On Course Scoring Drills: 3 Hole Better Ball Challenge
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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Jack Backhouse
Jack is a PGA Golf Professional who specialises in coaching, teaching golf to beginners and top-level amateurs for 10+ years. He also loves his golf equipment and analysing the data of the latest clubs on the market using launch monitors, specialising in blade irons and low-spinning drivers despite having a chronically low ball flight.
Although Jack has no formal journalism training, He has been reading What's In The Bag articles since he started playing at 12 and studying golf swings since his dad first filmed his swing to reveal one of the worst over-the-top slice swings he reckons has ever been recorded, which set him off on the path to be a coach. His favourite club ever owned was a Ping G10 driver bought from a local top amateur with the hope that some of the quality golf shots would come with it (they didn't), and worst was a Nike SQ driver he only bought because Tiger was using it.
Jack is a member of Sand Moor Golf Club and regularly gets out on the golf course to prepare for tournaments. Jack uses a TaylorMade BRNR Mini driver, a half set of TaylorMade P7MB irons, MG4 wedges and a TaylorMade TP Reserve putter.
