666

Not to be mistaken for the sign of the devil, 666 is a simple method to add a bit of structure to your strategy on the golf course. It can work for anyone with a handicap although I am guessing that scratch or lower handicappers would have a slightly different approach.

I will use a playing/course handicap of 6 for this example but your can modify this proportionally based on your own handicap. Before the round evaluate the course and decide which holes fall into which category.

6 conventional pars

Set your sights on 6 holes where you should make a orthodox par where you hit onto the green in regulation and two putt.

If you don’t make this on a targeted hole, don’t worry: there is room for movement between the categories.

6 up and down pars

Allow yourself 6 holes where you get close to the green in regulation and get up and down to save par. Given my statistics this is actually quite a difficult ratio to attained but this is an area I am working on.

6 bogey holes

Permit 6 holes where a par is not unachievable but your would be happy to make a bogey. This would usually relate to the harder holes on the course, or the longest ones, so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make par. This category also allows recovery holes, so if you drive into the trees: accept it. Take your medicine and try to save bogey. You have the wriggle room.

If you play, well, and actually achieve the requisite scores within each category you will have played to 6 – while potentially only hitting 6 greens in regulation. That doesn’t sound too hard does it? A 15 handicap hits about 5,5 greens on average per round.

As with all the “tips” I post on this site this one should allow you to have a strategy that is not too strict and hopefully remove the some of the emotion that may build up if you are not playing so well. With this method you have scope to f*ck up a bit but you don’t need to panic as you can make the scores in other ways and have a chance to catch up.

WaddaPlaya

For more information on this, or thoughts, check out Golf Sidekick. Matt has lots of ideas on this, and his YouTube channel has lots of videos on the subject.