What to work on in your golf game

Why “what feels wrong” misleads

The shot that stays in your mind is the one that felt worst, not the one that cost you most.

• A single bad hole is vivid. Forty ordinary approach shots are not.
• Some misses cost one shot, such as a fairway missed into the semi-rough. Others cost two or three, such as a penalty area. They feel similar at the time.
• Practice time goes to the club in your hand when you are frustrated, usually the driver, whatever the scorecard says.

Step 1: count shots, not feelings

For a handful of rounds, record the same four things on every hole: fairway hit or not, green in regulation or not, putts, and penalty strokes. A paper scorecard is enough. What matters is having the same numbers every time.

Step 2: compare with golfers like you

A tour average tells you nothing useful when you play off 14. Compare yourself with golfers of your handicap, and for how far you should hit it, with your gender or age group. The gap to that group is the one you can realistically close.

Step 3: rank the gaps by shots, not by percentage

“I hit six greens in regulation” means little on its own. “I hit about two fewer greens than a typical golfer of my handicap, which costs me shots every round” tells you where practice time should go. Rank each gap by the shots it costs and take the top one.

Step 4: work on one thing, then check it moved

Pick the biggest gap and practise that. After a few more rounds, count again. If the number moved, move to the next one. If it did not, the drill was wrong, not you.

Where Caddora fits

Caddora Coach does the counting and the ranking. It reads your scanned scorecards, your swing analysis and your range sessions together, ranks what is costing you most against golfers of your handicap, and shows whether the change is holding as you play more.