From the Golf Digest archive: Legends like Nicklaus, Snead, Watson and Lopez offer tips to play smarter golf

In the February 1980 edition of Golf Digest, instruction editor Dick Aultman began his piece with a question: "How could I be so stupid?"

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It was, he surmised, the frustration expressed by so many golfers upon hitting a bad shot into some impossible lie, picking the wrong club, or letting their anger get the best of them on the course. The universality of golfers making mental mistakes provided the framework for Aultman to cull advice on playing “smarter” from Golf Digest’s embarrassment of talent among its contributing instructors and playing editors—at the time they’d won 52(!) major championships between them.

The beauty of these observations, even in 2024, is the stature of those in this story—some of them still with us, other who have sadly passed—as well as the timeless nature of the advice. In many ways, golf is a vastly different game than it was 40 years ago, but human nature and our brains are very much the same.

The original story was titled, “17 Ways to Play Smarter Golf.” We whittled it down a bit, but have hopefully preserved the very best pieces of advice.

Tom Watson: Four times when you need a longer club

Underclubbing is by far the most prevalent tactical error in golf. It gets even worse in certain situations. You should be especially aware of the need for using more club:

• When the air is damp. My normal 7-iron distance is 155-160 yards, but in wet, heavy air it’s about 150. If I fail to adjust for this loss of distance, I’ll finish some 15-30 feet short of the flagstick.

• When playing into a strong headwind. Most golfers badly underestimate the extent that a headwind will shorten a shot. Many are reluctant to step down more than one number in their club selection no matter how hard it is blowing. I believe that when the wind velocity is more than 10 miles per hour you should step down at least two clubs. I’ve often gone down four or five clubs.

• From an uphill lie. We tend to forget that an uphill lie in effect adds to the loft of the club we’re swinging. It tilts us back onto our rear foot so that even a slight upslope can make a 6-iron shot, for instance, fly the same height and distance as a normal 7-iron. A steeper slope might make it fly like an 8-iron or 9-iron.

• When shooting to a raised green. When the green sits higher than the ball you intend to play, it will interrupt the ball’s flight. It will stop the shot before it can carry forward as far as it normally would The higher the green sits above your ball’s level, the more club you will need.

Jack Nicklaus: Every golfer needs a Jack Grout

A lot of golf's appeal lies in the continual challenges it presents.

These can be so severe that there is a great feeling of achievement and satisfaction whenever we overcome them.

For many golfers there seems to be too much challenge. Often this is because the golfer tries to fight his battles entirely alone. He tries to apply all the corrections that he thinks he needs, in the ways he thinks are best, to eliminate all the errors he thinks he makes. And, sooner or later, he must fail, because the odds he’s bucking are just too steep.

Players who are serious about improving at golf over the long haul need to find a qualified person who can observe and diagnose just what their strengths and weaknesses really are, who can prescribe the things they really need, and who can see that they adopt these things successfully.

Jack Grout has been diagnosing, fixing and overseeing my game since I first took up golf at age 10. I still rely on him, either to put out a particular fire or to help me avoid starting one.

Most amateurs would play better and enjoy it more, if they had a Jack Grout in their golfing lives.

Sam Snead: Yuh gotta dance with who yuh brung

I’ve played with a lot of golfers, and it seems like 98 percent of their long shots are slicing off to the right. They know the ball is going over there, but they make it worse for themselves by continuing to aim straight down the fairway or directly at the flagstick.

They’d be much better off if they took a lesson or two and got rid of the slice, but until then they might as well allow for it.

There’s nothing wrong with doing that sort of thing. Many times before a round my practice shots have tended to fade off to the right or hook a bit to the left. I’ve just allowed for it that day on the course. You don’t have time to make a big adjustment, so I figure if it’s going to fade, it’s going to fade.

It’s like they used to say about going to a party with a homely girl: “Yuh gotta dance with who yuh brung.”

Paul Runyan: Ways to improve your emotional control

Of all the extremely talented players I have known or observed over the years, Ben Hogan stands out in my mind as being the one who improved the most during his professional career. He went from being a relatively poor striker of the ball to one of the best the game has ever known.

Obviously, his phenomenal shot-making skills helped him become so successful. And no doubt his unrelenting dedication to practice made these skills possible.

I am quite sure, though, that Hogan’s success also resulted from something besides the excellent control he had over his shots.

It was also due to his outstanding emotional control.

Seldom did he allow a substandard shot, or any other distraction, to penetrate his composure. Seldom did he allow his emotions to interfere with his judgment, or to create the physical tension that can ruin one’s swing.

Furthermore, Hogan’s emotional control was not a chance happening. I believe it was something he learned—something he developed through practice as surely as he developed ball control on the driving range.

A person can learn emotional control. It does take practice, but the technique is really so simple and obvious that it’s almost hard to believe it works.

It’s really a mild form of self-hypnosis. You simply talk yourself into not letting a bad shot, a bad hole, bad luck or whatever, disturb you. You just take a deep breath and think about something else, perhaps your next shot, or maybe some pretty flowers or trees along the way.

After the round you should take some time to reflect on your good and bad shots, and about the overall flow of your game—its ups and downs. Try to recall any particular incident that upset you and led to further mistakes. Dwell on just how that incident affected your thinking, your planning, your swing.

Frank Beard: Practice short game more to lower your scores

Obviously, golfers mismanage their games on the course. No doubt this is a major reason their scores are higher than their technical skills warrant.

What might be less obvious— but at least as true—is that most golfers also mismanage their efforts to improve their scores.

They do not seem to realize just how important it is to maintain a strong short game. Nor do they appreciate the tremendous limitation that an inefficient short game puts on their scoring potential.

How can a man who shoots 95, say, ever hope to score in the 80s consistently if he does not practice the strokes that make up two-thirds of the shots he now takes?

Yes, a 90s-shooter will either putt, chip, pitch or play from a greenside bunker about 65-70 percent of the time. But what percentage of his practice time will he spend on these shots? Maybe 25 percent, if he is truly exceptional. If he’s typical he won’t practice them at all, except perhaps for stroking a few putts before a round to get a feel for the greens.

For these players for sure, and perhaps for you as well, the ratio should be reversed. Try spending 75 percent of your time on your short game and 25 percent on your full shots, and see if your scores do not begin to drop almost immediately.

Gary Wiren: A pre-swing routine improves consistency

When an airline pilot or his plane fails to perform correctly, the results can be tragic. That’s why a pilot is required to run through a specific pre-flight routine before each takeoff.

While your golf shots are not a matter of life or death, the proper management of your game on the course does require that you, too, follow a “pre-flight” routine before each shot. Doing the same thing before each swing adds a consistent, familiar pattern to your game. It makes your shots more consistent, which allows you to plan them more accurately and realistically beforehand.

Your pre-swing routine should help you accomplish certain objectives. I want my pre-swing routine to help me (1) aim the club and align myself correctly, (2) swing the club freely and (3) return the clubface to a square alignment at impact.

Since I do my best job of aiming if I first sight the target from behind the ball, I’ve made that sighting part of my routine. Then, to help me swing freely, I waggle the club as I set up to the ball and refocus on my target, thus releasing tension from my arms. To have much chance of making square contact, I’ve found that I must elevate my left wrist slightly just before starting my swing to get closer to the impact position.

Your objectives need not be the same as mine—pre-swing routines are almost as individualistic as fingerprints. The main thing is to have a routine and use it, not only on the course but on each and every practice shot as well.

Nancy Lopez: Build confidence by learning to putt well

When I was in high school, I realized that my putting stroke needed a complete overhaul. I knew it would not hold up under the competitive pressures I’d be facing.

So, for about two years, almost daily, I’d come in from the course and practice putting for an hour or so, or until my back got tired. I might putt 100 five-footers. Then I might compete for Cokes with the guys on my school team— closest to the hole would win. That was great for developing distance control.

All this practicing gave me confidence in my putting that I’ve maintained ever since. Whenever I’ve been disappointed in my performance, I’ve simply worked a little bit harder.

This confidence in my putting really helps me do a better job of managing myself and my game. I think it would do the same for you. Then, if you make a mistake along the way, you won’t panic and feel you need to make some sort of miraculous recovery. You merely assume that sooner or later your putter will make up for the error.

Now when I face an important putt in a tournament, I never think about the consequences of missing. I know I’ve made that same type of putt many, many times before.

Instead, I merely think about making a smooth stroke. If I succeed, I figure the ball should drop; it’s worked out that way so often in the past.

To become a really confident putter, of course, you must first become a skillful putter. Fortunately, almost everyone has that potential. I suggest you start by taking a putting lesson. Then work on what you’ve been taught. After just one or two practice sessions, you should feel your confidence beginning to grow.

Bob Toski: The tee is the best place NOT to attack

Most golfers have many problems in managing their games. One of the more common is that they try to attack the hole from off the tee.

They’re up there with the driver. They know it’s supposed to make the ball go far. So they end up making an uncontrolled swing with the one club that’s the most difficult of all to control.

And since they are on the attack, they chop down into the ground on the one shot where the ball is already up in the air on a tee, from where it should be swept away with a level or slightly upward-moving clubhead. (These same golfers, often will lift or flip the club upward on approach shots, trying to make them fly high, when they really need a descending blow to get the ball airborne well.)

Wise golfers seldom attack from the tee. They know that being too aggressive in planning and execution from there often puts them in trouble, from where they can escape only by playing conservatively.

Play conservatively off the tee— perhaps by swinging a 3-wood— to keep the ball in play. Then you have the option of being more aggressive in playing the shots that follow.

Cary Middlecoff: Accentuating the negative can be good strategy

"Where is the best place for this shot to finish?”

For many golfers this is more or less the first and only question they ask themselves before choosing the club and playing the shot.

If the hole were cut far into the back portion of the green, for instance, this sort of player would select the club that he was quite certain would fly and run the ball back to the flagstick.

My strategy is a bit more conservative. The first thing I ask myself is, "Where do I not want to play my next shot from?”

Given the above situation, I would not stress getting the ball back to the flagstick if there were any sort of trouble beyond the green. If I knew of, or suspected, such trouble, I would probably choose the club that I knew would not put me there, no matter how well I struck the shot.

You might call this strategy “negative.” I think it’s simply “realistic,” especially for the average golfer whose shots might not be too predictable anyway.

Assuring yourself that you cannot put the shot into deep trouble eases your mind. You’ll swing with less tension, physical or mental. You’ll make better shots.

You should, of course, have a target in mind on each shot. Just make sure it’s one that you can miss by a fair margin without severely penalizing yourself.

Jim Flick: Check your lie before choosing your club

Many golfers base their club selection almost entirely on the length of the upcoming shot. Others will also consider any wind. Most pay too little attention to the lie of the ball.

Does it rest on any sort of slope? How much grass, if any, cushions it? How much covers its back side, or blocks its takeoff path? Are the blades thick or thin? Stiff or soft? Wet or dry?

The lie is often the most important factor in determining what type of shot you will get with a given club. It influences not only overall distance, but also height, initial direction, degree of curve, length of carry and amount of bounce and roll thereafter.

For instance, if your ball sits somewhat down in the grass, you must minimize the amount of grass that can interfere with the clubhead as it moves into the ball. Swinging the club more steeply downward to the ball will help.

However, this steepening of the downswing, though necessary for solid contact, will in effect take loft off the club you are swinging. That 8-iron you have in your hands might be carrying the effective loft of a 6-iron at contact. The shot will probably fly lower than your normal 8-iron shot, but not so far as your normal 6-iron shot.

The effect of a given lie can vary from golfer to golfer. A player who normally hooks the ball from right to left would probably find this tendency aggravated when the ball rests above his feet on a sidehill lie. But someone who normally slices from left to right just might find that shots from this same lie tend to fly amazingly straight.

As you practice and play, develop the habit of noticing—for future reference—just how your shots tend to react from different types of lies.

Peter Kostis: I’d rather switch than fight

Do you remember the man in the cigarette ads, the one who’d rather fight than switch?

Many golfers are similarly inflexible. They fail to adjust to the numerous, widely varying external and internal conditions that directly affect their shots.

An example would be the player who always tees off with a driver on the par-4 and par-5 holes, or the man who always selects his 5-iron if the target is 150 yards away. These golfers remain oblivious to such vital variables as wind, terrain, lie of the ball, status of the match, their current tension level, their overall capability at that moment, and so on.

Some people simply do not know that these conditions need to be considered. Others do, but lack sufficient information to predict the effect such conditions have on a given shot. This information can come with experience.

Others have substantial information and experience but fail to apply it. Often they fail to do so because they do not play in the “present tense.” They cannot be aware of current conditions because they are dwelling on such things as three-putting the last green (“past tense”) or thinking about the upcoming hole where they often drive out-of-bounds (“future tense”).

To score according to your current potential, and to gather more data for future improvement, you must play in the present tense. And as you do, your credo should be, “I’d rather switch than fight.”

Davis Love III: Accept the fact you’ll hit some bad shots

Emotional control rates first with me among the things you need to manage your game successfully. Without composure, you can’t think clearly or swing the club freely at a pace you can control.

Your emotional control might improve if you will accept a couple of facts that apply to all golfers, though not to the same degree.

First, accept that you are going to mis-hit more shots than you strike solidly. Bad shots are a normal part of the game, just as surely as incomplete passes are a part of football and missed shots are a part of basketball.

With this fact in mind, you’ll become less upset or frightened when you do make a mistake. You’ll be less likely to compound the error by trying to pull off a perfect shot on your next try.

Second, accept the fact that your talent level will probably vary from day to day, and even within a given round. There will be times when you will not be at your best. This is inevitable in golf; it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

The thing to do at these times is to regroup and start planning and playing simpler shots. Give yourself more margin against error in selecting your targets. Settle for less distance off the tee.

By retaining your composure and by attempting shots that you are more likely to play well, both your confidence and your talent level will begin to rise much sooner.