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golf-tips
Driving tips
On Course Scoring Drills: 3 Hole Worst Ball Challenge

published: Jul 22, 2024

On Course Scoring Drills: 3 Hole Worst Ball Challenge

Jack BackhouseLink

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Getting the ball in the hole efficiently is a skill that needs to be trained, and there is no better place to do this than the golf course. In this video, PGA Pro Jack Backhouse explains why playing the worst ball will have you scoring lower in competitions.

worst ball

Table of Contents

Jump to:

  • On course scoring drills worst ball challenge
  • On course drills

If you are hitting the ball well but not scoring as well as you want, chances are you could use some on-course practice to sharpen your scoring skills. 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: How To Set Up To Driver
  • RELATED: How Far Should You Hit Your Golf Clubs

On Course Scoring Drills Worst Ball Challenge

The rules of Worst Ball are pretty simple: It’s a scramble in which you play 2 shots, and then instead of picking the best one to play from, you pick the worst one to go and play from. This makes the game much more difficult than it is regularly.

For example, if you hit 2 tee shots from the first tee, you would pick up the ball that found the fairway and then go play 2 shots from the trees, then play the worst ball of those 2 shots and go play 2 more from there, picking the worst results all the way down until you make 2 consecutive putts in a row.

The aim of the game is to try and improve your bad shots, or try to hit your bad shots into better places. Golfers of all abilities are able to hit good shots close, but the difference between the best players and the worst is the quality of their worst shots.

As a golfer if you can learn to hit your bad shots into places where you can make bogey instead of double bogey, you start to drastically improve your scores.

worst ball
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.

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.

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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
  • RELATED – How To Drive The Ball Like Rory McIlroy
  • RELATED – 5 rules of golf changes you need to know about

About the author

Callaway Epic Max driver review
Jack Backhouse

A member of the PGA for 13 years, Jack has lived golf for more than half his life. Inspired by Tiger Wood’s winning putt at the 2008 US Open, an obsession began with watching slow motion golf swings on the internet and reading What’s In The Bag articles in magazines.

Not destined for a life behind the desk in a pro shop, Jack has focussed more on coaching, working closely with regional teams in North Yorkshire and helping golfers of all levels on their journey to enjoying playing the game more. Jack has coached many junior golfers into the county teams, and once worked with a player at the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie.

After letting his game fall apart prior to COVID, Jack rediscovered his love for playing golf after joining Silloth Golf Club in 2020 and whipping round the windy, firm links course. Playing regularly with a half set of clubs he has a passion for shot making and developing skill, and claims to have the sharpest 30-100 yard game in the North of England (only because he doesn’t know anyone in the South), and now maintains a +1 handicap at a club much closer to home, Sand Moor GC.

Jack has always tinkered with his equipment, once building his own Frankenstein one length set of clubs after watching Bryson DeChambeau burst onto the scene after winning the US Amateur. He firmly believes in getting custom fit and is happy to debate anyone about blade irons being superior to any other iron category.

Jack loves: playing quickly, 2 ball golf, match play, heathland courses, pencil bags, foursomes, Tiger Wood’s swing 2005-2009.

Jack hates: buggies, unnecessary trees, giving shots, the 7 iron loft debate, graphite shaft lovers weird superiority complex.

What’s In Jack’s Bag:

Titleist TSR2 Driver

Titleist TSR2 Fairway wood

TaylorMade P7MB 3-P

Titleist SM10 wedges

TaylorMade TP Reserve Blade putter

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