How to Make More Pars in Golf
We have all asked ourselves how to make more pars many times, whether it was while driving to the golf course or after a frustrating 18 hole round.
How to make more pars is definitely one of the most discussed topics among amateur golf players and high handicappers, so take a look at these tips that will help you lower your score!
Resource: Golf Practice System with Step by Step Practice Plans + Video Lessons
Tip #1: Have a Game Plan
One of the most common errors we all make is not knowing in advance how we’ll face the course. We just go and play, right?
Imagine how much easier it would be if you knew exactly what you want to do on every hole! How many more pars you would make if you felt confident before every shot you face?
So, take a few moments and draft a plan on how you’re going to play each hole next time you go to the course. The most important thing is to be realistic, allow yourself some room for errors and feel comfortable with the plan you drafted. Otherwise, you’ll end up over-pressuring yourself which will only lead to bad shots and scores.
Examine your golf game, your strengths and weaknesses, and make sure that your game plan focuses on your strengths and avoids your weak points as much as possible. Analyze each hole and picture what the best shot is for you in every spot. Identify the holes you think you can make par on, and highlight them: those will be your spots!
Determine where the safe landing zones are at on each hole and aim for these when you’re standing on the tee box. Starting off a hole with a solid drive is key to setting yourself up to make par.
You will make more pars if you have a plan you feel comfortable with and put it in practice.
Tip #2: Improve your Plan
The next best tip I can give you on how to make more pars in golf is to analyze and tweak your plan over time.
After you’ve played a couple of rounds following your game plan, it is time to review it. The first question to ask and analyze is did you actually make more pars? What kind of adjustments would you make? Do you need to change the approach towards a particular hole?
You should have a baseline knowledge of how many pars you make per round usually and can compare your new average number of pars to see if you’ve been increasing the number.
Identify what worked for you and try to keep that good work going. Change the strategy for those holes that are giving you some headaches still. We all have that one hole or two during a golf round that always seems to give us trouble! On these holes you have to play extra careful and smart which each club selection to ensure you are staying in the fairway and avoiding the danger zones.
After each round, review your golf scores and, more importantly, how you felt playing with the current game plan. Make the changes you feel you need to make, and try again! Golf is a marathon not a sprint!
Resource: Golf Practice System with Step by Step Practice Plans + Video Lessons
Tip #3: Set achievable goals
Another tip that will help you make more pars in golf is setting achievable goals.
Unless you’re planning on going pro, you don’t need to aim for an awesome even par score within the next two or three months. Instead, focus on “quick win” goals that build momentum!
Set yourself some incremental goals. For example, if you want to make more pars, focus on scoring two more pars on your next round than you usually do. Then, maintain that score for a couple more rounds.
If you feel confident enough, aim to make one or two additional pars in your next rounds after that. Before you notice, you’ll be making a lot more pars each round than you used to as a result of the incremental progression. More importantly, you’ll be consistent in your game.
Here is an example: Let’s say you currently make 4 pars per round of 18 holes. Here is how I would set goals for incrementally increasing how many pars you make per round of golf.
- Round 1: Aim to make 5 pars or more
- Round 2: Aim to make 6 pars or more
- Round 3: Aim to make 6 pars or more
- Round 4: Aim to make 7 pars or more
- Round 5: Aim to make 7 pars or more
- Round 6: Aim to make 8 pars or more
- Round 7: Aim to make 9 pars or more
Grab my golf skills assessment challenge and see how good your golf skills are in different areas of the game: Driving, Iron Play, Chipping, Putting, etc.
Tip #4: Practice, practice, practice
Setting goals above will get you in the proper mindset and you’ll see some improvement right away do to mental confidence, but to continue the momentum of making more pars each round you still need to improve your fundamental golf skills!
Practicing efficiently will be crucial if you want to make more pars. We all love to go and play, but if you really want to make more pars you should visit the driving range as often as possible as well as the practice green.
Bonus Resource: Try out this step by step practice routine we’ve laid out for you.
Focus on your short game at first, and especially on your putting. There’s no point of hitting a perfect 300 yards drive if then you waste 3 shots on every green. Short game practice will be what separates most handicappers. As your handicap decreases and your score gets closer to par golf, you’ll notice the better short game skills the golfers have.
How much time should be spent on short game practice?
One useful rule of thumb is: spend on the putting green at least twice the amount of time you spend practicing your mid and long shots. By doing this, you’ll spend much less time and less strokes on the green when you’re playing your rounds.
Just think about your last round for a second.
Odds are 60% or more of your shots were within 100 yards of the pin. This is why short game should receive 2/3 of your practice time and especially putting.
I’m sure you could cut down a few strokes right away that lead to making more pars by simply eliminating 3 putts. It’s frustrating to finally reach the green in regulation and then blow your chance to make par by three putting!
Start with 100-200 long putts per day at practice on the putting green to build feel and control for long distance putts. This will help you leave closer follow up putts and decrease the second putt misses that leave you 3 putting or perhaps 4 putting.
Secondly, work on putts from 6 feet or closer. Once you’ve lagged the ball close to the hole or chipped it close, you need to be able to finish it off by draining that 6 foot putt.
The key takeaway here is if you want to make more pars, you need to be confident in your short game, and this easy rule will help you in achieving that confidence: spend 2/3 of your time on short game practice!
Resource: Golf Practice System with Step by Step Practice Plans + Video Lessons
Tip #5: Enjoy the Game!
Golf is a very emotional game, we all know that. Enjoy it though. The worst thing you can do is try to expect to much of yourself and put on self pressure. This will only lead to disappoint, frustration, and anger.
All 3, which lead to tense muscles, making it harder to swing naturally and/or make fluid strokes around the green.
So be in your best mood at all times if possible and avoid getting down on yourself, even if you miss a few shots you should have had. Remember that each round you are almost guaranteed to run into bogeys and double bogeys.
The best golfers in the world make bogies in their rounds. The key is they know how to bounce back from a bad hole and not let it ruin the next 3 holes afterwards.
If you miss a shot, so what? If you catch the rough of the tee, is it really going to stop you from sticking the green still? Nobody likes those situations of course, but the players that are able to keep a positive attitude across the 18 holes definitely have an advantage over golfers that are controlled by their emotions.
Make more pars by enjoying yourself, how great does that sound?
How to make more pars is essentially a matter of planning, practicing, and enjoying the game of golf. Know what you will do ahead of time by having a course strategy. Then practice how you’re going to do it. Lastly, enjoy the experience!
Those pars will begin to arrive more frequently, and you’ll have a lot of fun while improving your golf game. Plan your strategy, practice as much as you can, review and optimize your strategy periodically and always enjoy that awesome experience that is golfing.
Now that we’ve shown you how to make more pars in golf, it’s time for you to go and make more pars!