1) Do Not neglect putting.
Think about it. Once you hit the green, if you can regularly sink the golfball in two strokes or less, you gain a huge advantage. You need to practice your stroke for both long and short putts. Here again, practicing long putts is fun. However, begin dropping in putts from ten feet and in and you will be amazed how many strokes you knock off your score.

2) Practice the short game.
Most golfers love to head to the driving range and see how far they can hit a golfball. You can cut more strokes from your golf score if you learn to hit the short irons. Start close to the green and begin pitching the ball. When you are consistently dropping the ball close to the hole, back up ten to fifteen yards and begin practicing from that distance.
Master your short irons and you will quickly slash some strokes.

3) Hit it, then forget it.
My point here is, if you hit a bad shot you want to analyze what you did wrong. Was the clubface not square to the ball? Did you rush the shot? Was your swing tight and not loose? However, after you do so, forget it. You can't let the shot bother you. Do not try to overhit the next shot to make up for shanking this one. Just forget it. Let it go. It's done now and beating yourself up over it won't help and, in fact, can have the opposite effect.

4) Ditch the cart.
Unless your golf course requires you to use a golf cart, or you have physical limitations, don't use it. Golf was meant to be played while walking. While walking to your next shot, as you approach you begin thinking about how you want to play the next shot. You are thinking of club selection and whether to play it safe or take a gamble. When you are in a cart, golf becomes more of a rush thing. Get in the cart, drive to the ball and hit it. It just seems to take the fun out of it. Not to mention the exercise you receive when you walk the course.

5) When in doubt, play it safe.
If you are a weekend golfer, there is only so much time you get to play the game. When you come into a situation, such as a lie behind a tree, and you're contemplating whether to take a chance and try to slam the ball through the branches or simply hit a safe shot and get the ball back onto the fairway, you should probably elect to take the safe shot. Forget what Tiger did last Sunday. All you are losing is a single shot. If you go for it and hit the tree and the ball bounces back, you have lost an additional stroke.

Having said that, if you are just out to have fun and could care less what your final total is, go for it. :-)

Golf can be fun. It should be fun. The reality is most of us have that competitiveness, and that is a good thing. So anything we can do to lower our scores, even by a couple strokes, is going to fuel the juices and want to do even better next time.