Justin Thomas’ three best tips to help amateur golfers lower their scores immediately

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Justin Thomas has enjoyed a magnificent career on the PGA Tour and he is someone who is certainly not afraid of going low.

Thomas carded one of only 15 sub-60 rounds on the PGA Tour back in 2017 at the Sony Open and he has shot 61 on multiple occasions.

He has 16 PGA Tour wins to his name so far, including two major championships, and there will undoubtedly be many more to come before he hangs up his clubs.

• Read also: How to get your handicap down quickly when you only have one hour to spend on the driving range

Thomas’ incredible talent means that any golf tips he’s offering should be grasped with both hands by amateur golfers who are looking to lower their handicaps.

Over the past few years, Thomas has offered plenty of advice to amateurs in order to help them improve their games.

Thomas has told amateur golfers how to stop slicing the ball off the tee, how to improve their chipping and putting, how to strike their irons better and even how to become more consistent with their bunker play.

Now we have collated three of his most important tips which he believes will help you lower your scores almost instantly.

Justin Thomas’ best tips to help amateur golfers lower their scores

The great thing about the advice that Thomas offers is that he keeps everything so simple.

His best tips to help you lower your scores involve really basic principles.

Here are his three key pieces of advice to help the average golfer lower their scores…

Take more club on your approach shots

Thomas is a fierce advocate of taking one extra club and swinging smoother. Sure, you may have hit your 8-iron 170 yards once 10 years ago, but your average carry distance with your irons will be a lot lower than the longest yardage you’ve hit every hit each club. Pay a visit to a driving range that has Trackman on offer, and hit 10 shots with each iron, working out your average carry for each and every club in your bag. You can then put this into practice out on the golf course.

Lead with the hands when chipping and pitching

Thomas firmly believes that all chips and pitches should be played with your hands leading the club. In other words, never allow your club to outrace your hands. This will help you improve your strikes when chipping and more importantly, the consistency of your shot patterns. Place the ball back in your stance, lean your hands forward at address and maintain that angle through impact and ensure that you continue to rotate your body through to the finish.

Don’t spend too much time over your putts and keep the body quiet

Thomas prefers not to take a practice stroke when he putts, but instead gets a feel for the pace and line by standing behind his ball, looking towards the hole. Thomas previously stated, ‘When you don’t spend too much time over the ball, your natural hand-eye coordination kicks in,‘ when writing a column for Golf Digest. Once you step into your ball, setup is crucial. Your left eye should be right over your golf ball and you can check this by dropping a ball down from your left eye when practicing. Try and keep everything in your body still throughout your stroke aside from your shoulders and arms.

By putting these three key pieces of advice from Thomas into practice, you should be able to lower your scores pretty much immediately.

Justin Thomas says use different clubs out the sand to improve bunker play

Thomas uses this specific method himself on tour.

When the sand is tightly packed and firm and you face a fairly lengthy bunker shot, Thomas advises that you switch to a club with less loft and bounce – a pitching wedge for example.

However, for shorter shots with fluffy sand, the two-time major champion insists you should use ‘a wedge with a lot of loft and bounce (at least 10 degrees)’.

The real key to consistent bunker play is aggression and speed through the ball. Most amateurs try and lift the ball out in a scooping motion when what is actually required is a downward blow into the sand.

Try to make connection with the sand around 1-2 inches behind the ball, depending on what shot you are trying to play, i.e a spinny checker or a chunk and run.

Bunkers should not be feared. In theory, a bunker shot is the only stroke you’ll play in the game where precision is not necessarily required, certainly not for six handicap golfers and above.