Tiger Woods is the greatest player of my lifetime, if not of all time. He wowed us with his driving distance, his amazing iron play, a highlight reel of short game shots, and clutch putting seemingly every time he entered a tournament. While on the outside he seemed superhuman, when you dive deep into his mindset, it was really quite simple. He had five rules that are fairly simple, and while they might not apply directly to all of us, with a few tweaks, we can turn them into something that will fit our own skill level.
Tiger’s 5 rules are as follows:
1. No bogeys on par 5s
2. No doubles
3. No bogeys from 150 yards and in
4. No blown easy up and downs
5. No three putts
A brief look at these make you think, “well duh,” but I think that’s exactly the point. Golf is a hard game to master, but the idea of how to shoot good scores is actually quite simple.
If you are a scratch golfer, these rules most likely apply to you, but if you are a 20 handicapper, these don’t necessarily apply. We can, however, adjust them a little bit to make them suit your game as well.
Let’s look at them one at a time:
1. No bogeys on par 5s
When you look at the PGA Tour, the average score on par 3s and 4s is over par. The par 3 scoring average is about 3.07, and the par 4 scoring average is around 4.04. This shows us that over the course of a season, the single most important thing contributing to a Tour player’s scoring average is par 5 performance. Par 5s are the real opportunities to make birdies, so bogeying one is absolutely disastrous.
This rule certainly applies to a scratch golfer, probably a single digit handicapper, and possibly into the low teens handicapper. As we get higher, however, we may adjust this rule to “no doubles on par 5s.” That being said, if anyone of any skill level wants to lower their scores, no bogeys on par 5s is a good goal to start with.
2. No double bogeys
We can live with bogeys. Golf is too hard to expect us to never make a bogey. As I said in rule one, par 3s and 4s play over par, so by definition we are going to make bogeys. Doubles are killers, though. I don’t subscribe to the idea that “we can get the bogey back on the next hole with a birdie;” I think what’s in the past is in the past. But if we were to believe in that mantra, then it takes two holes to get back a double, and there just aren’t enough holes in a round to want to deal with that.
I recognize there’s a lot that can happen that will lead to a double, and it’s not quite as easy as saying “just don’t make one.” I don’t think I’ve ever TRIED to make a double, but we can look at the biggest reasons that doubles happen, and then create a game-plan to slowly eliminate those from our game.
Some things that come to mind are:
-penalty strokes, especially off the tee
-chipping more than once on a single hole (more on this later)
-three putts (more on this later)
-trying to be a hero in a recovery situation (trees, fescue, etc)
-getting too aggressive with approach shots
We can get into more detail with some of these things, but our goal is to eliminate these double bogeys over time.
3. No bogeys from 150 yards and in
This is the first one where I REALLY think we need to adjust based on skill level. The yardage for this will vary depending on your skill level. A scratch golfer might be 130-150 yards, but a 10 handicap may be closer than 120 yards, and a 20 handicap, this yardage may be 100 yards or less. There are plenty of resources out there that can tell us what that yardage is (Lou Stagner, Jon Sherman might both talk about this), but I am more interested in the idea of this for the time being. We can get into specifics later. The point is to manage our expectations so we can create our practice plans according to our needs.
One thing to note: the idea of bogey should be clarified a bit. Assuming Tiger’s drive was in the fairway, he basically means that he wants to get the ball in the hole in less than 3 shots (3 shots being par, 2 being birdie). If he had to chip out of the trees to 130 yards, his rule is still to get the ball in the hole in 3 shots or less, even though that may mean bogey (3 shots is a bogey, 2 shots is a par). Keep this in mind in case you have to get out of trouble so you don’t think you need to get up and down from 100 yards for par. The expectation is to get down in 3 shots or less from whatever that distance is.
4. No blown easy up and downs
This one also has a couple of tweaks, in my opinion, based on your skill level. What Tiger is saying here is that he wants to make sure he is taking care of the easy up and downs. These would include, for him (keep that in mind!), short bump and runs from just off the green, straightforward bunker shots, and even basic chips from the rough, assuming he has a good lie.
Let’s not be too demanding of ourselves and think that we should get all of those up and down every time as well. Certainly we can all improve on our simple bump and runs from just off the green, but most of us should have a different set of expectations when it comes to the short game.
There are a couple different ways we can adjust this rule to fit our handicap level. The first being just hit the green. Having to chip twice on a hole is devastating, so let’s just get it on the green. This is especially true from bunkers, thick rough around the green, and tricky tight lies from the fairways surrounding the greens. Hitting the green at least gives us a chance to make the putt to get up and down.
As we improve our handicaps, we may adjust this to hitting it inside a 10 foot circle, 6 foot circle, etc, but we still need to manage our expectations and realize that we are not Tour players. We aren’t going to get these up and down every time, but as we improve, that circle shrinks, increasing our chance to make the putt and convert the up and down.
5. No three putts
This rule needs no adjustment based on skill level. It is pretty straightforward. Eliminating three putts is a quick and easy way for anyone to improve their scores. How do we lower our chances of 3 putting? The first one is to practice lag putting. I consider lag putting anything outside of a 15-20 foot range. At this distance, I stop really thinking about making the putt and start thinking about just putting good speed on it (if it drops in, that’s a bonus).
Depending on how far we are away from the hole, our goal could be to get it to tap-in range, inside a 3 foot circle, or maybe even a 5 or 6 foot circle if there is something crazy about the green. The goal, though, is to get it as close as we can to the hole in order to increase our chances of making the second putt. I think most people assume you’re missing short putts when you three putt, but I have a hunch that if you really look at why you are three putting, you will find that you aren’t hitting your lag putts close enough.
That brings us to the second part which is being rock solid from 5 feet and in. We want to practice these and feel confident so that we have a little less anxiety from those lag putt ranges. We know that we don’t have to hit it to a foot from 50 feet because we will be able to make that 3-4-5 foot putt to save our two putt. If you were paying attention, this means that almost all of our practice is from inside 5 feet and outside of about 15-20 feet. That 8-15 feet range isn’t really a putt we expect to make, but I don’t think we are thinking about 3 putting it either.
A side note about why lag putting is so important: being confident we can get the ball down in two on the greens will free us up with our approach shots. We don’t have to fire towards flags because we know that we can two putt from 30-40-50 feet. This is a different discussion, but aiming towards the center of the greens will help our scores, and being confident we can two putt from there will help us trust that as the correct course management.
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