Most of us around the country aren’t playing much right now, because it is either too wet or too cold. So now is a good time concentrate on improving.

This is what to improve on:

Your swing.

If it takes you more than 40 strokes in 18 holes to get the ball on the green or green-high, it is your swing, not short game and putting, that you need to work on.

Your swing doesn’t need to be fixed or modified. You need a new one.

Start over. Get lessons, not just one, to find out from start to finish what you are supposed to do, and what it feels like when you do it, and then spend the winter practicing THAT.

Don’t be afraid to get a refresher lesson after a month to make sure you’re still on the right track. Tour pros do, who are you not to?

Percy Boomer said, in his book, On Learning Golf, “It is true that if you cannot putt you cannot win, for no hole is won until the ball is down—but good scores are only made possible by good play up to the green.”

And Ben Hogan said in his book, Five Lessons, and this is my favorite quote from it, “The average golfer’s problem is not so much a lack of ability as it is a lack of knowing what he should do.”

So this winter, find out what to do, practice it, stop experimenting on your own, and see what you get by the start of the 2025 season.