When people ask me what it took to become a scratch golfer, my simple answer now is, “I learned to control the face of the club at impact.”
- Jon Sherman
Commentary
As a former competitive, low-handicap golf obsessive, I’ve read my fair share of golf books. The vast majority of them, I cannot recommend. However, The Four Foundations of Golf is one of the best, and it will join the short stack of books alongside Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons and Dave Stockton’s The Art of Scoring, which I deem required reading for any serious golfer.
Sherman lays out many facets of the game that I’ve intuitively grasped over the years but does so with simplicity, clarity, and rigor—no small feat.
I believe golfers of all levels will take away different insights from Four Foundations, and it’s a book to revisit as one's skill progresses.
I wish someone had handed me this book when I first caught the golf bug. I spent countless hours on the range and course, working on swing mechanics and shot patterns that, in hindsight, play an insignificant role in skill progression and the overall enjoyment of the game.
What I’m Stealing
Avoiding three-putts, improving speed control, and modestly increasing make rates inside of 10 feet is a realistic recipe for lowering scores.
Understanding your dispersion patterns and tendencies is key to optimizing strategic play.
Greens in regulation is the most meaningful statistic for lowering handicaps.
Advance the ball as far as possible while avoiding major trouble.
Start every hole thinking “driver first,” then find a compelling reason not to hit it.
Successful tee shots are more about keeping the ball in play and avoiding trouble than hitting fairways.
Fairway bunkers, trees, penalty areas, and out-of-bounds cost golfers far more strokes than ending up in light rough.
“Pin avoidance” saves strokes. Resisting the urge to aim for the pin is a universal concept that helps all golfers.
Once proficient at reading greens, shift focus almost entirely to speed control.
Green speeds vary daily. Constantly recalibrate. This is a skill in itself.
Randomize practice sessions by introducing changes with each repetition.
Experiment with ball position and tee height.
Learn to control the clubface at impact.
Elite professionals and amateurs have a driver dispersion of 60-70 yards.
Track the Following in Each Round:
Fairways hit.
Successful tee shots: advancing the ball near your average distance with a clear path to the green and a reasonable lie (including light rough).
"Oops Swings"—when your ball ends up in a recovery situation, penalty area, or out of bounds.
Putting skills: speed control, face control, and green reading ability.
Give up a significant amount of control. Embrace the randomness.
Supplemental Resources
Two pivotal moments took my golf game to new heights almost overnight. The first was learning how to properly sequence my body to generate clubhead speed. The second was mastering the path/face ratio. The path/face ratio is perhaps the least intuitive concept in golf, but once you understand and practice controlling it, your ability to manage curvature and dispersion becomes virtually limitless.
The course strategy outlined in the video below completely transformed my psychology off the tee box. Similarly, I’ve developed a simplified version of this. One of my favorite hacks for lowering scores is using the in-cart GPS screen (when available) to locate the widest part of the hole and hit a club that advances the ball to that distance. The number of times I’ve hit what felt like a huge block or slinging draw off the tee, only to end up a few feet into light rough using this strategy, has saved me from countless double bogeys. Knowing you’re aiming for the broadest part of the hole is also liberating psychologically.
Towards a Biomechanical Understanding of Tempo in the Golf Swing
My thoughts on tempo are that it is the outcome or side effect of proper sequencing. Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, and Ben Hogan are often considered tempo gods, and I can guarantee they didn’t spend much time practicing with a metronome. By sequencing the backswing properly and building inertia, the slight pause at the top happens naturally as the body changes direction and unloads stored energy to generate clubhead speed, resulting in a natural tempo.
There are also examples of successful swings that likely fall outside of the ratio described in the paper—such as Hideki Matsuyama's.
Four Foundations of Golf Website
Dog ears, highlights, marginalia
Keep reminding yourself that you don’t need to be perfect to play your best golf; you need to be patient. At a minimum, one part of your game can feel like a struggle on any given day.
Putting is perhaps the most difficult and misunderstood part of golf. Golfers have their best chance of holing putts inside of 8 feet, and outside of those distances, it becomes more of a test of speed control and proximity.
Three-putt avoidance and improved speed control are how most players lower their scores while modestly increasing their make rates inside of 10 feet.
Putting is not as influential in scoring differential as we first assumed. Broadie assigned 15% importance to putting in determining any player’s score. It turns out putting is much harder than we all thought, and it’s harder for golfers to separate themselves from one another with the flat stick.
I always liken golf strategy to playing poker, or even gambling in general. You have to weigh the odds and try to make rational decisions on every shot, but your emotions make that very difficult to do.
Smart strategy in golf is like smart investing. Have a long-term view, and avoid the temptation to make decisions based on short-term disruptions.
The majority of this book is about helping you limit double bogeys. This concept is so important to me that the phrase "fighting the war on double bogeys" is the official tagline of my website Practical Golf. Double bogey avoidance is crucially important when it comes to strategy.
Aggressive decision-making, particularly on approach shots and greenside wedges, is counterproductive.
Think of birdies as an occasional bonus. Overall, you should not pursue them; it will create more mistakes than it’s worth.
A typical PGA Tour player averages about 3.5 birdies per round, and most of those occur on Par 5s.
start thinking of yourself as a disciplined golfer that plays the wise odds on each shot.
It is a very low-percentage play based on my tendencies.
I am thinking about what I can do to avoid the main trouble on the hole,
I have a plan going in, and I decide on each shot based on the hole layout and my tendencies.
If you're playing a shot into the wind, spin and trajectory are your enemies. A nicely executed punch shot will keep the ball low and reduce the spin on the ball. Despite executing those shots well on the practice tee, I've found I tend to strike it heavy or hook the ball too much in an actual round. It requires muscle memory outside of my normal swing, and I don't find enough practice time to make it work. Do you know what I do to solve this problem? I use more club. If my standard shot called for a 7-iron, I take a 4 or 5-iron. The lower loft on the club will take care of lowering the spin and trajectory on its own.
Strategy changes on approach shots. I believe that shifting into a more conservative mode will yield lower scores. The primary goal is to land the ball on the putting surface regardless of the pin position.
A golfer's ability to hit a green in regulation is perhaps the most crucial statistic for lowering handicaps. It’s one of the few traditional statistics that I believe is still a predictor of scoring.
The optimal strategic play combines the dispersion of your shots with how far you are from the hole.
Rich showed me how his team improved their performance using strokes gained analysis and Mark’s app, Golfmetrics. Then he showed me how he planned all of his players’ tee shots for each round using a combination of satellite imagery from golf courses and his players’ dispersions that he verified with launch monitor testing. He could map out optimal targets and club selections based on the typical shot patterns. Rich told me it had improved the players’ confidence off the tee and helped their scoring averages. They were able to hit driver where it made sense on a line that mitigated the risk from big trouble and lay back on holes where the landing area between big trouble was too narrow.
reaction was, “wow...that makes complete sense!!!” Naturally, I wanted to know where he got the idea from, and he told me it was from a guy named Scott Fawcett. His DECADE course management system was becoming extremely popular amongst college teams (eventually, the NCAA banned his seminar because they deemed it an unfair advantage). In a nutshell, Scott analyzed shot distribution data from tons of elite players using strokes gained analysis, as well as satellite imagery of golf courses to determine the optimal club selection and aim off the tee. I would urge all of you to search YouTube and watch the video “NGCAA Driving Video” - a lightbulb will likely go off in your head. I also highly recommend his DECADE app.
advance the ball as far as possible while avoiding the big trouble.
Overall, if you want to play your best golf, I fully agree with Scott Fawcett’s philosophy, which states you start each hole thinking driver first, and then you have to find a good reason not to hit it.
Successful tee shots are more about keeping the ball in play and avoiding trouble than hitting fairways. Fairway bunkers, trees, penalty areas, and out of bounds cost golfers far more strokes than hitting it in light rough.
No matter what level of golfer you are, “pin avoidance” can save you strokes. I know coaches who teach strategy to professional golfers and top-level college players who have improved their players’ scores by convincing them not to aim at pins. I’ve seen major championship winners who admitted that going for the pin most of their career prevented them from winning more. Resisting the pin is a universal concept that can help all golfers.
No matter the situation, if you can resist the urge to pin hunt, you will save strokes!
More skilled ball strikers can use yardages closer to the middle of the green more often. However, always avoid playing to the front of the green yardage even if the pin is there! As you get closer to the hole, particularly inside of 100 yards with your wedges, you can adjust your target a little closer to the hole. But always aim away from the pin, and closer to the center of the green - avoid being short-sided at all costs!
Remember, if you make a bogey, you are keeping pace with PGA Tour players.
once you become more proficient at reading greens, you must shift your focus almost entirely to speed control.
I highly recommend using the DECADE app or Golfmetrics. Another solution would be from a popular GPS app called 18Birdies.
Two of my favorites are Blue Golf (www.bluegolf.com) and the 18Birdies App, which you can use on your phone.
I have found the following formula from Andrew Rice, a top 50 instructor, to be helpful when hitting into the wind: 5 mph = 5% of the total distance + 5 yards 10 mph = 10% of the total distance + 5 yards 15 mph = 15% of the total distance + 5 yards 20 mph = 20% of the total distance + 5 yards
The following formula from Andrew Rice can help estimate club selections when hitting shots downwind: 5 mph = 2% of the total distance 10 mph = 3% of the total distance 15 mph = 5% of the total distance 20 mph = 7% of the total distance
Random practice introduces some kind of change on each repetition. Some research indicates that it is more effective at building long-term skills and improving performance.
No matter what method of practice you choose, engagement and focus are critical factors for success.
Another experiment I love to do is altering tee height. Start adjusting your tee in low, medium, and high positions. See how it changes your impact location on the driver’s face (or other clubs you use off the tee). Your goal is to reduce strikes towards the bottom of the face and get them more towards the center or above it.
In 2004 he published his findings in the best-selling book Tour Tempo, and then again in 2011 with Tour Tempo 2 (which offered an update with the short game). He also has created various training aids, the most popular being his series of tones that golfers can use to help hone their tempos. I did not stumble upon John's findings until around 2016. I'm thrilled I did because understanding the concept of tempo has made me a better ball striker and plenty of readers of Practical Golf as well.
The paper is entitled “Towards a Biomechanical Understanding of Tempo in the Golf Swing.”
Garrity believes that once the players figured out they could speed up their swings while maintaining the proper swing tempo, they started to add considerable distance while maintaining control.
The first step is working with the tones from the Tour Tempo app (you can find it on most app stores through your phone, which costs $24.99).
I have found a couple of other methods that are a little easier but will require further investment. Currently, Garmin has two GPS watches with a tempo training feature - the Approach S60 and Approach S62.
found a product called the Divot Board.
FACE TO PATH RELATIONSHIP
When people ask me what it took to become a scratch golfer, my simple answer now is, “I learned to control the face of the club at impact.”
YouTube - search for “The Royalty of Shot Shape.” It’s a great video from Andrew Rice explaining these concepts using chess pieces.
However, I’d suggest that doing more blocked practice with your driver and repeating the same setup (once you figure out what works best) over and over again can help ingrain positive habits and produce better results on the course. That’s why I’ll spend some time exploring how experimenting with ball position and tee height is so beneficial.
Tee Claw
most elite professionals and amateurs have a 60-70 yards driver dispersion.
Another helpful cue is how your shoulders/spine are titled at address and focusing on weight distribution. A common side effect of moving the ball up in the stance is that a golfer will feel like they need to place most of their weight on the lead foot. This can cause your spine and shoulders to tilt forward. As a result, this can cause a downward angle of attack.
Speed control requires more feel and adjusting technique (another way to describe skill). It’s hard for any golfer to expect to develop speed control if they cannot play or practice it much. Whether you’re playing the same course, or different ones all the time, green speeds change daily. You have to adjust and recalibrate constantly.
Alternatively, if you are not using a stat-tracking system, you could use my definition of a successful drive as a better measuring stick. You could track the following three scenarios in each round: Fairways hit Successful tee shots: you advanced the ball close to your average distance, have a clear path to the green, and a reasonable lie (think light rough). “Oops Swings” - whenever your ball ends up in a recovery situation, penalty area, or out of bounds.
The three primary putting skills are speed control, face control, and green reading ability.
The biggest problem I see is relevancy. Every golfer has multiple puzzle pieces in their swing. The goal is to make them all fit together to hit functional golf shots by satisfying various impact fundamentals. When you start taking random pieces, like changing your takeaway or your wrist angles at the top of your swing, and inserting them into your swing puzzle, often they don’t fit.
Fit For Golf app.
You can learn more at www.fitforgolf.blog
DST Compressor training aid
Overall, golf has so much randomness that you will have to give up a significant amount of control.
One of the few nuggets of wisdom he did impart on me sticks out to this day. He told me that he tries to do everything exactly the same when he plays in tournaments. While that might sound generic, Tom said that even the rhythm he walks and picks up his tee after a shot is identical.