It is much easier to improve if you know what your swing has to do to hit the ball better. At the top of the list is a solid strike. There is a direct relationship between the scores golfers shoot and how consistently they hit the centre of the clubface. Start with a 7 iron and mark the face with your whiteboard marker. Hit 5 shots to determine a pattern. If it is consistently close to the middle, just keep swinging and ingraining the good feelings.

If it is more towards the toe or heel, bring in a constraint ball to help change the impact location. Mark the face again and hit 5 balls, and if you have missed the constraint ball, your impact location would have changed.

Write down anything that helped you change the impact. It could be an idea, a change of set up or a feeling in your swing. Whatever it was, WRITE IT DOWN to use as a reference if this goes off track at any time in the future.

Have your notepad in your bag at all times for 2 main reasons. Firstly, for when you have those light bulb moments. You start hitting great shots either on the range or on course because of something you thought or felt, so make sure you document it. This will help recreate good memories and references for the inevitable times when we aren’t playing as well as we would like. Secondly, use the notepad for recording practice session challenges. The more pressurized your practice time the better it is for the golf course. If you would like some examples of practice challenges, please give me a call.

Another key indicator of score is where the bottom of the swing is happening. Generally, the more behind the ball the higher the average score or handicap. Ideally the strike with iron clubs should be ball then turf, this gives the shot some compression.

The practice for this is to place your towel approximately 10cm behind the ball and start hitting. If you are hitting the shots well, gradually move the towel closer to the ball. If not, don’t change your ball position, just start making smaller slower swings until you get the ball turf contact and build the swing back up from there.

Whether it is the above skill development exercises or others it is important to stay focused on the process of constant and gradual improvement. I call it the snowball effect. Which is every session should start with small slow swings and easy challenges building to longer, faster and more difficult repetitions. Make improvement unavoidable and play better golf.