{"id":444895,"date":"2026-01-31T09:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444895\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:52:08","slug":"how-to-fix-your-weaknesses-and-lower-your-handicap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444895\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix your weaknesses and lower your handicap"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re surrounded by promises of how to improve our golf; clubs that travel further and straighter and tips that will transform all elements of your game by following a few simple instructions.<\/p>\n

But the bottom line is that we\u2019re all different and we all know our games better than anyone else.<\/p>\n

We might not like to admit them at times but we know where we\u2019re losing shots and why our handicaps aren\u2019t a couple of shots lower.<\/p>\n

Mental performance coach Duncan McCarthy has worked with tour players for 15 years, with winners on all the main tours, and he provides some easy-to-follow instruction on how to make some simple gains this coming season.<\/p>\n

\u2018The obvious answer is stats but, for your average golfer, you\u2019re probably not going to keep stats. And if you do keep the basic ones, they might not tell the real story. So let\u2019s assume that you don\u2019t keep stats and you have to go off feeling what your weakest point is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the one area of your game that you\u2019re constantly frustrated with? That\u2019s probably a good way of looking at your weaknesses because you\u2019re not going to be frustrated with your strength.<\/p>\n

So, if you don\u2019t have stats and you just want to play your Saturday golf, and you go to the range once a week, how do you identify how you can maybe use that time better?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever element(s) of the game that it is, then it\u2019s important to go, right, what\u2019s the evidence? Go through your last few rounds and, for example, if you keep fatting your chips then it might (will) be technical so go and have a lesson to have something positive to think about.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr it might only happen when you\u2019re scoring well, so it might be mental (and technical!). You\u2019ll find that you go into future-led thinking and the end result and then things go awry.<\/p>\n

Whatever it is, we need to think how to improve this in our practice.<\/p>\n

How to improve<\/p>\n

The first thing is to keep it simple, just doing one thing at a time and not trying to do it all at once.<\/p>\n

So, for a month, just work on one thing. Be strict with yourself. At the driving range we jump around with all our clubs and end up hitting too many drivers when that might be the best part of our game.<\/p>\n

So, for the next five visits, have a drill that you\u2019re going to do over and over and over. So if it\u2019s ball position, if it\u2019s a swing mechanic, if it\u2019s from a mental standpoint or not hitting a golf shot until you\u2019re clear on what you want to do, just do that.<\/p>\n

Then, at the end of that period, assess things. Have you improved? If not but there are signs that you\u2019re moving in the right direction, keep doing it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t judge after every shot, good or bad, but look at it as a collective.<\/p>\n

A pre-shot routine<\/p>\n

Many of us still don\u2019t pay attention to this but you can get this spot on every single shot.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re at the range then you don\u2019t have to do this with every ball but I would have an amount of your session where you say, right, I\u2019m going to call the golf shot that I want to play, or I\u2019m going to create a picture of what I want to play before I step in.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re on a range, there\u2019s always the mat. Step off it. Stand behind and paint a picture of what you would love the ball to do. Realistically, not Rory McIlroy, but realistically what you\u2019d love the ball to do.<\/p>\n

Once you have that picture, go see if you can play it. And that would be a great place to start from. Step on the mat and go and play the golf shot.<\/p>\n

What if you\u2019re not someone who doesn\u2019t work very well visually? Talk to yourself. Instruct yourself.<\/p>\n

Right, I\u2019m going to hit it over this flag, nice and high. Or I\u2019m going to aim it just over here and it\u2019s going to cut back. So you\u2019re almost being your own caddy.<\/p>\n

A good caddy would say, what are you going to do here? And you\u2019d say, I\u2019m going to start it on that bunker and fade it off it. So if you\u2019re not visual, be vocal to yourself.<\/p>\n

About Duncan McCarthy<\/p>\n

Duncan is a mental performance coach who works across all sports including women\u2019s Major champion Ashleigh Buhai.<\/p>\n

Read next: The secrets behind the correct grip pressure on your clubs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re surrounded by promises of how to improve our golf; clubs that travel further and straighter and tips…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,44,82],"class_list":["post-444895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}