Everyone wants to break par consistently. Golfers who don’t understand how to do this often end up blaming their equipment, the course, or the weather.
The truth is that to consistently break par, you must master the short game.
Perfect your short game
What does this mean? It means practicing so well that you know every shot around the green like the back of your hand, essentially having a plan for every situation. The best way to do this is to work on those birdies.
Here is a list of what you can do so that you consistently break par:
- The Sand Trap Drill
- The Half-Pipe Drill
- The Chip and Charge Drill
- The Lesson Drill
- The Golf Ball Container Drill
- The Parallel Putts Drill
The Sand Trap Drill
This drill will improve your ability to judge the distance of your shots when in the sand or hitting out of the grass. All you need is a strong lofted club, like an 8-iron, for example, and a practice bunker.
1) Position yourself in the bunker so that you are facing away from your ball.
2) Using your 8-iron, hit the ground to one side of your ball. You should set your club up almost parallel with the direction you are hitting towards.
3) Have a friend stand several yards behind you and say the distance that they think it flew to get there.
4) From your point of view, you should now be looking at the place where it landed (and not the ball).
5) You now have three tries to hit that same spot on the ground with your 8-iron. When you do this correctly, the distance will always match what your friend said they thought it would fly.
6) Once you get good at this, try hitting the ground on either side of your ball instead of just one side.
The Half-Pipe Drill
This drill will help you aim better under pressure and hit accurate shots using less effort.
1) Place a club down vertically in front of you, with the end of the grip touching a ball. You do not need to use your clubs or balls for this drill; any club and ball that you have lying around will work just fine.
2) Position yourself about ten feet in front of the club so that the soleplate is facing you.
3) Using your normal putting stroke, putt toward the shaft. If done correctly, your golf ball should go up onto the shaft and roll back down again until it finally stops at the grip end of the club. This may take a few tries to get right, but it looks very impressive when someone else does it once you do. Just make sure that they don’t pull their putter out from underneath!
The Chip and Charge Drill
This drill will help you hit accurate shots when chipping onto the green.
1) Find a flat surface on the green (you can also do this very well in your backyard).
2) Place three balls down about six feet away from each other, with equal distance between them and the hole.
3) Using your wedge, chip out at all three of these balls, trying to get them within a two-foot radius around the hole itself.
4) After this is complete, check each ball’s position and see which one gave you the most problems or was farthest from the hole. Make sure that this ball is taken off of the green before continuing to step 5.
5) If there are still two balls remaining, repeat the same process. If only one ball remains, this means that you are done.
The Lesson Drill
This drill helps you make sure that your chipping is on target every time.
1) Find a thin stick or branch of some sort and lay it vertically down onto the green where you plan to chip from. Make sure that the part of the stick closest to the hole is at least two feet away from it but no closer than three feet. The last thing you need is an out-of-bounds penalty!
2) Using your wedge, chip toward where you have placed your stick/branch so that when your ball goes past, it should roll up against the very tip of the stick.
3) If your ball goes past the branch, it is either not on-target enough to go up next to the branch, or you hit the chip shot too hard and missed the stick altogether. Make sure that this ball is taken off of the green before continuing to step 4.
4) If your ball stopped next to the branch, you know for sure that it was on-target and the correct course of action for this particular situation. Keep working at this until you can consistently get to where your ball stops right next to (or under) this stick/branch every time!
The Golf Ball Container Drill
This drill will improve both accuracy and control when hitting bunker shots onto an undisturbed portion of turf close to the pin.
1) Find a golf ball container that will fit two or three layers of normal-sized balls inside it and place this on the green next to a visible flagstick.
2) Using your sand wedge, try to hit as many of these balls as you can, just like you would during an actual bunker shot: soft and smooth, but with enough power to get them up onto the green. You may need to adjust where you position these so that they are all about six feet away from each other so that there is ample room for error in hitting them.
3) If you miss one, simply pick it up and continue trying until you have gotten all of them out onto the green without going past the visible flagstick. Once you have successfully done that, take a step back and try to hit them all straight into the pin.
The Parallel Putts Drill
This drill is excellent for practicing those lag putts (putting towards the pin on longer-length shots) that are just outside three feet away.
1) Find yourself five balls that are all about three feet away from each other in a straight line on either side of the hole itself. Make sure they are far enough apart so that there is ample room for error.
2) Place your ball on the fringe of the green right next to one of these balls, look at where you want to land this putt (aiming your clubface more toward or away from the hole if necessary), then take out your putter and go through with all of the same movements as during a routine lag putt.
3) If you end up missing any one of those balls, try again until you hit all five of them without having missed more than one – or, if possible, not miss any! Once you can do this successfully on every attempt, move those five balls further away from each other about two inches on either side so that there is even less room for error. Keep practicing this until you can land your lag putt dead center on these five balls, no matter which one is closest to the hole!
How To Consistently Break Par: Improve Your Game Today
Following the tips and drills outlined above can be vital to lowering your strokes and improving your overall golf game. By remaining dedicated and constantly practicing, you’ll be consistently breaking par and beating better golfers in no time at all.
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