By Paul Myers
In winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Hideki Matsuyama took home his second career PGA Tour win. While that is impressive enough for a young man who is only 23 years old, that might not even be his most-impressive accomplishment. Rather, many would be even more impressed by the fact that he has only missed 10 cuts in a total of 65 career PGA Tour starts. Considering the fact that there are bound to be some growing pains along the way at a young age, his consistency in playing the weekend is tremendous.
While you might not be worried about making cuts, you certainly would like to play more consistently from round to round. One of the frequent complaints that comes from the average golfer is the inability to perform consistently at a high level. Most players are capable of hitting at least a few good shots – it is the best players that are able to repeat them over and over. If you would like to gain in terms of your consistency, consider the tips below.
Work on Tempo
If there is one single key that can help you perform more consistently, it is improving your tempo. A good tempo is critical to playing steady, reliable golf over the long run. It is hard to hit quality shots on a regular basis without a good tempo – and it is nearly impossible to do so when you get under pressure. Spend time on the practice range working on your tempo and you will be impressed with the results.
Play It Safe
Consistent golfers are usually those who choose to pick conservative targets for most of their shots. It might be fun to take a risk by aiming at the flag that is located barely over the water, but that is a risk that usually isn’t worth taking. Pick out safe targets that leave you plenty of margin for error and you can eliminate those ugly scores from your card. Also, you will lose less golf balls by playing a conservative game, and who wouldn’t like that?
Nail Your Short Putts
This is another critical point when it comes to consistently posting nice scores. You can’t afford to miss short putts throughout a round when you have aspirations of keeping your score down in a good range – so take time in your practice schedule to work on your ability to hole out from five feet and in. Everybody will miss a random short putt from time to time, but the large majority should be finding the bottom of the cup.
By simply working on the three points above – tempo, conservative game planning, and good short putting – you can add a new level of consistency to your game. Remember, golf is a hard game, so you are never going to be at your best during every round that you play. However, with a little bit of practice time spend focused on the right things, you can even out the bumps in the road nicely. Good luck and play well!