One of the toughest parts of any sport is improving on your weakness. It’s easy to practice the things that you are good at – it gives you confidence and makes you feel good. But the key to improvement is to be good at all aspects of a sport.
In golf, you need to be good at driving the ball, iron play, chipping, bunkers, and putting. Not to mention the mental side of golf! The best players in the world are very good at all aspects of golf. However, most amateurs have their strengths and weaknesses. It’s improving on these weaknesses that will truly make you a better player.
A fun exercise that can help determine your weaknesses is to play the forward tees at your favorite golf course. It’s a very eye-opening experience and a great way to practice different areas of your game. By playing the forward tees you will end up in different areas of the course and hit new shots and clubs on every hole. This will present new challenges to your game and most likely expose some weaknesses and strengths.
If you’re like most amateurs, you might see that you struggle with 40-90 yard shots. This is a common problem area and you’ll probably be in this situation a little more often by playing the forward tees.
You “should” score lower by playing from the the forward tees, so see if this is true. If not, then you should be able to figure out where you lost a few strokes and how to improve on those areas of your game.
An added benefit to playing the forward tees might be a faster round of golf. You’ll probably play the course in a little less time because you didn’t spend any time in the woods looking for your ball.
So next time you want to challenge yourself and do something new with your golf game, put your pride away and play the forward tees.