5 Ways to Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Handicap

It doesn’t matter if you’re a constant slicer or a scratch golfer, everyone has room for improvement in their game. Not sure where to focus your efforts? We’ve partnered with Performance Golf, the leading online golf instruction institute, and their stable of legendary coaches, to provide shot-specific advice, drills and gear recommendations that can help you shave strokes and lower your handicap.

For the Slicer

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There’s a good chance you slice the ball, especially when you pull out the big stick. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. “Ninety percent of people who play golf slice the ball,” says Hank Haney, who coached Tiger Woods for six years. “There’s only one reason why you slice the golf ball: your clubface is open relative to the path of the swing. If your clubface is open at impact, it will curve from left to right.”

Try This: High Swing Drill

Imagine the ball is teed up two feet off the ground. With driver in hand, take a series of practice swings trying to hit the ball from that height. This elevated swing forces your club into the proper “inside out” swing path, which will give you a better chance at hitting it square.

Watch This: Haney’s One Shot Slice Fix walks you through every element of your drive, from how you should grip the club to when you should shift the weight in your hips.

Buy This: The Launch Deck is a swing training mat that gives you instant feedback on the path of your club as it strikes the ball.

For the Distance Junkie

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A long drive not only impresses our friends, it improves our chances of a birdie. Performance Golf coach and three-time Masters champion Sir Nick Faldo has given plenty of thought to the drive, and explains that true power comes from good body motion. “If your body turns really well, your arms will follow,” Faldo says. “You’ll learn to get faster and faster, with more speed and power.”

Try This: The Bucket Drill

At the range, hold your bucket of balls in both hands while standing in your driving stance, feet wide, knees bent. With your elbows locked into your torso, swing the bucket to your right and then to your left, mimicking a golf swing. The key is to get your core to initiate during both the back swing and the down swing.

Watch This: Faldo’s Power Plane Master Class is loaded with tangible advice on power, from mastering tempo to creating a stretching routine that will activate key golf muscles before a round.

Buy This: The StraightAway is a swing aid designed to fix the first movement of your swing, which will unlock straight shots and add distance to your drives and irons.

For the Golfer Who Battles with Poor Contact

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Sometimes you hit the ball fat, sometimes you hit it thin, sometimes you shank it all together. In short, you’re not making consistent, solid contact with the ball, whether you’re using your driver, hybrids or irons.

“Without solid contact, you can’t fix any of the other issues most golfers face,” says Martin Chuck, who has been dubbed “the people’s coach” for his dedicated work with amateur golfers. “Ball contact is responsible for improving all other areas of your game. And that’s why most golfers don’t get better, without addressing that fundamental problem. Contact is king.”

The first step towards flush contact? Stop trying to hit the ball at the low point of your swing. Instead, you need to collect the ball on the way down to the low point.

Try This: The Low Point Contact Drill

Create a groove in the grass by stepping on an aim stick and pushing it into the grass to create a straight line with its impression. Address the line as if it’s the ball. Holding the club with your lead arm only, swing through the groove, trying to hit the ground on the target side of the grooved line in the ground. Ideally, you’ll create a small divot just in front of that line. That trains the correct circular delivery of your golf club at, and after, impact.

Once you can consistently do this with the lead hand, do the same drill with your trail hand. After you’re successfully taking divots in front of the line with both hands independently, place a ball on the line. With both hands on the club, take an easy swing at the ball. Look at the divot to make sure it’s located in front of the line, ensuring your club face is collecting the ball on the way down to the low point in your swing.

Watch This: Fix the fundamental cause of poor contact by working through Martin Chuck’s Simple Strike Sequence, designed to help all golfers, from beginners to life-long hackers, create flush contact with the ball.

Buy This: Grab The Straight Stick ($199), a 7-iron-sized swing trainer that dials in your swing path and release, promising better accuracy with your short irons, and more greens hit each round.

For the Golfer with No Short Game

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Those shots just off the green are a great opportunity to cut strokes off your score card, especially if you find yourself constantly hitting fat or thin shots, which is a common problem around the green for amateur golfers. Often, they’re so worried about their chipping technique, that they’re sabotaging themselves. James Sieckmann, a master of the short game, insists that common chipping problems can be fixed with short, focused bouts of training.

“When you train, everything needs to have a purpose,” Sieckmann says. “Take the first three minutes to focus on your mechanics, solidify your technique, but only spend a few minutes on that technique. Be hyper-focused for that amount of time, then move on.”

Try This: The Stork Drill

The Stork Drill stabilizes the lower body so your chest fires the swing by rotating, helping you get consistent, flush contact close to the green. Stand on your front foot with your back foot behind you — like a stork — and swing, holding the follow through so your chest is located over your front knee. Keeping your weight on that front foot forces you to rotate your chest and power the swing properly. Do this five or six times to get the sensation of your chest moving through the swing, then move on.

Watch This: Dig deeper into the art of the short game with a Scratch Club membership and cover everything from the fundamentals of greenside shots to the art of controlling trajectory.

For the Three-Putter

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Nothing tanks a good round of golf like missing putts. According to Kevin Weeks, one of the best putting instructors in the world, most putts go awry because the face of your putter is not square when it hits the ball. “It’s all about the putter face,” Weeks says. “It takes time to become a great putter, but you have to be able to start the ball where you want to, and hit your mark.”

Try This: The Sticker Drill

Take a dime-sized sticker and place it three feet in front of your ball on the putting green. Simply hit the ball over the sticker, paying attention to whether you miss it right or left most of the time. Those results will tell you what you need to address with your putting moving forward.

Access Weeks’ trainings with Performance Golf’s Scratch Club membership.

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