That’s the problem, isn’t it? You hit it just fine at the range (at least I hope you do), but at the course all that takes the day off.

First, though, let’s make sure there is a problem. At the range, you can hit ball after ball and no doubt many of them will be playable shots on the course. But how many? How good are you on the range?

Maybe you are taking your range game to the course and it’s not as solid as you think. But let’s say it is.

It’s likely is that the problem is not your swing, but that you’re doing something different mentally at the range than you do on the course. And maybe neither one of them is the right thing to do.

Just like you use the same swing, and it needs to be one that works, you need to have the same frame of mind both places, and it has to be the right one.

What you hear and read, and what I agree with, is that your mind has to be connected to your target. There needs to be a mental feeling that connects where the ball is with where you want it to go.

By doing that, you give your subconscious mind an order which it will carry out by directing your swing to hit the ball in the right direction.

If you just swing, the ball will go in the general direction of your target. That’s not good enough. With a definite, defined target, the chances of the shot ending up where it needs to, go way up.

And you learn how to do that by praticing it. Every ball you hit at the range has to have a defined target that you select.

Then at the course you just do what you have taught yourself to do.

Bonus: I like to hit the ball to a place in the air I want the ball to go through on its way to the target. Because if it goes there, it will come down in the right place.

Not to mention there are no hazards or other obstacles in the air that mess with my mind.

You might have heard the saying that the perfect is the enemy of the good. That is certainly true in golf.

The self-induced pressure to hit your best shot every time leads to poor decision-making and poor performance.

Sometimes you do hit a perfect shot. When I hit one I say to myself, “How did that happen?” And I move on.

All I strive for is to hit acceptable shots. Strike the ball fairly cleanly, with decent shot shape, to a place that’s pretty close to where I wanted it to go.

Long game, short game, putting, that’s what I’m aiming to do.

When my round is over, my satisfaction is having hit more shots than not which fell into that box, the more the better. The score will take care of itself.

I played nine holes yesterday and shot a 41. Not bad, but it could have been lower, not if I had hit better shots, but if I had made better decisions.

On the first hole, I had to hit to a green above my feet, and over a bunker to get to the pin. I thought I had enough club in my hand, so I aimed at the pin. Bunker. A deep one with hard wet sand. It took me four to get down.

Mistakes? First of all, I didn’t have to hit over the bunker. I could have aimed left of it, and even if I missed the green I would have had easy up and down for a par.

Second, I hit the second shot really well, but I should have used one more club.

Second hole, I was green high in two, but about 20 yards from the green with a bunker right in my way. I was still spooked from the last hole, so I took more than enough club to pitch over the bunker, and aimed left so as not to hit over it.

Too much insurance. The ball went way too far, and way left. I could have taken two less clubs, aimed for the pin, and been just fine, because I’m pretty good at this shot. I got a bogey, which could have been a par.

Two holes later I had an easy pitch into the pin which ended up hole high, but because I forgot to take careful aim, the ball ended up about fifteen feet left instead of much closer. Another possible par given away.

Two holes after that I had a pitch into the green from a lie significanlty below the green. I figured the club to use from my chart for normal (level) lies. I forgot that hitting from an upslope adds loft to the club, which will make the shot end up shorter. I used my gap wedge instead of my pitching wedge. The ball ended up about 30 feet short of the hole instead of much closer if I had used the lower-lofted club. Two putts to get down instead of maybe one.

So let’s say out of those five possible strokes saved by thinking more clearly, I got three of them, for a 38. Just by thinking more clearly.

I’ll bet you could lower your average score by four or five strokes over a 18-hole round just by making better decisions. Me, too.

This season, try building your golf around this challenge:

Play to avoid scoring a double bogey or worse.

Hint: play for easy bogeys instead of hard pars.

Don’t worry, the pars will come. Just play to avoid the big score and see what you get.

Make these ten ideas your habits and you will cut down on the number of poorly-hit shots and increase the number of well-struck shots.

1. Take a careful look at your lie. It defines your shot choices.

2. Swing the club so it, not you, does the work it was designed to do.

3. Before you swing at the ball, take a practice swing and hold your finish. Where you end up looking is where you are aimed.

4. Every shot into the green, or from on the green to the hole, should be hit hard enough to pass the hole.

5. Use as light a grip pressure as you can, especially in the short game.

6. Swing with a tempo that keeps everything under control.

7. Look at every putt from behind, even the shortest ones.

8. Before you take the club away, draw an imaginary line straight through the ball to the target. Tell your unconscious mind to send the clubhead along that path through impact. Every stoke, drive to putt.

9. Do not hit shots you haven’t practiced. Remember that situation and save it for a trip to the range after the round.

10. Always take two practice strokes before any short game shot.

There are many more. Your job as a golfer is to find them.

This morning I was taking my weekly six-mile hike in the hills south of town. Six miles up hill and down dale. When I’m out there, my mind wanders to places I never expect. This morning it struck me that golf is a language.

When we study a new language, we learn vocabulary and the rules of grammar. But at the same time we learn how to apply those things to speaking the language.

Because, knowing a set of words and the rules for putting them together is not enough for expressing a coherent thought in the new language. We have to learn how to speak in sentences that mean something.

In golf, shot-making skills are analogous to vocabulary and grammar. They are what allow us to play the game.

But still we have to learn how to play. We have to learn, for particular situation, what shot to hit, with what club, and to where. And if conditions are unusual, we also have to know how to hit the shot.

Playing, in my analogy, corresponds to speaking.

Conditions at the driving range are pretty normal. You just aren’t going to encounter all the different situations a golf course will throw at you.

Only by playing can you learn how to take out of your bag of tricks the right one at the right time.

Golf then is a matter of (a) developing skills and (b) learning how to use them on the golf course.

All this sounds obvious, but let me ask you. How much attention do you pay on the course to what works and doesn’t work, compared to doing the same thing at the range? Not as much, maybe?

It doesn’t matter how good you look at the range. The only question is, when you take your range skills to the course, how well do you use them to get the ball in the hole?

How well do you speak the language of golf?

I’m going to present you with some information that you can’t argue with and which points the way to shooting lower scores without having to hit one pracice ball.

The main reason why recreational golfers have a hard time making par when they get up to the green is that they didn’t get up far enough. They don’t arrive.

The chart below shows that over 80 percent of approach shots by recreational golfers finish short of the center of the green, and over one-third of approach shots never get as far as the green.

https://blog.trackmangolf.com/performance-of-the-average-male-amateur

To have your best chance at a par, your shot into the green has to get there. It has to arrive. We will always have problems with hitting the ball to the right or left, but we should never have a problem with being too short.

For shots you fly into the green, play the ball to end up past the pin.* This is the scoring zone. Why?

First of all, if you play for going past the pin, mishits will still land on the green. Second, you avoid trouble, which is usually in front of the green. Third, you make up for a general tendency to underclub.

When I mention this on forums, some people respond by saying they play short to avoid the trouble behind the green. But to hit the ball over the green you have to flush it. And how often do you do that?

Any shot into the green has to get there. Instead of your best 7, hit an easy 6. O.K.?

*Except, obviously, pins that are in the back.

Once your golfing skills get under control, that is, you have a reasonable expectation that the shot will come off like you wanted it to, what keeps your score higher than it should be is poor decision-making.

Yesterday I played nine holes and lost five strokes that I shouldn’t have. Two were from shots I absolutely skanked, which happens. But three were from not thinking things through.

Par 4, 413 yards, right-angled dogleg right. My tee shot ended up in the corner with no real shot toward the green. So I took out my 6-iron and set up to hit a fade around the corner at least get me back in the fairway and somewhat closer to the green. Except the fade didn’t come off. The ball went dead straight and sailed out of bounds.

I dropped a ball at the same spot, hit a 8-iron, and from there a 6-iron got the ball on the green for two putts and a 7 that would have been a 5 if I had used my head.

Here’s the rule, then. If, from the fairway, it will take more than one stroke to get the ball on the green, what is the easiest combination of shots that will do the job?

Two holes later, my tee shot on a par 3 ended up about two feet short of the green, on a very tight lie. The pin was about 40 feet away.

I like to chip from off the green. I hardly ever use my putter. So instead of using my putter, I went to my habit and tried to chip with a sand wedge. As I was standing over the ball, I couldn’t quite feel good about what I was about to do. Sure enough, I didn’t get the contact to spin the ball enough, and it rolled about twelve feet past the hole.

Two putts later I had a 4 when an easy 3 had almost been handed to me.

Here’s the rule. If you don’t feel confident about the shot you’re about to hit, stop and try one you feel good about.

So there you have it. Golf is a game you play. Shot-making skills are tools you develop at the range. The course is where you learn which ones to use to shoot low scores.