Golf is a game that requires skill, mental discipline, the desire to have fun, and a little luck. The purpose of this article is to focus on a key skill - Fairways Hit - that will allow you to better your game, have more fun, and more importantly knock a few strokes off your total. You don't have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to improve; you just need to understand where your game needs improvement and how to improve it.
I think the trouble most bogey golfers have is that they focus too much on their swing, their setup, their delivery, their "mental game" and not enough focus on having fun and the specific areas of their game they can improve upon. We spend countless hours working on our swing, chip, and putt at the driving range yet we don’t know how to apply what we’ve learned on the course. A key assumption I make in my articles is that you play golf somewhat consistently and practice at the range when you can.
Fairways Hit
While it may sound like a simple and obvious skill, hitting the fairway off the tee is a must. It is like a basketball player knowing how to effectively dribble down the court or a hockey player skating down the ice with ease. They do it without effort; it is almost secondary to their ultimate goal: scoring! With golf, hitting a fairway is a skill that you must focus on and it should become second nature to you. It is critical to your ultimate goal: scoring--"sinking the putt in par or better". When you begin to hit more fairways you will notice a few things will happen.
First, your confidence will improve dramatically. How often have you come to play, ready to tee off from the first tee with pre-determined excuses about why you hooked or sliced off into the woods? How stressed have you been when paired up with someone you don’t know. Imagine how you’d feel if you knew your ball was going to hit the fairway every time. This alone is worth the practice. Second, you can shift your focus to your important second shot rather than your drive. An effective second shot, in most cases, will set you up for hitting the green in regulation which gets you one step further to par or better. Do you think a PGA tour player thinks about hitting the fairway? No, they think about where on the fairway they are going to hit it.
What to do
During your next round, simply keep track of the fairways you hit by writing an "f" on your scorecard next to the hole played. Divide the total number of fairways hit by the total number of holes played (par 4 or better). Use this percentage as a baseline to set your "fairways hit" goal. Keep this goal until you have consistently beaten it over several rounds. At that time, you are ready to set a new goal. For example, if after 17 holes (excludes a par 3) you hit 4 fairways off the tee, your baseline percentage will be 23.5%. You could set a goal of 30% fairways hit (or 6/17 holes, assuming at least one par 3).
Once you consistently hit 30% of fairways it's time to change your goal. Before you know it, you will be on your way to a lower score. Only two additional fairways per round can lead to an immediate 10% improvement in your overall skill set. Ultimately, you should strive to hit 100% of possible fairways during the course of a round and even hitting just two or three more over 18 holes will help improve your total strokes and better your game.
Be sure to read my other articles where I discuss greens in regulation and how to improve your putting. This article may be used on your site as long as the resource box below is included.
Jonathan Prentiss writes articles about golf and how to better your game. My articles focus on strategies to help apply what you practice, give you specific things to practice specific, and how to identify goals that will help better your game. To learn more about how you can better your game, calculate your handicap, receive additional instruction, and learn how to use this analysis please visit http://www.pasturepool.com
