Negotiating Slow Greens

Sometimes – usually early during a round – it will dawn on you that the greens you are playing on are S-L-O-W, slow. Putts are coming up way short, even if you strike them firmly. You may then want to consider the “Five feet past” rule. Since your normal putting stroke has been leaving you five feet short all day, hit those long lag putts firm enough to go about five feet past. The drag on those slow, uncut greens will slow the ball down right around the hole.

Try the five-star plan

Next time you're on a practice putting green, try this drill: Pick a hole that's got some slope and some break. Then get out five balls and place them all about three feet from the hole, as if they were the points of a star. This will give you every type of putt you'll encounter – left-to-right, right-to-left, uphill, downhill. Once you can make all five, move back to four feet and so on until you believe you can make everything.

Target practice on the green

When hitting shots to the green, think like you’re throwing darts. A great shot would be the bullseye. Each concentric circle further out would be one degree removed from that perfect shot you were aiming for. However, the bullseye center of your target is not always the flagstick. Using a tightly tucked pin as the target could result in your slightly off-centered hit ending up in the bunker, or on the short, wrong side of a green. Instead, think of your concentric-circled target as being located where the greatest percentage of shots that hit the target also end up staying on the green. Usually this is somewhere near the center of the green, and usually, the pin is included within your target. If not, be sure to choose your targets wisely, get into less trouble and hit more greens in regulation.

Practice out of divots

When practicing at a driving range that has real grass and turf, you should practice a few iron shots out of your divots. Why? Because there are divots on courses. Golf is a game with many imperfect lies on the course, and you might need a confidence boost to know you can pull off a shot from a bad lie. Also, hitting iron shots out of divots requires a downward blow, not an upward scoop. It's good practice to work on the fundamental of hitting down on irons. Finally, you will have more confidence on good lie shots, because, you will have already proven you can hit from bad ones. It always happens. Big match. Key hole. You hit a perfect drive, yet end up in a divot. Now, instead of panicking, you'll do well. You'll have practiced it.

Practice before a round of golf can make you play worse

Thinking of hitting a bucket of balls in the range before you have a round of golf? Think again. PGA Pro Jerry Mowlds, speaking in a New York Times article, claims it can actually make you play worse.

"Going to the range usually messes the average golfer up for the whole day

If they hit it good on the range, it’s pretty common that a bout of nerves will make them hit a few bad shots as soon as they get on the golf course. That frustrates them to no end, and they start wondering why they couldn’t bring their range swing to the course.

And if they hit it poorly on the range, they start changing everything in their normal swing, get more frustrated and head to the course a wreck. Either way, they play worse once the real golf starts."

So you must be wondering just what Mowlds recommends before a round? Well basically just your average warm up:

"They should start by just swinging several different clubs without hitting anything.
Warm up your swing and your muscles for maybe 10 minutes. Then, if they want to hit some 50-yard shots to get some feel for contact and control, that’s fine. But no full shots. None. It’s a warm-up, nothing more. Talk to pro golfers. If they want to practice, they do it after they play.

“The average golfer should just get loose, get the blood flowing and then walk to the first tee with a clear mind.”

There you go golfers - another good excuse why you aren't a pro yet!