High-handicappers tend to make this 1 crushing mistake, says top instructor

If you’re a high-handicapper looking for a quick and easy way to improve your scores, one top instructor cites a surprising reason you may tend to struggle: trying to be too perfect.

According to Top 100 Teacher Krista Dunton, high-handicappers suffer when they try to overthink things on the course, and that desire to be technically perfect can backfire. When you’re playing a round, the less you have to think about over the ball, the better. Dunton suggests practicing your pre-shot technique on the range to develop your skills so you’re more comfortable stepping up and pulling the trigger during a round.

“I’ve always tried to try to get my students to commit to four things,” Dunton said. “Commit to the shot you’re going to hit, the club you’re going to use, the swing you’re going to use, and your ability.”

Dunton encourages using the idea of fellow Top 100s Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott’s “Think Box/Play Box,” in which you designate a space for thinking about your shot and a space for action only.

“When high-handicappers go play, they should stay behind the ball, make the decision, commit to the shot, determine where they want to go, and then get up over the ball and go do it,” Dunton said. “And then work on making that motion a lot quicker.”

Instruction

If you need to have a swing thought over the ball, Dunton says it should be something simple that relates to how you feel when you’re playing well.

“It could be, I feel free, or in balance, or I make a good turn,” she said. “Then get up there, look at the target and go.”

Getting to this free and easy place on the course is of course more difficult than it sounds. And that’s why Dunton says it’s important to put in some practice time.

“If you go to the range and work on that or do stuff at home, do more drills in the mirror, practice with more intent and then play more free, I think really that preparation stage and committing to the shot becomes more natural,” she said. “Right over the ball, we all struggle being too conscious. You have to rehearse that quickness so then you get comfortable with it.”

Give Dunton’s advice a try to make 2025 your best year yet on the course.