing, swing the driver as hard as you can and see where it goes. Then, swing it at the same speed you would swing your 8-iron. I’ll bet the 8-iron swing speed is more solid, and the ball better controlled. Do this for five shots on the practice tee; then, use this thought when hitting your tee shots on the course. • Your approach shot keeps coming up short of the green. Boy, oh boy, this happens more often than not. Most people think they hit the ball farther than they really do, so they do not use enough club. When the greens are very firm, we often have to land the ball well short of the pin on the green to get the ball close to the hole, but anywhere on the green is better than not on for most golfers. The real issue here is that most folks don’t know their distance with their clubs.

Here’s a solution and resolution: Take your clubs to a club repair facility that has a good loft-and-lie machine. Make certain the loft angles are correct from the manufacturer’s specs. If they are not, have them adjusted. That done, head out to the range. First, get fully warmed up; then, hit a dozen 7-irons, making note of where the ball lands. After this, ask someone to stand where you were hitting from, go out to the center of where the balls landed and point your rangefinder towards your volunteer. Keep this as your 7-iron distance. Do the same thing for your 5-iron and your 9-iron. If the 9-iron is 20 yards shorter, you could surmise that your 8-iron will be 10 yards shorter than your 7. Then, you have some basis to figure the distances for your approach shots. Resolve that you will check distances with your 7-iron once a month. This will be a good habit because as you leave the colder winter months to the warmer summer months, your distances should change a bit.

Make yourself a better player in 2022. The first step in being successful with this resolution is to be honest with yourself. What are your weak points, and what are your strong points? We never want to give away our strong points so be sure to continue doing what you presently are doing to make your strong points stronger. Just add a little bit to build up your weak points.

Hoping this 2022 New Year brings us better and happier days ahead, starting with lower scores.

Go Trojans!

~ Dave Jennings is the men's golf coach at Central Alabama Community College

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