The Importance Of Greens In Regulation!

Golf is a game that requires skill, mental discipline, the desire to have fun, and a little luck. The purpose of this article is to focus on a key skill - Greens in Regulation - that will allow you to better your game, have more fun, and more importantly knock a few strokes off your total. You don't have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to improve; you just need to understand where your game needs improvement and how to improve it.

I believe the trouble most bogey golfers have is that they focus too much on their swing, their setup, their delivery, their "mental game" and not enough focus on having fun and improving specific key areas of their game. We spend countless hours working on our swing, chip, and putt at the driving range yet we don't always know how to apply what we've practiced on the course. A key assumption I make in my articles is that you play golf somewhat consistently and practice your fundamentals at the range when you can.

Greens in Regulation
While it may sound like a simple and obvious skill, when you consistently hit greens in regulation, you are almost guaranteed to eliminate golf strokes from your game. For beginning golfers and even bogey golfers, I truly believe it is not always how far you hit the ball, but how accurate you are in hitting the fairway and then setting yourself up to hit the green in regulation. When you learn this skill, you will also begin to see all your range practice begin to pay off. Remember, focus on the specific skill and your fundamentals will follow.

Hitting a green in regulation means that your ball is touching any part of the green and the number of strokes you took to get there were 2 less than par. For example, on a par 4 you must hit the green in 2 strokes. Yes, that means on a par 3, you must hit the green in 1. Can you now see how you have a better than average chance of instantly improving your game? Unless you average 3 putts or more per hole, you have a high probability of par or birdie every time you can hit a green in regulation.

What to do
During your next round, simply keep track of the greens you hit by writing an "g" on your scorecard next to the hole played. Divide the total number of greens hit by the total number of holes played. Use this percentage as a baseline to set your "greens in regulation" goal. Keep this goal until you have consistently beaten it over several rounds. At that time, you are ready to set a new goal. For example, if after 17 holes you hit 4 greens in regulation, your baseline percentage will be 23%. You could set a goal of 30% fairways hit or 6/18 holes. Just two more greens.

Once you consistently hit 30% of greens it's time to change your goal. Before you know it, you will be on your way to a lower score. Only two additional greens per round can lead to an immediate 2 stroke improvement in your overall skill set. Ultimately, you should strive to hit 100% of possible greens during the course of a round and even hitting just two or three more over 18 holes will help improve your total strokes and better your game. Be sure to read my other articles where I discuss fairways hit and how to improve your putting. This article may be used on your site as long as this resource box is included.

Jonathan Prentiss writes articles about golf and how to better your game. My articles focus on strategies to help apply what you practice, give you specific things to practice specific, and how to identify goals that will help better your game. To learn more about how you can better your game, calculate your handicap, receive additional instruction, and learn how to use this analysis please visit http://www.pasturepool.com