The Frustrating Truth About the Easiest Way to Improve Your Golf Game
There’s an interesting paradox when it comes to practice: the easiest path to improvement is usually the most frustrating one.
Why? Because the easiest path is often to improve our weaknesses—and that means spending time on the things we’re not good at. Struggling through weakness-based practice isn't fun. Most players would rather stick to their strengths, especially on the range where they don’t want to look like they’re flailing. It’s an ego thing.
But the truth is, the low-hanging fruit in your golf game often holds the most potential. You just have to be willing to reach for it—even if it’s a little uncomfortable.
Find Your Low-Hanging Fruit
To identify the lowest-hanging fruit in your game, you need to understand what standard you’re trying to reach.
Let’s say you’re a 12 handicap aiming to become a 10. If you think it’s your driver accuracy holding you back, you should first look up what the average fairway hit percentage is for a 10 handicap. Tools like Arccos and other stat-tracking apps make this easy to find with a quick search.
Many of my students are surprised to learn that driver accuracy might not be the deciding factor. So we dig deeper:
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How many three-putts do they average?
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What’s their up-and-down percentage?
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How far do they carry the ball?
By comparing your stats to reliable benchmarks, you can pinpoint exactly what will move the needle. That’s your fastest path to improvement.
Build a Practice Plan That’s Actually Fun
Once you know what to work on, the next step is key: create a practice plan that you’ll actually want to follow.
If you’re not a super-disciplined player, grinding your weaknesses is hard. That’s why a plan shouldn’t just be about getting from point A to point B—it needs to be something you're excited to do.
In my experience, the best way to make this happen is to use golf practice games. Instead of mindlessly grinding reps, you challenge yourself through fun, goal-based activities. You’re still working on weaknesses—but now it feels like a game, not a grind.
This kind of gamified practice is the core of what we do at Legends of the Links. Whether you're a parent introducing golf drills for kids, or a player grinding to scratch, our cards help reframe practice into something you look forward to.
Once you start picking that low-hanging fruit, the next one becomes easier. Then the next. And before long, you're not just practicing—you're actually improving your golf game.