The Scoring School
The Scoring School

Course management & the mental game

Junior golf · Teams · Northern Utah

Lower scores come from better decisions, not better swings.

Most junior golfers spend every practice hour trying to hit better shots. The data says something different: a player who goes from shooting 95 to shooting 79 gains exactly one of those sixteen strokes from making more birdies. The other fifteen come from bogeys or worse that stopped happening.

The Scoring School teaches the decision-making side of golf — where to aim, when to hit driver, what to do from the trees, and how to putt to a speed instead of to a hope. Every session is built on measured numbers from the player's own game.

Best fit: players who break 90 consistently. The material assumes a repeatable ball flight to aim, so it pays off fastest for juniors already shooting in the 80s and working toward high school and college golf.

DECADE certified coach
95 → 79 · SIXTEEN STROKES 15 FEWER BOGEYS OR WORSE 1 MORE BIRDIES
Improvement is almost entirely subtraction. That is what we work on.

The idea

Scoring is a skill you can teach.

By the time a junior can break 90, the strokes between them and breaking 80 usually aren't swing strokes. They're decision strokes — the wrong club off the tee, a pin they had no business firing at, a hero attempt from the trees that turns a bogey into a triple.

Better players don't hit better shots as often as you'd think. They miss in better places.

The curriculum is built on the DECADE system and the strokes-gained research in Mark Broadie's Every Shot Counts — the same framework tour and college players use, translated into language a 15-year-old will actually use on the first tee.

It doesn't replace a swing coach and isn't trying to. It sits alongside one, and it usually shows up on the card faster.

How it works

Nothing here is theory.

Each session measures something, names the number, and gives the player a specific thing to change.

1

They measure

The first assignment is charting their own shot pattern, on their own range time, on a sheet I hand them. Most juniors discover their pattern is twice the size they assumed.

2

We aim it

They bring the numbers back and we work from them. Once a player knows the real size of their pattern, choosing a target stops being guesswork — green sizes, hazards and wind become arithmetic instead of instinct.

3

They take it to the course

Every session ends with written homework and a number to track. Progress is visible on paper, not just in how the round felt.

Start here

One session, no commitment.

Ninety minutes in a room. Your player walks out with the whole framework and a short list of things to go measure in their own game.

BEST PLACE TO BEGIN

The Whole Game

One 90-minute session covering every core idea

  • How scoring really works, and why chasing birdies costs strokes
  • What a shot pattern is, and why theirs is bigger than they think
  • How to pick a target, and when driver is the right club
  • Why putting is a speed problem, not a line problem
  • Charting sheets and a putting speed test to go run on their own

Private

$175 / 90 min

$70 per player in a group of 6–12.

$600 flat for a whole team roster.

Whatever you decide next, this session tells us which parts of the game are actually costing strokes.

Book The Whole Game

Programs & pricing

Every program starts with the same three core lessons.

What changes is how far you go after them. Pick the column that matches who's paying — a school or club buying for the roster, families buying seats in a group, or one player working privately.

ProgramSessionsFlat fee Per player at 10Per player at 12
The Whole GameEvery core idea in one sitting1 × 90 min$600$60$50
Single deep diveOne area of the game1 × 60 min$450$45$38
FoundationThe three core lessons — most teams start here3 × 60 min$1,150$115$96
Foundation + FocusCore three, plus two deep dives5 × 60 min$1,800$180$150
The SeasonTwelve sessions across a full season12 sessions$4,700$470$392

Where the line is: flat pricing beats per-player from about nine players up. Below that, per-player costs your families less — I'll quote whichever is cheaper for the group you actually have.

Flat fees cover up to twelve players and are invoiced to the program with net-30 terms, and can be split across a season if your budget cycle needs that. Larger rosters run as two groups. Everyone learns the same language, so you can reinforce it at practice and on the bus without re-teaching it yourself.

The deep dives

Sixty minutes each, on one part of the game.

Take them inside a program or on their own. Each one ends with a number the player can track.

Off the TeeWhen driver is right, how to handle doglegs, and how to stop the two-way miss
Approach PlayPicking a target off the green's edge, and finishing on the easy side of the pin
Putting: Speed Is EverythingWhy speed decides make rate, and how to stop three-putting from long range
Trouble & RecoveryWhat a shot from the trees really costs, and how to stop turning bogeys into doubles
Greenside DecisionsChipping and pitching choices when there is trouble around the green
Mindset & RoutineA repeatable pre-shot routine, honest self-talk, and staying in the round
Practice DesignWhere their practice hours should actually go, based on where they lose strokes
Course MappingMeasuring their home course and building a hole-by-hole plan

Add to any program

Extras worth the money.

On-course playing lesson

$250private  ·  $85 per player

Nine holes together, about two and a half hours. Decisions made in real time, on real shots. Groups of four maximum, and the fastest way to see whether the material has actually transferred.

Pre-tournament session

$6030 minutes

The week of an event. We build the plan for that course together — targets off each tee, the pins worth attacking, and the two or three holes where the round usually gets away from them.

Tournament debrief

$6030 minutes

Thirty minutes after an event, working through the decisions rather than the score. Pairs naturally with the pre-tournament session — plan it, play it, review it.

Coach's session

$250

Ninety minutes with you and your assistants on the system itself, so you can reinforce it all season without me there. Free with any Season booking.

Logistics

What a session actually looks like.

Everything I run is classroom work or one-on-one. No range time, no simulator bays, no tee times to book — the measuring happens on the player's own practice time, which is where it belongs.

The hour

  • Opens with their numbers — whatever they charted since last time
  • Teaching up front to the whole group, seated, with visuals
  • Paired work on paper — real holes from their own scorecard
  • Homework written down before they leave

What I need from you

  • A classroom or meeting room with tables
  • A screen or TV I can connect to
  • Players bring a pencil — I bring everything else
  • Scorecards from the home course, if you have them

Because none of it depends on being outside, this runs in any weather and any season — after school, in the evening, or straight through the winter. The measuring, charting and course mapping are homework: players do that work on their own time, and we spend our hour on what the numbers mean.

Drew Echard
DECADE Certified Course-management system used across tour and college golf

The coach

Drew Echard

I teach two things: where to aim, and how to score with the game a player already has. And I don't just teach them — I play them.

I won the Amateur Players Tour's North American Championship in Division 1 in 2024, and was the tour's National Player of the Year in both 2024 and 2025. I played college golf at Utah State. None of that came from finding a new swing in my thirties — it came from getting much better at deciding where to aim.

The other half of this is Bingham. I've been the assistant coach for the Bingham High School girls team since 2021, and it's the best evidence I have that this is teachable. My first year we didn't qualify for state. We've now finished 6A state runner-up back to back.

Bingham girls · 6A state finish

2021Did not qualify
2022Qualified · cut after day one
2023Made the cut · 6th
20245th · one shot out of 4th
2025Runner-up
2026Runner-up · 76 shots back became 14

And that wasn't one talented class moving through. The roster turned over — players graduated, new ones arrived — and the results held anyway, because what carried forward was the way they'd been taught to play a golf course. That's the whole argument for The Scoring School: it's the coaching I wanted for my own players, and the thinking I use in my own events. I'm DECADE certified, and my day job is turning data into things people can act on, which is more or less the job here too.

Based in Lehi. I work with players, schools and clubs across northern Utah — Salt Lake and Utah counties, and out through the surrounding valleys.

Get in touch

Questions

From parents and coaches.

Is my player ready for this?

It's built for juniors who break 90 consistently. Below that, the strokes are usually coming from contact rather than decisions, and time with a swing coach will do more. If you're unsure, The Whole Game will tell us in ninety minutes.

Will this change my kid's swing?

No. This is course management, and it works alongside whatever swing instruction they already have. Nothing here conflicts with their swing coach.

How big are the groups?

Six players minimum, twelve maximum. Players work in fixed pairs charting each other's shots, which is a large part of why the material sticks.

Do we have to buy a package?

No. Start with The Whole Game, or take a single deep dive. Packages simply cost less per session than buying them one at a time.

What should they bring?

A pencil. Clubs can stay in the car — this is classroom work, and every session comes with printed sheets to write on. The range work happens on their own time afterward.

What if a player misses a week?

Each session stands on its own and every player leaves with a written sheet, so a missed week is recoverable. Missing the first one is the hardest to catch up.

Can we run it in the off-season?

Yes — it's all indoor classroom work, so winter is a good time for it. Players catch up the measuring when the weather turns.

Do you invoice the school directly?

Yes. Flat-fee bookings are invoiced to the program with net-30 terms, and can be split across a season if your budget cycle needs that.

Next step

Book The Whole Game.

Ninety minutes. It costs less than two private lessons, and it tells both of us exactly what to work on next. Tell me who's playing and I'll come back with dates.

I read every message and usually reply within a day.

Phone or text

703.819.0428

Where

Northern Utah Salt Lake & Utah counties and the surrounding valleys. Happy to travel for a full-roster booking.