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Country: gb Page generated at: Monday 24 November 2025 at 5:52:30 Greenwich Mean Time
golf-tipsDriving tips

published: Aug 13, 2024

On Course Scoring Drills: 3 Hole Better Ball Challenge

Jack BackhouseLink

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The only place to practice making birdies and getting comfortable shooting low scores is out on the golf course. In this video, PGA Pro Jack Backhouse explains why playing better ball will have you scoring lower in competitions.

Table of Contents

Jump to:

  • Better ball challenge
  • On course drills

If you struggle to make birdies or the game falls apart when you are on for a great score, this on-course scoring drill is for you. In the video below, PGA Professional Jack Backhouse plays 3 holes of the worst ball to show you how it could help your game.

  • RELATED: 3 Things That Destroy Your Golf Game (EASY TO FIX)
  • RELATED: On-Course Scoring Drills: 3 Hole Worst Ball Challenge

Better Ball Challenge

The rules of better ball are pretty simple: It’s a scramble in which you play two shots, pick the best shot, and then play two more from there all the way into the hole. In this format, you get two chances at each shot, which gives you a great chance to score low.

The aim of the game is to score as low as possible. The idea is that you make more pars and birdies than you normally do as you get 2 chances at each shot, and you prove to yourself that you can make good scores.

Some times as a player we need to go shoot a low number to get out of our own heads, feel the pressure of being well ahead of our handicaps and still manage to hit good shots and make more pars and birdies.

This format also serves as a great way to figure out what is going on in your golf swing and how to self-correct it. If you push your first ball out to the right, you get a chance to try and close the face to find the fairway. This can help you when out on the course in a competition and just understand your tendencies and your own swing.

Tiger Woods looks at his ball in the rough on the 18th hole during the second round of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 2) in Village of Pinehurst, N.C. on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Jeff Haynes/USGA)

On Course Drills

A lot of golfers do not see the golf course as a place to go and improve, but this is a HUGE mistake. Ultimately the goal of any lesson or tip or swing change is to improve our scoring on the course, so it is a great idea to go practice on the field that we play on.

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Trying to work some on course drills into your monthly practice schedule will massively improve your scrambling, short game, touch around the greens and ability to hit fairways off the tee. I think amateur golfers would be surprised just how much time tour players or low handicappers spend on the course rather than he driving range.

Give these tips a try and let us know how you get on! If you want to keep up to date with Jack’s instruction you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel here, or keep watching our instruction page!

If you want to watch some more of Jack’s instruction videos, you can get to his YouTube Technique Tips playlist by clicking here. Please check out our other instruction articles if you like this video on on course scoring drills worst ball challenge.

If you are interested in seeking further information from Jack that is more specific to your golf game, you can book an in-person or online golf lesson by clicking here.

  • RELATED – How To Hit A Draw With Driver
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