Yesterday I went out to play nine holes and found when I got to the course that I had left my rangefinder at home. And this is a course that doesn’t have yardages on the sprinkler heads.

So after a few holes of getting my eye for distance adjusted, I found that I ended up taking more club than usual, thus hitting more greens instead of being short, and was passing the flag.

When you have a rangefinder, you try to match the yardage to the distances you hit your irons on paper, but that only works if the shot you actually hit goes that far. Most of the time it doesn’t.

Try it sometime. Leave your rangefinder at home and pick your club according to your eye. You might well get conservative in your club selection and end up picking the right club more often than you usually do.

When I play a round of golf, I always learn something or remind myself of what’s important. This is what came up today.

Swing. Don’t try to hit the ball hard. Just put a swing on it and take what you get. Trying to hit hard just ruins everything unless you are a very talented golfer and your name is Bryson.

Professionals golfers live on the center of the clubface. You can, too. Before you take the club away, say to yourself, “Center hit” and carry that thought with you. Uncanny how this works if you trust it.

Trying to reach every par 4 in two and every par 5 in three is sometimes too much, especially the par 4s. On those holes, back off. Plan the hole so you end up near the green in regulation for an easy pitch and maybe a putt, but no more than two. Trying too hard is what gets you doubles and triples.

When you’re close in, say 80 yards or under (you pick the distance), just get the ball on the green. A putting green is a huge target. Just hit that target so you can start putting.

Chunking or topping pitch shots? Odds are that your stroke is all arms, with no lower body movement. You have to turn your hips as you swing back, and turn your hips as you swing through.

If you have a really short putt, say two feet, that has break in it, ignore the break. Aim for the center of the hole and hit the ball hard enough (but no harder) that it runs straight through the break. Practice this before you try it on the course so that you see that it really is a better way.

1. If you’re trying to break 90, play 90 golf. Add one stroke to par and play for that. Playing for pars is how you lose that one or two shots that keeps you from breaking the barrier. You will get more pars this way, and fewer doubles and triples.

2. If you’re trying to shoot something lower, don’t even look at par. When par is rattling around in your head, you tend to take risks that end up biting you. Just keep hitting the ball and add it all up when the round is over.

3. If you have a shot that is working today, ride it for all it’s worth. Hit it as often as you can even if you would normally do something else. Confidence is everything.

Just sayin’.

Golf is a game you play. Given two golfers of equal ability, the one who knows more about how to play the game will win much more often.

You could write a whole book about that, and Raymond Floyd did just that in his book, The Elements of Scoring.

These four considerations need to be a part of your pre-shot checklist.

1. Where do you want the ball to go? Pick a place where you can reliably get the ball to, and will make your next shot easy.

2. What shot do you have in your skill set that will get the ball there? You often have choices.

3. What club will you use to hit that shot? There will often be more than one.

4. How will you hit the shot? This is about making the ball do what you want it to do.

The more options you have to answer each of these questions, the more fun golf is, and the better player you will be, given your skills.

Oh, those double bogeys. They just ruin our day. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find a way to not get any. Just once?

I did that once in my memory. I shot an 85, a few strokes above average, but with not one DB. In my golfing heyday, breaking 80 was always a possibility, and I never did it without having a double on the card.

On a golf forum that I used to belong to, until I got tired of the know-it-all proprietor, I asked the 80± golfers which was harder, breaking 80, or playing 18 holes without a double bogey. No DB won hands down as the harder one to do.

Yesterday I saw Rickie Fowler put his drive smack in the middle of the fairway and up with one. Also yesterday, Sebastian Muñoz of the LIV Tour shot a 59–with a DB on his card.

So don’t worry about it too much. You’re going to get them. But you don’t want to get the too often. Here are a few ways to get the less often.

– Hit fairways. Use a club off the tee that is a fairway finder, no matter how much distance you have to give up. If you miss the fairway, switch from thinking about par to bogey. That doesn’t mean giving up on par, it generally means salvaging a good score (bogey) and leaving par in play at the margin.

– Greens are smaller targets than fairways, generally. Play onto the green if you’re sure you can hit it. Otherwise, plan on playing up to the green and chipping on.

– Play away from trouble. Get out safely, then play to the green. Death to penalty strokes.

– Don’t get too precise around the green unless you have a short game to back it up. Just get the ball on the green with one shot and let your putting take over.

– If you make a double bogey, forget about it by the time you have picked the ball out of the hole. Keep your mind moving forward to the next hole.

All this sounds like stuff you have heard before, and it is. I didn’t make it up. Let’s just call it a reminder that you shoot lower scores if you play smart and play within yourself.

This how you have to play to get into single digits, based on my experience having been there.

1. Get the ball on the green or green-high in 38 strokes or less.

2. Get your first short game shot* on the green. Two short shots in a row is a big no-no.

3. Hit greenside chips to one-putt distance.

4. Hit approach putts over 20 feet to one-putt distance.

5. Be very good putting from four feet and in. I mean VERY good.

* Pitches, chips, sand.

Golf is a complex game that must be played as though it were simple.

1. Play from the right set of tees. Don’t give yourself a problem you can’t solve.

2. Hit fairways with your driver. If you spray it, learn how to hit it straight. It’s not that hard to do. This, use your 3-wood instead, stuff is nonsense.

3. Know, I mean really know, how far you carry each iron. By that I mean your average distance, not your maximum.

4. Given the distance to the pin, all things being equal, pick the iron that will pass it, not just get to it.

5. Short game, short game, short game.

6. Did I mention the short game? Your long game that gets you up to or on the green quickly makes good scores possible. The short game makes the score. From greenside, down in two must be an expectation.

7. Putting. Get very good at approach putting and putts from four feet and under. That’s all you need to practice.

8. You’re a handicap golfer. Some holes out there are too hard for you. Get your bogey on them and get your pars elsewhere.

9. Play only shots you can hit. If you don’t have absolute confidence in what you’re about to do, then do something else.

10. If there is a shot or a club that is working really well, ride it as hard as you can all day.

There are two kinds of working shots in golf. There are the ones that go straight and get the job done. The others look like they belong in a highight reel, and get the job done.

The first kind are much easier to hit, and as recreational golfers, are the ones we should aspire to.

The second kind pop out every now and then, and they are the memories we take home. But they are not the ones we should chase when we practice.

Good enough is good enough. Once you have that, leave it alone.