The Scoring Letter

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How a Caddie Thinks

We talk a lot about pre-shot planning and strategy in this newsletter. But still, there are levels to this game, and it’s always a good exercises to see how detailed pre-shot planning truly can be.

The Carnoustie Caddie (a caddie with 30+ years of experience working at Carnoustie) posted a great thread on X reviewing the checklist he goes through before every shot.

It highlights how much calculation goes into a single decision from a high-level course management perspective.

An excerpt from the post:

Figured I’d give you another twenty things to consider before committing to your shots.

More info always helps right?

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Speed is Overrated

Open up Instagram, YouTube, or turn on the Golf Channel. You’re immediately flooded with swing videos that seem to defy human anatomy.

Unimaginable clubhead speed. Absurd lag. Flexion, extension, and every kinesiology buzzword in the book — all in the relentless pursuit of maximizing speed and distance.

Joaquin Niemann

But every now and again, it’s good to be reminded that those golf swings are not a requirement to playing high level golf.

Meet Barb Moxness.

A 73-year old ex-LPGA member who is teeing it up in this week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

She has played in every single U.S. Senior Women’s Open, and last year became the oldest player in the tournament’s history to make the cut by shooting a 71 at the age of 72.

Here she is talking about her golf swing.

There’s nothing revolutionary about what she’s explaining. But what caught my attention was how unbelievably basic her motion looks.

She simply takes the club back and drops it behind the ball. No excessive lag or aggressive side bend. Nothing impossible to replicate. Just perfect tempo, balance, and face control.

Anyway, something I thought worth remembering the next time you start trying to smash driver like an ape in an attempt to pick up an extra 15 yards.

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Master the Fundamentals

The golf swing can be a complex and frustrating system at times. If you treat the symptoms rather than the disease, your progress stalls — or maybe worse, you regress.

This is why treating the root cause (the disease) is so vital to your improvement.

Ryan Mouque posted a great video on X last week where he compared the golf swing to a set of dominos.

You can watch the full video below:

In his post he states, “If you work on the root cause first, it’s very common that a lot of other “flaws/tendencies” will be fixed as a result of changing things prior.”

This is why the better I’ve gotten, the more I’ve obsessed over the most basic aspects of the swing — such as my grip or alignment.

Master the fundamentals and the rest of the golf swing begins to fall into place.

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

Draw or Fade: Which Is Superior?

Tour Swings Tommy — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:03:31 GMT

When I first started playing golf around the age of 20, I came into the sport having played a lot of baseball. And like most baseball players who attempt the golf swing, I sliced the ball 280 yards off the course.

So for the next 2-3 years, I tried every possible way I could imagine to get the ball to turn over and draw. And I did it.

And then I hit a snap hook…

So then I spent the next 2-3 years making sure I never saw the ball draw ever again.

I eventually settled on a fade, and have had success with that shot shape for the last few years. But still, I sometimes wonder if I’d be better off trying to hit big high draws than run out an extra 20 yards. Besides, don’t pros work the ball both ways?

Well, not exactly.

You may be surprised to find out, a lot of the guys on Tour don’t really like to work the ball both ways. In fact, most of the best players in the world would prefer to own one shape and use the other only when completely necessary.

Bubba Watson at Kapalua in 2011

But still, I’ve always wondered:

What do the guys on Tour prefer to hit?

While there's no single shot shape that works for everyone, modern equipment has created a clear trend among top players.

In today’s Scoring Letter, I’ll review the most popular shot shape on Tour, and analyze the data behind draws and fades. We’ll explore whether shaping the ball both ways is necessary for scoring lower, and ultimately determine if one shot shape is superior.

Let's get into it.

If you’re enjoying this week’s post and want access to the entire Scoring Letter archive, I’m running a little promo to receive 20% off an annual subscription for one year HERE.

The Straight Ball Myth

Let’s start with this:

Nobody hits the golf ball straight.

The Sunday Bag: PGA Range Sessions, Jason Day Wedge Tips, Playing More and Regressing

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:03:00 GMT

Rickie Fowler 2022 Masters

Happy Sunday, golfers. It’s a special Sunday for golf fans with two great events wrapping up today: the final round of the St. Jude Championship and the U.S. Amateur final.

If you’d rather skip today’s Sunday Bag and tune into the U.S. Am instead, I won’t blame you.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Today’s quote:

“A good player who is a great putter is a match for any golfer. A great hitter who cannot putt is a match for no one.”

- Ben Sayers

PGA Range Sessions

Starting this year, the PGA Tour began tracking every single shot hit on the driving range. Luke Kerr-Dineen at Golf Digest recently analyzed the data from a massive 250,000-shot session and shared 10 key takeaways (you can read his full article here).

A couple of those insights stood out to me as particularly useful, and possibly worth applying to your own practice sessions:

Irons and Wedges

On average, the players' two biggest chunks of practice shots came from their short-and-mid irons (shots from 130-190), and with their wedges (shots inside 130 yards). Those two categories account for more than 55 percent of players' range sessions.

I’ve written in the past about how approach play is the highest ROI for your practice time. It accounts for the largest share of your strokes gained data. You have to be able to get on the green from 170 yards and in consistently. Putting practice might make you feel good, but iron practice will drop your index.

Switching Clubs Constantly

The data shows that players average only two or three shots with the same club before moving on to a new one. I’ve written about this concept of randomized practice here.

There is a time and place to focus on hitting one club for an extended period of time, but in general, randomizing your practice and forcing your mind and body to adapt to new targets and distances is more effective training.

Anyone can find a groove hitting the same club over and over. The real test is how well you can jump straight from a full 5-iron to a partial 56° wedge.

(You can watch the full video on his channel here)

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Jason Day Wedge Tips

This is something I’ve written about in previous Sunday Bag posts, but I think three-quarter wedge shots is a massively underutilized shot in the amateur arsenal.

Below is a clip from Jason Day’s YouTube channel where he explains why Tour Pros rarely take full swings with their wedges.

He later goes on to explain why higher-spin clubs like wedges are more susceptible to wind, which is another reason why it’s so important to keep their trajectory lower.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken a full swing with a 60° wedge, only to watch it balloon into the air and land 20 yards short. Learning to control the trajectory and hit these “flighted” wedge shots was a massive turning point in continuing to drop my index once I hit around a 5.

Getting from mid single digit down to scratch requires consistency from 100 yards and in, and I think flighted wedge shots are essential to making that leap.

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be

A preview:

The golf swing is a constant balancing act of correcting, overcorrecting, and backtracking—a tug-of-war of opposing forces that somehow keep things in order.
Eventually, however, you have to pick a ball flight and commit to it.
Being able to consistently eliminate one side of the course is a confidence boost most golfers only dream of. Despite what your coworker or brother-in-law claims, he cannot reliably work the ball both ways.
In fact, a lot of the guys on Tour don't like to either. Most of the best players in the world prefer to own one stock shot shape, keeping the other in reserve only when absolute necessity demands it.

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

Playing More and Regressing

How many of you have experienced playing more golf, only to feel like your swing is somehow getting worse? I’ve felt this dozens of times, and it’s maddening.

Ryan Mouque shared a great post last week on this exact topic of “regression,” and it’s really helpful for understanding why this happens.

A lot of what I write about in this newsletter focuses on improving through smarter decision-making. I try to stay away from swing advice because the online instruction pool is already so saturated. However, completely ignoring your mechanics and only playing rounds of golf will ultimately limit your progress.

It’s important to understand that ingraining new motor skills requires repetition — something a round of golf doesn't provide the way a range session does.

I’m not saying the range is better than the course. But if you only play and never practice, you’ll slowly find yourself reverting to old habits, just like Ryan points out.

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

The Tiger Five

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:21:00 GMT

Legend has it that many years ago, a golfer roamed the fairways, carrying with him a golden set of rules.

Though he never spoke of them publicly, golfologists pieced together their existence through ancient caddie records and scribbled yardage books.

According to scripture, he originally forged these principles to dominate his competitors and capture major championships.

The strategy was simple: lower scores not by playing better, but by playing smarter.

And it worked. Brilliantly.

These sacred rules would come to be known as…

THE TIGER 5

*Insert lightning and thunder sounds

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let’s get into exactly what this week’s Scoring Letter will be about.

Some of you may be familiar with “The Tiger 5”. Essentially, these are 5 stats that Tiger supposedly tracked in his own game, which he believed were most important for him to consistently shoot lower scores.

As hinted at in my dramatic intro, Tiger himself has never publicly spoken about these five stats. While Scott Fawcett of Decade Golf has popularized them in recent years, our knowledge of “The Tiger 5” relies on behind-the-scenes caddie interviews and reports from the peers during Tiger’s peak.

Here are the 5 rules etched in stone. I believe this was actually one of the tablets handed to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Most articles I’ve seen written on this subject just tell you what the five rules are and call it a day. I want to go one step further.

Below, I’ll break down each rule in detail, and then provide some actionable steps to give you the best chance of executing them.

Let’s get into it.

Before we continue:

If you’re enjoying this week’s post and want access to the entire Scoring Letter archive, I’m running a little promo to receive 20% off an annual subscription for one year HERE.

Rule One: No Bogeys on Par 5s

The Sunday Bag: Rocco's Chipping Tip, 5 Things Worth The Money, First-Hole Blowups

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 13:03:16 GMT

Rocco and Tiger in the 2008 U.S. Open

Happy Sunday everyone.

Let’s get into it.

Today’s quote:

“If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

— Lee Trevino

Rocco’s Chipping Tip

There are very few guys who can explain golf technique in a way that truly simplifies the game down to its most basic, bare-bones level. And in my opinion, Rocco Mediate is one of those guys.

For those who are on Instagram and don’t follow Rocco, do yourself a favor and follow him HERE. He regularly posts videos explaining his unique approach to different part of the game.

In one of his recent posts, he explains why chipping with a 60-degree wedge off an uphill slope is causing you to hit shots fat.

Watch the video below and then we’ll discuss:

I’ve written a number of times on why I think automatically grabbing your 60-degree around the greens is maybe not the best idea.

Rocco provides the perfect example of a situation where pulling a 60-degree is complete overkill. I think most of us reach for it because we want the spin. We want the high, soft, beautiful landing. But why introduce a razor-thin margin for error when you’re standing on a tight lie with an uneven slope?

Take out a pitching wedge, align your shoulders to the slope, and make a putting stroke.

No ego. No flash. No chunky chip shots.

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5 Things Worth The Money in Golf

If you’re on golf twitter, you might have seen the rend last week where everyone was posting the five things in golf they think are actually worth the money.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

So I figured I’d make my own list of 5 things worth the money. However my list is specific to golf performance — true to Scoring Letter standards.

Here they are in no particular order:

A quality rangefinder (this needs to become your best friend)
An official GHIN. Start tracking your scores officially. 18 Birdies and other apps are not the same. There’s nothing like the real thing.
Comfortable shoes to walk in (I love my Olukais. By far the most comfortable golf shoes I’ve ever worn)
Titleist Players golf glove (it’s just simply the best. There’s a reason everyone on Tour uses them)
Alignment sticks (no explanation needed)

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be on The Tiger 5.

A preview:

Legend has it that many years ago, a golfer roamed the fairways, carrying with him a golden set of rules.
Though he never spoke of them publicly, golfologists pieced together their existence through ancient caddie records and scribbled yardage books.
According to scripture, he originally forged these principles to dominate his competitors and capture major championships.
The strategy was simple: lower scores not by playing better, but by playing smarter.
And it worked. Brilliantly.
These sacred rules would come to be known as…
The Tiger Five

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

First-Hole Blowups

Jordan Spieth made headlines during Thursday’s opening round of the Wyndham Championship after sending his first tee shot out of bounds—with an iron.

What made it unusual was that it’s a hole where players typically hit driver or 3-wood. So an iron off the tee for this hole is considered an extremely conservative play—and he still managed to go OB and score a double.

But the thing that I loved most about it all, was that following the opening hole, Jordan had one of the cleanest scorecards in the field.

The remaining 17 he holes he shot 4-under with 13 pars and 4 birdies.

The reason I’m sharing this is to remind you not to stress over blowups on the first hole.

Jordan wouldn’t have even made headlines if this happened on the second hole. But there’s a certain pressure when it comes to starting your round off right on Hole 1. We all feel it.

So try to remember that golf is played over 18 holes, and a double bogey on the first counts the exact same as a double bogey on the 13th.

Over time, I’ve learned to accept that bogeys (or worse) are simply bound to happen during a round. There’s no reason to panic just because a few of them happen to show up early.

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

The Two Highest-ROI Putting Skills

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:03:41 GMT

Fred Couples (Getty Images)

It’s a Sunday afternoon and you turn on PGA Tour coverage. It starts with a clip of the leader draining a 20-foot putt to extend his lead. Then they cut to someone back in 10th place making an 18-footer. After that, they flash back to a highlight of a guy earlier in the day sinking one from 50 feet.

Wow. These guys are amazing putters. How could anyone draw any other conclusion?

Meanwhile, you’re stuck missing over half of your 6-footers. And putts beyond 20 feet? Good luck. Those only fall once in a blue moon.

If only you could improve at putting. And not just any form of putting — if only you could make long putts like the guys on TV. Then you’d finally break through to the next level.

Except for none of this is true.

I’m not saying pros aren’t exceptional putters. Of course they are. But the gap between you and them is not in your inability to make long putts.

“But I saw them making 30-footers on TV.”

Well sure, you did see the broadcast cut to highlights of the few guys who happen to be putting the best they’ve putted all season. Never mind the missed putts from the other 80% of the field that didn’t make the highlight reel.

If you’re looking for where strokes are being lost, it’s most likely not coming from making mid-range putts — at least not to the degree you think it is.

I’d also argue it might not even come from missing short putts. I will get into this later in the article.

In today’s Scoring Letter, we’ll go over all of the relevant data to show you how your putting actually compares to the pros. I’ll cover how many strokes you’re leaving on the table, where they are coming from, and which areas of putting you should focus on if you want to gain strokes. Finally we’ll end with some helpful drills and games that I believe actually help move the needle.

Before we continue:

If you’re enjoying this week’s post and want access to the entire Scoring Letter archive, I’m running a little promo to receive 20% off an annual subscription for one year HERE.

Measuring the Gap

For the rest of this article, we’ll be comparing Tour pros to 10-handicaps. Partially because I think 20-handicap data is kind of useless for most serious golfers, but mostly because the majority of my readers are in the 10-handicap range.

The Sunday Bag: Topspin vs. Backspin, Hovering the Putter, Lead Tape

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 16:03:14 GMT

Greg Norman via Stephen Munday

Happy Sunday, golfers.

Let’s get into it.

Today’s quote:

“Happiness is a long walk with a putter”

— Greg Norman

Topspin vs. Backspin

If you’ve played golf for any length of time, you likely understand the concept of backspin and its importance.

But how many of you understand the importance of topspin in putting? @engineergolf posted a great graphic on X which shows the difference in rollout between a ball that’s struck properly (topspin), and a ball struck improperly (backspin).

The post goes on to state why backspin is not ideal when putting.

For those who want a great visual of what it looks like to hit the top half of the ball and to get it rolling end over end, check out this closeup of Gary Woodland’s putt.

This is a topic that may deserve its own Wednesday post in the future. But for now just know that topspin is your friend in putting.

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Hovering the Putter

Part of my “content-creation” strategy comes from combing through all the highlights from the PGA Tour app and then providing commentary/analysis on clips that I think are educational to the average golfer.

While I was doing my research for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, I came across a great clip of Rickie Fowler hovering his putter. You may have heard me talk in the past about why I’m a huge fan of doing this.

Watch the clip and then we’ll talk about why I think it’s such a great technique.

I started hovering the putter a few years back and now I can’t imagine not doing it. I originally started hovering as a way to prevent the club from sticking/dragging on the ground.

But I found its true superpower is acting as a trigger to give my putting routine better tempo and consistency.

This is something very easy that I recommend trying for anyone with the putting yips. Or if you find yourself hitting the ground on the takeaway.

I even wrote an entire post on it back in March for anyone that’s interested.

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be on the true putting gap between amateur golfers and Tour pros.

A preview:

It’s a Sunday afternoon and you turn on PGA Tour coverage. It starts with a clip of the leader draining a 20-foot putt to extend his lead. Then they cut to someone back in 10th place making an 18-footer. After that, they flash back to a highlight of a guy earlier in the day sinking one from 50 feet.
Wow. These guys are amazing putters. How could anyone draw any other conclusion?
Meanwhile, you’re stuck missing over half of your 6-footers. And putts beyond 20 feet? Good luck. Those only fall once in a blue moon.
If only you could improve at putting. And not just any form of putting — if only you could make long putts like the guys on TV. Then you’d finally break through to the next level.
Except for none of this is true.

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

Lead Tape

I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about lead tape on X recently. Many of you probably already know about it, and some of you may have even tried it.

Either way I figured I’d break it down a bit for those who are unfamiliar. It may save you from spending hundreds of dollars on new clubs.

Essentially lead tape is placed on the back of the club head or shaft to add a small amount of weight. The purpose of this is to shift the center of gravity to encourage a draw or fade, or reduce whatever your miss is.

You can also use it on your putter, which Tiger has famously done for years.

“Virtually every single Open I’ve played in, I would put lead tape on my putters to try and get it a little bit heavier and get the ball rolling.”

— Tiger Woods

Tiger’s famous Newport 2 putter with lead tape

I’ve never used lead tape, but for those who wanna play around with it, you can get some HERE.

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

Practicing With Purpose

Tour Swings Tommy — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:15:48 GMT

Free For Premium Subscribers Here

What’s Inside:

A collection of my best writing on effective practice reorganized into a single source.

The data show that most golfers are optimizing for the wrong thing — chasing the feeling of a good range session instead of the improvement that actually holds up on the course. Before you spend another dollar on range balls, you have to understand where your practice time is actually worth the most, and why the practice that performs the best is usually doing the least.

This guide walks through all of it. We’ll cover why your range practice doesn’t look anything like the golf you actually play, the three simple tools that remove hidden variables before a swing thought ever enters your head, what the data says about the highest-ROI place to spend your practice time, the routine that protects your swing once there’s real pressure on it, three games that make your chipping practice count, and an honest look at what golf simulators do well — and where they quietly fall short. No swing tips. Just where the time should go.

Details:

Pages: 44

Format: PDF or EPUB

6 Chapters: Your Practice Doesn’t Look Like Golf, The Only 3 Training Aids You Need, The Highest ROI for Your Practice Time, Why Routines Protect Your Swing, The 3 Best Games to Improve Your Chipping, Golf Simulators, Used Correctly.

A Preview:

Premium subscribers can download this book for free HERE.

Your Pre-Shot Routine Sucks

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:01:19 GMT

Nick Faldo and Greg Norman battling in the 1996 Masters.

Following Ryan Fox’s win at the Open Championship, it seemed all anyone could talk about was how fast he played.

Golf commentator Ken Brown said Fox could have hit his winning putt with no one watching if he wasn’t careful.

Scottie Scheffler even told him, “It doesn’t even feel like you’re in the group, you hit it so fast.”

And while it’s true Ryan Fox does play fast, that was not what I noticed most about his pre-shot routines. What I noticed most was how remarkably consistent they were.

Below is a video posted by the DP World Tour. Watch it and you’ll see just what I mean. He has them synched up almost to the millisecond.

Other than these clips looking really cool side by side, there is a reason Ryan Fox along with so many other pro golfers make a point to remain consistent in their pre-shot routines.

Routines protect your swing.

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Consistent Routines Protect Your Swing

Many amateur golfers have a train of logic that goes something like this:

Bad shots come from bad swings. Pressure causes bad swings. Therefore pressure should be met with more attention to the swing — more thought, more care, more time to get it right. Stand over the ball a little longer. Think it through. Make sure.

This is wrong in my opinion. More thought, more care, more time — all that these things do is isolate and spotlight your swing, exposing your entire game to its natural variability.

Creating a consistent pre-shot routine absorbs the swing into a much larger and more predictable process — shielding your swing from small nerves and pressure.

The sports psychology data and Tour-tested proof all point to the same truth: a reliable routine isn’t optional — it’s essential.

Below, I’ll break down the data, provide some Tour examples, and then end with five steps to help you develop a consistent routine and make your swing a little more immune to pressure.

Let’s get into it.

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The Sunday Bag: Slow Play, Keeping It In The Rails, Slow Motion Wedge Shots

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 13:01:30 GMT

“He’s using aim point on his two-footer. Send a marshal.”

Happy Sunday everyone.

Let’s get into it.

Today’s quote:

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.”

— Winston Churchill

Slow Play

Following Ryan Fox’s win at The Open last week, it seemed all anyone was talking about was how quick his pre-shot routine was. So I decided it would be funny to start posting the slowest pre-shot routines.

They both became my highest viewed posts to date… It seems golfers really don’t enjoy slow play. I’m assuming the views keep climbing because everyone can’t help but “hate watch” the clips lol.

I started with a video from Patrick Cantlay. And no, it’s not looped (I checked).

And then if you really want to torture yourself, you can watch the next one I posted of Brian Harman.

WARNING: This one is hurts.

The premium post this week will cover pre-shot routines, and why dialing in the exact same process every time is critical for consistent scoring. SPOILER: It’s detrimental to your game when the routine is >40 seconds. Shocker, I know.

Books & Guides

Keep The Swing “In The Rails”

Luke Kerr-Dineen recently posted a question he asked Sam Burns about his golf swing, and I think his response is a really good reminder for those of us who can get obsessive over our swing mechanics.

I really loved the analogy Sam Burns used of keeping the golf swing “in the rails”.

A good reminder for us all. Your swing will have variability. Don’t obsess over it. Keep it within the rails, and try to control the things you can.

There is a time and place for shrinking “the rails.” But the course is not one of those places.

Side note: It’s much easier to keep your swing in the rails when it looks like this:

But I digress…

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be on the importance of consistent pre-shot routines.

A preview:

Many amateur golfers have a train of logic that goes something like this:
Bad shots come from bad swings. Pressure causes bad swings. Therefore pressure should be met with more attention to the swing — more thought, more care, more time to get it right. Stand over the ball a little longer. Think it through. Make sure.
This is wrong in my opinion. More thought, more care, more time — all that these things do is isolate and spotlight your swing, exposing your entire game to its natural variability.

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

Slow Motion Wedge Shots

In a recent interview with the Short Game Chef, Michael Kim explained why he likes to practice slow motion full swings with wedges.

He says, “When your adrenaline is going, and I need to get up-and-down, it’s much easier to speed up. So training to be really slow I think is a great drill.”

Here is the full clip:

They later go on to talk about how these slower wedge swings help to soften ball speed, which is exactly what’s needed when playing on faster greens and short-sided positions.

Practice Tip:

Next time you go to the chipping green, copy what Michael Kim is doing above. See if you can take a full swing and have the ball carry 5 yards. He makes it look very easy, but I promise you it’s not…

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

The Tee Box Decision

Tour Swings Tommy — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 21:52:39 GMT

Free For Premium Subscribers Here

What’s Inside:

A collection of my best writing on tee-box strategy reorganized into a single argument.

The data show that the tee shot is the highest-leverage decision on every single hole. Before you even touch your club, you must understand what the hole is truly asking. This guide walks through all of it.

We’ll cover a wartime experiment that quietly proves which shots matter most, why you should plan a hole from the green backward instead of the tee forward, when the data says to pull driver (and when it’s lying to you), the truth about drivable par 4s, and finally a hazard that’s costing you more than you think. No swing tips. Just the decisions.

Details:

Pages: 40

Format: PDF, designed for reading on any device

5 Chapters: Which Shots Matter Most, Play the Hole Backwards, When to Hit Driver, The Drivable Par 4, The Invisible Hazard

A Preview:

Premium subscribers can download this book for free HERE.

A Putting Guide for the Thinking Golfer

Tour Swings Tommy — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 21:52:02 GMT

Free For Premium Subscribers Here

What’s Inside:

A collection of my best writing on putting reorganized into a single argument. Most amateur golfer believe putting is in the putting stroke. So when the putts aren’t dropping, the instinct is to fix the mechanics. It’s a reasonable belief, but it’s often times wrong in my opinion.

Putting isn’t simply a stroke — it’s a process, and the stroke is just the last step in it. Before the putter ever moves, you’ve already made the decisions that actually matter: the speed you chose, the break you read, where you truly aimed. This guide covers all of it — distance control, effective hole size, green reading, the line debate, and the last quiet moment before the stroke begins.

Details:

Pages: 44

Format: PDF, designed for reading on any device

5 Chapters: Learning to Read, Distance Over Direction, The Hole Is Never the Same Size, The Line Question, Before the Stroke Begins

A Preview:

Premium subscribers can download this book for free HERE.

You Don't Hit Your 5-Iron 200 Yards

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:19:39 GMT

As golfers, we are all prone to the occasional self-deception.

We justify the slippery two-footer as "gimme-range” and give it to ourselves. Or we round 80 down to 79 when recounting our score the next day with coworkers.

While these minor fabrications are largely inconsequential, the dynamic shifts when ego begins to obscure reality. Eventually, these small lies cross a threshold and evolve into a form of self-sabotage.

Today I want to talk about the most detrimental form of this self-deception:

The persistent lies we tell ourselves about our own distances.

What do I mean by that? I’ll give you an example.

Ask an amateur golfer how far they hit their 5-iron. What they’ll report is most likely not the average of their last fifty attempts. Instead, it’s the one from three weeks ago that they hit right off the center of the face, with help from the wind, and ran out on dry fairway grass another 30 yards.

That shot was real. It happened. But it’s also not how far that golfer hits his 5-iron. And it’s certainly not the distance they should be expecting when building a course management strategy.

I use the 5-iron as an example because outside of the driver, it’s the club I hear most exaggerated among amateur golfers.

I’ll get into all of the hard data later in the article, but to give you some sense for the complete lunacy we’re dealing with, for now you should just know this:

The gap between what the amateur golfer thinks he hits his 5-iron vs how far he actually does is about 20-35 yards.

Why Should You Care?

I’m not telling you that you hit your clubs shorter in order to attack you. I’m telling you in order to help you.

On certain shots, 10-15 yards can be the difference between par and double bogey, so it’s vital that your pre-shot planning is rooted in some level of reality.

Imagine a 180-yard par 3 guarded by bunkers, with plenty of room to miss long. You pull a 5-iron — a club you sometimes hit 180 if the conditions are right. Unsurprisingly, you come up short, end up in trouble, and walk away with a bogey. All because your assumptions about your distances were rooted in an ego-fueled memory.

Let’s look at some data to show you what we’re dealing with, how large the gap between expectations and reality is, and then you can decide how guilty you are.

I’ll also go into the psychology behind why this specific error is so stubbornly resistant, the stroked-gained data behind it, and then some actionable steps to help you course manage with this new information in mind.

Subscribe now

Before we continue, I recently released A Putting Guide For The Thinking Golfer, which is a collection of my best writing on the putting process. If you’re a free subscriber you can get it HERE.

If you’re a premium subscriber you can read it for free HERE.

Ok let’s get into it.

The Sunday Bag: Coat Hangers, Finding Straight Putts, Low Bounce Wedges

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 13:03:05 GMT

Nick Faldo wins The Open in 1990 (GETTY IMAGES)

Happy Sunday everyone.

This post comes out Sunday morning before The Open finishes. So, I’m going to make a prediction that Sam Burns holds on and wins his first major. Officially time stamped!

Hope I don’t look like an idiot when he finishes outside of the top 30 lol.

Anyway, here’s what’s in the bag:

Today’s quote:

“If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.”

— Horace G. Hutchinson

All You Need is a Coat Hanger

How much did your last training aid cost? Whatever it was, I can assure you it wasn’t less than the one Wyndham Clark was using last week.

During the range sessions leading up to The Open, Wyndham Clark was spotted using a coat hanger on multiple occasions.

I’ll explain why it’s one of the best training aids you (likely) own, what it’s for, and how to use it.

What It’s For

The point of the coat hanger is to help golfers who struggle with a cupped wrist in the backswing, which Wyndham claims he does. You can watch a good explanation by @LKD_Golf HERE.

A good visual of flat vs cupped wrist

How To Use It

You place it alongside your club’s grip, and then grip both of them normally. The goal is to keep the coal hanger in contact with your left forearm.

For those who struggle with a cupped wrist, you’ll get immediate feedback on what a flat wrist angle is, and how to feel it.

For those looking to improve their swings, you’ll eventually find out how important wrist angles are, and the direct relationship they have with the club face.

Before we continue,

It looks like you’re not subscribed!

If you’re a serious golfer looking for strategies and insights to lower your index, please subscribe for free below. You won’t regret it.

Finding Straight Putts

I recently watched a Rick Shiels YouTube video where he receives a putting lesson from the legendary Brad Faxon.

If you’d like to watch the full video, here it is:

What really stuck with me though, was one of the first things Faxon made him do was put a ball down and find a straight 15-foot putt.

It sounded easy, so I tried it myself. It’s surprisingly very difficult to find a perfectly straight line on the first try without any adjustments.

I’ve now made it the first thing I do to start my putting practice.

The reason this drill is so great is that it's an easy way to train yourself to identify “straight”. Once you can do that, it becomes much easier to recognize break everywhere else on the green.

Give it a try the next time you’re on the practice green.

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be on carry distances, and why overestimating them only hurts your game.

A preview:

As golfers, we are all prone to the occasional self-deception.
We justify the slippery two-footer as “gimme-range” and give it to ourselves. Or we round 80 down to 79 when recounting our score the next day with coworkers.
While these minor fabrications are largely inconsequential, the dynamic shifts when ego begins to obscure reality. Eventually, these small lies cross a threshold and evolve into a form of self-sabotage.
Today I want to talk about the most detrimental form of this self-deception:
The persistent lies we tell ourselves about our own distances.

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

Low Bounce Wedges

Have you ever taken what felt like a perfect swing with your wedge only to chunk it?

That was rhetorical. Of course you have. We all have.

Well, you’ll be happy to know that it might not all be your fault!

Over on X, The Golf Engineer shared a fantastic visual of low bounce and high bounce wedges and how they interact with the turf.

So, if you’re playing on very soft turf and finding that your wedge shots are coming out a bit chunky, it’s possible the bounce on your wedge is too low, causing the leading edge to dig in.

I know this can be a confusing and overly complicated concept, but it’s something I had never fully considered before.

Many of you may already be doing this intuitively. For instance, when you’re on firmer turf, opening or closing the face alters that bounce to match the conditions.

Either way, I highly recommend clicking on the post and reading the comment thread. Very helpful stuff!

That’s all for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE. It will be free for all premium subscribers.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

Using AI To Improve at Golf

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:01:02 GMT

Rory vs The Robot

Happy Wednesday golfers. I hope you’ve got your pen and paper ready because this is a good one — I think.

A few weeks ago I had a reader reach out and pitch me an idea for a very interesting article.

Here is what he sent:

Hello Tommy! New subscriber and have been binging your articles. Top quality stuff. I think i’ve got a good topic for you. Along the lines of ‘different ways to use AI to improve your game’. I use AI a lot in my work as a data engineer and have tried to incorporate it into my game as much as i can. I’ll compile a few use cases and send them over to you.

So he ended up emailing me a document with various prompts he has tried along with the AI’s response and strategies to obtain the highest quality responses.

Using AI as a personal golf coach and caddie is a brilliant strategy, and one most players have barely begun to scratch the surface of.

Personally, I’ve used AI to break down my launch monitor metrics and scoring data to see how my game stacks up. But data tracking is really just the tip of the iceberg. AI-driven golf coaching is a wide-open frontier. It’s the Wild West of player development, and there are absolutely no rules.

So I decided to do some research and put together a list of the very best AI golf prompts for you. If you’re a premium subscriber, you can access the full list below:

Over time, I plan to add to this list. But for today’s article and for the sake of time, we will look at just a few.

Use Case 1: Breaking Down Your Round

Let’s start with one of the prompts my reader gave me in his document. This is one I have used in the past, but not with this level of detail.

Here is the prompt:

I am a [X] handicap who shot [SCORE] with the following stats: [X]/18 greens in regulation, [XX] putts, [X]/[X] fairways hit, [X]/[X] up-and-downs, [X] penalty shots. Please compare these stats to other golfers of my skill level, and tell me which areas I’m proficient in, and which areas I need to spend the most time on.

The key with this prompt in my own experience, is to continue using it after every round. The more the AI learns about you as a golfer, the more it can help you improve.

I sent Claude my stats after a few rounds and it immediately clocked me for hitting too many penalty shots. Turns out I was wasting away 1-2 strokes per round off the tee.

I kind of intuitively knew this to be true, but seeing it displayed in text right in front of me made it more real. So I immediately started focusing on hitting clubs off the tee that would ensure I stayed in play, and lo and behold I’ve stayed below 1 penalty shot per round ever since.

Here is a screenshot of what my reader sent me.

Here was his prompt and the AI’s response:

Right away the AI called him out for his putting in relation to his greens hit. Here is what it said:

The biggest red flag is 35 putts with only 7 greens hit. When GIR is low, total putts often drops because you are chipping first, then putting from closer range. So 35 suggests either:
1. your chips/pitches were not finishing close enough,
2. you had several 3-putts, or
3. you were leaving yourself long first putts even on the 7 GIR.

That is extremely valuable information for this golfer. 35 total putts on its own isn’t necessarily a red flag. But when paired with the information that he had only hit 7 GIR, it is a cause for concern.

This just reinforces the importance of feeding every bit of info about your round into the AI. It will spot holes in your game much quicker than most of you can.

Use Case 2: The Course Caddy

A great strategy for those of you playing a newer course or one that you’re still unfamiliar with.

I’m playing [COURSE NAME] for the first time. I am a [X] handicap and here are my carry distances for each club [INSERT CARRY DISTANCES]. Please research any public information on the course and give me a brief overview of what to expect, followed by a hole-by-hole, shot-by-shot strategy. Highlight holes where I can be aggressive or holes to be careful. Also any local knowledge tips if you have any.

This obviously works better for more popular courses. For example, I live in San Diego, so doing this for Torrey Pines would result in better results than a lesser known course.

I asked Claude to break down a local course I play and here was what it gave me. (I am leaving the name of the course out)

Par 72, with the whites at 6,459 and the blues at 6,869 — at your handicap, play the blues. Course rating 72.4, slope 126 from the tips. It's the hillier, more strategic of the two X courses: elevated tees, more elevation change, and more dynamic holes than the flat South course — including two par 3s perched on rises where a miss over the side wrecks your score. Greens are bent grass with paspalum fairways — recent reports say greens roll medium-quick and can play firm, with approach shots releasing more than expected, and it's a heavily played muni so expect ball marks.
Big picture for your game specifically: your documented leaks are scrambling and tee-shot penalties. This course punishes exactly that — side-hill drop-offs, doglegs, blind shots. The whole round is a discipline test, not a distance test. At 6,869 you'll have mostly mid-to-short iron approaches. Fairways-and-centers wins here.

I wouldn’t say this ground breaking information, but this was the very first prompt, with no follow up questions. So the more you press the AI and ask, the more it will give you. If you’re playing a course for the first time, any information is good information.

Just be sure to verify some of the info when you get there. It can make errors.

For those of you who are premium subscribers, go ahead and head over to AI Golf Prompt List to view the rest if you’re interested.

For the rest of you, I’ll see you Sunday.

Tommy

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most recent and popular Scoring Letter posts below:

AI Golf Prompt List

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 05:02:10 GMT

Welcome Scoring Letter subs. Here is the full list.

If any of you come across other great prompts, please shoot me a message. My goal is to keep adding to this list over time. I would love for it to serve as the best resource for AI golf coach prompting.

The Sunday Bag: Leaning Flags, Three-Quarter Wedges, Club Behind You.

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 12:00:46 GMT

Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie bowing to Augusta after their win in 2021.

Happy Sunday everyone. Hope you’ve all been enjoying your summertime golf and inflated carry distances from warmer weather :)

Let’s get into it.

Today’s quote:

“The secret of golf is to turn three shots into two.”

-Bobby Jones

Leaning Flags

If you’re on X and you don’t follow @engineeringolf, do yourself a favor and go follow him. If you subscribe to this newsletter then you’ll no doubt love his content.

Last week he shared this post on leaning flag sticks which I found to be very interesting:

I did a quick Grok search and asked if there was any validity to the claim. Here was what it said:

A leaning flag can create a visual reference or distraction that subtly alters perceived break and alignment for some golfers, consistent with sports vision principles where vertical objects act as plumb lines or introduce perspective distortion on contoured greens.
Validity is moderate and subjective: it supports personal preference for removal in many cases, but studies and pros note potential benefits of leaving it in for distance perception; no large peer-reviewed evidence isolates “optical illusion” specifically, though anecdotal and practical consensus aligns with the idea.

While the debate over leaving the flagstick in or out has been well-documented, the visual impact of a leaning flagstick appears to be unresearched.

I personally prefer taking the flag stick out on every single putt. Most of it is psychological, but I have seen a number of putts hit off the flag stick and miss that otherwise would have gone in.

Nonetheless, a leaning flag is an interesting offshoot of the larger flag debate, and one that I thought would be worthy of your attention.

Three-Quarter Wedge Shots

Something I have been doing a lot of recently is clubbing up and hitting a three-quarter shot with wedges.

The consistency in flight, spin, and contact with shorter swings have been a real game changer for me, and it’s something I highly recommend to everyone.

I posted this to my X followers, and nearly all of them responded claiming similar experiences:

To give you an example:

A full swing with my 60-degree wedge goes about 90 yards.

A full swing with my 56-degree wedge goes about 110 yards.

I have found that if I have roughly 90-yards to the pin, taking my 56-degree and hitting a 3/4 “punch” style shot will be much more consistent.

The aggressive 3/4 swing also allows the ball to take off much lower and check up with less dramatic spin.

Give it a try if you haven't.

This Week’s Premium Post

This week’s premium post will be on leveraging AI as your personal golf coach.

A preview:

Using AI as a personal golf coach and caddie is a brilliant strategy, and one most players have barely begun to scratch the surface of.
Personally, I’ve used AI to break down my launch monitor metrics and scoring data to see how my game stacks up. But data tracking is just the tip of the iceberg. AI-driven golf coaching is a wide-open frontier. It’s the Wild West of player development, and there are absolutely no rules.

This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.

Getting The Club Behind You

I always hear instructors and coaches online talking about the feeling of getting the club out in front of your body. And then they always follow it up by warning you of the golf swing’s greatest bogeyman (no pun intended) — letting the club get behind you.

James Nicholas recently shared a clip of Justin Rose explaining some of his feels through impact:

I found it interesting to hear him say he likes the feeling of the club tracking from behind him.

The reason I’m sharing this is to make the point that you need to be very discerning about which swing “feels” you choose to copy from videos or other players.

Just because someone says they like the feeling of getting the club out in front of them doesn’t mean that’s the feeling your swing needs.

Feeling the club behind you might result in better contact for YOU.

Also, I’m not advocating getting the club “stuck”, but I digress…

That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE. It will be free for all premium subscribers.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most recent and popular Scoring Letter posts below:

Lessons From A Vintage Golf Magazine

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:03:07 GMT

Welcome to the third installment in my series Lessons From A Vintage Golf Magazine.

For those who are new here, the goal of the series is pretty simple: we dig up golf instruction from an old school magazine and hold it up against the game today. There are untapped gold mines of golf knowledge sitting in older writing. All you have to do is go digging.

For this installment, we’ll be looking at a Golf Digest series from 1975 called The Art of Putting. This was part two in their three-part series. This article was focused on “Judging Distance”.

It was written by Larry Dennis, drawing on insights from Golf Digest's Professional Teaching Panel — a legendary lineup that included major champions Bobby Jones and Cary Middlecoff, tour winners Paul Runyan and Bob Toski, alongside legendary instructors Eddie Merrins, John Jacobs, and Gary Wiren.

It has a few great conceptual tips that I think will really help a lot of you on the greens. Distance control and proper pace are vital to scoring as I'm sure many of you know. Without it, greens in regulation become useless, and scoring opportunities pass you by.

Let’s get into it.

Distance Vs Direction

The article begins with their position:

Of the two dimensions in putting — distance and direction — I think the golfer should spend far more time concerning himself with making the ball go the required distance.

I don’t think this claim is shocking to the modern golfer. However they would be pleased to know that almost 50+ years later, their claim holds undeniably true now that we have modern ShotLink data and GPS-tracked amateur rounds to prove it.

Shot Scope’s data now puts a number on their original claim:

84% of missed putts over five feet finish short of the hole.

Not necessarily offline. Short.

The miss pattern on these shorter to mid length putts isn’t a circle. It’s more of an oval, stretched along the line of the putt. A slightly wrong line can still catch an edge and drop. Wrong pace has no mercy.

Here is the second useful Shot Scope stat for you:

83% of three-putts begin with the first putt from beyond 32 feet.

Three-putts are not because you missed the second putt. They are from a terribly paced first putt.

So we know that terrible speed control leads to terrible putting. Kind of obvious. But how can we actually improve our pace without grinding over 1000 putts on the practice green?

Let’s look at a few of the strategies they give to help golfers conceptualize speed and distance more effectively.

The Sunday Bag: Independence, Merit, and The American Golf Story

Tour Swings Tommy — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 16:10:40 GMT

John Daly at the Insperity Invitational, 2017

Happy July 5th, everyone!

I’m sure most of you are waking up moving a little slower after a long Independence Day. With that in mind, I’m keeping today’s Sunday Bag short, sweet, and on-theme for yesterday’s holiday.

Hope you enjoy it.

The American Promise

America was founded on a simple promise: it doesn’t matter where you start. If you work hard, if you fight, if you refuse to accept someone else’s limits, you can become anything you want to be.

Individual effort, individual determination, individual grit. You’re not trapped by your circumstances.

For 250 years, America has fought to fulfill this revolutionary promise. And running parallel to that history is the story of American golf — an evolution shaped by iconic figures whose journeys personify the defining American traits of meritocracy, grit, self-agency, and sheer determination.

From Old Money to Raw Talent

When golf landed in America in the late 1800s, it arrived in the form of private clubs, expensive memberships, and a game reserved strictly for those with time and money. If you weren’t born into that world, you weren’t breaking in.

But then America got a hold of it, and golf slowly began shifting into the meritocratic game we know today.

Caddie yards let working-class kids in to learn for free, absorbing the game through years of repetition until they were better than the members who hired them. Municipal courses meant you didn’t need a country club membership to get better.

By the postwar era, golf had broken out of its closed loop, shifting into a game dominated by talent and effort. It didn’t matter where your family came from or how much money they had. It only mattered how talented you were and how hard you were willing to work.

Three Stories of American Grit

Francis Ouimet

If you’ve ever watched the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played, you’ll know this name. Born to an Irish and French-Canadian immigrant family in Brookline, Massachusetts. Ouimet was poor, working-class, and everything golf at that time said you couldn't be.

Francis Ouimet

He grew up across the street from The Country Club, close enough to watch the members through the fence. At 11-years old, he started caddying. He taught himself to play with scavenged balls and cut-down clubs, practicing in his backyard.

By 20, he walked into the U.S. Open as an amateur and beat the two best professionals alive. They were both Englishmen which is quite apropos for today’s post.

His victory opened doors that had been previously locked. Golf participation in America reportedly doubled in the years that followed.

Ben Hogan

Hogan was born into Texas poverty and lost his father to suicide at just nine years old. When he turned 11, he began caddying to help his family survive.

Ben Hogan

What followed became arguably the greatest golf swing of all time.

He received only minimal initial instruction — primarily basic grip advice from the club professional. Beyond that, Hogan developed his renowned swing almost entirely on his own through relentless observation of the players he caddied for, and hitting hundreds of balls daily.

In 1949, a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus left him with injuries so severe doctors doubted he would ever walk again. Sixteen months later, he won the U.S. Open.

Hogan never had talent handed to him. He dug his entire game out of the dirt, one bloody rep at a time.

Tiger Woods

A kid whose father, a Green Beret, decided his son would be the best. Not really good — the best.

I think you know who this one is

Earl Woods put a golf club in Tiger’s hands at three years old and taught him to dominate the game. He taught him that talent was secondary to work ethic, that comfort was secondary to improvement, and that individuals who refused to accept limits became champions.

Earl would also emphasize that Tiger’s extraordinary talent would leave the golf establishment no choice but to accept him, breaking down racial barriers as a natural consequence of his skill.

He spent his entire career proving just that.

He wasn’t just great at golf. He was a transformational force for the sport itself. He made the game bigger because he refused to accept that it couldn’t be.

In America, golf shifted from a game of privilege to an arena of merit. It transformed into a sport for those willing to prove through sheer determination, grit, and integrity, that the only thing that truly matters is the willingness to improve.

Not a bad idea to sit with the day after our 250th birthday.

I hope you guys enjoyed the post, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Tommy

You can pre-order the digital version of my new book on Amazon HERE. It will be free for all premium subscribers.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me at tourswingstommy@gmail.com. I read everything.

Social Media: Make sure to follow me on X here.

If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most popular Scoring Letter posts below:

Why Gimmes Are Ruining Your Putting

Tour Swings Tommy — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:02:09 GMT

Doug Sanders missing a short putt in the 1970 Open Championship

Walk by any public golf course and you’ll see it. A player rolls a putt to within a few feet, and someone in the group says, “That’s good,” and the ball is picked up before the player ever attempts to read the putt. No debate, no delay — just a small courtesy that keeps the round moving and the atmosphere light.

In casual golf, gimmes feel harmless. They’re rooted in golf etiquette and pace of play. And I get it, nobody wants to be the guy who makes everyone wait while he grinds over a two-footer.

But here’s the problem:

That small social courtesy is quietly doing real damage to your putting.

Those “short, easy” putts you keep giving yourself are the thin margin separating you from the putter you want to be. By skipping them, you’ve systematically removed the only pressure cooker that builds the skill you think you already have.

Here’s a compilation of pros missing gimmes — If there even is such a thing as a “gimme”.

What Actually Is a Gimme?

The most common definition you’ll hear is: inside the leather. Grip the putter, flip it upside down, place the grip end at the hole. If the ball is closer than the grip length, it’s good. That lands you somewhere around 18 inches to two feet depending on the putter.

A putter sneakily designed for “inside the leather” measuring

That’s the standard. But in practice (as I’m sure you’ve all witnessed) gimmes can be anything people want them to be…

The “gimmes” I’ve seen people give themselves have no limit. Four-footers with a sharp break, downhill left-to-righters, three-foot birdie attempts. The list goes on.

And look, I get it. Nobody wants to be the serious hard-ass making everyone grind over every tap-in. It kills the vibe and makes a casual round feel way too stiff.

Your playing partners can do whatever they want. All I’m saying is that if your goal is to actually improve and become a better putter, you need to start politely declining the next time someone tells you “that’s good.”

Because you aren’t just taking a gimme. You’re completely bypassing the fundamental building blocks required to actually become a great putter.

Let’s break down why.