Want to sharpen up your golf game? Craig Bonney and Anthony Warburton chat about how to play Warrnambool and Port Fairy

That's the belief of Port Fairy professionial Anthony Warburton and Warrnambool counterpart Craig Bonney.

While golf has been shelved temporarily in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19, the pair offered tips for play at their respective courses.

Warburton told The Standard safe play was a strong strategy at Port Fairy.

The course - nestled alongside coastline - is renowned for its windy conditions.

"The number one thing is just to keep the ball in play," Warburton said.

"Most people pull out the driver and try to hit that as far as they can but often that will go wide instead of straight.

"Sometimes that's not necessary. You might be better to hit a hybrid or a four iron, keep it in play and close to the green. You can keep the big numbers off the card then."

Warburton said conditions at Port Fairy - a links course with marram grass and shrubbery - were troublesome to players of all standards.

"It's very important that players take notice of how much to take on and take off (shots)," he said.

Bonney, a long-time professional at Warrnambool, said his course offered different challenges to high-handicap golfers.

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Bonney pointed to Warrnambool's slopes and said golfers were often forced to be accurate around greens.

"It's tricky around the greens. On the greens you're often going to have a breaking putt and it's probably tricky off the tee too," he said.

"It's about minimising the damage for your level. People trying to break a 100 score should be trying to minimise the triples and quaddies on their card.

"Those breaking under 90 are a smaller bracket of players. It's difficult to say (one way) people could do it."

Bonney said getting a handicap and playing competitive golf was a certain way to improve golf.

"By playing competitively you're challenging yourself and putting yourself under pressure," he said.

"You'll see flaws in your game and you'll be able to go work on those flaws.

"Playing once a week will get you to a certain level just on ability.

"But to go up form there, players need to play more than once a week, get some tuition, go to the gym, they might need to do some conditioning, there's several things.

"Hand-eye coordination is another important thing."

Both Warrnambool and Port Fairy remain closed to public following the extension of Victoria's state of emergency until May 11.

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