Breaking 1009080 plus 70: your monthly guide to the scoring basics

Golf Digest, April, 2005 by Dean Reinmuth, Scott Smith

For lower scores, try some home schooling.

Practicing shots you need around the green is vital to achieving your scoring goals, whether it's to break 100 or break par. It's so important, I built a short-game practice area in my back yard. Not every golfer has the opportunity to create a 2,500-square-foot putting green surrounded by four bunkers, a water hazard and dozen tee boxes, the longest playing from 110 yards. But if your goal is to improve, make time to hone your short game at your own home or home course. Start by applying the tips I'll give you on the following pages.

Breaking 100

The two big variables on the green are the speed and firmness of the turf. Those factors have a domino effect because they not only affect your putting but also how much your chips roll, how hard your approach shots land and so on. Focus your pre-round practic e on getting a decent feel for pace before becoming target-oriented.

Get out any way you can

If you're in a deep bunker with a steep lip, go into stroke-saving, not shotmaking, mode. Pitch out sideways or putt out backward. Try to get it close on your next shot.

Don't putt to the hole

All putts are speed putts, because you have to know the speed of the putt to control distance and gauge break. The proper pace becomes instinctive on your home course, but if you play somewhere else it's easy to get thrown off track. Before your round, practice putting to nothing, and feel the pace of your putts by hitting uphill, downhill and sidehill.

Hit chips with one hand

Practice one-handed chips to ingrain the proper angle of the right wrist (cupped). It also helps prevent you from decelerating by controlling the length the backswing, and from flicking the clubhead past the hand through impact.

Control the length of your stroke

The average golfer should concentrate on getting long putts within a six-foot circle around the hole. You tighten those parameters as you progress--just as you're trying to expand your tap-in range on short putts. If you're trying to break 100, your goal should be to get a 20- to 30-foot putt within three feet of the hole.

Practice lag putts from just beyond what you feel is your automatic two-putt range. Focus on swinging the putter to even lengths back and through, with the same steady pace throughout the stroke. Feel the length of stroke you need by swinging the putter over the ball as you're looking at the hole, your eyes over the target line (left). Get a feel for speed before worrying about the break.

Extend your tap-in range

Practice putts from so close you could make them if your life depended on it. Then move back, with the conviction, "Yeah, I can make this." Don't worry about impact. Instead, imagine your putter is traveling between curving gates. The cleaner you go through the gates, the smoother the putt will roll.

Breaking 90

If you're close to scoring in the 80s, you should have a good grasp of the basics-such as how to pitch or chip from good lies or getting out of the sand in one shot. What you need to learn is what to do on uneven lies. Expand your comfort zone by practicing short shots from awkward lies. You'll be able to avoid those big numbers that keep you in the 90s.

Creating backspin

To score in the 80s, you need to become more aware of backspin-how to create it, how to use it. Practice hitting sharply down on your pitch shots to create more spin.

Rehearse every shot

Make a practice swing before every shot, especially one from an unusual lie. Note how stable your stance is, and test the lie (except when in a bunker). You want to capture the feeling of the swing you want to use on the shot. The swing you hit the ball with should be as similar as possible to your best practice swing in length, speed and smoothness.

Use scoring lines to align

The normal setup for chipping is to lean the club forward, to promote crisp contact and a downward blow. But be careful that as you push your hands ahead, you don't rock the face open. Keep the scoring lines on the club perpendicular to your target line.

How to hit the short downhill pitch

Just like in skiing, your downhill foot is critical in playing shots on sloping ground. To hit the downhill pitch, feel like you're stationary, as though you're hitting off your left foot (below). Dropping the right foot back helps level the hips and promotes a steeper backswing without much shoulder turn. What you don't want to do is drop the right shoulder and hang back on the right side; you'll hit into the slope before the ball. Keep the clubface open as you swing down steeper than the slope, and finish low.

Have a blast on uphill sand shots

Here's another one-leg situation. When your ball's on an upslope in sand, the tendency is to place your right foot too far down the hill and lean into the slope to drive your wedge into the sand. It takes a lot of strength to move all the sand and ball very far. Instead of driving forward with the body, put your weight on your downhill leg and use it as a balance point to swing around. Swing at the angle of the upslope by angling your upper body backward and keeping your left arm bent. Manufacture this shot with your arms, not your legs.