You Guessed it: Lowering Your Handicap is All About Short Game
There’s no way around it. The most efficient way to cut your golf handicap in half or even more dramatically is with your short game. The first thing you need to do is ask yourself how much time you spend practicing your chipping and your putting, and compare that to the time you spend on the driving range. For most of us, the answer is miniscule. And that’s the low hanging fruit. Think about it. How many greens are you hitting in regulation? If you’re like me, not a lot. That doesn’t mean you need to spend countless hours on the range trying to hone in on your iron shots and approaches. No. It means you need to know how to chip and putt the ball.
Proof That Short Game is What Matters
Let’s say you’re an 18 handicap. You’re taking 90 strokes on an average round. How many of those strokes are putts? An 18 handicap probably averages roughly 2 putts per hole, so lets say 36 of your strokes are putts. (40% of all your strokes) – Ok, and how many greens do you hit in regulation? As an 18 handicap, probably somewhere between 15% and 50%. So that’s 9-15 chips per round. Let’s average that and say 12 chips. So you’re taking 36 putts and 12 chips. 48 of your 90 strokes are chipping and putting. That’s more than half of the strokes you take.
How many drives do you hit? If you’re hitting driver on any hole over 250 yards, then you’re probably hitting 14 strokes with your driver. And as far as approach shots go, the distance varies greatly which means sometimes it’s a 60 yard pitch and sometimes it’s a 220 yard prayer. Hours and hours on the range may give you a slight reduction in your long shot dispersion, but that doesn’t do much for your score or handicap. Focus on where the majority of your strokes are coming from: Chipping and putting!
The 10 Yard Chip Drill
Grab your favorite wedge, step outside, and prepare yourself for a mind-blowingly obvious game improver.
- Set up a target 10 yards away.
- Get a big bucket of golf balls.
- Try to hit all the golf balls in the target
- Repeat.
That’s it. Pay attention to how the strokes feel, and what you’re doing with your hands and arms. Your body will learn exactly how to fly the ball 10 yards. Once you know how to do that, you can incorporate it on the golf course. For example, say your favorite wedge is the 52 degree. You’ll fly the ball 10 yards on the golf course on a flat hole, and you’ll notice that the ball continues to roll another 10 yards. Then you know that on a relatively flat green, you need to fly the ball half way to the hole.
Once your body knows what flying the ball 10 yards feels like, you will intuitively be able to fly it 5 yards or 15 yards or 25 yards. But you have to dedicate some real time to get the 10 yard flight locked in. I don’t care what club you do it with. Just know what the ball does after a 10 yard flight, and train your body how to fly it exactly 10 yards. Practice until you can repeat this over and over again. Trust me, this exercise alone is going to shave a lot of strokes off your score.
Up and Down Chipping and Putting Game
Practice the above chipping drill until you’re absolutely bored out of your mind with it. (I still haven’t reached this point) But when you’re ready to try something besides the 10 yard chip, try the up and down drill. You play 18 holes of golf on the putting green. Each hole is par 2, and you have to start with a chip. Keep your score for every hole and see how close to par you can get. Play a couple 18 hole rounds of Up and Down every day, and your handicap will drop fast.
This is the most effective drill because you are getting practice with chipping and putting all together in a short period of time. You’re creating tons of scenarios that reflect the same scenarios you’re likely to see on the golf course, so you’ll be prepared to get pars even when you miss the greens.
Knowing Your Distances Applies to Short Game, Too
Be honest, when you step up to a 20 yard chip, are you confident that you can get it within 2 yards? That’s the 10% rule. You should be able to get the ball within 10 percent of the distance you are chipping from. If you’re not confident with this, that’s low hanging fruit. You just need to train your body exactly what a 20 yard shot feels like. (See the 10 yard chip drill)
What about a 20 foot putt? Can you lag it to within 2 feet of the hole? If not, spend some time practicing your lag. This is best done not towards a hole, but toward the fringe. You will be less distracted by reading left and right turn. That way you can focus more on the distance you are rolling the golf ball. The secret to not getting bored is creating a game. Play 6 shots at a time, and see how many come within 10% of your total shot distance. Again, as an example, if you’re lag putting from 20 feet away, you want the ball to stop within 2 feet of the fringe. Do it until you can get all of them within 10%, then move to a new spot. Mix up your distances and slopes until you’re very confident with your lag. Once you get that down, 3 putts will become a rarity for you!
Keys To Cut Your Golf Handicap in Half
In case you haven’t noticed, the key to cut your golf handicap in half is by focusing on your short game. But you won’t be able to do that if you’re just practicing the same old boring 3 ball putts over and over again. Find drills and practice that you actually enjoy. Make it a competition with yourself or with your buddies. If you can find a way to enjoy short game practice, you will cut your handicap quickly. That’s a promise.
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