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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

Every golfer knows how far they hit their driver (or at least has a general idea). But did you know that environmental factors can have a huge impact on how far the ball flies? Wind, temperature and elevation are all factors that can influence how your golf ball flies — and if you don’t know how these things affect your ball, it can have a huge impact on your game.

If you play a majority of your golf in one place, this may come as a surprise. When you are hitting your driver at your home course every day, the conditions will likely be fairly uniform from day to day. But when you take your game on the road, the conditions tend to be different, and you need to adjust your game accordingly.

Elevation is a particular environmental factor that can have a huge impact on how far your ball flies. So, how much does elevation affect your distance? For more on that, we dive into the Arccos Annual Driving Distance Report.

How elevation affects driving distance

You’ve probably heard that playing golf at higher elevations means your drives will fly farther — but by how much exactly? It’s probably more than you think.

According to Arccos’ data, 10 handicaps hit their driver just over 220 yards on average at sea level. However, when playing at over 5,000 feet of altitude (think Denver), that number jumps up to 239.7 yards. That’s a nearly 20 yard jump simply by virtue of higher altitude.

“Most golfers who play in Denver, Albuquerque, or anywhere in the Mountain West have experienced this intuitively,” Arccos wrote. “But 19.2 yards is not intuition — it is a precise, real-world figure derived from millions of actual shots at elevation, and it changes club selection in ways most golfers never fully account for.”

If you’re a golfer who plays a majority of your golf at sea level, this can be a huge boon for your game when you head to higher altitudes. Conversely, if you’re typically a mountain golfer, playing at sea level will make courses play a heck of a lot longer.

Next time you play golf in a new locale, be sure to take note of the elevation. It can have a huge impact on how far your drives fly.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

Hitting longer drives off the tee doesn’t always require you to swing harder. Sure, it helps to put more force into the ball, but there’s another way to belt it past your playing partners without swinging out of your shoes — and it all starts with optimizing your launch conditions.

One of the best ways to hit the ball longer is by increasing your attack angle. If you can hit more “up” on the ball, you can launch it higher and with less spin, which is crucial for hitting longer drives.

So, how can you increase your attack angle angle? One easy way is by adjusting the way you set up to the ball.

Fundamentals like setup are often overlooked by recreational golfers, but they can have a huge impact on how you strike the ball. A poor setup can lead to all sorts of issues in the swing, which leads to compensations that can have negative long-term consequences. But if you set up to the ball correctly, you will put yourself into the best possible position to strike it consistently.

If you want to increase you attack angle (and set yourself up for a solid strike on every drive), it’s important you learn how to set up to the ball correctly with a driver. I recently learned how to do this from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jason Baile, and it has helped me hit the driver longer than ever before.

Increase attack angle with a setup tweak

One problem I have when setting up to the driver is that my shoulders and hips are too level at setup. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing when hitting irons and wedges, but for clubs that demand a more positive angle of attack (like the driver), it causes some issues. Namely, it creates conditions for a negative attack angle.

A negative attack angle isn’t necessarily a death knell when hitting the driver, but when you are a slower swing speed player, it can sap you of distance. When you hit down on the ball, it increases spin. This is great for control, but robs you of distance. So if you want to hit the ball longer, you’re better off hitting up on it.

If you watch LPGA pros, you’ll notice that they don’t swing especially hard at the ball, but they still get plenty of distance on their drives. This is a direct result of optimizing their attack angles and hitting up on the ball, allowing them to maximize their distance without swinging harder.

In my lesson with Jason Baile, we made it a goal to get my attack angle up to not only help me get more distance, but also put me in a better position for a consistent strike. This all started with adjusting my setup.

The first thing he asked me to do was slightly “bump” my lead hip toward the target at address. This movement slightly raised my lead hip and lowered my trail hip.

“I’d rather see you get the proper tilts at address with your lower body than your upper body,” Jason said.

The next thing he fixed was the orientation on my arms at address. Before, I had a tendency to get my trail arm too high, which covered up my lead arm when looking at my swing from down the line. To fix it, he had me think about pointing my trail elbow more at my trail hip when I gripped the club.

By tweaking these two simple setup mistakes, I instantly increased my angle of attack and got into a better position to make swings that didn’t have so many compensations built in.

If you are someone who needs more distance with the driver, check out the attack angle numbers of your driver on a launch monitor. Chance are, you need a little more positive angle of attack to launch the ball higher. For that, all you need to do is make a few small setup tweaks.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

Everyone wants to get better at golf. Even the best players in the world are always looking for any edge they can find to shoot lower scores.

The problem with most recreational golfers is that they don’t fully understand why they shoot higher scores than better players. Sure, they recognize the macro-level differences — longer drives, closer approaches, fewer putts — but they don’t always understand how better golfers consistently put themselves in position for success.

The latest Arccos Annual Distance Report shed light on this topic, and it all starts with accuracy off the tee.

1 big difference between good and bad golf

As you might expect, low-handicap golfers are more accurate off the tee than their high-handicap counterparts. But the gap between the two is smaller than you might think.

According to Arccos’ data, low single-digit handicaps (0–5) hit 50 percent of fairways across all age groups, while high-handicap players (30+) hit 40 percent. So, over the course of an average round, a low-handicap player will hit only one or two more fairways than a high-handicap playing partner.

That’s likely a much smaller discrepancy than you expected (it certainly surprised me). But if you dig a little deeper into the data, you’ll see the biggest difference between these groups comes from the severity of their misses.

Wayward drive percentage

The table above charts the percentage of wayward drives across handicap groups, and it highlights one of the clearest differences between good and bad golfers.

According to Arccos, a “wayward drive” is any tee shot that results in either a penalty stroke or a recovery situation, such as a punch-out or layup. And as the chart shows, better golfers hit far fewer wayward drives than higher-handicap players.

A low-handicap golfer hits only about 12 percent of tee shots into this wayward category, while high-handicap golfers hit 45 percent of their drives wayward. Over a typical round, that means a low-handicap player hits only one or two drives into serious trouble. A high-handicap player, on the other hand, hits six or seven wayward drives — nearly half of all tee shots.

So what does this mean for you? If you want to shoot scores like a low-handicap golfer, you need to drive the ball like one — and that means keeping the ball in play. You don’t need to hit every fairway, but you do need to avoid the big miss. Do that consistently, and lower scores will follow.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

Driving distance can be a delicate subject in some corners of the golf world. Some argue that distance has gotten out of control and guardrails need to be implemented to slow the trend. Others say that this worry is much ado about nothing and that longer drives are actually good for the game.

No matter where you land on this spectrum, one thing is certain: hitting the ball longer makes the game much easier. You get the idea: When you hit less club into greens, the number of birdies you make is sure to go up, and with more birdies on the card, your scores will be lower.

So pros and amateurs are searching for any way they can increase their driving distance. But how successful have they been in this pursuit? Thanks to Arccos’ latest Annual Driving Distance report, we can see exactly how far recreational players are hitting their drives — and how this number has changed over the years.

How far golfers hit driver

Arccos’ shot-tracking system has amassed over a billion data points from an assortment of golfers of all skill levels. This is not only useful on the micro level to help amateur golfer improve, but it can also tell us a lot about the game in the macro sense. One such insight comes from their Annual Driving Distance report.

According to this year’s report, the average men’s golfer — across all handicaps — drives the ball 224.1 yards, which is actually 0.6 yards less than they did a year ago. For women, that number is 175.7 yards, which is 0.5 yards less than the year prior. This is the second consecutive year that driving distance has decreased in the recreational game, although over the course of eight years Arccos has tracked this data, the number has remained relatively flat.

While it’s true that pro golfers get longer and longer every year, the same cannot be said for the recreational game. That’s good news for you because it represents an opportunity. So get in the gym or start speed training: If you do, you’re sure to pick up gains over your playing competitors.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

WEST CALDWELL, N.J. — I’ve been on-site at two professional golf events over the course of the last five days. First, I got out to the Cadillac Championship at Doral, and today, I’m taking in the practice rounds at Mountain Ridge Country Club ahead of the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

When I’m at these sorts of high-level events, I like to spend my time studying the pros. Specifically, how they practice. These are the best of the best in their field, so watching how they hone their craft is invaluable.

Although during my latest foray at these events, I noticed something that just about every pro does the same when they practice putting — and it’s all focused on the simplest fundamentals.

All pros do this on the practice green

Every golfer has their own unique approach to how they practice, but if you pay attention you’ll notice some trends. One is how much attention they pay to aim and alignment.

At both the Cadillac and Mizuho, I spent a considerable amount of time around the practice putting green. And at both locations, almost every pro started their putting practice the same way: by setting up some sort of station to practice their aim and alignment.

Some pros use training aids (putting mirrors or gates) to work on these fundamentals, while others use tees or alignment sticks. In the end, the goal remains constant: controlling variables. If you can set up the same way before every putt, you’ll be able to put a much more predictable roll on the ball — and hopefully make more putts.

“When I have to make an important putt I try to keep it so simple. I really focus on aiming correctly,” Rory McIlroy said earlier this year. “I think half the battle is just making sure you’re aiming in the right spot with the putter.”

If it works for McIlroy (and a host of other pros), it should work for you. So, next time you go to the putting green to practice putting, take some time to work on your aim and alignment. If you do, you’re sure to make more putts when it counts.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

If you’ve ever watched Jon Rahm play golf, you’ll know that he has a unique swing. With an extremely bowed wrist and short backswing, his move is hard to miss. But while his swing may look unorthodox, it’s extremely effective — evidenced by an impressive CV that includes a U.S. Open title and a green jacket from the Masters.

“Just swing your swing,” Rahm once said. “Do what you can do. That’s the best thing.”

Back in 2021, Rahm revealed that the reason for his short backswing is a birth defect that left him born with a club foot. Because of the ailment, doctors “pretty much broke every bone in [his] ankle and [he] was casted within 20 minutes of being born from the knee down.” He continued receiving treatment throughout childhood, and it left him with limited mobility in his right ankle.

This also caused Rahm to lose stability in his right ankle, which meant that taking a long backswing would leave him off-balance on the downswing.

“As a kid, I had a strong grip, I would over-swing and just try to hook hammer everything,” Rahm said. “[So] my swing coach in Spain, Eduardo [Celles], forced me to never get past shoulder height.”

Hence, the short backswing was born. Check out the video below for more insight into Rahm’s short backswing, and read on to learn how it can help your swing.

How to stop over-swinging

Taking the club back past parallel may make it feel easier to generate more clubhead speed, but often times, it can actually cause you to lose power and create poor contact. This is something that I struggle with from time to time and can attest that making a backswing past parallel introduces some disastrous shots.

If that is something that you struggle with, try the drill Rahm worked on as a kid.

“[Celles] loved having me feel like I was taking the club [to parallel],” Rahm said. “And then swing as hard as I could.”

By doing this, it forced Rahm to use his big muscles to drive the swing. It also created a more compact move, better face control and more consistent contact.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

As a high schooler, I didn’t have regular access to a driving range, but I did have access to a short-game area and putting facility. That was a big reason I became a pretty nifty player inside of 100 yards.

Now, as an adult living in New York City, the opposite is true. I can go bang balls in the simulator any time I want, but I don’t have access to any short-game practice facilities. As such, my ball striking has improved at the cost of my wedge play.

Funny how that works.

However, at the beginning of every season, I make an effort to map my wedge distances on a launch monitor, which always gives me a boost on the course. And it’s something that all recreational golfers should be doing if they want to dial in their scoring clubs.

How to map your wedge distances

When you pull a wedge from the bag on the course, do you know how far the ball is going to fly? Most shots with these scoring clubs aren’t going to be full swings, so it’s crucial that you know how far these partial swings go.

Most recreational golfers have no idea what their numbers are on these partial swings. They may know their full-swing numbers, but for anything less, they rely entirely on feel.

I’ve been guilty of this in the past, too. And when I get on the course, it always costs me. That’s why each season I make an effort to map out my distances with my wedges.

You can be as detailed as you want with your mapping, but for me, I go to the simulator and get numbers for three different swings (what feels to me like a full swing, three-quarter swing and half swing) with each wedge. I hit five balls with each swing which gave me a good idea of my carry number for each variation. You can see my results below.

My method is far from scientific, but it does supply me with a nice baseline yardage for each wedge and swing type. And now when I’m on the course, I have a much better understanding of how far my ball will fly for each shot.

If you struggle to control your distances with wedges on the course, I’d recommend you do something similar with your wedges. Once you dial in these numbers, it becomes much easier to wedge it close on the course — and save strokes in the process.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Most recreational golfers don’t have much of a pre-shot routine. They simply step up to the ball and hit it. There’s no structure or consistency in what they do in the moments before their swing. Then, when the pressure turns up — the last hole of a match, or with a career-best on the line — they stand over the ball far too long and freeze themselves out.

Watch the pros play, and you’ll see quite the opposite. Before each shot, they do through the same routine. Everything is intentional, and there is consistency every time.

In a game like golf where consistency is rewarded above all else, it makes sense that the pre-shot routine should be consistent as well. If you want to hit shots that behave consistently, you need to approach each shot consistently.

For most recreational players, they have no idea where to even begin when it comes to building a pre-shot routine. If that sounds like you, check out the video below for tips from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Christopher Smith.

Build the perfect pre-shot routine

Smith is not just a Top 100 Teacher — he’s also one of the best speed golfers in the world. He’s a Guinness World Record holder in speed golf, and is the self-proclaimed “Old Tom Morris” of the sport.

In speed golf, your score is calculated not only based on the number of strokes you take, but also how fast you play. That means, if you want to be competitive, you have to do things fast, including your pre-shot routine.

“What we do when we get to the golf ball in a round of speed golf is a little different than traditional golf,” he says. “And there are some elements in there that can help a lot of people, especially those that spend too much time in their pre-shot routine.”

When Smith played his first ever round of speed golf, a funny thing happened: He posted a great score despite not thinking very much over any given shot. And for any golfer looking to perfect their own pre-shot routine, borrowing some elements from speed golf could prove very useful.

1. No practice swings

In speed golf, you don’t have time to make practice swings. When you play “slow” golf, that can also be a wise strategy.

“When it’s time to play, the practice is over,” Smith says.

In some instances — such as when hitting a specialty shot — a practice swing can be helpful. But when facing a stock shot, trust in your practice away from the course and don’t waste your time with a practice swing.

2. Identify your target

Always choose a target to aim at before you step into your shot. If you don’t have something to aim for, it’s difficult to execute at a high level.

“The brain likes to chase things,” Smith says.

3. Get a distance

Speed golfers rely on ballpark yardages rather than getting exact numbers, and for most recreational golfers, that’s not a bad strategy, either.

Face it, your distance control is not good enough to worry if the distance is 165 yards or 168 yards. Simply get a ballpark figure (about 165 yards) and make a committed swing.

4. Visualize the shot

Now take a moment to visualize the shot. If you are trying to hit a fade, imagine the ball moving left-to-right in the air and landing near the pin. The power of positive thinking is a powerful thing.

“I’m a fan of picturing the shape of the shot,” Smith says. “Others will just connect to the target and hit it there.”

5. Go

Once you’ve identified your target, gotten a ballpark yardage, and visualized the shot, it’s time to step in and hit the ball. Don’t waste time fretting over every little detail or worrying about your technique. Simply step into the shot, commit and make a swing.

“It becomes a lot more like other sports,” Smith says. “It’s a bit more reactionary.”

If you’re someone who’s never used a pre-shot routine before, give this method a shot. Sometimes the key to playing better golf is being reactionary and athletic — and this method certainly promotes that.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Hitting the ball long off the tee is not just fun, it’s also good for your score. The closer you can get the ball to the green, the closer you’ll be able to hit the ball to the hole (on average). And the closer your approach shots are hit, the more birdies you’ll make.

There are a variety of avenues you can pursue to add a few extra miles per hour to your clubhead and ball speeds, but for the sake of this column, we are going to cover it from an instruction angle. That way when you’re under the gun and need to fly a hazard on the course, you can lean on your technique.

For more on that, we turn to world long drive champ Kyle Berkshire.

A hack for more distance

The golf swing has many moving parts — and for maximum efficiency, all these components need to work in just the right manner. Berkshire likes to compare the golf swing to a symphony, with each part of the body representing a different instrument.

“When you get to the last part of the symphony, the wrist is what dictates how much of that power is released into the club,” Berkshire says.

The release of the wrists may not seem like a huge power driver, but in reality, these small muscles are crucial. The wrists are the last part of the body that moves energy out toward the clubhead, so releasing them in the correct way is essential for generating power.

“If you have wrists that don’t really rotate, you’re really going to be losing a tremendous amount of power,” Berkshire says. “It’s your last point of multiplication of the force.”

Berkshire explains that when he is swinging the driver, he likes to feel like his wrists are very “soft.” And if you want to add power to your swing, you should strive to feel that softness, too.

“I like to have very loose and relaxed wrists,” Berkshire says. “I feel like that’s a good visual to have.”

So, next time you want to add a little power to your drives, remember to keep your wrists soft. It’s a feel that the one of the longest drivers in the world uses — and it’ll work for you, too.

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

One of the coolest things about the Masters (for golf-swing nerds, at least) is the Range Tracker feature on Masters.com. With it, you can track every ball hit by every player in the field all week long.

The information is a useful insight into how pro golfers spend their practice time on the range. And also, how many balls they hit to warm up before competition rounds.

When recreational golfers get to the course before their rounds, they seldom have a plan. Some might wander around the pro shop checking out merch, while others head for the grill to grab a hot dog or beverage. Few will go to the range for a proper warmup — and even fewer will have a plan once they get there.

The story is quite the opposite for pro golfers. Seemingly every minute of their day prior to their tee time is scheduled out. And it’s not just for show. Pro golfers know that putting together a solid round of golf starts well before they strike their opening tee shots. With the Masters Range Tracker feature, we can see this play out in real time.

How many balls should you hit to warmup?

After tracking the number of range balls hit by every player in the field before their Thursday and Friday rounds at the 2026 Masters, the average comes out to 43 balls per warmup. While this figure doesn’t account for time spent in the short-game area or on the putting green, it offers a useful snapshot of how many full swings pros typically make before a competitive round.

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all warmup routine in golf. Still, this average provides helpful context. Hitting just over 40 balls allows players to loosen up and get a feel for their swing on a given day — without overdoing it and risking fatigue before they even reach the 1st tee.

The data also reveals some notable outliers. For instance, 2000 Masters champion Vijay Singh hit just eight balls before his Thursday round and 16 before Friday. At the other end of the spectrum, Gary Woodland hit 63 balls ahead of his opening round and 94 before his second.

Ultimately, there’s more than one way to get ready for a round of golf. The key is finding a routine that works for you and committing to it every time you step onto the course.

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