How to Stop Sucking in 2023

1. You can’t hit the ball well.

No secret here, golf is hard.  Robin Williams had a great stand up take on golf that went something along the lines of; You knock a little white ball in a gopher hole, not with a straight stick but a little f*cked up stick, hundreds of yard away with sand and bushes and water in between.  Wacking away and each time you miss the ball you feel like you’re gonna have a stroke!  And at the end there’s a little flat piece of ground with a flag to give you hope!

Just making some contact isn’t good enough to not suck.  You need quality contact on the center of the club face, with the club moving in a straight enough direction.  Then you have to know how far it’s going to go and sometimes when you really suck you hit it so good that it turns out bad.  A very bitter sweet feeling.

If you don’t know what a good shot should look like, or if you know you aren’t hitting a good shot.  Find a golf practice area with a trackman, and learn the type of swing needed to hit the center of the club face while keeping the ball relatively straight.  I find that a low “Smash Factor”, primarily due to missing the sweet spot of the clubface, is usually present among high handicappers as the number 1 issue.  You can make an educated guess about how far your ball should be going based on the PGA and LPGA trackman averages shown here below.

2. You can hit the ball well, but not consistently.

A lot goes into consistent golf and it starts with your routines.  Frankly, consistency is what makes you a good golfer.  You know how to hit a good shot, but it’s here and there on every hole.  Or you know how to hit multiple good shots but it’s only 1 or 2 mistakes completely ruining your round!  If this is you, you’re so close to only sucking a little bit less but you need to change your perspective on what a good shot really is.

Tiger Woods was happy if he hit one perfect shot, per tournament! Not round, but per 72 holes.  Golf is a game of misses!  The secret here is to get rid of those unacceptable misses.  What are those misses for you though?  A seemingly random topped ball? A chunked 50 yard chip after a great drive? A lost ball on a tee shot or long iron?  The simple answer is you need more practice eliminating your “unacceptable misses.”

The best way to eliminate your unacceptable miss?  Practice more acceptable shots.  Do you think you’re hitting the same shot every time? Well if Tiger Woods hits 1 perfect shot per tournament, I’d guess you don’t have a clue how much variation you have in your shots.  Even if it’s the same shot shape and ends in a similar distance there is still tens of thousands of different ways to hit a “similar” shot.  To actually hit the exact same speed, spin, height, curve etc two times in a row or even 2 times out of 50 attempts, kinda seems harder than getting a hole in one to me.  What you are doing is hitting similar shots and you have a million different swing combinations.  Most of us have done a good job at eliminating the one swing combination where we completely miss the ball.  So to eliminate the unacceptable swings, you need to ADD more acceptable swing variations to your arsenal.

Maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower, maybe a little more left, maybe a little more right, maybe a little less spinny, more spinny etc.  The possible combinations are seemingly endless. Learning the opposite of the swing you have now helps to create some more balance. For example if you’re hitting a low fade it might be time to learn what it takes to hit a high draw.  Doesn’t mean you have to play a high draw but it means it may be beneficial to help balance out those unacceptable misses.  Back to the trackman you go!

3. You need a better pre-shot routine.

A pre shot routine is what “mentally” preps you to hit a shot.  Most good golfers are good at calming themselves down before a shot.  Nervousness before a shot is a sure sign a bad shot is near.  If you feel nervous over a shot when playing, that’s actually the exact shot you need to practice next.  First tee nerves getting ya?  That’s because you’re only used to pounding drivers 1 immediately after another on the range 20 minutes before you tee off and don’t know what your swing is going to feel like after a 10 minute break.  Practicing your first tee routine in your pre round warm up has way better carryover.  Things you may want to consider regularly in your pre-shot routine, simplified:

1. Where is the best area for this shot to end up? What is the yardage to it and what club would generally be required.

2. What is the lie like? Tee’d up, fairway, sitting up in the rough, sitting down in the rough, sand, above your feet, below your feet, uphill lie, downhill lie; all of these factor will effect how your club face interacts with the ball.  If you aren’t sure how they do you may need to revisit the second bullet point about good contact consistently and figure that out!

3. Is there any wind that may change the stock club shot?

4. Is there any change in elevation that needs to be accounted for (uphill or downhill target) that may change the stock club shot?

5. Visualize exactly how the shot will look in your head before hitting it, use practice swings if needed.  This might mean picking a target on the course like a tree branch or a sand trap to aim at.

6. Commit to that shot! No changing your mind in your back swing.

The more consistent you keep this routine process the better.  Any feeling of uncertainty on the course before a shot is a sign you may need to touch on something in your practice routine.

4. You need a better warm-up routine.

Practice your pre shot routine in your warm-up routine.  My advice is to avoid block practice in your warm-up routine as much as possible.  What is block practice?  Basically hitting the same shot 2,3,4, 5 times in a row.  You’re just training yourself to have a better 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th shot which is completely irrelevant in game play unless you’re just banking on a breakfast ball to be your best shot.  On the driving range I like to start off with the first hole I’m going to play, and repeat it until I play an acceptable hole.  I usually do this for the first 3-4 holes trying to get as much club variation as possible and it looks something like this:

1. First swing (assuming you’re body is fairly loose) Driver.  If you’re not loose, consider a fitness based warm-up which I will be discussing later on in this segment.  If I’m not loose another option is to have a 50% driver swing which is a full swing except just trying to hit the ball with the line, shape, and intention as your normally would, just half the distance.  So, a slower swing.

2. What’s your second shot into the green look like?  (If it was a successful 50% swing just play the hole at 50%). My next shot is ideally an 8 iron in the fairway.  Hit my 8 iron next.  Hit the green? Great go to the next hole.  Miss the green? Practice a pitch or chip shot on the range.

3. Repeat this similar process for another 3-5 holes, ideally getting up to your gameplay swings for a few imaginary holes before a round.  It’s also Ideal to play an imaginary Par 3, a Par 4, a Par 5, and another par 4 hole that may not require Driver off the tee.

4. Finish up on the putting green with 1 ball.  Various distances trying to 2 putt and 1 putt.  Repeating the same putt is block practice and remember this generally doesn’t carry over as well to game like situations.  Admittedly, I personally use block practice for my putting line before I hit the range, but I finish doing random putt distances right before I tee off.

Consider a similar approach if you have enough time in your pre-round warm-up.  Block practice for working on a weakness last minute, but then as you get closer to game time you need more variation that mimics game like situations.  If you feel like you just don’t have the shots ready to hit in your warm-up routine and you need more block practice?  Well then you need a better practice routine!

5. You need a better practice routine.

Your practice routine is where you really try to figure out how to hit all those shots you aren’t usually confident about.  Block practice is okay here as we are trying to learn our feels for a good shot.  I love to exaggerate my feels when discovering a new one.  Once you find the feel it’s ideal to start working in a different shot in between.  Example, if you are trying to find your 4 iron off the fairway; once you find that shot, mix in a wedge shot and then try to find it again after your wedge shot.  Don’t forget to go through that pre-shot routine once you find your shot!

Nothing is really off limits here when you’re trying to improve your shot feels:

Putt line, putt distance, flop shots, bump and runs, sand shots, 30 yard pitch shots, half wedges, full wedges, 10 off wedges, mid irons, long irons, fairway woods, drivers, all this can be block practice initially to find the feel of your acceptable shots.  The key is to move away from this structure the closer we get to playing.  A round of golf generally consists of 18 holes that take 7-15 minutes to play each hole.  Thats ideally 1-3 full swings, maybe a pitch or chip shot and 1-2 putts every 7 - 15 minutes.

Does it take you 1.5 hours to find your good shot, and then by then you’re too tired to keep practicing? Struggling to ever find a good shot?  You may need a better fitness routine.

6. You need a better fitness routine.

Your fitness routine is the foundation of good golf.  With the proper fitness routine you should be ready to play golf injury free without an excessive warm up.  Swinging through pain is a sure sign you’re doing something wrong, and that pain may only get worse if you don’t fix it.  A good fitness routine will keep your body ready to perform at the drop of a hat.  I usually spend 5-10 minutes mobilizing my shoulders, stabilizing my core, and mobilizing my hips before I swing a golf club.    

When it comes to optimal capability of swinging a golf club, your bone structure may dictate a lot about the abilities of your swing but the capability of your muscles is what ultimately puts you in control.  There is no specific size that seems to dominate on tour.  Even small guys that weigh 150 lbs can hit the ball 300+ yards.

Some of the fitness attributes that will benefit your golf swing are:

1. Big hip turn and ankle mobility.

2. Strong, powerful legs, glutes.

3. Strong, stable core.

4. Strong, mobile shoulders.

5. Wrist mobility.

6. Neck Mobility.

7. High force production with repeatable endurance.

Let’s not forget the role of fighting off fatigue and how that impacts performance.  Learning something new requires great focus, and fatigue is the #1 killer of focus.  Improving your fitness for this quality alone is paramount to improving your golf game, let alone the benefits for improved strength, power and mobility, and consistency.

Want to know a great sport specific way to start working on golf specific endurance!? Walk the course.  Start with 9 holes but don’t necessarily expect to score well, especially if you’re finding yourself more fatigued than you normally do.  Once you play a really good 9 holes, you can move up to 18 holes and repeat the same process.  If you’re considering playing tournaments where you may need to play 36, 54 or even 72 holes over the course of 1-4 days?  Play a good 18 and build out from there!

7. You need to manage your expectations & learn better course management.

This last one here is fun and I’ve been diving into it more myself.  Specifically by tracking various golf stats like putt distances, greens in regulation, “double chips”, and even “150 yards and in”, stats.  It’s so hard to decipher what a good shot vs. a bad shot is for our skill level. Here I like to hand the conversation off to two of my favorite experts:

1. Lou Stagner aka “Golf Stat Pro.”  He’s got a great twitter account and highly recommend a follow. His goal is to ‘manage your expectations” by posting stats that tell you the likes of how many 8 footers you should expect to make based on your current handicap, driving distance, birdies per round or bogeys per round stats etc.

2. Scott Fawcett, founder of Decade golf goes a little bit more in depth.  His focus is on improving your golf scores by teaching course management primarily by picking better targets based on your dispersion.  The term DECADE stands for Distance, Expectation, Correct Target, Analyze, Discipline, Execute.  Also, the acronym DECADE implies learning 10 years of course knowledge in one DECADE course.

Just like the game of golf consistent practice of these 7 things will not only lead to better golf, but also a longer, healthier life.  If you liked this article please share! You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter both @Matsoff_Golf.  You can also find me in the Denver, CO area at Denver Golf Performance South Holly Street Unit 104, Denver, CO.  Instagram @DenverGolfPerformance Website: www.denvergolfperformance.com We have a gym, a trackman, sauna, and a few other things that can help groove those healthy habits for better golf, and a longer-happier, healthier life!