Golf Tips: 3 Ways to Improve Your Golf Game in 2016

It’s a new year which means it’s a new opportunity to improve yourself on the golf course. Use these three golf tips to shave strokes off your handicap in 2016.

With each new year that rolls around, it’s an opportunity for golfers to start fresh and look to improve themselves in 2016. Clean the slate and study up on some golf tips that will help shave strokes off your handicap in the new season.

However, the winter months make it difficult to start on a good foot. By the time amateur golfers get the opportunity to hit the links, it’s in the middle of March or April and they’ve lost motivation to improve and just want to get out there and play.

Let’s start 2016 right. This year, make a resolution that you’ll actually stick with and that is to improve your golf game. Don’t make it another season of hacking the ball around without any end goal.

Make the most of the months that you’ll be cooped indoors due to winter weather and use it as an opportunity to improve yourself. Use these three golf tips to make yourself better in the new year.

Set Goals

What good does it do running the golf course with no sense of direction? Most of us go out every year expecting to get better, but then act surprised when the season comes to a close and they aren’t any better. That’s because they don’t set goals.

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Before you hit the course for the first time this year, set yourself up for success. Think about the big picture. What are you looking to accomplish in 2016? Try to break 90, 80, or 70 for the first time in your life. Lower your handicap a stroke. Avoid shooting in the 100s for the whole year.

Now that you have goals set for the entire season, break it down to a microscopic level. What other golf tips can I use to take strokes off my handicap or shoot in the 80s consistently? It’s great to set goals for yourself, but the next step is figuring out how to achieve those goals.

Golf is all about taking things one shot at a time and the same goes for your goals. Make it an attempt to make less bogeys in a round or avoiding the dreaded three-putt. Once goals are set and action is taken to achieve those goals, then success will follow.

Practice Your Short Game

Luckily, you don’t have to be around a luscious putting green to get some reps in during the winter. There are plenty of ways to practice chipping and putting around the house, just don’t come to me if you happen to break something and your wife gets all heated.

Buy an artificial putting or just used the carpet and hardwood in your humble abode to improve your short game. Don’t sit around and rust while your competition continues to get better. Keep your the flat stick hot, despite what the temperature may be outside.

Amateurs and professionals alike struggle with their short game. When it comes down to it, a three-foot putt is just as important as a 300-yard drive. Stop leaving shots out there by missing short putts or chunking chips. Stay sharp and come out guns blazing this season.

Change Your Mentality

"Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course — the distance between your ears. ~Bobby Jones"

At some point in your life, you’ve probably heard this famous Bobby Jones’ quote about golf. So are you going to sit there and ignore one of the greatest golfers to play the game?

It doesn’t matter how sexy your swing looks or how expensive those clubs are, if you don’t have the right mentality when you hit the links then why are you even playing? The game is hard enough, so stop making it harder than it needs to be.

Make it a goal to play every shot with a positive attitude, even if you just duffed your previous shot. There is a theory that for every bad shot, two more bad shots will follow. After a bad shot, golfers are still thinking about the previous shot even when they approach the ball. This negative thinking carries over and creates another bad shot.

Stay optimistic. If you happen to shank the ball, forget about it and move onto the next shot. Until someone creates a time machine, you aren’t going to fix that previous shot so just let it go. Learn how to bounce back and overcome the adversity.

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They say you can tell a lot about a person based on how they carry themselves on the golf course. Stop being a Debby Downer and start thinking more positively. Use these golf tips and it will  show on the scorecard.