Butch Harmon is unquestionably one of the best golf coaches in the world, and he has spent decades working with some of the greatest golfers of all time.
Harmon is highly respected in the game and is often approached by many of the top ranked players to help them with certain issues they have.
Tommy Fleetwood recently went to Harmon for help with his driving, and what an incredible impact the 82-year-old’s advice has had on the Englishman’s career.
Harmon has worked with Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and many, many more top-class players throughout his coaching career.
He doesn’t spend as much time coaching as he used to now, and he is never afraid to air his opinions on controversial topics in the world of professional golf.
Harmon urged the PGA Tour to punish slow-play by handing out penalty strokes to players, after Patrick Cantlay’s tediously slow play at the Tour Championship last week.
However, while he partakes in the odd commentary gig here and there, his main passion has always been coaching. So who better for amateur golfers to learn from than Harmon himself?
Butch Harmon tells amateur golfers the fastest way to lower their scores
The main thing that makes Harmon such a great coach is the way in which he simplifies everything.
He is well known for never changing a player’s swing but instead just making minor corrections to improve their overall action.
And now the highly acclaimed golf coach has shared some really simple advice for amateur golfers looking to improve their games.
Harmon shared a very simple tip to help amateurs shave four or five strokes off their scores.
He said: “You know, I’m asked this all the time by club golfers. ‘What do I need to do to improve’? ‘What do I need to do better’?
“Everybody is so enamoured with distance these days, they’re buying new drivers with different shafts to try and hit the ball further.
“If you think about it, 65 per cent of the shots you hit during the course of a round are from under 100 yards – wedge shots, chip shots, bunker shots, putting.
“If your long game never improved and you improved your short game, you would shoot four or five shots lower every time you play.
“So don’t worry so much about that big ego you have and buying that driver that is going to let you hit it three yards further. Spend a lot of time working on your short game to bring your scores down.“
How an 18-handicap golfer compares to a scratch player
Arccos Golf conducted an in-depth study on the stats of an average golfer vs a scratch player.
And the results highlighted a major difference between the two levels of golfer.
A scratch golfer averages around 56% of greens hit in regulation while that number drops down to 23% for 18-handicappers.
From 25 yards and in around the greens, a scratch golfer will get up and down roughly 57% of the time.
Meanwhile, an 18-handicap player will only get down in two shots 26% of the time.
Golfers off 18 average around 3.7 three-putts per round compared to scratch players’ 1.3.
The gulf between a scratch golfer and an 18-handicapper is clear to see from those figures above. If you were to compare a scratch golfer’s numbers to a PGA Tour pro’s, the difference would be just as vast.
And it just goes to show that what Harmon said is correct. Spend more time on improving your game from 100 yards and in and you will become a better golfer overnight.
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