I’m only 33, but in golf years I’m over the hill. That sounds like bad news, but I’m enjoying it.

As much as I miss the tournaments of my junior and college golf days, I’m loving the social golf I get to play with people my age who are newer to the game. I’m endlessly impressed at how good many of them have gotten in a very short period of time!

It reminds me of when I got into golf in middle school. It seemed like I was noticeably better with every month that went by. I was so excited about how good I could get, but as any good golfer knows, the better you get the harder it is to get better.

Over the course of any round, there are only so many opportunities to offer anything more than pleasantries to your struggling playing partners (at least without being that guy). But I’ve found a few things I’ve offered have consistently resonated.

Before I move into the list, here’s a disclaimer. I’m not an instructor; I’m not a mental coach; I don’t pretend to be. That’s serious work that demands serious study.

But…I do think there’s plenty of room for us over-the-hill golfers to share some of things we learned from our coaches and from our golf experiences that can help fast-improving newbies enjoy their journey and make the most of their time on the course.

Please share your best tips in the comments!

#1: Breaking 80 Is A Big Deal

Breaking 80 is a benchmark for a lot of golfers. That’s a shame because it’s really hard to do.

Look down the leaderboard in many PGA Tour events, and you’re going to find somebody who shot in the 80s. These are guys who can flirt with 59, and they still shoot in the 80s occasionally.

So, if your low round is 75 and you feel like you need to break 80 to “play well,” you’re going to be disappointed after almost every round. That’s a bad deal for a 5-hour investment of your time.

Think of it this way. If you shoot 80, you probably made at least 9 pars. That means you played high-quality golf at least 50 percent of the time!

#2: Remember Your Highlight Reel

When you watch a PGA Tour event on TV, you’re going to see mostly great shots because the coverage is focused on the players that are having one of the best weeks of their season. When you do see a bad shot, it’s either a blip or a shot that was so bad it was newsworthy.

After your round, take some time to remember your highlight reel. Don’t skip over the big drive you hit, the iron shot you stuck close, or your awesome up-and-down.

And don’t stop there. Ask yourself, “What was different on that shot?” You might get a quick answer. That’s great. If not, let it simmer. It will come to you.

The trick is figuring out what worked on those special shots so you can do it again. You need a top-3 or top-5 list of your own favorite tips that you can tap into when things go south (and they will).

#3: Take Range Sessions With A Grain Of Salt

It’s easy to live and die with your last range session. But as you know by now, a good range session does not guarantee a good round, and vice versa.

The range is a place for three things:

• Getting your body ready for golf
• Settling on a shot shape and/or swing thought for the day
• Working on something new

Nos. 1 and 2 are acceptable before a round. No. 3 is best served for after the round or a standalone range session.

The golf course is going to expose the flaws in your game. Period. Embrace all the feedback from all 18 holes. Know that it’s going to make you better. And if you can, take that feedback to your next practice session where you can do something with it.

If you’re expecting a range session before a round to “fix” anything, you’re in for a long day.

Yes, you’re going to be lost from time to time, and that’s OK. Remember what you learned from your highlight reel and use those thoughts to get you through tough times. Those thoughts worked before, so they can work again.

Just don’t rely on anything new to work right away on the course like it does on the range. It does happen, but not often.

#4: Hit All The Shots

So many golfers I play with can only move the ball one direction. They fade, but they don’t draw. They draw, but they don’t fade. You can score that way, but you’ll only see improvement up to a certain point…especially if you’re a fader.

If you’re a fader, you absolutely need to learn how to draw the ball. If you’re a drawer, you need to learn how to fade the ball.

Lessons can help here, but if you’re averse, use your range sessions to experiment. Most golfers have played ping pong or tennis. They can curve the ball without any trouble. So why not golf? I think it comes down to the fact that it’s more acceptable to lose a point in ping pong or tennis than it is to make a triple bogey.

When you’re learning how to shape the ball, start BIG. Hit a 50-yard hook or slice. Try to hit five hooks in a row without double-crossing one. Once you’ve got that down, try alternating hooks and slices…and eventually baby draws and baby fades.

Over time, you’ll understand how to hit these shots without thinking too much about them, and you’re going to need them if you want to break par someday.

Know that you’re not going to screw up your swing learning new shots. If anything, your swing is going to get better because it’s going to have to get more neutral to curve it both ways.

#5 Stop Keeping Score (For A Time)

When I was playing a lot of tournament golf in the 2000s, Dr. Bob Rotella was the mental game guru and he preached “one shot at a time” and “adding up the score at the end.” That’s incredible advice, but if you’re finding it hard to do it might be simpler to just stop keeping score entirely.

As an over-the-hill golfer, I’m never going to be as good as I once was. But I can be as good once as I ever was. That’s from a Toby Keith song, but it applies to golf.

All great golfers plan every shot they hit before they hit it. And then they try to execute that shot exactly the way they planned. Few shots are going to be perfect, but if you don’t know what shot you’re trying to hit you’re almost certainly not going to be able to hit it.

The course is the best place to learn what works, but to learn we have to experiment. That’s why I like skipping the scorecard… at least for a round or two.

Without the pressure of the pencil, you’ll be free to try things you might not have tried before. Like hitting a three-quarter 9 iron instead of muscling a wedge. Or taking a more direct line on a dogleg that could be risky but could pay off if you’re swinging well.

A Final Thought For Every Golfer

Whether you’re new or have been playing golf a long time, it’s easy to get caught up in birdies and bogeys. But as we all know, the scorecard can lie. After all, how many times have you hit two great shots… and made a double. Or two bad shots… and made a birdie.

It’s fairer to ourselves to think of golf as a game of great shots, acceptable shots, and misfires. If you can approach each shot as its own individual challenge, then you’ll know when you did your best and when you didn’t.

Take what you can from the good ones and the bad ones. And if you do this only half the time during each round, you’ll be amazed at how consistent your scores can become, and you’ll probably shoot a few super-low rounds, too.

And more importantly, you’ll probably enjoy the game more.