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No matter who you are, being able to improve your golf score is desirable. For some, a dream come true would be to finally break 70 in golf score. To get your score down into the sub-70’s, you will need to do many things.

Figuring out what these things to do are is not obvious to everyone wanting to improve at golf. Therefore, you may wonder: how do you improve your golf score?

In this article, we will tell you exactly how to improve your golf score thanks to our 9 pro tips.

How To Improve Your Golf Score?

You can greatly improve your golf score by setting a practice schedule, getting golf lessons, working out, having a good diet, resting enough, improve your golf course management skills, filming your technique to critique yourself, going for aggressive shots off the tee and by living like an athlete.

Depending on how lofty your goals are, improving your golf score will require a varying amount of elements and hard work. Breaking 70 will be a lot harder than breaking 100, and will require that you can to succeed and improve.

How much time and effort you decide to put into golf is up to your discretion, but one thing is certain: the more smart work you put in, the better you will get at golf.

Down below, you can read our 9 pro tips to improve your golf score. Feel free to use as many as you want in your own game. Remember that you may need to use all of these if you dream is to become a professional golfer.

9 Pro Tips To Improve Your Golf Score

Down below are 9 pro tips destined to make you a completely different golf player and revolutionize your abilities. With enough hard and smart work, you will become a completely different golfer if you follow these tips.

#1 Set A Dedicated Practice Schedule

To get better at golf, it does wonders to have a dedicated practice schedule. This means that you actively block out time in your week to go practice golf, even if you do not necessarily feel like it.

For example, to break 70, you need to consistently be practicing, both on golf courses, and at the driving range.

The driving range allows you to practice shots with small time intervals in between each shot, allowing for time-efficient swing practice.

On the other hand, practicing at the golf course is where you put what you learned to use in a higher stakes situation with more variation in shot difficulty.

You should practice as much as possible without overtraining or risking injury. A good starting point from which to start if you truly want to improve is the following:

-Driving range practice 2-3 times a week

-Play 2-3 rounds of golf per week

If you notice you are not recovering quickly enough, you can lower the number of practice sessions. If you feel you still have some golf in you and can safely do more, add another session at the driving range or the golf course.

If your goal is not to break 70 or 80, you can definitely practice a lot less. Shape your practice schedule to reflect your goals and how fast you want to reach them.

#2 Get Golf Lessons

Getting golf lessons is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your golf game, even if you do not realize it until after you try them.

Even though there exist some bad golf coaches out there, there are many decent ones, and some great ones. Find a good golf coach to give you lessons, and you will thank yourself for how much your performance improves over time.

It can be so incredibly helpful to have a good golfer who is more experienced than you look at your technique from an outside perspective.

Seriously, you may have been performing the same bad habit in your swing for years, such as early extension, but it only takes a decent coach noticing your error once for you to remember to never do that bad habit again.

There exist both private and group lessons. If you would like to read more about golf lessons, read our guide: How Much Do Golf Lessons Cost?.

#3 Work Out And Develop Your Flexibility

Your body is the conduit through which you affect your golfing performance, so it only makes sense to take care of it, and improve it over time. One way to drastically improve your body is to work out and develop your flexibility through resistance training and stretching.

Resistance training will improve your muscle strength, which will give you more power with which to swing your club and hit the ball. A long drive golfer like Bryson DeChambeau works out generously to increase his power.

This increase in power power can easily add a few tens of yards to your carry distance off the tee, which can save you some strokes, thus lowering your golf score.

You can check out our golf specific gym workout here: Golf Specific Gym Workout.

On the other hand, improving your flexibility will reduce your risks of injury, and give your joints more range of motion, leading to more comfortable and fluid swings.

#4 Get A Good Diet And Nutrition

Without a good diet and nutrition, you will feel sluggish, recover slower from exercise, and have a hard time building muscle. Remember that exhausted sensation you feel after you eat a burger from a fast food chain. Not so great, huh? This is what you want to avoid.

Adopting a good nutrition and diet plan is quite helpful to be a great athlete and golfer. The right nutrition will allow you to feel more energized, to recover more quickly, and make muscular gains as you work out.

Focus on eating a good and healthy diet that will provide the necessary building blocks (like protein) for your body to grow and perform at an optimal level.

#5 Rest Sufficiently

Resting is extremely important and it comes in multiple forms. Some forms of resting include yoga, massages, not performing excessive amounts of exercise, sleeping enough (at least 8 hours per night), and eating the right foods.

Without rest, you will feel exhausted, and your body will not have what it needs to recover. Without rest, your body cannot heal and grow stronger from your training.

Rest sufficiently, and you will increase the value of the practice and hard work you put in. You will also feel energized, excited and highly-motivated to improve your golf scores day in and day out.

#6 Improve Your Golf Course Management Skills

If you have not already implemented effective golf course management notions inside your game of golf, then what are you waiting for?

Effective golf course management is the set of all decisions you take on a golf course, from the club you choose to the direction you aim, and so much more.

Some decisions are objectively better than others, but which one is best highly depends on the golf course you play on and the specific shot you are playing at any given moment.

To learn the fundamental notions of great golf course management, read our guide: How To Master Golf Course Management?.

#7 Film Your Technique To Discover Potential Improvements

If you cannot find a good coach for lessons, or cannot afford one, the next best thing you can do is to get a camera and film your technique from multiple angles.

After getting footage of your technique, you can rewatch it, slow it down, or pause it and compare it with the technique of gifted professional players like Tiger Woods. Comparing your technique to that of technically excellent players will help you find the flaws in yours.

After you find your flaws, you can address them and fix them consciously the next time you practice. Over time, you will find your technique resembles more and more that of professionals, which will increase your performance and lower your score.

Try experimenting by filming your swing technique from different camera angles, and you will find more success.

#8 Go For Aggressive Shots Off The Tee

If you are a beginner, you should disregard this pro tip, as you should instead focus on limiting the amount of mistakes you take by going for safe, high percentage shots.

However, if you are a really good golf player who wants to improve their score, then your skill level is high enough to go for riskier, more aggressive shots off the tee.

An aggressive shot off the tee is a tee shot that will land the golf ball in the best set-up location possible for your next shot. These shots often some land the ball several yards closer to the green than a safe shot would, and can give you a better line of sight.

For example, without going for the perfect set-up for your next shot, you may have some trees in your line of sight on your second shot. Landing your ball on the edge of the fairway to get a great, unobstructed view of the green on your second stroke can be amazing to lower your score, provided you have the skill to pull it off.

There is not much room for error in such a scenario, as your ball could easily end in the rough if you use too much power.

Remember that performing aggressive shots requires considerable skill and excellent ball control, as your target is closer to the rough and other hazards. As your skill level improves, you will feel comfortable pulling off riskier and more aggressive shots.

#9 Adopt An Athlete Mindset

To become an athlete or professional golfer, you usually have to think and act like an athlete. This is called adopting an athlete mindset.

To illustrate this point, most golfers who are capable of breaking 70 are legitimate athletes in some way, shape, or form. Therefore, if you would like to lower your golf score to professional level, you would benefit in adopting an athlete’s mindset.

Adopting this mindset implies living your life like an athlete would: sacrificing late night parties for sleep, junk food for nutritious food, certain hobbies for golf practice, watching funny shows to watch golf tutorials and read instructional articles.

Athletes who succeed make more sacrifices to become good at their sport than many people realize. If you truly wish to improve at golf dramatically, living like a golf athlete will do wonders. However, beware that even if you do everything correctly, there is no guarantee you will be the best, but you will become excellent.

Related Articles

How To Have a Successful Golf Career? – 7 Keys To Success

Conclusion

There you go! After reading this article, you have discovered exactly how to improve your golf score. To accomplish this, we shared 9 pro tips with you that will have you lowering your score to the sub-90’s, sub-80’s and maybe even the sub-70’s in no time!

What is your golf score goal to hit? What is your current best golf score? Let us know in the comments down below!

Being able to drive the golf ball far away is obviously a huge advantage which can result in 1 or 2 fewer strokes per hole. However, some people struggle to drive more than 200 yards in golf.

Therefore, if you are one of those people, you may wonder: why can I only hit my golf driver 200 yards? How can I drive my golf ball further than 200 yards? How do I increase my carry distance with my driver?

In this article, we will tell you exactly why you cannot hit your golf driver more than 200 yards, and which steps you can take to easily blast through 200 yards.

Why Can I Only Hit My Golf Driver 200 Yards?

If you cannot drive a golf ball past 200 yards, you may lack practice, correct technique, well-fitted golf clubs, experience, muscular strength, correct golf club holding technique, swing speed, and you may also be hitting balls slowed down against the direction of the wind.

Incorrect Swing Technique

The golf swing is a complex set of movements, and if you do not have the correct golf swing fundamentals, you are unlikely to drive the golf ball more than 200 yards. You must practice the correct golf swing technique if you want to have success as a golfer.

Therefore, due to the complexity of the golf swing, there are many bad habits you may be performing day in and day out that will hamper your ability to drive more than 200 yards.

Not Hitting The Ball With The Sweet Spot

You need to hit the golf ball with the sweet spot of your golf club. Basically, you want the golf ball to hit the center of the face of your club head. This is the spot where the most energy is transferred to the ball. It is also the spot you need to hit to get a consistently straight shot.

If you hit the ball with the extremities of your club face, you risk grazing it instead of clubbing it, resulting in less energy transfer, and a bad shot direction.

Lack Of Practice

Next, even though you may have driven a golf ball past 200 yards once, it does not mean you can consistently do it. If you hit one drive past 200 yards out of every 10 drives, but the 9 others are below 170, then you are lacking practice.

Simply put, you have the potential to drive the ball past 200 yards every single time. Every. Single. Time. However, your shot technique is not consistent because you have not practiced enough. You only perform the correct technique 1 out of 10 times.

Not Scooping The Ball Up 45 Degrees

Thirdly, you may be hitting down on the golf ball with your driver instead of scooping the ball up. Take your driver right now and examine it. What you will notice is that it does not have a lot of loft. This means that if you hit the ball with a vertical club face, the ball will not rise much.

However, to maximize carry distance, you want the ball to travel at around a 45 degree launch distance. Therefore, you need to scoop the ball up a bit with the driver to make the ball travel at 45 degrees, rather than lower or along the ground, where it will hit the ground quicker and slow down.

Lack Of Experience Or Strength

Another reason is that you simply have not played enough golf yet. The USGA’s statistics stipulate that the average male golfer can drive the golf ball 215-220 yards on average.

Considering the average golfer has 1.5-5 years of experience, do not beat yourself down if you are a male golfer with 1 year of experience and cannot drive over 200 yards.

On the other hand, if you are a female golfer, your drives will likely naturally be shorter in general, as most women have less physical strength than most men. Breaking 200 yards in carry distance is a lot rarer for women, and you should be proud if you do. The driving distances for women lie more in the 120-200 yard range.

To illustrate the difference in driving distances between men and women, the PGA Tour record for driving distance is 515 yards, while the LPGA Tour record is only 348 yards. Pro male golfers routinely break 300 yards, pro female golfers almost never do.

Incorrect Golf Club Holding Technique

Another reason you might not be breaking 200 yards in carry distance is if you are gripping the golf clip too tight, or too loosely. Read our guide How To Hold A Golf Club Correctly to increase your driving distance.

Slow Swing Speed

In addition, your driving distance is highly correlated to the swing speed of your golf club. Therefore, the faster you can swing, the further your golf ball will travel, assuming you retain good technique.

Badly-Fitted Golf Clubs

Golf uses a lot of equipment. If you are not using equipment suited for you, you are only hurting yourself. If you are using a golf club with the wrong shaft length or incorrect shaft flex rating, consider going to the some golf club fitting to adjust your clubs to your size.

Driving Balls Against Headwind

Finally, golf driving records are not done on a clear day with sunny weather. Why? Wind is a huge factor in how far you can drive a golf ball. As the golf ball travels in the air, it is either being accelerated, or slowed down by the wind.

If you are playing in sunny weather, you are never getting any carry distance boost from the wind, but you are not slowing down your ball either. However, if it is windy out and the wind is in the direction of your ball travel, your driving distance will increase significantly.

How To Improve Your Golf Drive Past 200 Yards of Carry Distance?

To improve your golf driving distance past 200 yards, you need well-fitted golf clubs, correct technique, practice, muscular strength, experience, correct club holding technique, a fast swing speed, hitting the sweet spots. In addition, hit balls in the direction of wind travel for a boost in driving distance.

Driving a golf ball far away is a complex technique, which means there are many ways to mess it up. Fortunately, this means that there are also many fixes to apply to improve your golf driving. By applying the tips down below, you will break 200 yards in driving distance in no time!

Use Well-Fitted Golf Clubs

First of all, it is primordial that you use golf clubs that fit you well for your height and strength. This is especially true if you are tall or short, as golf clubs are typically manufactured to fit average-sized people.

If you are using a club that is too long or short for you, it will throw off your lie, balance and technique. In such a case, make sure you get the correct golf club shaft length for you, or sign up to get some golf club fitting. These elements should make a strong impact on your driving distance if you are not average sized.

To learn the correct golf club shaft length for your height and arm length, you can read our guide: Best Golf Club Shaft Length For Your Height.

In addition to shaft length, it is important that you get the correct golf club shaft flex. Different golf club have different flex ratings, which determine how much they bend when swung around. This flex plays an important part in how well you can transfer energy to the golf ball.

To the get the correct golf club shaft flex for you, you can read our guide: Best Golf Club Shaft Flex For You.

Perform Correct Golf Swing Technique

Without the correct golf swinging technique, you can kiss your chances goodbye of consistently breaking 200 yards on your drives. Trying to drive 200+ yards without correct technique is like trying to drive a car with your toes. It is needlessly difficult.

Chances are you are not totally sure how good your golf swing technique is. Do not try to swing too fast if your technique is bad. Instead, take time to swing a bit more slowly to practice the correct technique, even if you will lose a bit of power. In the long run, you will improve your technique and power.

To monitor how good your technique, you can film yourself taking golf shots from different camera angles and pick out the fixes you can implement.

To learn the correct golf swing fundamentals, you can read our guide: How To Hit a Golf Ball? – Golf Swing Fundamentals.

Practice Regularly and Gain Experience

What is better than driving a golf ball 200+ yards 1 out of 10 times? Doing that every single time.

Without regular practice and accumulated experience, you cannot internalize the correct golf swing technique. To burn the correct technique into your muscle memory, you need to repeat it thousands of times, maybe millions of time if you want to become a professional player.

Every shot you take in practice becomes a data point for you to study. If you do x and drive the ball only 80 yards, then you know not to repeat x. If you do y and drive the ball a whopping 250 yards, then you know to repeat that same shot technique.

Over time and through practice, you will be able to intuitively grasp exactly what you are doing right or wrong, even if you would struggle to explain it to someone else. This is the power of practice.

However, one caveat to practice is that you need to execute the correct technique during practice. Repeating bad technique over and over in “practice” sessions only leads to strengthening bad habits. If you think your technique is bad, it may be time to invest in golf lessons.

Build Your Muscular Strength

It is evident that with more muscular strength, you have the potential to hit a golf ball a lot harder and further, helping you break 200 yards in distance with every shot.

To improve your muscular strength, you need to exercise, both in the gym, in conditioning camps, and through golf specific exercises like ringing drivers at the driving range.

It is also important to improve your flexibility so that your movements are more fluid, you reduce risks of injury, and you can move your joints around a larger range.

Focusing on the athleticism of your body will help you increase the ceiling of what is possible to achieve for you.

Hold Your Golf Club Correctly

To get the most out of your golf club, you need to be holding it correctly.

If you hold your golf club with the wrong technique, or too tightly or too loosely, you are potentially taking tens of yards away from your driving distance.

Get the correct golf grip as soon as you can when you are learning to play golf, or you will regret it later. To learn the best golf club holding technique, you can read our article: How To Hold A Golf Club Correctly?.

Increase Your Golf Club Swing Speed

One of the physical basics of driving a golf ball far away is how quick and hard the object hitting the ball travels. We are talking about your golf club swing speed here.

In fact, the faster you can hit a golf ball with your golf club, the further it will travel, assuming you retain correct technique. To increase how far you drive a golf ball, focus on the rotation of your body and speed that up incrementally over time to get a faster swing speed while retaining optimal technique.

Over time, you will have both great swing technique, and a lightning fast swing speed. Focus on correct swing technique first, then increase the swing speed slowly over time.

Hit The Ball With The Sweet Spot Of Your Club

Not all parts of a golf club are equally good at hitting the golf ball to get a good shot off.

In fact, you should always aim to hit the golf ball with the sweet spot of your golf club. The sweet spot is typically located dead in the center of the club head’s face, both horizontally and vertically.

The more you stray from the sweet spot as your contact point with the golf ball, the less powerful and accurate your shot will be.

To know if you are hitting the sweet spot, you can add a substance, like chalk, on your club face, then hit the ball. You will see the print of your golf ball in the substance, and know where you are currently hitting the ball on the club face.

Hit the golf ball with your sweet spot, and you will produce a sweet shot.

Hit Balls In The Direction Of Wind Travel

The wind is a weather condition that has a huge impact on how far your golf ball travels in the air. The wind can both slow down or speed up your shot, depending on its direction of travel and that of your ball.

If you are purely attempting to get the longest drive you can, then hit the golf ball in the direction of travel of the wind. The wind will accelerate the golf ball some amount, giving you longer drives, helping you break 200+ yards more easily.

Scoop The Ball Up With Your Driver At a 45 Degree Angle

A golf driver has a relatively low loft for a golf club, which means it does not naturally help the golf ball rise much. To get the furthest golf drive, you need to scoop the golf ball up with the club face of your driver.

By scooping the golf ball up at contact, tilting your body back slightly, you should aim to get the ball to travel up in the air at around a 45 degree angle relative to the ground. This is because a golf ball will travel the most optimal path for maximum distance if it is shot at a 45 degree angle.

If you shoot a golf ball at more than 45 degrees, then it will travel more upwards instead of forward, which results in less distance. If you hit the golf ball at less than 45 degrees, you will hit the golf ball forward, but it will hit the ground more quickly, thus slowing it down.

Hitting a golf ball at a 45-degree angle is the most optimal ball path because it strikes the best balance between travelling forward and being launched high enough to not hit the ground too early.

Related Articles

Best Golf Club Shaft Flex For You

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How To Hold A Golf Club Correctly – Best Technique

How To Hit A Golf Ball – Golf Swing Fundamentals

Conclusion

There you go! After reading this article, you have discovered why you cannot drive a golf ball more than 200 yards. You were also taught different ways to improve your carry distance when driving the golf ball.

With these tips, you will blast your drive through 200 yards and more in no time! With enough practice, you can break 200 yards in the first couple years of you playing golf.

What is your current driving carry distance? What is your driving carry distance goal? Let us know in the comments down below!

Hitting a golf ball is the most fundamental action in the game of golf. Therefore, it would pay to understand the basics of the golf shot thoroughly.

Therefore, you may wonder: how do you hit a golf ball with the correct technique?

In this article, we will tell you exactly how to hit a golf ball with the best fundamentals.

How To Hit A Golf Ball?

To hit a golf ball, hold your club correctly, lift your club while rotating your upper body by twisting your hips, then rotate the other way to generate power on the downswing, making contact with the ball with the club head face perpendicular to it, and following through.

To hit a golf ball, the basics are ever so important. You can become a good golf player just by mastering the basics. After you master the basics, you can apply advanced techniques to become a great player.

Aside from putting, swinging a golf club is pretty much the only other action in golf, making it an essential skill to master.

If you are using a driver, your golf swing will need to be faster, which makes the swing harder to master than by practicing with shorter clubs, like irons.

We recommend you start practicing with irons to get the golf swing technique down, if you are a complete beginner. Just so you know, the swing speed you need with a driver is about twice as much as the swing speed you need to use a 3-iron.

On top of requiring slower swing speeds, irons have more loft than a driver, which helps give the golf ball lift.

All these elements will combine to give you more and more confidence in your golf swing. If you would like more tips to increase your golfing confidence, read our guide: How To Increase Golfing Confidence?.

The gist of getting a good golf shot off is that you need to use the right clubs, hold your club correctly, lift your club while rotating your upper body by twisting your hips, then rotate the other way to generate power on the downswing, making contact with the ball with the club head face perpendicular to it, and following through.

Follow the steps down below to get a sound, solid and well-executed golf shot off.

Steps To Hit A Golf Ball Correctly

Step 1: Use the right equipment

Before even attempting a golf shot, you should ensure that your equipment is right for you.

This means that you should make sure your golf clubs have the right length for your height. If that is not the case, you can read our guide: What Is The Best Golf Club Length For My Height?.

If you want to make sure you have the right golf club length, you can go get some golf club fitting done for you.

Step 2: Hold your golf club correctly

Now that you have golf clubs that fit you well, you need to hold your golf club correctly.

If you do not know how to hold your golf club as you should, you can read our guide: How To Hold A Golf Club Correctly?.

The correct way to hold a golf club is not intuitive, so pay close attention to whether you have the right technique down.

Step 3: Stand in front of the golf ball with correct golf stance

Next, now that you are holding the golf club correctly, you want to assume proper golf stance in front of the golf ball.

The golf ball may be about 2 shoe lengths away from your toes, and around halfway between your feet. If you would like to know more details about the optimal golf ball distance from you, read our guide: How Far Should You Stand From The Golf Ball?.

However, it is important to note that the ideal distance from the golf ball can vary from person to person, depending on factors like your height, your club length, and club lie.

To get into the correct golf stance position, your feet should be shoulder width apart, facing the golf ball, perpendicular to your shot target. Your legs should be very slightly bent at the knees, and your buttocks popping out slightly.

Your back should be straight, but bent down at the hips. Essentially, you are somewhat crouching over the golf ball with the added constraints just mentioned.

Finally, let your arms hang down from your shoulders, holding the golf club. There should not be much elbow bend at all.

Step 4: Twist your hips to rotate your upper body and start the backswing

Now that you are in the proper golf stance, an adequate distance away from the golf ball, it is time to start your backswing (bringing the golf club up behind you to prepare to strike the ball).

To start your backswing, twist your hips to rotate your upper body, using your back hip as the pivot point for the twist. This is important to give your golf club the correct swing path, and to give room for your arms during the downswing. Twisting your hips will also avoid early extension.

At the end of your backswing, when the club is at its highest point, your lead arm should be very straight, but your rear elbow will be a bit bent.

During the backswing, you need to rotate your hips and shoulders, and during the downswing, you will rotate the other way. The purpose of the backswing is to store potential energy that you can then turn into kinetic energy (high speed of the golf club).

When you twist and rotate your upper body, it is like you are twisting a coiled spring, and prepare to unleash lots of energy. When you twist your upper body, you will notice it immediately wants to come back to an untwisted position. Use this effect to generate more power.

During both your backswing and your downswing, the golf club head should follow an arc-shaped path around your body that is attributed to the rotation of your body. If your golf club stays in the same plane parallel to your target during the entire swing, you are not rotating your body.

Looking from behind you, the golf club head should move during the backswing from low to high in an almost diagonal arc.

Step 5: Untwist your hips and start the downswing

With your upper body rotated one side, and your golf club at its highest point, it is time to start the downswing.

To downswing correctly, rotate your hips and shoulders the other way, making sure your golf club follows the same arc-shaped swing path it followed during the backswing.

Near the end of the downswing, after making contact with the ball, your hips will be rotated to turn the entire body towards your target. You may feel like lifting the heel of your rear foot to aid in translating the rotational power of your hips forward.

Swing as fast as possible while still maintaining club control to get the hardest, yet still accurate shot you can. A useful training aid tool you can use to teach yourself the optimal swing path is the Hula Hoop Training Aid.

During your downswing, your head level should remain stable, and your head should not move much.

Step 6: Make contact with the golf ball

Near the end of your downswing, you will get close to hitting the golf ball very fast. The next step is to actually make contact with the golf ball effectively.

When you hit the golf ball, you want the golf club head’s face to be perfectly perpendicular to the ball. If the club head face is not perfectly square to the ball, but angled instead, then you will give the ball a trajectory that is not intended.

You also want the golf ball to make contact with your club dead in the center of the club head face. This is the sweet spot.

If you hit the golf ball with the extremity of the club face rather than dead in the center, even if the head face is perfectly perpendicular, it will affect your shot negatively.

When hitting the golf ball, it is often a good idea to imagine you are sweeping the grass, barely even touching hit before making contact with the golf ball. Do not hit the turf hard; you are just wasting energy and power.

Do not tilt your body backwards to scoop the golf ball, the loft of your golf club head will lift the golf ball automatically if you follow this guide. If you are using a driver, which barely has loft, you can tilt your body backwards to scoop the ball.

If you are hitting a golf ball off a tee, then sweep the ball off the tea, since your club will be nowhere near the grass.

Note: when hitting the ball with a driver, a club that has very little loft, tilting your body backwards to scoop the ball up in the air is useful. You do not need any backwards body tilt if hitting the ball with other clubs like irons.

Step 7: Extend your body and follow through

Finally, after hitting the golf ball at the end of your downswing, it is time to extend your body (straighten up a bit) and follow through with your swing.

After making contact with the ball, you will probably naturally feel like extending your body as you face your target, which adds power to your shot. Make sure extension happens now and not too early, or you will be a victim of early extension.

Considering how hard you hit the golf ball to maximize power, your arms may very well wrap around behind your head after you release all the energy in your swing. This is also a natural by-product of your swing following the correct arc-shaped rotational swing path.

If your arms naturally want to wrap around and behind your head, you are doing something right.

To wrap things up, this guide showed you 7 steps to a fundamentally good golf shot, but you need to realize that only practice will allow you to get a good shot. Practice the correct technique, and it will be burnt in your subconscious mind.

These 7 steps need to be performed in an extremely quick sequence; you will not have time to think of each step during your swings. Therefore, it is a great idea to film yourself taking golf swings, at the driving range, and to analyze your form and try fixing little bits each time.

Practice, practice, practice, only the good habits, and you will become a solid golfer.

Conclusion

There you go! After reading this article, you have learned the best shot fundamentals to follow to know how to hit a golf ball correctly.

To really internalize and perfect your golf shot technique, you can film yourself and pick out bad technical elements and fix them over time.

Have you mastered the golf shot fundamentals? What part of hitting a golf ball do you struggle with? Let us know in the comments down below!

Effective and smart golf course management is at the heart of any excellent golf player. Golf course management can easily be the difference between a player who breaks 80 and 70.

By taking the right decisions out on the golf course, you will improve your scores and your handicap. With course management being such an invaluable tool to any golfer, you may wonder: how do you master golf course management?

In this article, we will tell you exactly how to master golf course management.

How To Master Golf Course Management?

Mastering golf course management comes down to making the best decisions based on your capabilities, your limits, the layout of the different holes on a golf course, the situations your individual golf clubs are best for, and more. The higher the accuracy of the data you know, the better decisions you can take on the golf course.

Golf course management is the set of all decisions you take on the golf course, when it comes to which club you use, where you aim, how many strokes you aim to complete the hole in, and so much more.

Mastering golf course management takes some time, conscious thought, and dedication, but it is ultimately worth it. Bad golf course management will cap the potential of your golfing performance, whereas good course management can turn a mediocre golfer into an acceptable golfer.

Down below is a list of 11 tips to help you master golf course management.

11 Pro Tips To Master Golf Course Management

#1 Know the extent your skills and limits

Effective golf course management relies heavily on correct knowledge about the different possibilities you have. Therefore, it is primordial that you know the extent of your skills and limits like the back of your hand.

Here is an example:

Say you are at the 5^th hole of a given golf course, and it is a par 4. This particular golf hole has a C-shaped layout, with thick trees in between the tee box and the green.

If you have excellent ball control, then you can save one or two strokes by hitting the golf ball over the trees and into the green. Heck, if you are a world-class golfer, you may even hit a hole in one!

However, if you are a beginner or an intermediate player, the chances are that you will hit the golf ball directly into the dense trees if you attempt a lob over them. With the ball in the trees, you will either get a stroke penalty, or use many strokes just trying to get the ball back onto mowed turf.

A beginner or intermediate player definitely would have had a better performance on this hole by following the intended C-shape of the hole.

The lesson here is to know your limits and the extent of your skills. Golf course management is about attempting safe shots that have at least a 51% chance of success. As you become a better golfer, more types of shots will become part of your arsenal.

Practice your skills and different types of shots outside of tournament play, and you will better know your limits, and push them further beyond. Keep at it, and you will become closer an artist with your golf clubs, painting the golf course with beautifully placed golf balls.

#2 Study the golf course holes

The second tip to effective golf course management is to study a golf course and its holes meticulously.

By understanding better the layout of a golf course, where its hazards are, the topology of the terrain, and more, you are gathering data that will help you take better decisions on the course.

Study the maps of the golf holes, the pin charts, and the best players on the golf course you are on. Look at the decisions that those high-performing players make on the course, and model their decisions that remain within your realm of possibility when it comes to shot difficulty and your skill.

For example, if a golf hole has a very wide layout, then it widely (get it?) opens up the number of directions you can consider for your tee off shot. Before ever setting foot on that golf hole, you can study in your head or on paper the different possibilities of shot directions you can choose.

If you aim to the right side of the hole, you may find that you have a bad set up for your next shot, as there are trees blocking you. If you aim to the left side, you may find that your set up is a lot better for your next shot.

Study the golf course well, and it will reveal its secrets to you. It will whisper in your ear all that you need to know about it. The golf course is bored, as it cannot move, so it excitedly wants you to become its worthy challenger.

#3 Gather distance data with a range finder

If you are in a setting where golf range finders are permitted to use, then definitely use them to measure distances.

Range finders are a revolution in golf, as they allow you to gather precise data about distances, how far you are from the flag, and more. As we have mentioned before, precise data is the key to mastering golf course management, and range finder will improve the precision of your data.

We all know that how far you are from your target should determine which club to use, as different clubs offer varied carry distances for the ball. If you are hesitating between 2 clubs to use, simply use a range finder, and compare the distance to the carry distance you usually hit with each club.

Using a range finder is relatively simple, but if you do not know how to, read our guide: How To Use A Range Finder?.

Furthermore, range finders can be expensive and out of the budget for some, but it is a myth that they are all expensive. There are various range finders available for under 100$. You can find a list here: Top 5 Range Finders Under 100$.

#4 Use shorter clubs over longer clubs in risky situations

We get it. You want to finish that par 5 hole in only 4 shots. Therefore, you take your longer club to make sure you reach the green, but you end up hitting the ball long, and into the rough behind the green. From the rough, you struggle to get a good shot off, and end up 1 over par.

If you had used a slightly shorter golf club, your golf ball would be on the green, or a bit before the green, but it would definitely not be in the rough. This safer approach could have guaranteed a 5 stroke par on this hole.

On the other hand, using the longer club rather offered a 25% chance at 4 strokes on the hole and a 75% chance at 6 strokes. Are those odds you want? The smart golfer does not go after fluke shots, but goes for safe plays that are within their capabilities.

The lesson here is that using shorter clubs over longer clubs in risky situations can be better. This especially applies to when you are performing an approach shot to reach the green.

Hitting the golf ball so that it lands a bit before the green is almost always better than risking hitting the ball past the green, into the rough.

Using a shorter golf club can also be beneficial if there is a bunker, water, or rough right in the middle of the usual carry distance of your longer club. Go for safe shots and play with high probability shots and club selection.

#5 Aim for the middle of the fairway

One of the quickest ways to improve your golf handicap is to start aiming for the middle of the fairway.

Yes, you might get a better set up for your second shot if you aim to one side of the fairway off the tee, but you are also increasing your chances of your initial shot going into the rough.

If you aim into the middle of the fairway, you maximize the allowable distance to each side (left and right) if you do not get off a perfectly aimed shot. Even if your golf ball hooks a bit, your ball should still stay inside the fairway.

Landing your golf ball somewhere on the turf or fairway is almost always better than landing it in the rough.

Naturally, if there is heavy wind, or you noticed that your shots always curve to one side, then you will need to correct your aim to account for these factors so that you maximize the chances of hitting the middle of the fairway.

#6 Take the wind, rain & elements into account

Let us take the following scenario:

Finally, you brought your handicap index down and are consistently hitting par. You studied the layout of the golf holes perfectly and know exactly which shots you can consistently hit. But one day, it starts to rain heavily, and there is strong wind.

Everything you previously knew seems to go straight out the window. The shots you normally hit easily are not working, and you end up scoring 85 on this particular par 72 golf course. 13 strokes more than your average!

It is extremely important that you consider natural elements such as strong wind and rain when taking decisions on a golf course. Heavy wind, and rain on a golf course heavily alter its playability, how the ball reacts, both in the air, and on the ground.

You need to be able to accurately gauge the effects of wind and rain on your golf ball and the golf course if you are to take the best decisions in bad weather.

For example, if the wind is pushing towards you, then it will require more power, or a longer golf club to carry the ball over the distance you desire. If the wind is blowing towards the flag, then you need to consider a shorter club or hitting the ball less vigorously.

If the wind is blowing strongly to the left or the right of the fairway, then you need to compensate for it by aiming in the opposite direction to get your regular windless ball landing.

On the other hand, rain makes the turf more sponge-like, which dampens and slows down the golf ball when it makes impact.

For example, if you usually rely on the golf ball to roll some distance after landing to reach the green, that might not work in rainy weather, as the ball may die down quickly upon landing.

#7 You do not always need to tee off with a driver

Some beginner golfers assume that you should always tee off with the driver, but that is not always the case.

Especially on smaller golf holes, you might consider using a 3-wood or a long iron if the fairway too short for using a driver.

Some people can also consistently achieve better, straighter shots with a 3-wood or long iron over a driver; those people need to consider letting the driver go in some situations.

#8 Aim away from bunkers, lakes, rough, water traps, etc.

Tip #8 goes without saying, but you would be surprised how many people it helps to tell obvious things. Aim away from bunkers, lake, rough, water traps, and all other hazards known to man.

Hitting your golf ball into a hazard can kill your golf score, especially if it takes you more than one shot to get out of a bunker, or if you get a water hazard penalty.

If you have a bunker on the left side of the fairway, simply aim to the right side. If you have a bunker on each side of the fairway, then perhaps consider using a shorter or longer club to avoid the high danger zone.

#9 Take safe shots out of the rough

If you end up missing a shot and your golf ball ends up in the rough, chances are you will be upset. In the upset mind state, it can be tempting to attempt an unlikely-to-succeed ideal and powerful shot out of the rough directed towards the green.

However, more often than not, this miracle shot will fail. Unless you are a great golfer and know which shots you can consistently hit, you will miss this miracle shot.

If you are in thick rough with lots of foliage, you should consider taking a safe shot instead that will bring the golf ball back onto intended turf, even if you have to sacrifice some power to do so.

It is better to lose a stroke exiting the rough safely than to likely lose multiple strokes stuck in the rough. Let us take a look at the example scenario down below:

Your driver shot off the tee took a terrible curve, and the golf ball is stuck slightly to the left of the fairway, surrounded by trees and thick foliage. Upset, you try to take a hard shot at the golf ball, hoping it miraculously blasts through the trees and lands 200 yards closer to the green.

Instead, the ball hits 2 or 3 trees, killing the ball momentum, and it lands in nearly the same spot as it was in before. Instead of attempting a safer, lower, and less powerful shot to get back onto the fairway, you lost one stroke, and are still in the rough.

The lesson here is that you should take safe shots that you know you are capable of hitting when you start from some bad rough.

#10 2-putts are sometimes better than 1-putts

Common sense would make you believe that attempting a 1-putt is always better than going for a safer 2-putt, but that is not always true. Even if you miss your 1-putt, and decide to go for a 2^nd putt, you may still be worse off than if you decided to go for a 2-putt right away.

In fact, in a 2-putt, the first putt is meant to serve as an approach shot. If you miss your 1-putt, and require a second putt, your 1^st putt is not necessarily a good approach shot for an improvised 2-putt.

For example, if you are on the green of a hole that has a slope starting from your ball and up to the hole, like a little hole, then aiming for a 2-putt is safer. If you shoot too softly and miss the hole, the ball could very well come back down the slope, setting you back further than you were before.

If you go for a 1-putt, the chances of you missing the hole are high, and there is no telling where the ball might end. It might take you 10 tries to sink the ball if you keep trying to 1-putt it in the hole up the slope.

On the other hand, by going for a 2-putt off the bat, you may notice a flat plateau on the left side of the top of the slope on which you can park the ball to have an easy second putt.

Getting the ball to sit on the plateau should be relatively easy. From the plateau, you would have an easy second putt on a flat surface instead of a slope to climb.

The short game is where legends are born and where the best scores are reached. Remember that a 2-putt is sometimes a better, safer option than a 1-putt on the green.

#11 Visualize the perfect shot in your head

The final tip to master golf course management is to visualize the perfect shot in your head as you are about to take it.

Visualizing yourself make the perfect shot will give you supreme confidence and free you from doubt and tension as you are about to shoot. If you would like more tips about increasing your golfing confidence, read our guide: How To Increase Golfing Confidence?.

In front of you, trace the line in the air or along the turf of the path you want to give the ball, and believe in your core that that is the shot you will shoot. Visualizing the perfect golf shot in your head tells your mind that you are committing to your decision.

If you cannot commit fully to the decisions you take in the spirit of golf course management, then you are only holding yourself back.

Conclusion

There you go! After reading this article, you have learned how to master golf course management, which should help you drastically improve your scores.

Remember, a golfer with perfect technique is only as good as his shot selection and golf course management skills.

What is your best tip for golf course management? Let the others know in the comments down below!

Early extension is a bad habit that will destroy your golf swing. It occurs when you straighten your body too early in your kinetic chain. Interestingly enough, most professional golf players have completely eliminated early extension from their golf swing.

If you would like to improve your golfing performance or to become a professional, then eliminating early extension is a must. Therefore, you may wonder: how to stop early extension in your golf swing?

In this article, we will tell you exactly how to stop early extension in your golf swing.

How To Stop Early Extension In Your Golf Swing?

To stop early extension in your golf swing, make sure you are rotating your upper body at the hips on the backswing and downswing. Rotating your hips will allow your arms to clear your hips, resulting in no awkward arm bunch up, and allowing for maximum power generation.

Read the additional tips down below in this guide to fully stop early extension in your golf swing. By practicing these tips and tricks, early extension will be a thing of the past for you.

Understand fully what early extension is and where it comes from, apply the suggested fixes, and you will see how much you improve your golf swing.

What Is Early Extension In Golf?

In golf, early extension is a bad and performance-damaging habit that less experienced golfers have in their golf swing. Early extension occurs when a golfer extends their body (stands up) too early, often due to not rotating their hips, which leaves no space for the arms to swing, and incites standing upright to make space for the swing.

Early extension is a bad habit less experienced golf players develop that happens during their golf swing. During a good golf swing, a golfer will rotate his hips during their backswing, and rotate them back the other way on the downswing before extending (standing up) their body.

A golfer whose golf swing is plagued by early extension will extend (stand up) his body too early, which is notably caused by not rotating at the hips during the backswing and downswing.

Instead of rotating the upper body at the hips, a less experienced golfer will just translate their weight to their back foot, or even worse, only use their arms to generate power.

Extension in a golf swing is good, but it needs to be done after the rotation of your hips; otherwise, extension is early extension.

The problem with not rotating your hips is that when you go for the downswing, your arms will be blocked by your hips, resulting in awkward technique, and less power than you could normally generate.

Since your arms start to bunch up around your hip area, you will feel like extending your body (standing up straight) early to free up some hip space. This is bad technique.

Read the tips down below to know exactly how to fix early extension in your golf swing, and how to improve your technique.

3 Tips To Stop Early Extension In Your Golf Swing

How do you stop early extension in golf? The tips down below will help you immensely. Look at every tip and film yourself to see which fixes you need to bring to your technique.

The correct golf swing technique, free of early extension, allows your hips to be clear of your arms. With space for your arms to swing, your kinetic chain will not be blocked. This correct technique ensures maximum power and technical ease.

Tip #1: Rotate your upper body during the swing

The first tip is to rotate your upper body during the golf swing. This goes for both the backswing and the downswing.
Beginner, inexperienced players commit 2 major mistakes when it comes to this:

1) some beginners think the golf swing power comes only from the arms;
2) some beginners translate their body weight to the back foot during the backswing for weight transfer power generation, but execute no upper body rotation.

To get a good golf shot off, you need to be using your entire body: your core, your legs, and your arms. Every part of your body needs to be perfectly in sync to get the best shot off.

During your backswing, rotate your upper body at the hips by using your back hip as the pivot point. Feel your body coiling up like a spring, ready to unload all the potential energy stored whenever you decide to.
Without rotating your hips, your hips will be facing forwards towards the ball, and become an obstacle in the swing path of your arms. With your arms blocked by your hips, early extension arises as a natural solution to make more space for the arms, but this is not optimal for performance.

By rotating your hips, your arms will be able to clear your hips without any early extension, as they are turned to the side where they take less space when your arms pass them. Remember to focus on rotation rather than weight transfer through translation, although weight transfer can also be beneficial.

Tip #2: Keep your head level until ball contact

Early extension in your golf swing occurs when you stand up straight too early. When you extend your body (stand up), your head also goes up.

So how can you stop early extension? Do not let your head raise until your club makes contact with the ball. Keep your head level until ball contact.

By keeping your head relatively stable, at around the same height during your back swing and the first portion of your downswing, you prevent early extension. Loosely checking the height of your head gives you an easy, foolproof way to check if you are guilty of early extension.

Tip #3: Do not extend until after hip rotation on the downswing

The final tip to avid early extension is to not let yourself extend until after hip rotation on the downswing.

Early extension is bad, but extension executed at the right time (after ball contact) is good.

Extension is useful to generate a good golf shot, but should not be done too early. Only after you rotated your hips on the downswing and after ball contact should you let yourself extend your body.

Conclusion

There you go! After reading this article, you have learned how to stop early extension in your golf swing.

Follow the steps in this article and film yourself in order to fix your technique, thus improving your golfing performance. Lower your scores and your handicap index thanks to these tips!

Are you performing early extension? How much better would your golfing game without early extension? Let us know in the comments down below!