How to Improve Your Game and Lower Your Scores for $38

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When I began my golf journey, I was never very analytical or paid attention to what parts of my game cost me the most. Over time, my game got sharper, and my scores improved, but for the last two years, I have hovered in the high 80s and occasionally the low 90s. While I had strong points in rounds, my scores never really improved.

Late last year, I decided I needed to find where I was losing my strokes, and it came to me that my approach game was really what was costing me in terms of proximity to the hole. Even when I’d hit a green, I wasn’t in super great shape, and I left myself, more often than not, with a challenging lag putt. I learned that when my approach game was bad, I was snowballing the issue into my putting.

With a bad approach, which translated into three putts on some greens, I was automatically starting with 3 or 4 on any given hole. This put pressure on my tee shot, which was rarely dialed. I sure did have my rounds, but those were never guaranteed, and what really helped me was when I’d get a few good pars or even the occasional birdie.

Until this year, I never knew where my scores were being pushed upward. A few months ago, I came across Journal 18, a comprehensive golf journal that helps track stats, progress, and mental thoughts throughout your rounds.

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It helped me shave at least five strokes off my game so far this year, along with other factors.

Journal 18 arrives to you in a pleasant little box that contains the journal, some tees, a thank you letter, and a bag tag.

This is very welcoming, and I thought it was a great touch. Given that Journal 18 is a very one-of-a-kind company in the sense that there are not many immersive journals like this on the market, at least not to my knowledge, this is a great way to get customers off on the right start.

I could always use the extra tees (because my friends don’t usually have them), and I may not use the bag tag, but it’s a nice little addition for those who would. It’s a good company that truly appreciates your business, so if you’re going to give money to someone, why not give it to them?

The journal cover is made from something similar to that of a composition book but thicker. It is durable and also has a nice sheen to it. If you get some mud or dirt on it, it will be easy to wipe away, which is a great little feature in case you want to play and track your performance in the rain.

It also is the perfect size for your back pocket. It’s about the size of a yardage book, which makes it pretty ideal. I will admit that I didn’t ever keep it there, but I did carry it from the car to the clubhouse in my back pocket, so I know it fits. I usually kept it in the car so I could just write what my stats were for that hole when I was driving to the next tee box.

Now, each round has four dedicated pages: a Pre-Round Thoughts and Goals page, a Scorecard page, a Drives and Approaches page, and a Post-Round Thoughts Page.

Admittedly, my yardages don’t mean much to me. Generally, things are the same, and I know if I’m 134 away from the pin, I’m hitting a 9 iron. I don’t write these things down because I tend to get fixated on them. When a course is dry, like the one I played this past Saturday, my 9 iron got me pin high on a 157-yard approach that set me up for a birdie putt.

I don’t discourage anyone from writing their yardages down, I just don’t find that I need to write them. I know how far I am hitting each club, especially as I’ve improved this year.

Side note — As I mentioned earlier in this piece, my approach game cost me strokes due to proximity, which was mainly solved by getting fitted irons this year and by looking at the takeaways that the journal provided and going to the range and working on these shots and clubs specifically.

The Pre-Round page is where I really found a lot of advantages. A lot of us, me included, tend to lose sight of why we came out on the course to begin with. Of course, I like to have fun. But playing well is fun, and that’s when I have the most fun.

When I have a goal in mind with my round, I tend to play much better than when I don’t have an objective. As you can see here, I had three goals: no fat shots, less than three three putts, and no lost balls. I did lose a ball during this round but accomplished the other two.

I think writing down your goals helps solidify them for your round, and I believe that Journal 18 does a great job of putting things into perspective. What do you want to accomplish? What do you have in mind for this round? What would make you feel that this round of golf was a success?

The Scorecard page is pretty self-explanatory.

Drives and Approaches is where I saw a big advantage in this journal.

Are you losing your tee shots out to the right? Are you hitting your iron shots short more often than not? Is that big slice setting you up for a punch out and a longer approach in?

These pages will tell you that.

I tracked an 18-hole round and a 9-hole round, as you can see here. The tee shots were rather sporadic, and I was coming up short with a lot of my irons. This helped me realize I may need to take an extra club or play more of a runner with less loft.

It also helped me understand what kind of putts I needed to work on. After these rounds, I did a lot of work from 12 feet and in. I do wish it had some sort of column to help track the length of putts, as it is tough to gauge how far your approaches ended up from the hole. It’s very approximate.

The Post-Round page really puts some excellent things into play here. It gives you a chance to not only narrow in on what you did well but what you might have lost sight of during the round.

As you can see, I wrote down some of my strengths and weaknesses during this round. The tempo of my was great, but as previously mentioned, my iron shots consistently came up short.

If you want to improve your game, this is really a great little buy for less than $40.

I’d like to see some more details in terms of proximity to the hole, especially with putt distance and other statistics. I’d also like to see this rounded into a subscription program because I truly believe that I will use all of these pages and then some more without any problem at all. I think there are a lot of advantages to this, and I think that many people could make it even more analytical with GIR and FIR percentages factored into the entire thing.

I’m sure there is room for that on these pages if you want to add it, and I know they’re only so big, but I feel like there might be some more important metrics than others.

For $38, you can pick yours up here, and I highly suggest it if you’re serious about improving your game and finding where you lose strokes.

Cover Image via Golf Channel

GolfTrainingAids Partners with Dan Frost, Debuts The Connector

Joey has been a journalist for over three years, covering various topics in the automotive and sports industries. He has been a passionate golfer for around six years, but has been a fan of the game for much longer. His earliest memories of golf are watching The Masters and learning the game with friends at courses local to him in Pennsylvania, which, despite the challenging climate, he plays year-round. He has attended several golf tournaments, including the BMW Championship in 2021 and 2022, and has been denied (what should be) a record 12 times for The Masters' annual ticket lottery.In his bag, Joey currently plays the TaylorMade Stealth Driver and 3 Wood, TSi2 19° Hybrid, Titleist T300 irons, Callaway Mack Daddy and Tommy Armour Wedges, and a TaylorMade Spider Putter. He plays TP5x or ProV1x.

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GolfTrainingAids.com is the home to every training aid that could help, fix, and refine every aspect of your swing, from full swing to putting.

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And to make sure that GolfTrainingAids are offering products that can actually help, they’ve partnered with accomplished golf instructor, inventor, and entrepreneur Dan Frost—who has worked with British Open Champion Georgia Hall and PGA Tour player Ben Taylor—and will be collaborating on a series of training aid and content-driven projects with the total-game-improvement platform.

And as part of that partnership, GolfTrainingAids has begun offering an all-new training aid, The Connector, created by Frost, inventor of the award-winning Sure-Set.

The Connector is a uniquely designed foam ball device with axis rods running through it to help golfers maintain connection between their arms and torso and improve alignment at impact. That leads to better ball striking and more compression.

The device also provides immediate feedback on the amount of rotation required for a variety of golf skills, from putting all the way to driver swings. The Connector helps golfers establish proper arm position at address and trains the body and arms to work in harmony to make a golfer’s swing motion more efficient.

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Frost said:

“The Connector fits comfortably between a golfer’s arms and is made of very soft memory foam. The innovative design includes a curved axis bar and central alignment stick. The bar allows you to visualize the movement-arc required on different skills, and the alignment stick makes visible the degree of rotation at any stage of the swing. More importantly, it helps set you in the correct alignments at impact to improve ball striking. The real key is improved awareness of both concept and swing feel.”

Frost said:

“It’s about establishing good arm structure at address and then training your body, arms and wrists to work in synch to make the movement efficient. Most amateurs get the experience of less movement. When they watch it back, it looks more Pro-like. The Connector is easy to use. I suggest starting with chips and pitches to experience compression, then venturing into three-quarter swings and full swings. Work through the bag to give some symmetry across the skill sets. There are no complex drills. You just need some patience, as it will initially feel different before reps make those new feelings instinctive to you.”

The Connector is available right now, meaning it could help get all aspects of your game back on track for the second half of the golf season (and before that always important end-of-year boy’s trip). Make sure to hop over to GolfTrainingAids.com to check out this training aid and several others.

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Why Golf has a pretty cool product, they call the “Bunker Mate,” a small, oval-shaped piece of what appears to be a soft, plush carpet that can also double as a pretty accurate simulation of bunkers.

The company sent me one of them a few months ago, and for the past few months, I have been using it to tidy up my game in my unfinished basement. While it also is ideal for the side of practice greens at your local muni, the Why Golf Bunker Mate has given me a reason to be excited about entering bunkers and other challenging short-game scenarios on the course, even though I may do my best to avoid them.

Why Golf describes the product on its website:

“Bunker Mate is designed with a top layer custom developed by WhyGolf to mimic the feel and ball flight of sand, an internal “bounce” layer with just the right amount of resistance to digging, and a bottom rubber layer for weight, traction, and durability.”

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I have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical when Why Golf sent me the sample. I was eager to try it, but I was also questioning how anything on Earth would be able to simulate the challenging nature of a bunker without actually having sand present.

It comes with the Bunker Mate and two foam balls that won’t damage anything. You can skull a shot, and trust me — you will when you first give this thing a go — and it won’t hurt anything, especially not your wife’s brand-new lamp or your precious flatscreen TV. It would probably be best to avoid testing the latter theory, just for good measure.

What I was most impressed with was how the Bunker Mate and the foam balls were able to simulate spin. I have a relatively spinny bunker shot. In my experience, my fast swing and open club face (I usually opt for my 60-degree wedge) produce a quick, high-spin shot that will stop relatively soon based on green conditions.

There is an adjustment period with the Bunker Mate, just like any new club, lie, or scenario in most of our golf games. I will say that once you get the hang of this thing, it is pretty fun to fool around with. I even like to pick a spot on the floor or put down a mug and try to land the ball close to it and get as much spin as I can.

Has this translated to better performance on the golf course?

I will say it is tough to say this with a definitive answer in terms of hitting bunker shots. However, I did find that my overall confidence with wedges increased after I spent a few hours a week with the Bunker Mate at home. I feel like I am more comfortable giving the bounce an opportunity to do its job and am more prone to not decelerate into the ball, which usually results in presenting the leading edge and walking to the other side of the green to hit another shot.

It’s $79.99 on the Why Golf website, and I believe it’s definitely worth it, especially if you can take it to a simulator and let it do its job on there or if you just want something to keep you fresh during the evenings or off-season.

In my opinion, I’d give this a solid 8.5/10.

I’d like to see more foam balls included, I think it could also have some sort of grip or adhesive on the bottom that would keep it from sliding on the ground. One other thing that is tough to emulate with the Bunker Mate is a proper stance, as many pros would recommend digging your feet deep into the sand and getting low. While the Bunker Mate does require your weight to be forward to consistent ball striking, there is no way to translate an identical stance while practicing with it.

Other than that, it’s a really great product.

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In the world of golf, we have countless options to help us improve our game. From taking lessons, doing drills, and of course, the never-ending supply of training aids. A lot of these training aids are designed to help you putt better, hit the ball straighter, and improve your form.

For me, one area of my game that I noticed needed improvement was my impact point with the ball. Not necessarily my face angle or release but my actual impact point. I live in the Midwest and spend my winter in my garage, hitting off a mat. When you hit off a mat for a long period of time, it’s easy to start hitting the ball fat and not even know it.

You can do the traditional towel drill, and that does well. There is a new training aid on the market that will show you exactly how you are striking the ball with immediate feedback of your divot.

That’s where the Divot Board comes into play.

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I started seeing this thing popping up on my Instagram. The design is simple and easy to use. It’s a narrow rubber board that has these fish scale, sequin things on it. You line up the divot board in the direction you want to hit the ball.

After that, you put the ball on the yellow circle in the middle and take a swing. Wherever your club hits the divot board, the sequins will flip over and turn white. Showing you exactly how you hit the ball.

It’s very easy to use, and you don’t even need a ball. You can just take swings. But does it actually help improve your game, and does it hold up to countless swings?

This is what I wanted to know and needed to find out. After receiving my Divot Board, I built a little test using my SkyTrak. I’ve had the SkyTrak for over a year, and that alone has improved my game (check out the SkyTrack Quick Tip series), and I knew that the readings I received on there match my real ball flight.

I wanted to test out Wedges, Scoring irons, Mid, and long irons to see how well the board would hold up. The video below shows the entire test and gives feedback in real-time.

After testing out the Divot Board for a week, I found that this product is an absolute must-have! The feedback I received was instant. We can learn so much from our divot patterns, and being able to see exactly how I’m striking the ball while using a mat was a huge help. Plus, my wife likes that I won’t be tearing up the yard this summer.

I was concerned that the sequins would start flying off after a few dozen shots, and for the most part, they held up really well. The board has definitely started to show wear and tear, but it is still working as indicated. Divot Board says that this product will hold up to 1000 to 3000 shots. This could be more or less depending on your swing speed and how steep your downswing is into the ball.

Using this with the SkyTrack really helped put the “feels and the reals” together for me. After a few weeks of using this product, my impact with the ball has continued to get better with fewer chunked shots. I just played my first round of the year on grass since using the Divot Board, and I didn’t have one chunked shot.

This is the first time this has ever happened to me when coming out of the winter shutdown. This will definitely lead to more consistent striking on the golf course come the summer.

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One thing I didn’t like about the Divot Board was how it sat slightly elevated onto the mat. It’s about an inch thick, all tougher, and can be used outside with little issues, but off a mat, it forced me to choke up on my club more than I would have liked.

One coach I spoke to who grabbed themselves a Divot Board for lessons suggested removing the sequin strip from the board and laying it down on the mat directly. This worked for him, and it’s a great idea. My hitting mat had a warn-out section on it, and I decided to cut out the exact shape of the Divot Board and lay it down as an insert.

This allows me to take full shots without choking up and gives me the outside divot feel while working on my game inside my garage.

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The cost of the Divot Board will run about $140.00. This cost is for the extremely durable board that is made out of a rubber that can withstand high impacts. The board also has these little spikes on the bottom that help keep it from sliding around.

It will also include the strike pad that shows the feedback. The strike pad will come pre-attached to the Divot Board and can be replaced once it’s worn out. The replacement pads currently cost $50. The feedback you receive with this tool is incredible, and in my opinion, the cost is completely worth it.

I reached out to Divot Board, and if you use promo code golficity10, you can get 10% off your purchase.

I’m really excited to see where this product can help take my game, and I’m glad I was able to try it out so I could share my thoughts with you.

Cover Image Via Divot Board

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