12 Effective Tips to Actually Become a Scratch Golfer

When you get good at golf, it’s often hard to go back and understand how you once shot 90 or even 80.

Of course, there is a considerable difference between a 10 handicap and a scratch golfer, but some of the changes you must make in your game to become a scratch golfer are minimal.

I’m going to show you some of the best tips to become a scratch golfer. Whether you are currently shooting 90 or 75, these tips should help make a difference.

How to Become a Scratch Golfer: Key Takeaways

If you don’t have time to read the entire guide, here are a few of the most important takeaways to help you understand what it takes to become a scratch golfer.

• Scratch golfers are more detail oriented than higher handicap players; they think about all aspects of the game that will make a difference in their final score.
• To become a scratch golfer, you should learn from other great players, including professionals.
• Course management, the mental game, and control of the golf club will become increasingly important as you lower your scores.
• Becoming a scratch golfer takes a lot of muscle memory and some mental toughness, don’t force the process if you don’t need to.
• If becoming a scratch golfer is a priority, you must invest in your game and spend both time and money to reach this goal.

The 12 Tips to Become a Scratch Golfer

Becoming a scratch golfer is a process, so don’t hesitate to implement these strategies into your routine starting today.

I highly encourage you to track this entire process so that you feel confident in the progress you are making. Sometimes to see how far we have come, we have to look back at where we started.

Start Tracking Everything

I’m not telling you that you will always have to track every single stat about your round of golf.

However, when you first start this process of learning to become a scratch golfer, you should track everything.

The best data you can collect is strokes gained.

Using a strokes gained app will help you see the areas of your game that need the most practice and what is keeping you from becoming a scratch golfer. Without this data, you are just going to prolong the process.

Greens in regulation, fairways hit, putts, and bunker saves are all important, but strokes gained give you more detailed information about specific performance from various locations on the course.

Learn to track this data and then eventually how to analyze it and apply it to your golf game.

Some golfers are shocked to find that their performance from 100 to 150 yards in is the real thing keeping them from being scratch golfers.

The more data you have, the easier it is to improve.

Learn the Role of the Wrists in Your Golf Swing

Wrists play a vital role in your golf swing. Scratch golfers and professionals have very little extension in their wrists at impact. In fact, instead, they have a slight bit of flexion in the wrist.

Knowing if your wrist angles are helping or hurting your golf game is important. Take a look at your wrist angles at setup, top of the backswing, and impact.

The HackMotion gives you a real-time view of the position of your wrists and where your performance may be lacking.

After analyzing more than 1,000,000 golf swings, we know that great players add a very little extension in their lead wrist from setup to the top of the backswing. On the downswing, the extension is decreasing so there is less than there was at setup.

HackMotion also becomes a great practice tool for learning how to improve your wrists’ role in the golf swing. Remember what I said about scratch golfers becoming more detail-oriented?

HackMotion can absolutely help.

Get Accurate Distances

Your yardage to the pin needs to be accurate if you are going to become a scratch golfer. Without accurate yardage, you are playing a bit of a guessing game trying to get the ball close to a hole.

We know that at some point, a scratch golfer needs to have the ability to control distances in their clubs. Once you get to the point of controlling distance, make sure you know how far you have to hit each club.

I find that a combination of GPS and rangefinder technology is often the best. With the GPS, you can get the yardage for the front center and back of the green. With the rangefinder, you will get the pin. Rangefinder gives you your yardages, but the GPS tells you what your strategy should be to get the ball close to the hole.

If you are worried about having all these devices on the course, simply get a golf GPS app and a quality rangefinder.

Know How to Control the Clubface

Scratch golfers know how to control their clubface. There is no wondering or guessing what the clubface is doing in the backswing or at impact. Instead, scratch golfers have complete confidence in the position of their clubhead.

How do you learn how to control the clubface?

There are two ways; the first is practice, and the second is technology. The more you practice, the easier it will be to feel what the clubface is doing.

HackMotion is a great solution for helping you understand how your wrists and hands respond to your moves and what it does to the clubface.

Become a Grip Expert

The golf grip is our only connection with the golf club. If you are good at getting your hands in the correct place on the golf club, you can have a lot more success.

Keep your grip neutral whenever possible, but know how to change it a bit to impact the ball flight.

HackMotion can help you determine if your hands are in the correct position when you set up to hit a golf shot. Pay attention to variations in the starting position with each swing to ensure you are at least relatively close with each swing you take.

Having a conscious thought about your hand position being a part of your pre-shot routine and setup is not a bad thing.

Plan Your Round Ahead of Time

Scratch golfers have a plan for the course.

The night before your round of golf, try to do a mental play-by-play of the round to determine your course of action for your round of golf that day. This could take just five minutes of your time, but it’s important.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, not every hole is a driver hole!

Being smart about the club you choose off the tee, which golf holes are birdie holes and safe par holes, is part of becoming a scratch golfer. As a scratch golfer, you will make bogeys from time to time, but when you make a triple, the day gets much harder.

Learn a Variety of Shots Around the Green

It’s great that you can hit a high lofted shot with your 56-degree wedge that ends up pretty close to the pin. However, this is not always the best shot to hit. The best players have a bag full of shots that they can choose from when around the greens.

You should have both high and low lofted shots to choose from. In addition, I would play around with bounce and grind options on your wedges. If you have all medium bounce wedges, you may struggle when the lie changes.

Also, incorporate more than one golf club for shots around the green. Sometimes a 9 iron is the right club, and other times it’s a lob wedge. Don’t get too stuck on one club being the solution.

Schedule Your Practice

Life is busy, and finding time to put in your golf game is often hard. If your practice is on your schedule, you will get it done. Schedule golf practice like you schedule a doctor’s appointment or a business meeting.

Your practice should focus on a variety of skills. Make sure you dedicate time to the short game and long game. I also recommend practicing the types of golf shots that will get you out of trouble.

If you can learn how to hit a low stinger or how to hit out of thick rough, it will go a long way on the golf holes where you need to save a par.

Incorporate technology into your practice so you have results that you can track and look at over time. When things are working well, and you are playing great golf, you can look at your notes about the type of practice you have been doing and what works for your game.

Lastly, practice gives you confidence that you can accomplish anything on the golf course, take advantage of that concept.

Pay Attention to the Detail

Scratch golfers learn things about their game and the game of golf to become better players. Do you know what wrist extension is? Can you explain and demonstrate the difference between a slice and a hook? What is smash factor?

Learning more and more about the game will only make you a stronger player and give you a greater chance of consistently shooting in the 70’s.

Pay attention to how weather factors into the game, course conditions, equipment, clothing, and even nutrition.

Distance does Matter

When an amateur golfer can drive the ball at least 250 yards, the game of golf gets easier. If you can’t hit the ball all that far, the approach shots you have to the green become more difficult.

Golfers hitting a 4 iron into the green have a smaller percentage of getting it close to the hole than the golfers hitting a 9 iron into the green.

Don’t let people tell you that distance doesn’t matter; it does.

Play with golf equipment that helps you increase your total distances. In addition, make sure that you are working on your physical fitness to become stronger, more balanced, and able to hit the ball further.

Distance matters and it matters even more when you want to become a scratch golfer.

Putting Stroke Needs to be Repeatable

To become a scratch golfer you need a putting stroke that you can repeat. Find a grip you love and learn how to put your hands on the club the same way every time.

Use the HackMotion to measure your wrist angles in putting and see if you can keep them consistent from one stroke to the next. The greens and the conditions are going to vary from one day to the next, make sure your stroke does not.

With Smart Golf, You Can Recover from a Bad Hole

Smart golf involves your decision making ability on the golf course. We see some perfect examples of this when watching professional golf. Recently a professional golfer, Wyndham Clark, was in a hazard near the green.

To some, his ball looked like it might be playable. However, his stance was awkward, and the ball was buried.

Clark knew that if he took the penalty stroke and got up and down, he would make a bogey.

He also knew that if he attempted the shot and didn’t succeed, he was looking at a double or triple bogey. The double or triple bogeys are hard to recover from if you are trying to go low.

Be a smart player, take the penalty stroke sometimes, make a great bogey, and move on to the next hole. Remember that hitting the ball in the rough or the sand means you will have to recover, don’t turn a bad hole into a terrible hole.

FAQs

Here are a few of the most commonly asked questions about how to become a scratch golfer.

How long does it take to become a scratch golfer?

It can take anywhere from 2 years to a lifetime to become a scratch golfer. The athletic ability a player has and the amount of time they put into their golf practice will be the major indication of whether scratch golf is possible.

How hard is it to get to scratch golf?

Scratch golf is hard because it requires golfers to pay attention to so many aspects of the game. You must get good at driving, chipping, putting, approach shots, and more. Scratch golf can be incredibly hard and frustrating but rewarding at the same time.

Can you become a scratch golfer without lessons?

Becoming a scratch golfer without lessons is highly possible. You will need strong discipline and access to technology like video and the HackMotion wrist measuring device.

How many scratch golfers are there in the world?

There are very few scratch golfers in the world; less than one percent of all golfers are scratch players.

Is a scratch golfer a pro?

A scratch golfer is not a pro. Professional golfers have handicaps that are considerably lower than scratch golfers. Those handicaps would be positive handicaps indicating that the player shoots under par when they play.

Final Thoughts

Being a scratch golfer takes a commitment but it’s a goal that is well worth achieving.

Don’t make this process harder on yourself, seek professional help if necessary, invest in technology like HackMotion that can get you there faster, and don’t lose sight of your goal!