I have an expectation that I will shoot at least two birdies in one round every time I tee it up. Of course, this does not always happen, but this stat is slowly improving. I can say that shooting even one birdie is great for lowering my final score and helps build confidence. But, this is no surprise and you already knew that – right?
During my game, shooting any birdie is a test of patience. If I try to press my play needlessly, I find that a bogey is more likely. Like many of you, I know when to press my advantage to score low and most of the time par is a good score.
If you watch many of the pros, they will patiently navigate their round attempting to use course management to score low. They will hit their ball in the right spot for distance on their approach shot. In the modern game, driver – short iron is becoming the norm, yet understanding and playing to your strengths is key to shooting lower scores.
Take my friends Blair and Rick. They do this most of the time and as a result shoot better scores than always playing a bash and chase game. When Blair gets off the tee, he is a solid player. When things are going well and he hits his ball to a specific spot of the tee, he scores low. Rick has developed a very dependable and focused short game this year. He is most deadly between 25 and 50 yards and as such, plays to that distance. Both are patient players (when they remember) and play to their strengths. This is a key to them shooting lower scores.
In my case, my short game from 100 to 50 yards has left me. For some reason the strongest part of my game is now my weakest. I was playing with stance and stuff early in the season and I guess this did not help at all. So, I am patiently working my short game back to its previous glory, but it takes time. Regardless, I do not hit to this distance (for now) if I can avoid it. I play to my other strengths with the goal of making at least two birdies per round.
Golf is an interesting game. Every player has to find their path and play to that strength. Me, I think shooting two birdies a round is the first step and rest is gravy.
How often and how many birdies do you expect to shoot in your round of golf?
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
It’s all about course management. Those doubles and triples kill me. And I do it to myself.
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I completely understand. Managing those higher scores on a single hole really lowers your score. Good luck in the future.
Cheers Jim
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Another great read. I find mind set to be very important to my game, I’m starting to see position on the approach helping me sneak in a couple birdies. Yesterday I managed two birdies and one eagle and starting thinking to much at the end. I 3 putted the last three greens to mess up a nice round and scored a 76. Enjoy reading others thoughts on the game. Grateful for your thoughts.
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Thanks Dondi! Great to hear you are playing well!
Cheers Jim
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It depends on the course and the tee I’m playing from but I generally have two or three in me. I don’t really focus on those though. My focus is on limiting mistakes. I play a lot of different courses and play whatever tee box my playing partners want so sometimes I think that even thinking about birdies isn’t fair to ask of myself. I’ve played Copperhead from the same tee boxes the pro’s use (7209 yards) and that’s a good example. There are only maybe 6 or 7 holes on the course where birdies are even a possibility with my distance off the tee without some major help from the wind. And the greens can feel like you might as well be putting on a basketball court they’re so fast sometimes. Birdies there are few and far between. But most of the time I’m playing courses that are easier to deal with and from distances where birdies are easier to make. On them, 2 or 3 is not too much to ask of myself. And 4 or 5 come fairly frequently. So limiting the bogies and keeping away the doubles are what I’ve tried to focus on to get that first par round. Maybe now that I’ve finally done it I can change that focus, but for now, I feel like it’s still the right approach. Keeping away the blowup holes makes for stress free golf.
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Kevin
You point is well taken. Limiting errors that costs strokes is a must on any course. I follow that as well, but think about birdies before every round. It seems to put me in the right frame of mind to score low.
Cheers Jim
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