Learn How to Adapt Your Golf Game to Any Challenge

Many of us would have witnessed Phil Michelson's win in the 2006 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. What's interesting to me is that although the golf course was set-up more challenging than ever before the pro's for the most part just treated it as though it was just another day at the office.

Every week on the PGA and LPGA tours the pros are dealing with different challenges. Some weeks the golf courses will be longer and on other weeks shorter. At Augusta there is very little rough for the pros to deal with however the challenge is not so much missing the fairways as putting on the greens.

The greens are the key to playing well at Augusta as they are highly undulated and a shot just off the mark can very easily lead to a bogey or worse. Phil Michelson came into the 2006 Masters fresh from his victory the week before at the Bell South Classic where he won the tournament by thirteen shots with an amazing score of twenty eight under par for the four rounds.

At the time Phil Michelson was ranked 2nd in Putts made per greens hit in regulation and was leading in total birdies made with just over five birdies per round. This is a great indication of where his strength is, and coupled with the fact that he leads the greens hit in regulation statistic his scoring average is a reflection of his ability to focus his energy on the most important skills that will have the greatest impact on reducing his scores.

Like Phil Michelson you can develop your game so that you can more readily adapt to different playing conditions. Not everyone can hit the ball as far as a tournament professional however we all have the ability to become excellent golfers with the putter and wedges which will give you your greatest chance of shooting lower golf scores and becoming a more consistent golfer.

The next time you go out to practice take a small pocket sized note book with you and keep some basic statistics on your game to help you to understand the parts of your game that are holding you back from producing lower scores.

Pay attention to the shots you play around the green like your chip and pitch shots and notice how close you're hitting them to the hole. If you're hitting them further than six feet away then you must expect to miss more than half of them. This is where pros like Phil Michelson shine.

When pros are within thirty yards of the pin they will hit the ball close enough to make more than thirty percent of their putts. Now this might not seem like a great result but when you consider that they play their shots from all sorts of lies it's a very high standard. And the closer they are to the pin the better they are.

If you want to shoot lower scores practice from the pin outwards. Start with the putts from three feet and gradually move outwards to the edge of the green. Then hit ten chip shots from just off the green and not just from one spot but from all around the green surface. Then move further out from the green and pitch ten shots from various positions to the pin.

Also make it a habit to always place some tees around the hole in a circle of about six feet as you practice. You should strive to get a high percentage of your shots within this target range.

Throw ten balls into the bunker and focus on getting them onto the surface of the green and as close to the hole as you can. Make sure that you don't prefer your lie in the bunker as most people do but rather let the ball roll to its resting position and play it from there. Too often I've witnessed golfers propping their ball up on great lies and developing this as a habit. When it comes time to hit a shot from the bunker from a less than perfect lie the shock can be enough to ruin the result.

Practice your short game from the rough and from the fairway within sixty yards of the hole and from all types of lies and you'll notice that your confidence levels will increase as you start to hit your shots closer and closer to the hole.

The benefits of practicing in this manner are obvious and remember that this will also impact on your iron shots into the green and ultimately to your tee-shots because you will feel so much more confident about your short-game that you'll become fearless when you go out to play a round and pretty soon you'll be lowering your golf scores and having a lot more fun on the golf course.