I don’t doubt you have a favorite course and play the bulk of your rounds there. Whatever it is that you like about it, that course is your golfing home. It’s the place where you can relax and have the fun that you seek from golf.

Yet, if that’s the only course you play, you are doing yourself a disservice if you want to become a better golfer.

Playing only one course requires only a limited a variety of shots, the ones that get you around this particular design. You also learn to think strategically only in ways that are very familiar to you. Your growth as a player stagnates.

Also, when you play only one course, you get quite familiar with it and start to shoot low scores. Though there’s nothing wrong with that, you might become under-handicapped.

There was a local golfer who shot a 62 on his home course several years ago. I looked up his record on the GHIN locator and found that all of his latest 20 scores came on that same course.

Now you can’t argue with a 62, but I wonder how good he would be if he played on some of the more challenging courses in his area.

When you go to a brand new course, do you shoot about 5-10 strokes over your usual score? There might be a few surprises, but if you have a well-rounded arsenal of shots and know how to analyze a course on the fly, you shouldn’t be more than a few strokes over your usual.

I play a variety of courses. One course I play requires more accurate tee shots than usual. Another course features unforgiving greenside rough.

A third is carved out of the Pacific Northwest mountain forest. Miss the fairway and don’t even bother looking for your ball.

On a fourth course all the greens sit about two or three feet above the fairway, so the chipping game is much different.

Now it is a fact that all these things are characteristic of the course I normally play, just not on every hole, and not to such a degree.

Playing a healthy rotation of course makes me a better player on each one.

Take it as a matter of pride that the ten best rounds that determine your handicap were played on three, and even four different courses.

When your handicap travels like this, you become a more educated golfer, and more capable golfer, and you have more fun.

My new book, The Golfing Self, is now available at www.therecreationalgolfer.com. It will change everything about the way you play.