The winter golf season is like New Year’s Day for golfers. You come into it with a list of resolutions on how you’re going to change things for the better. The trick is getting it done.
Better golf is a terrific goal, but trying to achieve it without a step-by-step plan is a recipe for frustration. My friend and student Jordan Spieth didn’t win two Majors before the age of 22 by jumping into the deep end on Day 1. He built skills on top of skills, and field-tested them over and over until they were married to his game. That’s our process. So when Australian Golf Digest asked me to develop a program called 30 Days to Better Golf, I was in.
On the next few pages, I’ll show you how to build critical skills in four areas: putting, short game, iron shots and driving. Follow the week-to-week plan, giving at least a couple of sessions to each of the projects prescribed. Your skills will start to grow. In a month, you’ll be playing with more confidence – and maybe your best golf.
Call it your New Season Resolution.
Week 1
Putting: Project Accuracy
The first skill is starting your ball on line. You need to get the face pointing where you want the ball to go and the path relatively straight. Find a 10-footer, and set two alignment sticks just wider than your putter as a track to the hole. At the far end, make a gate with two coins a little wider than the ball. Check your stroke by practising it over one of the sticks, then roll putts through the gate. By week’s end, have a goal of getting 25 out of 30.
Irons: Project Contact
Making solid contact when the ball is on the ground is a primary skill. It’s time to learn how to feel it. Set up four tees in the shape of a “T”, with the forward tee (on the target line) four inches ahead of the middle tee and sticking slightly out of the ground. With a 7-iron, make practice swings where you clip the middle and forward tees without touching the others. After 10 good swings, add a ball to the middle tee for 10 more shots.
Short-Game: Project Precision
This drill and the one I just described for iron play are related. You’re finding the feel of pure contact. Stick five tees into the ground in a line, each a clubhead width apart and barely sticking out of the turf. From a standard chipping stance, make swings clipping the top of the tee so it either breaks or pops out of the ground. When you can clip all five tees in a row, you’re ready to move on with five balls in place of the tees.
Driver: Project Centre-Face
The longest drives come from hitting the middle of the clubface. To reduce your dispersion, use headcovers on either side of the driver head at address (with a little wiggle room) and make three successful practice swings without hitting the “bumpers.” After three good ones, spend 15 minutes hitting tee shots with the bumpers in place. Apply powder or face tape to your driver for extra feedback on where you’re striking it.
Week 2
Short-Game: Project Flight
Work on three functional short-game trajectories: low, medium and high. For a low shot, use a narrow stance, with the ball opposite your rear foot and your body leaning towards the target. To make the ball go higher, play the ball farther forward and adjust the face open. Pick a target 20 metres away and alternate low, medium and high shots, landing them in different spots but trying to end up within a three-metre radius of the target.
Irons: Project Curve Control
Place an alignment stick to represent the target line, and hold your fingers out like a double-barrel pistol. Your index finger represents where the face points at impact, and your middle finger the direction the clubhead is moving. Get both basically straight at impact – with the index a bit more in line with the aiming stick – and you’ll hit it straight. Put a headcover 10 metres out, and master lining up to it and controlling face and path.
Putting: Project Touch
Distance control is applying the correct force. From a hole, step off three feet and plant a tee. Do this for the four points of the compass, then putt three balls from 10 feet in each direction. The catch? Before you look up to watch the putt, call out if you think it will end up inside the box you made with the tees. You’re grooving feel. Once you’ve done it successfully from 10 feet, go to 15. By week’s end, try for 75 per cent success from 35 feet.
Driver: Project Power
Sequencing the downswing properly creates distance off the tee. To feel it, substitute a towel for your driver. Swing back and let the towel fall on your shoulder, then start down, keeping the towel in place as long as possible before whipping it through. Grab your driver and practise the same feel, letting the shaft sit on your shoulder as you start the downswing. Last, hit balls with that feel, but from a normal backswing position.
Week 3
Short-Game: Project Challenge
Time to give your skills a test. Use one ball and work around the practice green, hitting easy, medium and hard shots. After each, score yourself on how close you hit it. A hole-out scores a -1, a shot inside five feet is zero, 5 to 10 feet is +0.5, 10 to 15 feet is +1 and outside 15 feet is +2. In 15 minutes, you should have played nine holes, recorded a score, and figured out which shots need work.
Driver: Project Fairway
To simulate the challenge of hitting fairways, set aside 14 balls on the range, and pick a pair of targets about 30 metres wide. Go through your full routine for each shot – visualising an actual hole on your course, making a practice swing and getting into your setup – then hit the drive. Give yourself 10 points for a “fairway hit,” subtract 10 for a miss (but zero for missing on the safe side on that hole). Next session, try to rack up more points.
Irons: Project Consistency
How well are you really doing with your alignment and accuracy? At the range, use poles or other targets to visualise a 20-metre wide set of goal posts. Spending equal time with your pitching wedge, 8-iron and 6-iron, the goal is to hit 50 per cent of your shots solidly and between the goal posts in a 15-minute span. Once you’ve achieved the 20-metre goal with each club, reduce the gap to 15 metres and go through the circuit again.
Putting: Project Gateway
It’s time to measure your putting performance. Going along the four axes of the compass, use pennies to make four gates that are a putterhead wide and 15 feet out from a hole. Go back to 30 feet, and roll one ball from each direction, gathering critical information, like whether the ball rolled through the gate or how close it ended up. The goal is to marry direction and distance skills and to fine-tune your error-detection ability.
Week 4
Driver: Project Off-Speed
As a final refresher on the power and precision skills you’ve learned, this drill tests your ability to gear up and down. Using four balls, practise off-speed sets. On the first ball, make a full swing but at 50 per cent speed for balance and centre contact. On the second, make a full swing at 75 per cent with full target intent. On the third, go full speed with full target intent, and on the last, dial it back to 90 per cent for balance and control.
Irons: Project Pre-Shot
Here’s a great way to structure a short range session or to warm up before a round. Use four clubs, and hit four to six shots with each. Focus on quality over quantity. On each shot, pick a precise target and go through your routine – making use of your positive memories of shots with that club. You’re gearing up your mind as much as your body. Set your alignment, waggle the club and try to visualise the flight of each shot.
Short-Game: Project Go-To
Like an airline pilot before a flight, go through some short-game checks. Work on clipping a series of tees set in the ground, then chip five balls at various heights. Is there one kind of shot that isn’t working well, or one that feels really good? If you get stuck on a bad one, reboot and find the flavour of shot that feels good. Hit a full cycle of those. That’s likely your go-to shot, but practise the others to round out your short-game.
Putting: Project Readiness
You’ve developed the skills, now you have to tune the instrument before you play in the orchestra. Take three balls and pick random holes on the practice green. Try to putt the first ball three feet past a target hole, the second one three feet short and the third so it falls over the front edge. Before you leave the green, make some three-footers for a final confidence-reinforcing step. You’re ready to take your new skills to the course.
– Cameron McCormick, the 2015 PGA Teacher of the Year, is one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Teachers in America. He is based at Trinity Forest Golf Club outside Dallas, where he works with World No.3 Jordan Spieth and any golfer serious about getting better.
