This is 1 thing better players do that higher handicaps should emulate

When you’re a high handicapper looking to get better, sometimes it feels like every tip is fair game. Slice fixes, putting drills, mental-game suggestions? We’re all ears!

But according to one teacher, there’s something simple that better players do that would be an easy add for higher handicaps in their quest to get better — and it doesn’t even involve changing their swing.

“The better players that I teach have a really good pre-shot routine, and they have something they do consistently, and they execute it every single time,” says Gia Liwski, a teaching professional at Fiddlers Elbow CC in a Bedminster, N.J. “A lot of newer players or players who aren’t performing as well as they want to be, if they could create something very consistent and very reliable that they can rehearse and train, then once they get on the golf course, they’re going to be able to perform it.”

Instruction

So why is it that high handicappers seem to struggle with this? Liwski says it may be that they simply don’t know how valuable it can be to exercise that consistency over every shot, especially when they may be struggling with information overload in other areas of their game in an effort to improve.

“A pre-shot routine is something that you can work on separately,” Liwski says. “So maybe one day, you work on fundamentals, and another day you focus solely on pre-shot routine: how you approach the ball, and going through the motions before you hit your shot. Make sure it’s something reliable that you can do every single time you’re on the golf course.”

You heard it here first, high handicappers. Give a consistent pre-shot routine a try, and watch your game improve.

For more tips from Gia Liwski, click here.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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