You might never hit the ball like Tiger Woods, but thinking like him on the golf course will save you shots.

In his prime, it sometimes felt like Woods was never really on the golf course, but could still shoot under par.

Of course, we would all like to hit the ball like prime-Tiger, but that’s – sorry to break it to you – not going to be possible. But, there are things we can take from his strategy into our games, regardless of the level you’re at.

So, how do we think like Tiger Woods on the golf course?

Woods, as told by Scott Fawcett, the founder of DECADE Golf, actually had a system he would use to track avoidable errors during a tournament.

Speaking on Mark Immelman’s podcast, On the Mark, the course management guru explained the rules that Tiger follows that you can take on the course too.

As Fawcett explains, Woods would, in the early part of his career, come off the course with a common feeling amongst golfers at any level. That would be that he felt he could have shot a better score relative to how he played. But, why was that happening?

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“The most common things were, how many bogeys on par-5s, how many doubles, how many three-putts, how many bogeys with 9-iron or less and then what he tracked was blown easy saves,” Fawcett said.

“Obviously, the last one is subjective. In the DECADE app, we track when you have two chips. In your next round, you’re going to walk off the course and think you should have shot lower.

“If it’s not one of those five things, you’re kidding yourself.

“When it is one of those five things, you’re going to have some of them. Tiger figured if he could have six or fewer of those per tournament, one and a half a day, he figured he would win.”

Let’s go over those five things in a little more detail and see how we can relate it to your golf.

1. No bogeys on par-5s

At Tiger’s level, par-5s were the perfect chance for making a birdie or even an eagle. However, it’s important to remember that you’re not going to make an easy birdie all the time. Par is never a disaster, but a six on a par-5 is a sure fire way to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 any momentum in your round. Depending on your level, this might be better viewed as no nett bogeys on par-5s. If you get a shot on the hole and make a six, then you’re probably doing fine.

2. No double bogeys

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We know from stats provided by Shot Scope that a scratch golfer makes less than 0.3 double bogeys, on average, per round. That number jumps to nearly three doubles every round for a ten handicap player. Bogeys are fine, but making a few doubles a round will have your score sky rocketing.

3. No three-putts

It might not be the most exciting part of the game, but lag putting is a key to scoring well. You’re never going to hit every approach shot inside 20 feet, sometimes, you’re going to have three times that distance. If you can learn to two putt from long range, your scorecard is going to thank you.

Avoiding three putts is one of Tiger Woods’ keys to better scoring on the course. (Credit: Getty Images)

4. No bogeys with less than 9-iron

Let’s say you’re on a par-4 and you’ve hit a nice drive down the fairway. You’ve got a wedge in your hand, but you make a bogey. There’s not many things more frustrating, especially if you’re a player who is looking to shoot around level par. One of Tiger’s rules of scoring was to limit how many bogeys he made with a scoring club in his hand. Again, making a par in this scenario is absolutely fine. If you start dropping shots from this position, you’re not going to reach your potential.

5. No blown easy up-and-downs

Things get subjective here. For Tiger, an easy up and down might be different to what you think an easy up and down is. However, with his students, Fawcett likes to measure the number of double chips, rather than missed up and downs. If you’re missing the green with a chip shot, then you’re really going to start costing yourself strokes.

Now, as Fawcett alluded to, you’re never going to eliminate all of these mistakes from your game. Even Tiger reckoned that if he could make less than six of them in a tournament, he would probably win. That’s nearly two of these in every round.

Rather than setting an unrealistic goal of getting rid of all of these silly mistakes, set a target to make less of them each time. We guarantee you’ll shoot better scores.