How To Work On Your Technique To 'Actually' Shoot Lower Scores

Happy Monday,

Let’s talk about technical practice. It’s really important, but many golfers get it wrong.

This Week:

• Mini Article – How To Work On Your Technique To Actually Shoot Lower Scores

• Practice Challenge – A Practice Challenge For The Putting Green Or At Home

• Short Video – Driving Range Vs Golf Course

How To Work On Your Technique To Actually Shoot Lower Scores

If you've ever changed something in your swing because it looked wrong on video — only to find your ball striking gets worse, not better — this is for you.

The most common mistake in technical practice isn't laziness or lack of effort. It's starting in the wrong place. Most golfers work backwards from what they can see: a swing that looks too steep, a takeaway that looks too inside, a follow-through that looks nothing like the pros. The problem is that looks mean very little. The golf ball doesn't care what your swing looks like. It only responds to what happens at impact.

The correct diagnostic sequence is this: ball flight first, impact factors second, swing changes third – Always in this order. If your ball curves left to right, the cause is always an open club face relative to swing path at impact (and/or a heel strike).

Physics doesn't lie. Once you know the impact condition, you can trace back to what in the swing is creating it — a weak grip, a cupped left wrist, a poor release... Now you have something worth changing, because it's directly connected to your ball flight (and scoring).

Working on something unrelated to your ball flight, and you might improve aesthetically on video while your scores stay the same. Or worse, you can create new compensations, trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

Every technical change should have a clear line of logic: this ball flight → this impact condition → this swing adjustment.

Swing changes take time to feel natural, but when you’re working on your swing change, you should immediately see some improvement in the ball flight (even if you can’t repeat it for every shot).

The same principle applies to your short game. If your chips are inconsistent, diagnose the shot outcome first, then the impact conditions — are you hitting it thin, fat, with an open face? — before deciding what to change in your chipping technique.

Your scores will drop even faster if you work on changes in the areas of your game that are causing you to drop the most shots (check your strokes gained data) and match it up to your dispersion data in that area of your game (see the graphic above).

Golfers love to tear apart their long game technique, but they just assume they have ‘poor touch around the green’, or are a ‘streaky putter’. Poor technique underlies all of these issues, so make sure you work on your technique across all areas of your game.

And if you need help, find a great golf pro to help you diagnose the ball flight → impact condition → and swing changes that are needed.

Your practice sessions should cover a good blend of technical practice, skill development and time on the golf course. In the next newsletter, we’ll dive into how to structure your technical practice sessions to get the most out of every ball you hit.

🏌️ Rapid-Fire Takeaways:

✅ Never change your swing because it looks wrong — only change it because it's producing a ball flight problem you want to fix

✅ The diagnostic sequence is always: ball flight → impact condition → swing change

✅ A slice means an open club face to swing path at impact — fix the grip and wrist position to improve your face angle, then work on the swing path. Where possible, work on one technical change at a time.

✅ Better technique means less timing required — bad golf swings, with better technique, produce better misses and fewer catastrophic golf shots.

✅ This applies to short game and putting too — diagnose impact before changing your chipping or putting stroke. Don’t skip technical work on these areas, they are some of the easiest wins for golfers.

⛳ A Challenge for Your Next Practice Session:

Before you hit a single ball, write down the ball flight problem you most want to fix. Then work backwards: what impact condition is causing it, and what in your swing might be creating that? Only then start working on it. This 5-minute diagnostic before your next range session will make everything that follows more purposeful.

Practice Challenge

Here is a simple putting challenge you can carry out on the putting green or on a putting mat at home.

Quick Video