8 of the Best tips to play better golf! (Lower your Handicap with a better swing)

Do you want to play better golf?

Then you’re in the right place.

To lower your scores and improve in golf, it takes time, technique, and mental focus.

I’ve been golfing for over 3 seasons now and these are some of the tips that have helped me become a 9 handicap golfer!

Lets dive right in!

Solid Posture

What does it look like?

• Balance:
  • Good posture allows you to maintain balance, ultimately generating more power, control, and accuracy. Without balance, impact can be compromised.
• Swing plane:
  • Your club path and swing plane is directly impacted through posture, due to how you setup to the ball. Consistency and being well balanced will lead to solid contact.
• Power:
  • With a solid posture, your core muscles will be properly activated, ultimately allowing for greater clubhead speed and more distance.
• Consistency:
  • If you’re posture is different each time, so is your balance, swing plane, and results. Keep a solid posture to ensure consistency.
• Control:
  • It is very tough to maintain control of the golf ball if you are in a different posture each swing. Make sure the posture is the same!
• Injury Prevention:
  • Poor posture can strain muscles and joints, potentially injuring or causing discomfort to the golfer.
• Aim:
  • With different posture each time, alignment can be compromised, and the aim targets will be different.
• Comfort and Focus:
  • As mentioned above in the injury prevention section, without a solid posture, you can cause discomfort, and overall focus can be shifted towards this discomfort rather than the actual golf swing
    • What does solid posture feel like?
• You can tell you have solid posture when your weight is on your backside during the backswing, and the lead side during your downswing. This posture also grounds you and stops any attempts at lifting up or making any other attempts at recovery during the swing.

Alignment

• Accuracy:
  • When you allow yourself to have proper alignment, your accuracy, in the sense of where your ball ends up, will drastically improve. Overall, accuracy is a huge aspect of golf. Without it you can’t hit the target and it will be very tough to score!
• Consistency:
  • If you are aligned the same way every time, it is much more likely you will make the same move each time. However, many other key points are apart of consistency and breaking 100!
• Control:
  • Being able to decide the way you want to play a shot comes down to control. This is gained from how you align yourself up before a shot. Control allows you to play better golf!
• Confidence:
  • When you are consistent through correct alignment, you will hit the shots you want more frequently. From here you will be confident and make less mistakes. Overall you will play better golf.
• Putting:
  • What you can do with the flat stick is usually half of the battle in golf. If you don’t have alignment, you are going to find putting extra difficult. Fix alignment to putt better and play better golf!
• Preventing swing compensations due to poor aim:
  • Swing compensations are when you are forced to break proper technique in order to make up for another error in the swing. For example, having poor alignment might cause you to scoop the ball to ultimately square the club face at impact. Scooping reduces power and consistency. However, having proper alignment can allow you to maintain proper wrist angles and hit stronger shots, meaning you don’t have to scoop to recover the swing anymore.
• Enhancing shot shapes:
  • Once you are fully confident and have developed proper alignment, it is time to practice different shop shapes for different situations. This is beneficial because it allows you to escape certain situations and play the hole in ways that will allow you to play better golf through lower scores.
    • How to Properly align a shot?
      • Have your feet parallel to the target. If you are right handed, your feet will be just left of the target, allowing your club path to swing directly down the line at the target. If you are left handed, your feet will be parallel just right of the target.

Fitness

• Strength:
  • If you are fit, you will be strong on the golf course. Being able to consistently add power into the swing will demonstrate your strength and you can crush the ball! You will ultimately play better golf. Also, golf is usually 4 – 4.5 hours long. When walking, fitness is very impactful to your game, because being active for that long requires fitness.
• Flexibility:
  • Fitness comes with stretching and flexibility. Stretching before and after golf will allow you to be loose and play better golf. Instead of making a half attempt swing, make sure you are feeling loose for the round!
• Balance and Stability:
  • A quality golf swing maintains balance and stability in order to allow for consistency. When one is fit, they are able to create this balance and take less strokes on the golf course, ultimately playing better golf.
• Mental Focus:
  • When someone is tired, they lose focus. Solution? Stay fit. This will enable you to stay focused and hit the shot you envision.
• Consistent Performances:
  • Maintaining a fit physique creates consistency in golf, because there are no unexpected times of being tired and losing focus.
• Increased speed:
  • Fitness creates mental and physical strength, ultimately increasing speed. Either way, swinging fast is tiring. Maintain fitness to not be warn out by the speed of your swing.
• Longevity in golf:
  • To play golf for a long time, you got to make sure you take care of your body, and you can do so by keeping fit. This will allow you to stay healthy and get out on the course. When your fitness is solid, you can reduce the chance of injury, allowing you to play for longer. Not only will you play, but you can hit the ball further, and play better golf through lower scores!
• Swing mechanic customizations:
  • Once you are fit, you can use that strength to your advantage and increase speed and contact force. If not, you can still be a phenomenal golfer, but it is much more beneficial to be as strong and fit as possible!

Mindset

Golf is a mental battle.

Having good vibes usually means your chances at a good round will be increased, for the most part.

Here are some key benefits to having a positive mindset in golf:

• Focus and concentration:
  • Having a mindset for golf, including positivity and patience, focus and concentration will improve. The reason this is so important is because with proper focus you can hit the golf shots you want, and you will play better golf!
• Resilience:
  • Golf is a very tough game to be consistent in. If you are able to build up your mindset to improve your resilience and continue to practice through even the worst rounds and highest scoring days, you will be a great golfer!
• Confidence:
  • When you have a calm mindset, you know what you can do on the course. Your confidence will improve and overall you will play better golf more consistently!
• Managing Emotions:
  • Having a dialed in mindset allows you to manage emotions. When this is done, any type of golf shot is recoverable. For example, missing the green with a positive mindset allows you to get up and down with the next shot. Getting up and down means you hit use one stroke to get onto the green, and one stroke for putting.
• Adapting:
  • Each and every golf shot is different. There are so many factors going into every shot. For example, wind, temperature, yardage, ball position, etc… learning to maintain a mindset that allows you to adapt to your environment without complaining, will let you play better golf!
• Enjoyment and longevity:
  • At the end of the day, if your mind is out the window during the round, are you really having fun? Probably not. The whole point of golf is too have fun, so why not develop a positive mindset to have an outlook on the game where everything is recoverable. You don’t know, you might hit the worst shot you’ve hit, and the next shot could be the best. It takes one good shot to turn a hole around.

Pre-shot Routine

The routine you do before a shot eliminates high chances of variation in your golf shots.

When a golfer has a routine, it is much easier to get into the flow of their swing.

Here are some key benefits:

• Consistency:
  • Allowing for a more standardized process with less variation
• Mental preparation:
  • Focusing on the shot and eliminating distractions
• Confidence:
  • The routine reduces anxiety and overall keeps you more relaxed
• Physical Readiness:
  • Allowing your body to establish a comfortable, familiar feeling
• Adapting to Conditions:
  • Taking a second to look and factor in extra conditions, like wind, slope, and ground firmness
• Time Management:
  • Not overthinking the shot, but providing enough time to relax

Overall, this routine can enhance many features for the golfer, ultimately leading to a better shot, and even better scores!

Visualize the shot

Before you step up to hit the shot, take a second to visualize the shot you want to hit. Having a clear picture of the ball landing and the trajectory it will take there can be very helpful.

• Focus during the swing is maintained:
  • When you visualize the shot before hitting it, you will maintain focus during the swing, ultimately creating better contact and having a better shot
• The shot is executed as drawn up:
  • If there is no planning to what you are going to do, how can it be executed as planned? Speaking about it out loud helps, but as a minimum you should try to visualize it in your head

Practice with a purpose

Do you ever go to the range and practice your golf skills?

Well… that is definitely step 1. As Tiger said: “No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that’s the exciting part.”

The driving range is a very crucial step to practice. In fact, tour players practice and warm up on the range, and doing what the best do is one way to get better!

However, when you do practice, make sure you have a specific goal in mind. Focusing on said goal is much more beneficial than hitting balls randomly and deciding to skip short game practice after.

Control your breathing

Standing over the golf ball can definitely be a very tense moment. Your body and mind sometimes freeze and it is very easy to let your golf game go out the window for that shot.

Maintaining steady breathing through deep breathes will relax your body and lower the tension.

Having a specific routine and tempo to maintain a calm feeling on the tee, as well as with other shots, will improve your game.

Usually the very first shot of the round is the most stressful. This tip can help you start the round off on the right foot and keep that momentum going!

Now I’d like to hear from you:

Which strategy from this post are you going to try first?

Or maybe I didn’t mention a tip you have been looking into.

Either way, leave a comment and let me know. Or, send me a message on my Instagram account at Jimmyrodgegolf.

Thank you!

For more golf content, checkout www.jimmyrodge.com

Jimmy