Try Playing The Short Tees…

In general, most people will play the tee box that either their group is playing, or one that allows them the best chance to improve their handicap. Oftentimes, this tee box is at the limit of what a player should be playing, and a player will fall into a range of scores that they can shoot from that specific tee box. A player will realize how to score the best from that tee box, through course strategy and club selection, but this will cap their ability to shoot lower scores.

I challenge all of you to play from your tee box that is the shortest on your course. This could even be junior tees if your course has those. Play a round of golf and shoot and really low score. You will see how much fun it is to score low, and you will be excited at all of the birdie chances you have in that round. You will also see some holes in your game. You will realize there are certain yardages that you never get to hit normally, and you would need to improve those to score better if you tried playing the up-tees again. Go practice the shots you think you need to improve to score better the next time, and play one more round from that same tee box.

This exercise is exactly what you need to do to improve and shoot lower scores. For one, you need to get comfortable shooting a low number and having birdie putts. Secondly, you need to learn how to think about scoring better. Once you get comfortable doing those two things, move back tees progressively, trying to shoot the same score as you did from the furthest up tees. You will realize what it takes to do so, and work on those things. By the time you get back to your original tees, your mindset will be completely changed. Your expectations will be different and you will have a tool set available to you that you did not have before.