9 tips to effortlessly shoot more stress-free low scores

Ours is a famously frustrating, stressful game. Like the old joke says: It’s called “golf” because all the other four-letter words were taken. But, #$%!, it doesn’t have to be that way, at least not so often. Maybe the smoothest of the smooth are born that way. The rest of us can still produce our best selves — free flowing — at the best times by following a few simple tips.

Here are nine tips you can use to shoot more effortless low scores.

1. Make smart choices

A stress-free round isn’t a trouble-free round. You’re never going to hit every fairway and green. It’s not the bogeys that raise your blood pressure; it’s the angst of trying (and often failing) to pull off difficult recovery shots. Shot choice greatly affects our agita levels: Taking your medicine with a simple pitchout or layup instead of attempting the miraculous keeps golf a walk in the park and doubles and triples off the card.

2. Have a reliable warm-up

Does working yourself into a lather sound like the road to chill? The secret may be in the dirt, as Hogan said, but beating lots of balls is for practice sessions, not for planting the seeds for a stressless round. Keep your warm-up to one bucket, maybe even a small one, and focus on being target-oriented. It may also help to make some practice swings with your eyes closed to feel your motion and get into a relaxed groove.

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3. Nail the grip

Everything in golf, including effortlessness, starts with a good grip. Choking the club to death obviously isn’t the way to begin a buttery move — but neither is a soft grip that’s more in the palms. For effortless oomph, you need to hold the club more in the fingers, which activates the wrists, a key power source. Added bonus: Doing so will help all the slicers out there to square the clubface at impact and eliminate the banana ball. Think of it as an effortless double play.

4. Develop a waggle

Sprinters burst out of the blocks, but an effortless swing isn’t a sprint — it’s more like a leisurely jog, in which you shake out your arms and legs before setting off. Develop a personalized movement as part of your pre-shot routine so that you’re not jolted from a static position. Whether it’s three little wrist wiggles or miming the first 18 inches of your takeaway, devise something that both relaxes and activates you.

5. Make a full turn

Think about all the effortless swings that are short and quick … Okay, stop, because you won’t come up with one. (Tony Finau is the exception that proves the rule.) A big, full, complete, majestic, heroic backswing is needed to store the power that you’ll soon make look like rolling off a log. This may entail some gym work on hip and upper-body flexibility; in the meantime, consider lifting your front heel off the ground to help create that needed coil.

6. Unleash from the top

At the top is where so many effortless swings jump off the bridge. After a syrupy takeaway, suddenly the brain screams, “Now kill!” The hands go hurtling down toward the ball, speed is wasted early in the swing and smooth synchronization disintegrates. To keep the nice flow and gradual acceleration that yield easy power, think about pushing into the ground with your legs to start the downswing. Don’t worry about your hands; they’ll do what they need to on their own.

7. Stick the finish

Not to get too Zen master, but it can be hard to make an effortless swing when you’re thinking about making an effortless swing. One way to overcome the dreaded “paralysis by analysis” is to think instead about getting to a very specific follow-through position. At the range, hold that follow-through position for several seconds after each swing. You’ll be surprised how well your body soon reverse engineers an effortless move to get to that spot.

8. Understand the sand

For many golfers, greenside sand is like quicksand — the more you struggle, the faster you’re swallowed up. To promote the quick wrist hinge and upright swing that makes escaping the bunker a breeze, do this drill: Stick a tee in the butt end of your grip and, during the backswing, hinge your wrists so the tee points directly at the ball. On your downswing, all you need to do is release that angle and let the clubhead glide underneath the ball to blast the ball out of the bunker.

9. Roll it like Crenshaw

Effective putting strokes are repeatable putting strokes. If a jab-and-hit pop stroke works for you, fine. But an effortless, Ben Crenshaw stroke, well, looks like a Ben Crenshaw stroke: It has a longer backswing and a shorter follow-through. This ratio promotes the solid contact that produces effortless power and fewer yippy shorties. Practice a little recoil move soon after impact, which helps shorten the through-stroke and encourages purer impact too.