Simple in golf is often better than complex. For example, we teach students in our golf lessons to flare their front foot out when addressing the ball. Flaring your foot is a simple adjustment that provides big results. It lets golfers clear their front hips better and hit longer straighter shots. Simple adjustments like these can work wonders for players with all kinds of golf handicaps. Incorporate enough of them in your swing and you’ll find yourself hitting the ball more accurately and consistently.

Below are five simple golf tips that can impact your game:

Let The Putter Shaft Dictate
Many golfers favor an arcing path over a straight back and threw path when putting. These players feel the arcing path is better suited to today’s faster greens. But there are also many golfers committed to the straight back and threw path. If that’s you, try using a center-shafted putter. It could turn your putting game around. When the shaft is positioned in the putter’s center, the amount the putter face opens and closes during the stroke is reduced. When putting, you want your putterface to open and close as little as possible.

Level Your Shoulders
Conventional wisdom says lower your tee to produce a lower, more penetrating ball flight. This adjustment isn’t always compatible with today’s larger, more deep-faced clubheads. Lowering the tee makes it difficult to hit the ball with the clubface’s sweet spot. Instead, try adjusting your shoulders. The typical driver set up tilts your spine away from the target. Thus, your back shoulder is lower than your front shoulder. When you want to hit a low penetrating ball flight into the wind, level your shoulders rather than lower the tee. It’s safer and encourages better contact.

Use Hybrids With Divots
Sooner or later you will end up in a divot hole or a small crater. When you do, use your hybrid to get it out. Many golfers with high golf handicaps try to dig themselves out of this lie with an iron. Digging out forces you to adopt a steeper swing path, often resulting in poor contact. Try a hybrid instead. Its sole keeps the clubhead from getting stuck in the hole. To hit the ball solidly when in a divot hole or crater, feel as if your shoulders are level as the club swings through impact. That feeling keeps the bottom of your swing as level as possible.

Pull Down With Your Knee
To hit irons pure, you must achieve the correct impact position. You can do so with help from some swing imagery. As you complete your backswing, visualize a rubber band connecting your club’s butt end to your back knee. To get your hands down imagine that your back knee must move first to pull the club toward the ball. This imagery helps you start your swing with your lower body. It also helps transfer your weight forward to your front foot, putting you in good position to hit down on the ball.

Hide Your Cell Phone
We often see new players in our golf instruction sessions trying to scoop the ball in the air. This effort invariably leads to mis-hits. If that’s you, you can use your cell phone to cure yourself of this swing fault. Clip the phone to your front hip and practice hitting shots. If you hang back as you do when trying to scoop the ball, the phone will be visible throughout the swing. But if you shift your weight to your front leg and rotate around it, you’ll move the phone out of sight.

These five golf tips are fairly simple. They’re also easy to add to your swing. But don’t underestimate them. They can help you make better contact. And making better contact is the key to chopping strokes off your golf handicap.

We see it in golf lessons all the time—a golfer with a unique putting style. Many golfers have unique putting styles because putting is the most personal of all golf activities. Yet these players still putt well. Take the PGA’s Zach Johnson. His putting style is different. Instead of using a traditional set up, he sets up with his left wrist cupped and the shaft leaning away from the target. Different? Yes. Odd? Yes. But he’s still a good putter.

Zach is a good putter because his stroke suits today’s greens. Previously, greens were slower, so you had to use more hand action when putting. But today’s greens are “slicker” and faster. To putt well on them, you need a more flowing stroke, with less hand action. If you use the wrong putting style, you may be adding strokes to your scores and boosting your golf handicap. Below we provide golf tips on how to change your putting style to better fit today’s greens.

Grip The Putter Along Your Lifeline
One putting adage says to place the putting grip along the lifeline of your left palm (right palm for left-handers). This approach has some disadvantages. In addition to affecting your aim, placing the putting grip along the lifeline (1) robs you of feel and (2) encourages your left forearm to rotate under your right. Placing the putter along your lifeline also prevents you from moving the putter on an arc—two keys to sinking more putts on today’s greens.

We teach students in our golf instruction sessions to grip the putter more in their fingers, anchoring it at the base of their left hand (right for left-handers). This grip provides more leverage and better control. Your fingers are where you have the most feel, so you want to place as much of the putter’s shaft in them as possible. Plus, your wrists are less likely to breakdown if you hold the grip more in your fingers.

Set Your Eyes Over The Ball
A second putting adage says to set your eyes directly over the ball. This is a bit misleading on today’s greens. If you set up with your eyes directly over the ball, you’ll trap your hands beneath you and you’ll have to use your wrists to complete your stroke. This causes the putter to move outside the target line on the backstroke. To compensate, you have to manipulate the putter coming back to get it back on line, which you want to avoid when putting.

We tell students in our golf lessons to set their eyes slightly inside the ball. This does three things: It frees your hands to swing and rotate easily, eliminates the need to get your hands more involved, and provides an undistorted view of the putting line. To achieve this set up stand up straight, then drop your hands loosely to your sides. Now grip the putter so the sole is flat on the ground. If you bend over first then drop your hands into position as many golfers do, you’ll trap your arms.

Putt Straight Back and Through
A third myth says to take the putter straight back and through. Again, this is somewhat misleading. Since we stand at the side of the ball and the shaft is at an angle to the ground, taking the putter straight back and through throws off the putting stroke on longer putts. A straight-back and straight-through stroke also requires more coordination and practice to perfect.

We teach students in our golf instruction sessions to use a putting stroke with a slight arc to it, except for really short putts. This stroke is better suited to today’s faster greens. It’s also more consistent with a putter’s design. Swinging on a slight arc keeps the putter’s face square to the target line. It also keeps the ball on target without forcing you to twist the clubface square at impact.

Your putting style is highly personal. So if you’re not putting well, you may want to check your putting style. You may be using a style more suited to yesterday’s greens. If so, incorporate some of the golf tips suggested above in your putting. If you’re looking to chop strokes off your golf handicap, improving your putting is a great place to start.