There is an ongoing series of posts titled, What I learned at the range. This post begins a series titled, What I learned at the course. It will be a number of playing tips that I’m bringing home that helped me play better, and might help you, too.

Remember, you can’t read about at tip to make it work. You have to try it and see for yourself.

1. An epiphany: It is not me hitting the ball. I am not involved in any way. The club swings; the ball goes. My ego, my self-involvement, does not play any part in the shot. For two seconds, stop being my everyday self and become an embodiment of a golf swing. See where I’m going with this?

2. Take more club. The pros say amateurs underclub themselves from the fairway all the time. The pros are right. Second hole, 115 yards from the pin. Pitching wedge, right? But that’s at the end of the line for my pitching wedge, and the green is a bit up the hill from where the ball is. I took out a 9-iron, made an easy swing, and got hole-high.

3. On the putting green, the more you think about easing the ball up to the hole, instead of hitting it up there, the closer you will get your approach putts.

4. Relax. You don’t have to play perfect golf to score. Two so-so shots and two good shots are enough to make a par.

5. Laser rangefinders rule. Mobile phone apps suck. Last week my drive and the drive of another guy in my group ended up about three feet from each other. We were hitting into a deep green with the pin in the back. I shot the pin at 159 and got there. His app said 134 to the center, plus or minis five yards, and he was short of the green, and he’s a good player who hit a good shot.

Moral: dump your app and get a rangefinder. I use a Leupold GX-1.

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