How I became a single figure handicap golfer and how you can too – Weekly Wedge: EP 3

In this week’s video, I’m sharing 8 of the things I have done to bring my handicap down from 22 to 7. These are easy-to-implement tips and techniques that will see you shooting better scores and dropping your handicap in no time.

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Hey welcome back to the channel now this is episode three of my brand new weekly wedge series if you’ve missed the previous two episodes then don’t worry I’ll put a link in the description below and I’ll also share a link to the playlist at the end of this video but

This week I’m going to share with you some of the methods I have employed over the last few years to bring my handicap down from 22 to 7 which I would consider to be a fairly decent handicap now if there are any of the tips or methods I

Have missed in this video then drop a comment below let me know what you would recommend people do to reduce their handicap and of course if you have any comments on any of the tips I share then please drop them in the comments area below whilst you’re there if you get

Value from this video remember to hit that like button and if you want to be notified about future releases of this series or other videos be sure to hit that subscribe button to show your support to the channel now let’s kick things off with my first method or tip

To help you reduce your handicap now my first tip to reducing your handicap is to start playing golf with better players when you play weekly medals you probably gravitate towards playing with your usual playing Partners or your friends which is fine but maybe consider once a month booking in with some

Scratch golfers or low single handicap players what you’ll find in playing medals with these players is you’ll learn how they navigate the course differently compared to the rest of us higher handicap players so for example they may set up on the tea in a slightly different position they may decide not

To use a driver when usually players would grab the driver they may look to chip to different areas of the green or little things that you will watch and you’ll be able to pick up on will become very very useful you’ll also find that sometimes when you play with these

Players they’re quite Keen to share little bits of knowledge and experience or golden nuggets with you to help you improve your game so once in a while consider playing with slightly better golfers and the like with is you will become a better golfer in doing so my

Second tip is all around consistency if you want to become a single figure ger handicapper then you need to be consistent and a quick win is actually start playing with the same make and model of golf ball quite often what I’ll see when I’m playing golf with other

Players is they will lose a golf ball and then grab any old golf ball from their bag and start playing and then if you lose that ball they’ll take a different ball and what you’ll find is if you use that method you’re going to see inconsistencies with the golf ball

It could be how it comes off with the club face it could be its flight how it reacts on the green how it feels when you’re putting but if you swap out your random golf balls for one consistent making model you’ll get used to using that ball and you’ll find that you know

How it feels when you park you’ll know if you need to hit them a little bit firmer or softer depending on the type of ball and you’ll know especially around the greens when you’re chipping how that ball reacts off of the club face it doesn’t mean that you need to go

Out and buy a Brand New Bag of Titus Pro v1s you might want to just go and buy a box of noodles or Pinnacles whatever you feel like but try to stick with the same making model next time you are buying and using golf balls and as a side note

If you want to benefit from 10% off at mail order golf just use the discount code Andy’s golf blog at checkout and you’ll be able to save a little bit of money next time you’re ordering some golf balls I’ll put a link in the description below to take you straight

To their product page my third tip and something that I have found incredibly beneficial over the last few years is to practice practice practice your short game one of the get out of Geo free cards I have in my golf game is my short game because I have invested a lot of

Time in practicing and there is no excuse for not practicing short game because you can practice in your house in your garden you can practice on the golf course whil you’re playing and you will definitely see your handicap drop from forming a good high quality short game now what I like about practicing

Short game is you don’t necessarily need to go to a PJ professional you don’t even need to watch videos on YouTube just grab a couple of your wedges drop some balls around the green make it difficult for yourself and practice getting up and down from those tough

Conditions if I look at my short scope performance stats last year I averaged 47% scrambling which means in almost one in two shots I managed to get up and down and when compared with a five handicap golfer in terms of Strokes gained I was actually gaining over two

Strokes on them so short game for me is something that’s easy to practice and has huge rewards so if you’re looking to shoot better scores working on your short game will definitely help with that my fourth tip is to consider working on your long range putting now

If you look at the golf green at the golf course during a Meda or maybe in the evenings you’ll see lots of people practicing their putting but generally they’ll be practicing putts for maybe 2 3 four 5 foot which are still important putts because quite often those are the

Putts that we need to try and make to save par but one of the areas that I have seen a huge Improvement in is my long putting because I’ve invested time and effort into practicing you see when I looked at my short scope performance statistics for the year

2022 across that entire season I averaged 11% three putts which was far too many so when I went into 2023 I decided to spend more time working on putts from maybe 20 30 40 foot away to the hole to try and get the ball nice and close resulting in two putts rather

Than three puts now there was a bit of information gathered behind that consideration and that was using short scope once again because from my Approach play from between 100 and 150 yard I was finding that my Approach proximity to the pin was 40t so on average I was leaving myself 40t away

From the pin and that’s something that I think is quite common with higher handicap golfers so rather than just practicing those short Parts focusing on the longer Parts where you’re likely to be finding yourself on the green after your approach shot looking to try and

Get those parts from 20 30 40 foot into a range of maybe 6 or 7 foot will make a massive Improvement and reduction to your three putts tip number five is to make better decisions on the te now quite often when we have a higher handicap or maybe new to golf

Instinctively we’ll just take the driver for those longer holes but that’s not always the best play if you take a driver on let’s say a 420 yard power 4 which is quite tight off of the te if you lose that ball you’re then under pressure with your third shot on the te

Not just to lose a ball but to keep that ball on The Fairway to give yourself a chance of may be hitting the green with your second shot now let’s say for example you find the Fairway and you’re hitting your what is then your fourth shot having lost the ball you’ve got to

Hit maybe 180 200 yards to the green if you miss that green you’re probably going to make a six or a seven at best on that hole and that’s assuming that with your fourth shot you’re actually on the Fairway if you’re in the rough or you’ve lost the ball that score is going

To go up and all of these things can contribute to higher scores and a higher handicap something that I have made a conscious effort with over the past few years in reducing my handicap is playing smarter from the te so if I’m playing a hole that I think is going to be really

Tough it’s maybe narrow and long I won’t always take my driver I’m focusing on keeping that ball in play so it maybe hitting a four or five iron off of the te still leaving myself maybe 220 yards to the green but then deciding just to

Play as a par five so I’ll hit my second shot to maybe leave 40 or 50 yards from the green and then with my third shot there’s a good chance that I’ll get that onto the green and close to the pin and maybe putt out for par but at worse I’m

Probably looking at making a five with two puts even in the worst case scenario it’s a six it’s not ideal but it’s likely going to be less than it will be if I lose a ball and then struggle to get to the Green in three or four shots

And then find myself making a seven or an eight so next time you’re standing on that t don’t always feel that you have to take the driver sometimes just thinking about your Club selection can have a a greater impact on reducing those scores now in this video so far I

Have been talking about my short scope performance data if you’re interested in finding out more about the short scope devices then feel free to check out my other videos on this channel I generally use the short scope X5 golf watch which gives me GPS information on the golf

Course and provides me with access to over 100 T level statistics about my game when I leave the golf course and that’s much of the data I have used to help improve my performance and reduce my handicap now if you’re interested in saving some cash on the short scope

Devices just enter the code Andes golf at checkout on the short scope website there’s a link in the description below and you can save 15% on short scope products tip number six is to play level FES and what I mean by that is play every hole as a par five this will add

Up to 90 and it’s a really really good way of improving your scoring and reducing that handicap you see the mistake I made when I started playing was I always focused on the par for the course which is usually let’s say 70 or 71 and I was putting in cards of 110 115

And I was coming off the golf course really despondent then I decided that I wanted to set a target of breaking 100 so I went about employing some of the tactics I’ve already discussed in this video and working hard to shoot more consistent scores and slowly I brought

My scores down to around about 100 and then I decided I’m going to play level five so every was a par five and I’m going to try and break 90 and what I found is by employing this method and focusing Less on the par for the course

And more so on the part that I want to play to I managed to turn those par threes maybe into Bogies so I felt like I was gaining a stroke because the par was actually a five on my card and sometimes when I was playing the par

Fives if I did manage a birdie that was a huge result if I managed a bogy On a par 4 that’s okay because that was par and quite quickly I found myself shooting more consistently close to 90 then obviously with a little bit of hard work I managed to break 90 more often

And I adjusted the target to then become 80 and now what I find is when I play if I don’t manage to break 80 I actually leave the golf course really quite frustrated so over time just adjust those pars you might want to start by when you’re breaking 90 adjusting the

Par 3es to become par fours instead of the fives that they were before and quite quickly you’ll feel happier you’ll feel you’re making more wins on the golf course and you’ll reduce that score now tip number seven is to think about learning your Club distances something

That many golfers are guilty of is just assuming that they hit clubs a certain distance so maybe their friend will hit the 7h hour 150 and they’ll just assume yeah 7R goes 150 but that’s not always the case and it’s really really important to play good golf to know how

Far you’re hitting your clubs now there are loads of ways that you can measure this information you can go for a gapping session with a PJ professional you can go to the driving range and hit some balls and try and work it out you can use top Trace at the driving range

You might want to invest in a small device like the flight scope Meo Plus for example which allows you to track how far you are hitting your shots and then access this data from an app or you can use a device like the short scope X5

Golf watch which is what I use now this automatically tracks my performance data on the golf course and then I get access to my club performance within the app so so I’m able to see how far I hit each Club on average across a defined period so this information is actually useful

Because on the golf course I know based on my past performance how far I hit each Club as an extra tip if you’re playing an approach to the green more often than not you will come up short because if you look at your distance and

Think okay I hit 180 with my five IR for example that’s usually if you’ve hit a fairly good one but that’s not always going to be the case so if you lose a little bit from maybe not a pure contact you might come up 170 for example or

Even shorter so look at the distance to the pin or to the Target on the green and then add an extra club by taking an extra Club even if you pure it you’ll go through the back there’s less danger usually the back of a green compared to

The front but if you don’t quite connect with it as well as you were hoping you’ll probably come up a little bit shorter and because you’ve had an extra club that will likely find your target so if you want to hit more greens and hopefully get your yardages right learn

How far you’re hitting your clubs and then always consider adding one more Club when you’re playing to your approach shots to the green my final tip in this video is to consider simply playing to the middle of the green now I was always guilty of being too aggressive in the golf course constantly

Trying to play to the pins and what will generally happen is on a round of golf you’ll get some pins which are in favorable positions but you’ll get quite a lot that will be tucked behind greens or be sitting on the ledge at the back of the green or we’ll have bunkers on

The left hand side of the pin and you may be short sided so think carefully about where you’re playing your approach shots too something that I have done over the last few years is focused on just aiming for the middle of the green more often than not I will hit my target

Or at least maybe run through to the back or come up a bit shorter but I’m not putting myself in danger if I’m trying to flight the ball over a bunker to a pin that’s tucked right behind it and I end up maybe landing on the right

Hand side chances are I’m going to be short-sided running away from the pin and I could be looking at maybe making a bogey or a double bogy so where possible when you’re playing your round just look for the center yardage of the green because if you’re a fairly competent

Putter you’ll be making two putts maybe even a single pot you may occasionally make a three put but you know what the chances are if you’re hitting the greens in regulation and landing in the middle you’re probably going to be walking off with far more pars and far more birdies

Now something that you’ll see when you play with better players going back to what I mentioned at the beginning is quite often that’s how they manage their game they’re just looking to basically hit Fairways off of the te and the center of the green if they can land it

In the center of green they’re going to give themselves chances of birdies at worst they’ll probably be making pars and that is how you can improve your handicap so there you have it those are some of the tips and methods I’ve used over the last few years to reduce my

Handicap from 22 down to 7 now I’ve largely done that from without actually going to the driving range or without lessons I’ve just done it using those methods and I strongly would encourage you to consider implementing some of those in your golf game of course as I

Mentioned earlier if there are any tips or methods that I’ve missed that you want to share with other people please do drop them in the comments area below and of course if you want any more information about any of those tips I’ve covered then drop a comment and I’ll get

Back to you but remember if you did enjoy this video please do consider hitting that like button if you want to check out the videos from the last few weeks you can find them on screen just now and I’ll see you in next week’s video