Some golfers do not like to keep the foursome's scorecard.
Others are insistent.
That really is a personal choice.
However, the golfer who wants to improve will keep his own scorecard and will use his card to record other information about his round.
The beginning golfer should enjoy creating his own personal tracking system.
Usually the course scorecard provides valuable course information and multiple lines for entering information.
Before teeing off, we should get a feel for the hole.
Let's get the distance from the card.
Stand on the tee and take in the hole.
Make sure the tee points us down the fairway.
Build a plan.
Where do we want our tee ball to land so that our next shot has the best chance to be successful? Do we have it figured? Good, now let's execute.
When we have finished the hole, let's measure our success.
First, did we have the right plan? If not, we may want to make a notation via asterisk on our card for that hole reminding us that our plan failed.
If we had the correct plan but we failed to execute, let's analytically record our flaws so that we know what to practice.
Each hole has a column.
We are going to fill in the blanks in that column.
Let's say the scorecard has five lines and therefore one five tiered column for each hole.
On the top line, we will record our score.
This is where we might also place an asterisk if we had the wrong playing strategy.
Our second line will be dedicated to recording our number of putts per hole.
On the third line, we should enter the number of chip shots we executed.
The fourth line should be a simple checkmark entry to designate our successful drives.
If we drove into the fairway and near our expected distance, we check our card.
A pat on the back never hurts! As a beginning golfer, we need to be real.
Reasonable expectations are a must.
Recognizing our strengths and practicing our weaknesses is essential.
Sometimes we find that our strategy is a weakness.
A card loaded with asterisks will remind us.
Anytime our putts exceed two, we have a curable problem.
We want our tee ball check marks to increase every week.
And, every time our chip shot line exceeds one, we need work.
All good info.
All worth tracking.
Our scorecard should be updated at the next tee, not on the green.
Keep a neat record.
You may want to post your results on your computer.
Do not distract other golfers with your scorecard exercise.
They have their own concerns.
At the end of the round, let's total our columns.
Those numbers will tell us a lot.
Pay attention to the little things and good things will follow.
Mother always said that! Follow this tip and our others and you'll see improvement - for sure!