How should I work on improving my game?

Go to the range during the week after work. Hit some balls, then chip and putt. At the point your at, the more you practice, the better you'll get.

There is no way to know this based on your post, but do you have a decent swing? I know people with those scores who have absolutely terrible swings and some with athletic, decent swings. If your swing is bad, more lessons may help.

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There is no way to know this based on your post, but do you have a decent swing?

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I would think so. There wasn't a whole lot that was changed with my swing in my lessons. My grip was changed up a bit, and then it was just a focus of getting my swing on a more circular path. I had a tendency to try to follow the ball with my club, instead of bringing it around, which was leading to a lot of slicing.

That part is fixed. My driving has improved tremendously. My iron shots as well, but the main problem has been poor ball striking.

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I’ve found that chipping/pitching in my back yard has made a huge difference for me. It has translated to better iron play which is my weakness. I’m striking the ball better, more center face hits

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I probably should start here. Chipping and pitching is by far the best part of my game, so it's the least worked on. If this can lead to better ball striking with my irons, I should probably work there and work myself backwards to longer irons.

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Can you get off the tee ok?

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I've been getting off the tee great recently.

Sounds like you need to learn 3 putt avoidance. Work on longer putts stopping within x radius of the hole.

On short putts, pick a mark inside the cup to aim at ignoring the entire cup. Aim at that tiny mark.

Here’s my 2 cents if you care:

The most efficient way to get better is to get more data. From there you can focus better on what to practice most.

Because you are going to start playing more, you will naturally improve. But I would initially start with a mental reframe of how to approach rounds when you play. For the next month pretend that double bogies are pars, bogies are birdies and pars are eagles. (Basically consider a 108 par for 18 holes) Don’t try to make hero shots to make 4 on par 4s. Just play to not make a triple. Thinking like this will keep you relaxed and not frustrated which will keep you loose and more able to swing the club better.

During the month start tracking stats such as- fairways hit, greens in regulation, number of putts (including making notes as you go about how good/poor you are lag putting), getting up and down, and penalties.

Also, get a rangefinder as it’s the best way to learn your distances. No excuse not to have one if you’re consistently playing 3x/month.

As you play and keep track of your stats you will easily see where you are losing the most strokes and you can focus practice there. Lots of good putting drills are on the internet. As for chipping/pitching I would take your highest loft club and try to practice and do the majority of your chipping with that club until you feel very confident with it. Only then should you move onto different techniques/clubs.

As you progress change your mindset from 108=par downwards. You may already be to where you could consider 99 (27 over) =par.

I’ve found this is the best way to keep my mental game solid while learning and implementing course management techniques (punching out, just getting ball out of sand, get the ball on green and two putt for a double, etc).

This will lower your scores and allow you to enjoy it in the process. Let me know how it goes.

Edit to add-full disclosure I am a fairly consistent mid to low 80s golfer.

Thanks. I was actually planning on doing something very similar.

I was going to get in my first five rounds at the course I joined at. Then I was going to take my average score on each hole and use that as "par" going forward and try to work myself from there.

I've played one so far (shot a 104) and will get in 2 and 3 this week.

I actually carried around a note pad and wrote down the clubs I used, and how the holes played it. Problem is, when I'm playing alone I walk, and I got tired of stopping to write after about the 8th hole. Just in those few holes, I have some helpful info though. So I probably need to stick to doing that.

I've found that shortening my back swing and really focusing on tempo/slowed takeway and down swing can really help improve ball striking.

Get back to the basics and then slowly increase tempo and swing speed.

Also, a lot of ball striking comes down to EYE ON THE BALL. stop trying to watch the flight.

Lock in on the ball like it's the finest piece of booty you've ever seen and you will die if you look away.

Putting and chipping is straight up practice. Big improvements in these area come from using your body and less arms. Your chest and hips need to move with chipping and pitching. Putting more shoulders.

Everyone wants to use their arms and hands and that can really kill the ball strike and takeway the bounce of the club and sweet spot of the putter.

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Next biggest problem would be locking in the distances of my shots. I don't have a range finder, so just knowing the exact distance is an issue. What should I do to improve on this?

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Bushnell phantom is a handheld digital range finder for about $100. It gives you distance to front, middle and back of green plus distances to carry hazards.
Easy to use.

I took some of the advice from this thread and brought it to my round today. I went out and worked a solid 30 minutes on strikly putting, before I started. I spent a good bit of the time working on lag putting, and making sure I could get puts close enough to make in two, instead of three.

I'm proud to say I went an entire round with ZERO three puts. I nailed some long distance puts, and tapped them in for two. I was money lagging, and then didn't miss from 3 ft in. My next area to improve will be making the 4-10 footers with consistency. I was good, as usual, with chipping and pitching and I left myself a bunch of those 4-10 footers, I just didn't put them in enough. It's still an improvement, and I'll keep busting my arse at practicing putting until I feel totally confident in it.

Now my round only improved from a 107 to a 103. That was mainly because I struggled like hell on the first 5-6 holes getting out of the tee box and to the green. My back 9 was much better, as I started locking in.

Once I get the putting down, I'll start spending time trying to lock in the distances for my irons. I'm hitting them pretty good, but coming up long or short too often, simply because I'm using the wrong club.