Golf is a funny game. Some rounds you have it. Your putting is dead on, your approach shots are right at the pin, and your drives hit the fairway. You play so well your score belies your golf handicap. Other rounds, you don’t have it. Your putting is off, your approach shots miss the green, and your drives miss the fairway, sometimes by wide margins. On those days, you don’t play anywhere near your golf handicap.

When you find yourself playing poorly, you should make every effort to salvage the day. It can be frustrating but you can turn a bad round into a good if you try. A good way to do that is to get back to the basics. Start by working on your driving, it sets you up for good approach shots and creates the right “tone” for the hole. It can also help turn around your game that day. The key is driving it straight and that, as I’ve said in many times in my golf tips, is correct alignment.

Align Yourself Properly At Address
If you’re not aligned at address, bad things happen. You’ll have to make swing difficult adjustments mid-stream to compensate. For example, if you’re right-handed and you’re aimed too far left, you’ll have to swing across the ball at the bottom to correct for the mis-alignment. That’s not an easy adjustment to make. It takes a highly skilled player to make adjustments and still hit the fairway consistently. There may also be clubface issues to address as well.

If you align yourself at address, you’ll dramatically increase your fairways hit per round. That in turn will impact your scores and your golf handicap. Good drives leave you in position for easy second shots and eliminate wasted shots designed to get you out of trouble. But there’s more to hitting straight drives than just aligning yourself correctly. You also have to swing along the target line while the clubhead is in the hitting zone. The longer you can keep the clubhead on the target line the straighter your shot. Below is a drill that teaches you to do that.

Target Line Drill Helps
This drill trains you to keep your swing along the target line. Tee up a ball. Place two dowels in the ground spaced a foot apart three yards in front of your ball. Your goal is to practice hitting your drives through the window formed by the dowels. With a narrow yet close target like the dowels, you’ll be less likely to come over the top with your swing. On the course, use imaginary dowels to remind you to swing down the line through the hitting zone.

As for aligning yourself correctly, below is a six-step alignment routine that can serve as a model for yours:

1. Stand behind the ball. Pick out a target.

2. Take your stance where you’re standing. Draw an imaginary line from your target back through the ball. Square your clubface to this line.

3. Make a full practice swing from there. Sense the clubhead moving down the target line through impact. Visualize the ball flight you want to use.

4. Focus on the target line in front of the ball. Walk into your stance from the left (if you’re right-handed), keeping your eye on the target line.

5. Set your clubhead behind the ball. Point the face down the line. Maintain your focus on the line in front of the ball.

6. Set your feet perpendicular to the line. Look at the target one last time. Turn your eyes to the ball and pull your trigger.

Once you set your feet set, take a slight step back with your back foot. It’s a trick Tiger Woods uses. It keeps you behind the ball when swinging, increases stability, and provides a firm foundation for a powerful drive.

Making sure you’re correctly aligned and staying on the swing path are two keys to hitting straight drives. Use an alignment routine on every driver swing, as I tell students in my golf lessons. It helps you find the target line and align your body and clubface to it. Practicing the target line drill improves your ability to keep your clubhead on the right swing path. Going back to basics starts in the tee box. It’s a great way to salvage a bad round and keep your golf handicap from increasing.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

Personal records drive golfers to succeed. Setting a goal of breaking 90 for the first time or chopping two strokes from your golf handicap compels us to work hard, practice smart, and stay focused. It also compels use to think differently when facing difficult shots. We continually find ourselves asking the question: What’s the best shot in this situation? When it’s all over, you want to know if you’re playing the right shot at critical times in the round.

One way to do that is to develop “go-to” shots for difficult situations, like hitting from behind a tree. We’ve talked about how go-to shots can help golfers in my golf tips newsletter. Using them in key situations harnesses your ability and takes advantage of your on the course strengths. More important, it lets you control the situation rather than letting the situation control you. To capitalize on this approach, you must develop an arsenal of shots you can use in the clutch. Below we discuss go-to shots in three key situations.

On A Tight Fairway
Hitting a good drive to a tight fairway, as I’ve said in my golf tips newsletter, is a great way to a comeback. A good drive here is at least 200 yards in the fairway. Candidates for a go-to shot are the full swing driver, the 3-wood, and the hybrid fade. You must be able to hit the fairway with this shot about 80 percent of the time. Pulling off the full swing driver leaves a short iron to the green, but the average golfer misses this shot 50 percent of the time. The 3-wood offers less distance but finds the fairway 15 percent more often than the driver. The hybrid fade finds the fairway more than the 3-wood, but requires a longer second shot to the green. Choose wisely.

Short Shots To The Green
Another critical situation where you need a go-to shot is about 100 yards out. Having a go-to shot is here key if “disaster” areas guard the green. You need a go-to shot that avoids all the trouble around the green. Candidates are the one-third 5-iron swing, otherwise known as the bump-and-run, and the full swing wedge. The full wedge shot puts your close to the hole, but if you miss it, you’re toast. The bump-and run won’t get your as close as the wedge, but, it’s easier to hit than the full wedge, With good contact, this shot will give you 60 yards of carry and 30 yards of roll.

Pitches To The Green Over Water
You need this shot when you’re about 30 yards to the green and there’s water (or another obstacle) between you and the pin. You need to be ale to hit the shot successfully 90 percent of the time for it to be considered a go-to shot. The idea is to land the shot on the green and leave it within 2-putt range nine out of 10 times you hit the shot, as I tell students in golf instruction sessions. Candidates are the lob wedge pitch, the standard pitch, and the chip with a putter. A well-executed lob wedge pitch leaves you with a tap-in, but mis-hitting it lands you in the water. The standard pitch to either side takes the water out of play. It’s easier to hit, but probably won’t leave you close to the hole. The chip with a putter is just what the name says: a chip shot using your putter. This shot isn’t taught in golf lessons much, but it’s safe and can put you within two-putt range.

Continue this approach for all the critical areas of your game. Then, work on developing go-to shots for the areas. Determine the shot candidates, see which one you hit best, and work on perfecting it. Once you’ve done that for the critical areas of your game, you can attack courses with aggressiveness and confidence. Remember, your go-to shot is always your safest. It’s the shot you hit best in a given situation, so it could be the riskiest. You’ll be surprised at the impact on your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.