So sorry for the lapse in posts, but it has been a couple of crazy weeks. Irma came through the south and luckily we survived here in the low country. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone that has been effected and hope they can get back into the swing of things sooner than later.

As we have watched golf on TV, even the professionals have a hard time shooting par. Therefore this blog is about shooting your personal par. Even though, our ultimate goal is shooting par, it takes time, practice, and patience to lower your score.

Take your scorecard of the course you are going to play and change your par. If you look at the picture above, I have changed a couple holes to bogey because I feel that these holes give my student a little trouble and if he/she had an extra stroke, it would ease their mind and allow the student to play the hole their own way. After I change the par, his/her goal is to shoot 80 which is a great goal for him/her right now. This is all about de-stressing yourself while you play. If a hole is too long and you have trouble getting to the green in 2 shots, then allow yourself an extra shot. Who knows, in the end, you might not need the extra stroke after all. Plus, this hopefully will also allow yourself to avoid getting a double bogey or more because you are so worried about shooting par. After a couple rounds, then you might want to change your personal par a little lower to challenge yourself.

There are many different forms of this personal par, such as playing 5’s: every whole is a 5 and if you get a 5 on every whole you shoot a 90. Another way is just add an extra stroke to each hole – bogey golf = 90 on 18 holes. I personally have done this my whole career. It has helped me and my students start to shoot lower without overwhelming yourself with shooting the “professional par”.