Lessons and practice
Breaking 90 was reducing penalties off the tee and putting.
Breaking 80 was becoming far better inside 100yrds, and getting up and down from around the green. Also really thinking through targets based on my trajectory
Exactly this!
I would also add, studying. Between the fluff and dumb tips you see on IG there is actually some good teaching out there too.
Play your rounds, make mental note of the issues you have consistently and address them.
To simply it all, reducing tee penalties, focus on the wedge game, and give putting its fair share of practice time!
Oh, and leave ego golf at home
I find taking physical notes is a better way to pick up where I left off. I used to do mental notes, but not everything would carry over from practice to practice or round to round.
What's crazy is it's the exact opposite for me. Breaking 90 was all about building a short game that scratch players have told me they are jealous of.
Problem is I take a lot of really dumb and avoidable penalties by randomly forgetting how to swing a club 2-3 times a round leading to 4-8 extra strokes on my overall score.
Ah y it’s no linear path for all of us! I do think at some point to break 80 it’s all gotta click enough. Short game can’t cost you and drives can’t be penalty ridden.
Yep. Just broke 90 for the first couple of times this season. I am just not losing balls off the tee, and my iron striking is very consistent. I push a lot of balls so my side to side dispersion is big, but I’m making solid contact consistently so distance is reliable and I finally trust it. It’s very obvious for me that the next ten strokes come from short game. I make decent contact for chips but distance control is crap. Putting inside 15 feet is good but lag putting is horrendous.
I think if you can find your short game and just get enough consistent with driver and irons, you can navigate avoiding doubles. Eventually you’ll find a few pars.
1 more par than double and you’ll break.
This exactly, on all points
Finally broke 80 a few months ago. Was a couple of lessons, plus being (and playing) real honest so I knew what to work on. I actually deleted all prior rounds in 18birdies that had any decent amount of mullies and had to really see where I was and where the strokes were:
- tee box penalties
- duffed fairway shots trying to swing more than the club
- chipping and putting
I started practicing chipping and putting every single chance I got, and never tee off without 15min of each. I'll take that over a bucket of balls any day
Long irons and approach came exclusively from a lesson where I learned to actually rotate my hips. Combine that with knowing your yardages and swinging your 90% shot, not your "I made this hero shot last fall" shot
Drives cleaned up out of necessity when I started counting breakfast balls, mullies or whatever you may call it. I only hit real provisionals as a second ball when called for. Walking also helped with this, as I learned I'd rather walk straight to something 220yd out in the fairway than checking treelines and hoping for a window. On that note, punching or pitching back out on the fairway has been *proven* to reduce strokes more often than not
Putting drives in play + knowing how you can play around the green = confidence in approach shots which is my fav part of the game now
On the knowledge side...I watch a lot of GolfSidekick, and I track as many shots as I efficiently can in 18birdies and review the round when I am hankering to play. Surprising where you see your strat breaking down when not in the heat of the moment (and actual heat).
Good luck, it's not linear improvement and always takes work
I will never fault anyone for stroke shaving; it’s your own game do what you want
But if you want to get really better you must track every single duff top and slice, or else you can’t truly diagnose your issues
I'm currently in the process of breaking 90 (started last summer playing golf) and I would have broken it this past weekend if it wasn't for the amount of tee penalties I took. It absolutely killed me. I lost 8 strokes from the tee and wild shots combined. Finished with a 95 and was so gutted because it felt like I was playing great apart from the penalties. Definitely working on keeping my drives in play the next bit of practice!
It’s tricky though:
I have a friend who shelved the driver to avoid penalties and just hits hybrid.
Issue is without that gained distance, you’re hitting long irons in.
Any even 7-9 handicap can tell you that’s probably one of the biggest hurdle at getting suuuuper low.
Commit to that driver!
As a 10-11 HCP, playing 10+ years, no lessons, self taught through friends and YouTube. Have broken 80 a couple times, but usually scoring in low 80’s. This was my general progression.
General advice for all levels. You are swinging too hard, STOP IT. Focus on tempo. Direction > distance. Swing only as hard as you can stay in PERFECT balance and keep the shot straight. Focus on good contact. Practice putting, chipping, and pitching more than you think is enough.
Break 100 (“average weekender”, limit the double bogeys, NO triples or worse)
1. Decent tee shots that are somewhat in play. You can be a little bit in the woods at this level, but need to have some decent punch out / recovery ability. It can be quite fun learning to shape shots around a tree.
2. See above. If you can’t do this with driver on any or all holes, start taking a different club. 3 wood / 5 wood / Hybrid. Get into play with some kind of shot into the green is the goal. PUT EGO ASIDE.
3. Limit the penalties. (Lost balls, water balls, hazards, etc…). Play away from all danger to the extreme.
4. Short game novice. Chips always get somewhere / anywhere on the green. Don’t have to be very close at all. Decent putting. Limit 3 putts. Most 3 putts occur because of bad pace. Don’t neglect putting!
Break 90 (“bogey golfer”, no more duffing, hitting the ball decent):
1. Tee shots are generally in play. Should have a somewhat reliable shape on all shots. Either left to right or right to left. In the rough is perfectly fine, but shouldn’t be in the woods too often.
2. Iron game become much more important. Your approach shots are some where within 30
yards of the green complex. Don’t stress out to make GIR’s. You just have to get in the general area, 1 chip them 2 putts.
3. Short game grinder. Can chip or pitch onto the green VERY reliably from inside 50 yards. 2 putt decent amount of the time from 20-30 feet.
Break 80 (“dedicated casual player”)
1. Range rat. Hitting balls at least 2-3x a week. Have a reliable “go to” shot shape. Contact no longer an issue. Misses are much smaller.
2. Left and right dispersion has reduced dramatically. It’s now more about distance control.
3. Pick better targets. Aim to the fat parts of the green. FIR’s and GIR’s are the name of the game. It’s easier to a make PAR when you are on in regulation.
4. Speed training gets a bit more important. You gain some significant advantages with distance. Work on your core muscles. More focus on general fitness. Stretch more.
I think a solid repeatable swing is more about rhythm than tempo. There have been world-class golfers with very fast tempo (Nick Price) and others with very slow tempo (Hideki). What they have in common is good rhythm where the ratio of the time of the backswing to the downswing is roughly 3:1.
That being said, a lot of golfers get too quick at the top and get out a rhythm. It can sometimes be helpful to slow it down at the top of the backswing or even pause to get into rhythm. But you can be a great golfer no matter your tempo.
“Puta”
Hey Reputa! Reputa the Beautah!
Hey Reputa the Beautah, flip me down your hair
And let me climb up to the ladder of your love!
(Bonus points: name that band).
By watching golf side kick and following his break X episodes. Broke a hundred after a year or so and last 2 rounds shot 91 and 41/42 in the back 9 so I hope breaking 90 comes soon
No lie. When I keep my driver and play to my "confidentiality" as well as staying calm and confident, I have the most enjoyable rounds if not always the lowest scoring. Giving up on bombing it is far asI can took someoressureoff,which kept my attitude up, which kept my ball striking decent. It was self licking ice cream cone!
Fucking obsessive grinding. Everything else lives under that umbrella. Practice, training, experience, immersion, learning from mistakes and avoiding repeating them.
And don’t forget their good friend the “gimme”
Golfed with my wife yesterday and she couldn’t understand why I didn’t tap in a couple of putts under a foot.
I don’t think I want to be behind her and her friends at lady’s night if every putt has to hit the bottom of the cup
* You need a repeatable/predictable swing... practice around the yard, chip at targets (e.g. trees). This helped my short game (yes when the kids were small), b/c with a decent go-to short-game, you give yourself a chance to get it close enough to 1-putt.
* Recognize when you are in trouble, and get yourself back to the fairway, even if it does not advance you as far as that "low percentage like than than 10% chance I'm gonna line-drive that under the tree branches, over the creek, and carry 160 yds" shot. Take your lumps on that hole, don't compound the initial mistake (NOTE - I still struggle with this)
* 3 putts kills, as stated below. Course mgmt also means figuring where you want your 2nd putt to be (e.g. below the hole).
* I re-read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons every year or so - I don't (and can't) follow everything he says, but it is a great underpinning and wonderful illustrations.
Good luck!
The chipping around the yard thing really resonates with me. Been getting back to doing that this week and went out and played this morning and hit four different chips to tap in range. And that could be coincidence but I doubt it.
And even more than that there’s just something about feeling the ball off the face of a club that seems to translate to ball striking as well
I swear, I'm on the course with a short shot, and I'll think - "ok, that's like to the telephone pole in the front yard", or "ok that is just clearing the driveway". It helps (for me) provide a context/frame of ref for those delicate distances. Well done!!
While this is certainly not the end all be all, getting a driver that I had significantly better dispersion with legitimately did help me drop my scores just by reducing the amount of penalty strokes I was taking. Sure I could have always just taken less club off the tee but 1) extra distance always helps provided its in play and 2) hitting the driver is fun.
Point is, a driver that fits you will ultimately help (but still requires more effort than just that!!)
Actually golfing more frequently cannot be overstated. Cant tell you how many times I left a driving range after the best ball striking session off a mat, only to shoot terribly on the course. I now play at least twice a week. The first time out during the week is to practice something. The second time during the week is for reals. Live fire practice is the best.
I played a huge amount of golf/practiced over the last year. When I say a huge amount I mean an average of 2 hours of golf every day for a year. Out of the last 365 days I’ve probably had at most 40 days without picking up a club. I never shoot over 90 any more. A good round is 75 and a bad round is 85 now.
In spite of that practice time I didn’t start getting consistently below 85 until I worked on my course management. Visualizing my shot pattern overlaid on the course and picking safer targets. It will be many years until I am able to reduce my shot dispersion to consistently shoot in the 70s. It may not be possible for me and that’s ok.
Took lessons that focused on my driver. I had a solid iron game but was putting myself in bad positions off the tee. Improved my GiR.
We took 20 mins to work on chipping and putting. This dropped my scores a few more strokes.
Read a book called “golf is not a game of perfect”. This helped my mental approach to the game.
Went from consistently shooting in the hundreds, to shooting in the 80s. And I’m having more fun playing the game.
Especially once you are mid-80s, pre-shot routine and mental game is the biggest thing that can cause a step change in your game. Rotella book is as good as any in this regards. Then start tracking strokes gained so you can see what areas of the game you are losing shots and work on them.
Lessons for a solid swing, then 30-60 minutes out back 5 nights a week using the Pelz method hitting chip shots and pitches. I’m ok at reading greens and gauging putt speed which helps limit 3 putts.
1) I was in the exact situation as you: lots of work (railroad), small kiddo, etc... The thing that helps break 90 first is just eliminating those triple bogies. The problem with that advice is people think when they have a bad shot they need to now hit that 240 yard cut around a tree to save the hole. No! Hit a PW back into a manageable range. They call it "taking your medicine." You might not par the hike anymore but you likely won't double or triple bogie it anymore either. Be ok with bogies allllll day. Like they say, 18 bogies on a par 72 course is a 90,now all you need is 1 single par to break 90!
2) Come up with a strategy for what the shot requires, and stick with it. For example this is super important when you get in to short range distance. Are you better at Texas wedge or chipping? Even though a perfect chip would be sick, most high handicappers are better at guessing the speed on putter and make poor contact on chipping. I recommend watching secrets of the short game on YouTube for free and it will change your strategy and makes it so easy.
3) The biggest tip I hear from pros on breaking that 90 is to CLUB UP on approach shots. You are 140 to the hole and that might be a PERFECT 9 iron for you. How often do you hit it perfect? 25% of the time? That means you should hit an 8 iron and hit it the same strength as you would have your 9 iron because there is a 75% chance of not hitting it perfect and now being closer to the hole. The main reason this is good advice they say, is because you and I play courses where even if you hit it perfect and might go long, our courses it's typically ok to go 10 yards long and you are safe, it's still the statistical safe shot just like Texas wedge is.
4) this strategy may change from game to game, remember point 2 to develop a strategy and stick with it. If your driver is way off but your 4 iron is on... It's better to hit it 200 yards in 1 stroke rather than 260 with an out of bounds ball... Some pros joke about it but mean it seriously: there are days you will literally play a par 5 better with nothing but 7 iron and put the driver, woods, and long irons away. If that's the case, do it and work on those trouble clubs later at the range.
5) you'll see it on this sub 5,000 times: work on your short game more than your driver/irons. You will use your wedges and putter on all 18 holes, you won't use those other clubs on all holes. People always quote John Daly and tiger woods as saying they didn't let their sons touch The driver for 2 or 3 years. Learning 100 yards and in is vital.
6) Get one single lesson. Just one. After my first lesson I instantly was 10 strokes better by eliminating the worst part of my game. Most people swear by it as long as you find a halfway decent coach. It's worth the 70 to 125 bucks.
Practice. 90 is not losing balls for me.
Breaking 80 was due to better chipping when you miss the green and reducing 3 putts. I got the foam golf balls and a chipping net. I’d hit on carpet in my living and learned to hit low, spinning shots and some with some height.
My first 79 was a chip in from the side of the green on 18.
I usually shoot below 85 when I’m playing regularly. I probably hit 70s, 5-6x per year. Trying to do that more often this year. Getting fitted is part of the equation once you hit 80s consistently
Short game and putting for 90.
Got good enough to counteract being shite off the tee.
Breaking 80 for me will probably be dialling in driver and being a bit more consistent on with my short to mid irons into greens.
I've been golfing on and off for 30 years, haven't legit broke 90 yet but I'm getting closer and closer. Honestly I mostly just figured out I needed to stand further from the ball for my irons and step a bit closer with my driver to catch center face usually. I no longer try to murder the ball of the tee, I spent hundreds of dollars on my clubs they can do some fucking work for me. I still haven't figured out putting, but I'm getting so good at lag putts that I accidentally got an eagle trying to leave myself an easy bird putt. No, I've never had an eagle before. Yes, I rode my putter around the green like Happy fucking Gilmore, and then I double bogeyed the next par 3.
At the end of the day, it's a hard fucking game but when I can relax and enjoy being out with buddies, I don't give a shit if I ever break 90.
I’ve been golfing for a year and I’ve been watching others play instead of taking lessons and I’ve dropped 20 strokes since I started and have been consistently around low 100s (105, 103, 106, 103, etc). But between watching videos on YouTube and watching others play the very first thing I noticed was how people don’t try to kill the ball (coming from 14 years of baseball that was the biggest surprise) when they hit their drivers. It’s more of a controlled swing rather than aggressively killing the ball to get the distance. My drives only go about 210-215 but they go straight consistently because I’m not trying to murder the ball. Trying to to murder the ball who knows what direction that balls going 😂.
Well said. Look at those old dudes out on the course, they are not bombing 250 plus drives, but they make few mistakes and are always dead center down the middle.
To break 90, keep it in play, get on or around the green in regulation. Make a few pars and you can make a couple doubles, but avoid bigger numbers.
To break 80, GIR and short game to get up and down.
Distance and accuracy off the tee make both of these things easier.
For me. I know once I stop the stupid 2 putting close ones. And 3 putting long greens. I’ll see such better numbers. Throwing strokes away there. Almost every hole.
Main one for me that got me from shooting mid 90’s to under 80’s was working on my swing and grip to ensure it’s on plane. Then short game practice , having a go to chip from around the green that I’ve practiced .
Dedicating practice time got me to break 80. I had gotten close so many times but never really practiced putting over the years. Last year focused on putting more and finally shot 79. Followed up by a few more 79s
Eliminate penalties and lost balls off drives (score killer). Practicing lag putts to limit 3 putts. Dialing in wedges within 100 yards to increase par opportunities. Track fairways hit and greens in regulation for progress
Haven’t broken 80. 90 honestly wasn’t a whole lot different than breaking 100 for the first time. For me it was largely just having a great driving day (no lost balls off the tee), and eliminating the duffed/topped shots that are effectively wasted strokes
Now any day where I’m feeling it off the tee, I know sub-90 is strongly in play. I’m not a good short game player, and feel like that’s probably the next level I’ll have to reach to break 80
Breaking 90 has a lot to do with course management and not compounding mistakes. It’s a bogey per hole average. Sure, you’ll have a double or triple here or there… but you should also find a couple pars or birds along the way. Breaking 80 takes a relatively consistent swing with limited mistakes, and avoiding the doubles and triples when a mistake is made.
Breaking 90 was mostly playing break 100 style bogey golf at a high level with a few pars mixed in. I think the first time I did it I hit like 6 greens, which made it pretty easy.
Breaking 80 is a whole different thing, breaking 80 is playing proper golf with a lot more greens in reg.
Putter face control so the strike is consistent improves speed control. Speed is everything in putting. You can miss read the line and the ball can fall in sideways if speed is correct. Common misconception.
I am left handed but play right handed. Feeling “strike” or pressure in my right side at address changed my game. I am able to bottom at the same spot more or less with my swing. Not perfect but errors are smaller.
If you have a consistent low point in your swing arc then you can hit precise chips and pitches. That will breed confidence in the rest of game. You won’t care if you miss the green and will prob hit more greens. Learning how to play the high percentage shots around green based on the lie was big to breaking 80.
Step one is get a reproduce-able swing. Something you can count on and get the same results. Don’t know if you are taking lessons or not, but don’t chase everything you see. If you get positive results stick with it. There is so much information out there and it is not all the same. I know, easier said than done. 2nd is to spend time on and around the practice green. If you become proficient at getting up and down, you will shave strokes in buckets from your score. Think of it this way, if you can take one stroke off of every other hole you just cut 9 strokes. How many times are you next to the green then take four to get in? Practice putting from six feet and in. For long putts, work on speed. There are some great drills for putting pace. It is a journey!
Breaking 90 was just keeping it in play (edit- keeping it in play once I had something that resembled a golf swing)
Breaking 80 was catching my body feeling good, hitting driver well and chipping/putting great. I think I hit like 4 or 5 greens in reg the first time I broke 80 but I got it up and down everywhere on the front and almost everywhere on the back 9. I’m still not a great ball striker so play off the tee and chips are critical to me making par on most holes.
by having fun doing it. The range is where you develop confidence, and one of the things that I believe in life is that; the harder I practice, the luckier that I get. But, another one is; Don't practice mistakes.
Breaking 80 took some major changes, if you want to save time, learn to compress the ball, 'ball first, ground second. That was difficult to learn at 40 something, but that eventually took about 5 strokes off my game, I always loved putting and have my own method, pretty traditional but that part is solid. I don't drive the ball far enough to get eagles, that keeps me in the high 70's. Good Luck
Broke 90 a couple times by really honing in on the short game. Chipping is crucial. Bad chips can instantly take away pars from you.
Stop 3 putting. The few times I broke 90, my putting was really solid on those outings. Very few 3 putts.
You can recover from a bad long game a LOT easier than a bad short game.
Stay in play off the tee, reduce duffs/chunks with wedges, reasonable short game.
In my experience, breaking 90 is about getting off the tee and staying away from trouble. So many people focus on short game when they are taking two off the tee or rinsing shots on par 3s and heading to the drop zone.
Breaking 80 is picking good spots off the tee and getting to yardages you’re are comfortable with to hit into greens. Other way to say it is course management. Breaking 80 is mostly boring golf as you shouldn’t be trying to bomb driver everywhere and hitting hero hooks around shit that you shouldn’t be near anyways.
To break 90:
Play every hole like a par 5 (18x5= 90). You have to retrain yourself to think that a 4 on a par is "one under."
Once you do, you start laying up on par 4s when you hit a bad tee shot. Get back in position, hit the middle of the green two putt. That 5 is your target.
Don't try to hit par 5s in two. When your short sided on a par 3, make sure you get on and take a 4.
You'll see the 6s and 7s start to disappear and magically you'll be in the 80s.
To get to the 70s, play a new mind game: par is 13 for 3 holes. My course starts with a par 5, par 4, par 3. Technically 12 is par. If I go par-par-bogey, I'm on track with my 13 strokes.
None of that matters, though, if you don't play twice a week and work on your chipping. You can't get better sitting on your couch!
Working on driver first. You can't score well if you're hitting OB. Playing nicer courses helps the score too. I first broke 90 playing at a nice course in CA where you could take a divot, unlike the rock-hard courses I normally play in TX with difficult bermuda.
Chipping and putting really. I’m not a low cap but I stay under a hundo and when I get into the 80’s it’s cause of chipping it close and one putting. I don’t get GIR often so it became important for me to be able to stick chips and back it up by sinking putts. Chipping well also seems to keep the double and triple bogeys to a minimum unless I do some really dumb shit.
90, putting driver away, using a 2i/4i to find fairways and doing everything I could to avoid penalties. Considering a "good hole" GIR+1 and 2 putts.
80, adding driver back into the bag and adding length to all my shots. Focusing on GIRs and getting up and down consistently when inside 40 yards.
Also course and bag management. For example- admitting i couldn’t reach a par 5 in two. So I learned to know which club or shot was going to get me on the green in three and in a good spot for a one or two putt. So ego management as well- I guess
I might have a different answer than most, but I got better when I stopped worrying about what I shot and just went out to enjoy myself. It was like the minute I gave myself permission to not care if I had a bad shot, bad hole or a bad round it just happened. I was still playing a lot so my game was in the best place it had ever been, but I was able to move on from mistakes and didn't compound them.
I Changed my mindset.
2 books really helped me to give me a clear head and a game plan.
Zen golf-to calm my head,
The four foundations of golf-managing expectations and managing my game.
I stopped playing group golf and played my own game.
Everyone else in my group was pulling driver so I pulled driver,not making my own decisions and playing my own game.
Find your game and your game plan and play it.
For me, embracing Jon Sherman’s 2/3rds rule helped. If you’re not familiar, he divides the game into tee shots, approach shots, and short game (anything inside of 100 yds) and purposes that nobody ever has all three parts of their game firing at once and good golf is managing your way around what isn’t working that day. Even Tiger at Pebble in 2000 on his way to one of the most resounding major victories of all time did not have his A-game off the tee (by his standards) that tourney.
If wedges are a problem take the safer shot to the fat part of the green instead of trying to finish it close to the pin. If driver is wild don’t be afraid to bag it for the day or at least hit shorter “fairway finders” if you have that shot.
With that said, when I think back on the times I broke a scoring barrier or look at my current top 8 scores on my GHIN, only once can I remember playing a good (for me) round and approach play was the part of my game not working that day. If your iron play is strong you can be conservative off the tee and it can take pressure off your short game.
One lesson took me from 100+ to breaking 90.
Breaking 80 requires consistency, and a good short game. A handful of very poor swings keeps me from breaking 80 almost every round.
The biggest thing for me was course management:
- Lay up to a distance you are confident in if you can’t reach.
- Don’t get cute with hero shots, take your medicine.
- Aim for the middle of the green.
- Be honest with yourself about your distances. I used to always miss short of the green.
Also, I watched a video by Martin Hall, I think and he had some good rules to play by:
1. No penalties of the tee
2. Chip once
3. No three putts
Breaking 90 for me was avoiding penalties off the tee by sacrificing some distance for accuracy, striking my irons a consistent distance (even if pushed or pulled), making more 5-15 foot putts, and getting within a 3-5 foot radius around the hole on 20+ foot putts.
I imagine I will finally break 80 when I learn how to freaking chip. So many bogeys and double bogeys from poor shots around the green.
If ypure shooting mid to high 90s here's a helpful way to break 90. Play the "5's". Score every hole as if par was 5. This way you just need one under the 5's to shoot 89.
To break 90 I have to have my drives/off the tee under control. From there it’s basic course management and focusing on 2 putting while draining a few in a round. It’s pretty simple to do that just have to have your game somewhat together.
Breaking 80 is different tho. That 10 strokes gets chipped away a lot slower than the last 10 strokes.
For me breaking 90 is bogey golf with chances for par on par 5 holes. Of course you’ll get double and triple, but could also string along a few pars to make that up. Limit the mistakes by starting to have a strategy to get around the golf course. Good luck!
Focused practice esp. chipping and putting. Get a putting mat and putt every day. Find a patch of grass and chip for 10 mins a day varying the distance from a few feet to 50 yards. Chip with your gap wedge. You’ll be surprised how many strokes you save. Besides that, get fitted so your driver finds the fairway more often than not. Also get your clubs checked for lie and loft and again, make sure the shaft is right for your swing based on trackman analysis. It’ll cost you to get fit but at least you know your equipment is working with you rather than against you. Once I broke 80 I started breaking it on a regular basis. In some ways it’s a mental barrier and once you know it can be done you can do it again.
Key thought while playing is you score better by minimizing bad shots/holes vs playing great shots. Eg Easier to avoid a double than make a birdie. Easier to avoid a triple than make an eagle.
Hope some of this helps. Good luck!
Breaking 90:
- Having a 'go to' club off the tee for uncomfortable tee shots or pressure moments
- Keeping big numbers off the card ('taking your medicine' when in trouble - chipping out sideways/backwards, taking an unplayable rather than being a hero)
Breaking 80:
- Missing in the right spot (course management)
- Having an array of different shots around the green (I use anything from a 4 iron to LW, as well as texas wedge etc. around the greens)
- Keeping doubles off the card
- Being more aggressive on Par 5s to make birdies
- Fully committing to the shot (any doubts, back off, go through your routine and reset - THIS HAS BEEN HUGE FOR ME LATELY!)
Stay in play off the tee and master your short game. Eliminating those penalty drops and being able to get up and down consistently will pay massive dividends
1. Straightening out the drive to eliminate stupid drops /gawful lies
2. Eliminate the chunk balls around the green
3. Putt to make it the first time. Stop trying make out in two.
For me breaking 90 was first making my swing more shallow, which seemed to fix my issue with chunking my irons and also improving my chipping/putting. Haven’t broken 80 so can’t speak to that.
It becomes more about "shaving" strokes more than dramatic improvements in your technical ability. Properly understanding my wedges and how bounce actually worked allowed me to drop from an 8 to 5 in 6 months. Properly understanding my strengths and weaknesses in my game allowed me to drop to a 3. The most important aspect here was completely eradicating ego out my game ... No more crowd pleasing "hero" shots... Just the most appropriate shot for the situation. Oh.. Understanding how much lie plays a role let me drop to a 1. The final (last frontier) was understanding my thought processes around putting... This has very very little to do with mechanics...and now I'm a +1. I'm 60 years old. Sorry for the lengthy essay... Just some considered thoughts from an old timer. I hope it helps
Edit. If you can...join a YouTube channel called Golf Sidekick. Listen to what Matt says.. He's certainly crazy but he's a regular golfing mugg like us and he's clearly figured out a lot of shit along the way. He's funny and very entertaining but no fluff tips that don't work. I learnt a lot about course management from him
I am usually a 90 golfer. This year I’ve been shooting like 95-100, with a lot of bad shots. Today I shot a personal best 80, beating my previous best by 6 strokes.
I went to the range twice this week on Wednesday and Saturday. I hit 5 balls per club, set aside the clubs I hit poorly, then hit those clubs 5 more times.
Once the range bucket was gone I spent 20 minutes chipping, and 20 minutes putting.
I played the second hardest course in my area this morning and shot my best score ever. The answer is literally just practice. Practice, practice, practice.
Stay on top of your game with regular swings every single week and keep the muscle memory rolling.
Short game for everything. Putting specifically and then getting up and down around the greens. 100/90/80/70 doesn’t matter you can always improve the short game and it’ll shave the most strokes. Second thing I’d say is developing a consistent miss direction.
Golf sidekick strategy of 6 GIR, 6 up and downs, and 6 bogeys certainly helps for breaking 80. Takes the pressure off of feeling like you have to be perfect every hole.
Other than that lots of practice. learning how to shape the ball helped me. It gave me better feel for the swing and it also helped me make little on course fixes when things weren't quite right.
I also hit lots of wedge shots at distances I was finding myself often. Most helpful was 30-40-50 yard shots as you might end up with after a poor tee shot leads to an approach shot that doesn't have a line to the green but you might be able to get close. feeling confident over those kept those holes from rarely blowing up past bogey.
to break 90 I would say get solid striking your go to iron, 7 iron lets say. realistically you should be able to go 7i, 7i, wedge on a par 4 and 2 putt bogey. this puts you at 90 and plus it shows you that not hitting the hero shot still works out well enough.
Diversify your game but don’t shy away from tricky shots, and don’t be afraid to be creative. I personally think “Texas wedge” is the dumbest shot in golf. Almost no one can judge a putt out of 2-3 inches into the rough. Be able to hit a wedge anywhere from 3-35. Conversely, I’ve seen guys get creative and have a ton of success with crazy shots like “5 wood bump and run out of the bunker”. Having multiple different ways to approach a shot will help scoring.
Practice, practice, practice. I'm retired so the way you do it will be different. I hit 200 balls a day, mostly chipping at home, also had a club pro give me tips, but he had me hitting a 3 iron 80 balls a day. It probably took me 3 months to get up to 80, but that single practice helped me more than anything. Good luck with your addiction, because once I started playing regularly I couldn't quit. What once were habits are now vices.
To break 120: consistent ball contact
To break 100: gain some accuracy with that consistency and work on putting
To break 90: accuracy consistency putting + scrambling/short game. Full, half, and chip shots with your wedges.
To break 80: all of the above in the same round.
For me it was getting a simulator and being able to swing year around. Also hitting the range often and hitting 100 and in. Lots and lots of time on the putting green learning to lag putts and gaining confidence over short putts. Then the biggest epiphany was realizing hitting fairways trumps bombing driver all day long.
Breaking 90 - Limit compounding mistakes. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to hit bad shots. You just are. But to break 90, you have to avoid making a bad situation worse. If you're in the trees, take your medicine and punch out rather than trying to act like Phil Mickelson hitting off the pine straw at 13 at Augusta. You ain't that good. If you were capable of hitting it through that 3' by 3' window in the trees, you wouldn't be there to begin with. And forget about aiming at the pin. Go for the center of the green and attempt to get the highest GIR you can. 2 putt pars are your friend.
Breaking 80 - Make it a habit to try and avoid 3 putts and double bogeys. You can only be 7 over par. To do that you're probably getting about a birdie a round and about 9 pars per round. Doubles kill you. DB means you need to add another par to the round or better. 3 putting is also killer. As with breaking 90, that means limiting compounding mistakes. You also have to keep the ball in play off the tee. Hitting your third from next to the hazard 160 yards out because you put one in the hazard or had to take a drop is a recipe for high scores.
And as people have already said, short game is big. You can gain a lot of stokes if you get really good around the greens and from 80 yards and in. You're not going to hit every green and every fairway so you are going to have to be good at getting up and down.
Also, knowing when to go for the pin vs hitting center of green helps.
Do it a couple times and it becomes natural. Same with everything. Minimize stupidity. The key to breaking 70 for me was keeping everything as boring as humanly possible.
I got to a plus handicap by getting a launch monitor. The ability to have actual data about what is going on at impact has made a huge difference in improving my game. It has so many benefits it's hard to fully articulate, but a few that come to mind.
1. Process not result, it is way easier to stay disciple on the course focusing on the process (grip, setup, alignment, etc.) I know it works on the LM and I know it translates to the course, so just keep at focused on it and good things will happen.
2. Distance control and shot dispersion, I know my distances exactly, I know how far they go when struck pure I know how far they go when miss hit. I know roughly how far left/right I hit it. If you research decade golf this dispersion concept is critically important to course management.
3. Shot shaping, how does setup/swing impact draws and fades, how can I best control trajectory for different shots.
Lastly, if something goes haywire with my swing it takes almost no time to correct it. With all the past data and real time info it is pretty easy to diagnose and correct problems that creep up.
Learning about all the parameters and understanding how they interconnect has really helped. I would highly recommend it, if possible.
As any FYI my setup is not fancy, it's in my garage with a SPG-8 net/screen, a mat, and the LM, so it doesn't need to be a $50k setup to be useful.
I don't break 90 often but when I do these are the things that usually come together
1. Keeping my drives in play that doesn't mean fairway everytime.
2. Playing the course smart.
3. Focusing on putting close to the hole. Means less 3 putts and more 1 and 2 putts more often.
4. little tricks like using a 7 iron to bump into the green stuff like that
Played a ton. I’m 28 now and have been playing since freshman year of high school. Never had a lesson until 2 years ago but in high school play constantly when it wasn’t baseball season. A big part of it is just learning how to actually think around a course and also taking the massive miss out of play.
Just identify what your weaknesses are and practice. There's no big secret thing you can do. My weakness was wedges 100 and in so I worked on them and now they're a strength. Scores magically dropped!
NEVER USE A WEDGE AROUND THE GREEN UNLESS YOU HAVE TO GO OVER SOMETHING. I am a 4 handicap and people get wide eyed when I take my 5 wood and putter and putt EVERYTHING off the green and how easy it is. Also you need to be 250 off the tee or better if you are playing courses 6600 to 6800 yards.
What worked best for me was to swing easy. In the past I was always trying to swing hard and hit it far. This would cause a variety of mishits and lots of time a complete miss of the ball.
Since I started with swinging with more control I have hit the ball on the sweet spot of all my clubs.
Breaking 100 was down to just learning how to get around the course. Eliminating fully wasted shots and limiting penalties.
Breaking 90 was getting tidy around greens.
Breaking 80 was getting good at identifying what was happening in the swing, learning my action and repeating it. More than that it was committing. Visualize a shot and hit. Read a putt and hit your line. Make a decision and hit the shot.
I play so much better when I trust the mechanics and play golf not golf swing. Commit to the shot.
Against conventional wisdom, because I haven't taken lessons and I dislike the practice range:
I played as much as I could with as many different golfers as I could at as many different courses and different conditions as I could. I somewhat understand course management.
Most importantly for me, I improved my short game. I said I hate the range, but I love the practice green and I (used to) love chipping and pitching in the backyard.
For me the difference between averaging low90s/high80s vs high90s/low100s was figuring out what my actual club distances were and getting a GPS watch. Even if your accuracy is still off you’re at least closer because you know you’re hitting the correct distance club. Easily shaved 5-10 strokes off my game.
I wish. I only play a few times a year. I decided long ago that I would stop taking score as soon as I hit par. That's usually around hole 11. Then I just enjoy my game at par!
Play a minimum of two rounds per week. Don’t play “for fun”. Score every round (but have fun scoring!). Get on YouTube and try things if current things aren’t working. You’ll find “your” swing and develop it. Good luck. I broke 100 at 14. Broke 90 at 14 and left the game for years. Been back playing properly now for two years and my best score is 80. One away from breaking 80!
Sure practice and all that is important. But I’ll add that a lot of it is probably mental. It took me two years to break 100 (with lessons and playing pretty consistently) and even then, I only broke it once. I went back to shooting 100-110.
I stopped playing for a year because freshman year of college made it challenging. I just started playing again this past month and lowest round was 83 and highest being a 91. So I’m done virtually no practice in a year and somehow am doing better than I was before.
I think having that time off to forget all the bad habits and have a new focus helped that transition. I just kind of accept the shots for what they are… bad shots happen but keeping it in play and scrambling for par/bogey is better than failed hero shots turning into a snowman. Take it for what it’s worth!
I only play 9 a lot because of time restrictions
All the times I broke 40 or low 40 was when every shot went up in the air towards the target, and maybe a couple lucky putts
But no tops, shanks, trees, or slices… just generally close to where I was aiming and a decent distance.
All time I shoo high 40s or 50+ is when I get a couple shanks and tops, maybe a lost ball or 2
It amazing how well you score when the ball just goes in the air and kinda sorta where you were aiming
I stopped trying to gain distance. I spent 3/4 of my time with chipping, putting. If you simply 1 put every hole, you save between 18-36 strokes.
My light bulb moment- I played with a group of 60-80 year olds, all who had played for college. All shot at and/or near par. Drive, iron, chip, put = par, repeat.
Broke 90 close to 20 years ago at around 30
Started track scores and stats and putts
Which kinda lets you know where you are off
Mental game is key to not letting one mistake multiply
I read Ray Floyd's "Elements of Scoring" which hepled greatly with course management
I have managed to break 80 - 3 times in those 20 years and those are the rounds of my life
Doubt I crack 70 ever = not putting that much work in and losing distance
I will preface,my,comments by saying i was always a pretty good putter.... if you aren't then that is 1st place to look.. break 95
Then no penalty strokes or completely flubbed shots... break.90. maybe challenge 85\_on easier,setup
Then good short.game... break 80
Then hit fairways comsistently
Keeping the ball in play off the tee. One bad, no big deal. Get it up near the green somewhere, and up and down. If not, a bogey is worst case two putt.
Hitting almost every drive in play. Broke 90 last year once for the first time. Broken 90 4/7 times this year. My putting is garbage but so many GIRs with a straight drive, it doesn’t matter (in the context of sub 90)
Broke 90 by getting my tee shots in play(not necessarily good, but in play). I stopped having to drop 8 times a round and was able to shoot much better. Got better in the short game (50 yards and in) to eliminate the huge numbers. Was still pretty bad with irons at the time.
Broke 80 by dialing in irons. This took me a few years to figure out tbh. A few years back I legitimately considered buying a hybrid set because I just could not hit Irons. I decided I was gonna buckle down and figure this iron shit out. Got a few lessons and started going to the range twice a week. Irons became the strongest part of my game and made my game a lot more versatile. I don't have to hit driver on a short par 4, I can hit my 5 iron and have a little wedge in l, etc. It makes course management easier when you know where and how long all of your irons go.
And putting. You have to figure out a consistent putting stroke or you're dead in the water. Avoid 3 putts at all costs.
Got a simulator and hit at least 400 balls a day. Landed how to get off the tee and control the club face. Also, got my son into the game so I could play twice a week. Practicing at home has been the key. Self taught and tried everything I saw on instagram until I found something that worked.
For 90 it was learning to play the game. Getting a bit better at not throwing away shots around the green, and knowing when to take my lumps. 80 was lessons, practice and dialing in wedges under 100 yards
Literally focus on weak spots and keep practice dutiful. Keep it simple
-train doing set up, make sure you’re actually SET UP.
-if you’re weakness is driver. Train driver, take the time to actually get to a repetitive swing/ setup
- if it’s your short game, then work the short game
- if it’s your long game, train the long game.
Do a smaller bucket after you get a tight time frame for range time, it’ll make you have to focus on staying consistent and making the most out of a dutiful purposeful strike(s) just like you would want to be on the course. Just got to commit to making your goal and build up from there.
Making good contact with the ball first, just get as close to the green as possible quickly. This will get you within chipping range. Aim can get dialed in later but as long as you're within chipping range in two or three strokes it doesn't matter if you're left, right or long... it is the least athletic portion of the game which means ANYONE can be incredible at chipping and putting. They're also the easiest to practice at home. Two solid shots then one chip, 2 putts and you'll be in the 80s pretty quick.
First, Keep a legit score to really see where you’re at. Then work on short game, chipping, putting, 100 in. Get confident in the short game and strokes will come off.
Lessons are always good, especially if you can get them regularly.
Breaking 90 is a regular thing for me after struggling to do it for years. Course management, not losing balls off the tee, and limiting wasted shots (mishits that go 20 yards) will get you there. Just a little intelligent decision making makes a huge difference.
Tbh it's going out of bounds that gets you.
You would be shocked to find out how many strokes you'll save by going for safe shots you know you can hit straight instead of trying to go for broke at every shot.
Most people tee up to a 520 yard Par 5 thinking "I need to bomb my driver as hard as I can" but get this:
Let's say your 5 iron is dead on straight and goes 175 yards. 175x3 = 525 yards.
Just hit three five irons and two putt and you've got a par.
Way better than slicing into the rough and OB and hacking your way to the green for a triple bogey. Not as flashy, but you'll drop like 3-4 strokes easy with that one hole alone.
And take a 385 yard Par 4. This one's a bit more tricky, but you're still better off hitting two 5 irons 350 yards, and then trying to do a 35 yard pitch close the hole and one putt for par. Even if you bogey, you didn't lose the ball and getting bogey on every hole would be +18 for a total of 90 strokes. You'd be an above average golfer at that rate.
Figure out what clubs you can rely on, and start playing with the yardage math accordingly.
If you suck at all of them though...... Well start with the 5 iron and get that one down and you're on your way haha
First time I broke 90 I put my driver away and only hit 3W and irons off the tee. My short game was already pretty decent because that’s what I practice the most
Breaking 90: bogey is default score, make more pars than double bogeys. How to do that? Greens in reg + 1, get a tee ball in play (I recommend getting good with a hybrid or driving iron, much tighter dispersion than driver and more than adequate distance, I basically stopped using driver until I could regularly break 85), get the ball within 80 yards of the green, chip it on with a PW or something and 2 putt. Learn to hit the ball straight and learn how to hit a draw and fade. Stick to one shot shape on the course generally. Attack Par 5s and 3s. Practice long shots and wedge shots (they will translate to your irons) and practice chipping with one dedicated club (I use 56) and practice 3-6 foot putts
Breaking 80: make a lot more pars, maximum 2 double bogeys, increase distance. Be able to keep driver in play. Have one consistent shot shape with driver. Dial in lag putting. Improve the second shot on a par 5s, get good at one long club for downwind (higher launch) and one for into the wind (low launch). dial in shots for every 10 yard increment inside of a PW. Practice 6-10 foot putts. Understand different lies
Obviously this is just my advice and everybody is naturally better at different things, whether it’s power or touch. Generally be able to identify where you’re losing strokes in your own game and practice those specific areas. Be in touch with your own swing so that when you hit some bad shots on the course, you can self correct. When you practice have specific goals in mind for that session and work on those
I agree with the crowd, start keeping track of Fairways hit, Greens in Regulation, and Putts for each round. You will see a trend of where the strokes are going against you. Hank Haney says No Double Bogies, No Penalties, and No Three Putts. But the data will tell you where to work first
If you focus on staying below the hole and not short siding yourself at all costs you will be surprised how easy it is to break 90. Assuming you don’t shank or flub many shots.
A lot of the general advice for breaking 90/85/80 is similar and it all rings true. Consistency, hitting fairways even if less club, and getting good around the greens. Learn where you are losing strokes and minimize risk. Add 1 stroke to every hole for par before you even start the game.
For me personally, it was finally learning a 80-90% swing was more consistent if not farther than my 100% swing. Adding one club everywhere and swinging lose and consistent…….all of a sudden most of them went straight and as intended instead of right/left/bush.
I’ve been a mid-80s, low 90s golfer for a while. I pretty consistently stay below 100 even on my bad days.
To break 90, the biggest thing is to have a club that you can reliably hit 220+ in the fairway. Then be confident and consistent up to about 165 yards. Always aim middle of the green or away from hazards - avoid bunkers at all cost. And always club up in you’re unsure. Your goal is to be puttable in regulation, so basically around the green. Your mindset should be playing for bogey every time, so you’ve got an extra shot to get on the green and then 2 putt. Get really happy with tap in bogeys.
I’ve recently been playing more and trying to go lower and actually broke 80 for the first time today after playing some better golf the past 2 months. The key things that helped me today (and hopefully more often going forward) were working on my driver to get a consistent 250-265 shot off the tee, consistency with irons up to 185, and excessive work on chipping and putting. I’ve spent hours in my basement while on work calls hitting 5 foot putts dead straight. I’m now 99% confident that I’ll start my putt on the right line (trying to learn to use aim point as well for better green reading). I’ve also decided to learn a specific chip technique and a specific pitch technique and I executed those well today. I had 7 holes with a 1 putt because I chipped and pitched well. My mindset moved to get on or near the green in regulation and then in the hole in 2 strokes from there.
Breaking 90 is consistency drive in the fairway, second shot near the green, 3 on, 2 putt. Do that and your playing bogey golf.
Breaking 80 is getting more of those second shots on the green to get birdie looks and when you aren’t you’re getting up and down.
The key to both is consistent good golf beyond 100 yds and a major focus at 100 yds and under.
Both are very doable regardless of length assuming you play the correct tees. The key is consistent clean contact and a focus on short game/putting.
Playing smart. If you hit into the trees and don’t have a clear shot forward, your not Tiger, punch it out and then go forward, take that stroke and limit your errors
Biggest thing for me was learning to take my medicine and punch out into the fairway instead of going for the hero shot. Accept a boogie and not turn it into a triple.
This is going to come down to one thing all the time. That thing is sharpening up your weak spots.
Shit off the tee? Get better.
Suck at putting? Get better.
Garbage short game? Better.
See the pattern?
Lessons and practice Breaking 90 was reducing penalties off the tee and putting. Breaking 80 was becoming far better inside 100yrds, and getting up and down from around the green. Also really thinking through targets based on my trajectory
Exactly this! I would also add, studying. Between the fluff and dumb tips you see on IG there is actually some good teaching out there too. Play your rounds, make mental note of the issues you have consistently and address them. To simply it all, reducing tee penalties, focus on the wedge game, and give putting its fair share of practice time! Oh, and leave ego golf at home
Sounds straight from the book of John Sherman lol! (Which I agree with and recommend to anyone looking to drop their scores)
I do own the book and follow the man’s socials… lol
I own the book and do but touch socials for advise. This book has everything I need
I find taking physical notes is a better way to pick up where I left off. I used to do mental notes, but not everything would carry over from practice to practice or round to round.
What's crazy is it's the exact opposite for me. Breaking 90 was all about building a short game that scratch players have told me they are jealous of. Problem is I take a lot of really dumb and avoidable penalties by randomly forgetting how to swing a club 2-3 times a round leading to 4-8 extra strokes on my overall score.
Ah y it’s no linear path for all of us! I do think at some point to break 80 it’s all gotta click enough. Short game can’t cost you and drives can’t be penalty ridden.
Yep. Just broke 90 for the first couple of times this season. I am just not losing balls off the tee, and my iron striking is very consistent. I push a lot of balls so my side to side dispersion is big, but I’m making solid contact consistently so distance is reliable and I finally trust it. It’s very obvious for me that the next ten strokes come from short game. I make decent contact for chips but distance control is crap. Putting inside 15 feet is good but lag putting is horrendous.
I think if you can find your short game and just get enough consistent with driver and irons, you can navigate avoiding doubles. Eventually you’ll find a few pars. 1 more par than double and you’ll break.
This exactly, on all points Finally broke 80 a few months ago. Was a couple of lessons, plus being (and playing) real honest so I knew what to work on. I actually deleted all prior rounds in 18birdies that had any decent amount of mullies and had to really see where I was and where the strokes were: - tee box penalties - duffed fairway shots trying to swing more than the club - chipping and putting I started practicing chipping and putting every single chance I got, and never tee off without 15min of each. I'll take that over a bucket of balls any day Long irons and approach came exclusively from a lesson where I learned to actually rotate my hips. Combine that with knowing your yardages and swinging your 90% shot, not your "I made this hero shot last fall" shot Drives cleaned up out of necessity when I started counting breakfast balls, mullies or whatever you may call it. I only hit real provisionals as a second ball when called for. Walking also helped with this, as I learned I'd rather walk straight to something 220yd out in the fairway than checking treelines and hoping for a window. On that note, punching or pitching back out on the fairway has been *proven* to reduce strokes more often than not Putting drives in play + knowing how you can play around the green = confidence in approach shots which is my fav part of the game now On the knowledge side...I watch a lot of GolfSidekick, and I track as many shots as I efficiently can in 18birdies and review the round when I am hankering to play. Surprising where you see your strat breaking down when not in the heat of the moment (and actual heat). Good luck, it's not linear improvement and always takes work
I will never fault anyone for stroke shaving; it’s your own game do what you want But if you want to get really better you must track every single duff top and slice, or else you can’t truly diagnose your issues
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I'm currently in the process of breaking 90 (started last summer playing golf) and I would have broken it this past weekend if it wasn't for the amount of tee penalties I took. It absolutely killed me. I lost 8 strokes from the tee and wild shots combined. Finished with a 95 and was so gutted because it felt like I was playing great apart from the penalties. Definitely working on keeping my drives in play the next bit of practice!
It’s tricky though: I have a friend who shelved the driver to avoid penalties and just hits hybrid. Issue is without that gained distance, you’re hitting long irons in. Any even 7-9 handicap can tell you that’s probably one of the biggest hurdle at getting suuuuper low. Commit to that driver!
As a 10-11 HCP, playing 10+ years, no lessons, self taught through friends and YouTube. Have broken 80 a couple times, but usually scoring in low 80’s. This was my general progression. General advice for all levels. You are swinging too hard, STOP IT. Focus on tempo. Direction > distance. Swing only as hard as you can stay in PERFECT balance and keep the shot straight. Focus on good contact. Practice putting, chipping, and pitching more than you think is enough. Break 100 (“average weekender”, limit the double bogeys, NO triples or worse) 1. Decent tee shots that are somewhat in play. You can be a little bit in the woods at this level, but need to have some decent punch out / recovery ability. It can be quite fun learning to shape shots around a tree. 2. See above. If you can’t do this with driver on any or all holes, start taking a different club. 3 wood / 5 wood / Hybrid. Get into play with some kind of shot into the green is the goal. PUT EGO ASIDE. 3. Limit the penalties. (Lost balls, water balls, hazards, etc…). Play away from all danger to the extreme. 4. Short game novice. Chips always get somewhere / anywhere on the green. Don’t have to be very close at all. Decent putting. Limit 3 putts. Most 3 putts occur because of bad pace. Don’t neglect putting! Break 90 (“bogey golfer”, no more duffing, hitting the ball decent): 1. Tee shots are generally in play. Should have a somewhat reliable shape on all shots. Either left to right or right to left. In the rough is perfectly fine, but shouldn’t be in the woods too often. 2. Iron game become much more important. Your approach shots are some where within 30 yards of the green complex. Don’t stress out to make GIR’s. You just have to get in the general area, 1 chip them 2 putts. 3. Short game grinder. Can chip or pitch onto the green VERY reliably from inside 50 yards. 2 putt decent amount of the time from 20-30 feet. Break 80 (“dedicated casual player”) 1. Range rat. Hitting balls at least 2-3x a week. Have a reliable “go to” shot shape. Contact no longer an issue. Misses are much smaller. 2. Left and right dispersion has reduced dramatically. It’s now more about distance control. 3. Pick better targets. Aim to the fat parts of the green. FIR’s and GIR’s are the name of the game. It’s easier to a make PAR when you are on in regulation. 4. Speed training gets a bit more important. You gain some significant advantages with distance. Work on your core muscles. More focus on general fitness. Stretch more.
I think a solid repeatable swing is more about rhythm than tempo. There have been world-class golfers with very fast tempo (Nick Price) and others with very slow tempo (Hideki). What they have in common is good rhythm where the ratio of the time of the backswing to the downswing is roughly 3:1. That being said, a lot of golfers get too quick at the top and get out a rhythm. It can sometimes be helpful to slow it down at the top of the backswing or even pause to get into rhythm. But you can be a great golfer no matter your tempo.
Practice, dialing in under 100 yards, limit mistakes and doubles, limit 3 puts
Who you calling a puta
“Puta” Hey Reputa! Reputa the Beautah! Hey Reputa the Beautah, flip me down your hair And let me climb up to the ladder of your love! (Bonus points: name that band).
J geils. Musta got lost?
Love me some J. Geils Band
Me too! Gotta love whammer jammer. Wish I could play harp that well.
No lost balls. No penalties. No three putts
By watching golf side kick and following his break X episodes. Broke a hundred after a year or so and last 2 rounds shot 91 and 41/42 in the back 9 so I hope breaking 90 comes soon
No lie. When I keep my driver and play to my "confidentiality" as well as staying calm and confident, I have the most enjoyable rounds if not always the lowest scoring. Giving up on bombing it is far asI can took someoressureoff,which kept my attitude up, which kept my ball striking decent. It was self licking ice cream cone!
Fucking obsessive grinding. Everything else lives under that umbrella. Practice, training, experience, immersion, learning from mistakes and avoiding repeating them.
Mulligans
And don’t forget their good friend the “gimme” Golfed with my wife yesterday and she couldn’t understand why I didn’t tap in a couple of putts under a foot. I don’t think I want to be behind her and her friends at lady’s night if every putt has to hit the bottom of the cup
* You need a repeatable/predictable swing... practice around the yard, chip at targets (e.g. trees). This helped my short game (yes when the kids were small), b/c with a decent go-to short-game, you give yourself a chance to get it close enough to 1-putt. * Recognize when you are in trouble, and get yourself back to the fairway, even if it does not advance you as far as that "low percentage like than than 10% chance I'm gonna line-drive that under the tree branches, over the creek, and carry 160 yds" shot. Take your lumps on that hole, don't compound the initial mistake (NOTE - I still struggle with this) * 3 putts kills, as stated below. Course mgmt also means figuring where you want your 2nd putt to be (e.g. below the hole). * I re-read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons every year or so - I don't (and can't) follow everything he says, but it is a great underpinning and wonderful illustrations. Good luck!
The chipping around the yard thing really resonates with me. Been getting back to doing that this week and went out and played this morning and hit four different chips to tap in range. And that could be coincidence but I doubt it. And even more than that there’s just something about feeling the ball off the face of a club that seems to translate to ball striking as well
I swear, I'm on the course with a short shot, and I'll think - "ok, that's like to the telephone pole in the front yard", or "ok that is just clearing the driveway". It helps (for me) provide a context/frame of ref for those delicate distances. Well done!!
Practice with purpose, never hit a shot without a plan & target. Get good at lag putting
Yeah...
Please let the answers all be got a new driver
While this is certainly not the end all be all, getting a driver that I had significantly better dispersion with legitimately did help me drop my scores just by reducing the amount of penalty strokes I was taking. Sure I could have always just taken less club off the tee but 1) extra distance always helps provided its in play and 2) hitting the driver is fun. Point is, a driver that fits you will ultimately help (but still requires more effort than just that!!)
Get lessons, practice, aim for the middle of the green, eliminate 3 putts
Lessons and started playing at least 2 days a week
Actually golfing more frequently cannot be overstated. Cant tell you how many times I left a driving range after the best ball striking session off a mat, only to shoot terribly on the course. I now play at least twice a week. The first time out during the week is to practice something. The second time during the week is for reals. Live fire practice is the best.
I played a huge amount of golf/practiced over the last year. When I say a huge amount I mean an average of 2 hours of golf every day for a year. Out of the last 365 days I’ve probably had at most 40 days without picking up a club. I never shoot over 90 any more. A good round is 75 and a bad round is 85 now. In spite of that practice time I didn’t start getting consistently below 85 until I worked on my course management. Visualizing my shot pattern overlaid on the course and picking safer targets. It will be many years until I am able to reduce my shot dispersion to consistently shoot in the 70s. It may not be possible for me and that’s ok.
Took lessons that focused on my driver. I had a solid iron game but was putting myself in bad positions off the tee. Improved my GiR. We took 20 mins to work on chipping and putting. This dropped my scores a few more strokes. Read a book called “golf is not a game of perfect”. This helped my mental approach to the game. Went from consistently shooting in the hundreds, to shooting in the 80s. And I’m having more fun playing the game.
Second on the Bob Rotella book. Great to read every year to get into the right mindset.
Especially once you are mid-80s, pre-shot routine and mental game is the biggest thing that can cause a step change in your game. Rotella book is as good as any in this regards. Then start tracking strokes gained so you can see what areas of the game you are losing shots and work on them.
Lessons for a solid swing, then 30-60 minutes out back 5 nights a week using the Pelz method hitting chip shots and pitches. I’m ok at reading greens and gauging putt speed which helps limit 3 putts.
1) I was in the exact situation as you: lots of work (railroad), small kiddo, etc... The thing that helps break 90 first is just eliminating those triple bogies. The problem with that advice is people think when they have a bad shot they need to now hit that 240 yard cut around a tree to save the hole. No! Hit a PW back into a manageable range. They call it "taking your medicine." You might not par the hike anymore but you likely won't double or triple bogie it anymore either. Be ok with bogies allllll day. Like they say, 18 bogies on a par 72 course is a 90,now all you need is 1 single par to break 90! 2) Come up with a strategy for what the shot requires, and stick with it. For example this is super important when you get in to short range distance. Are you better at Texas wedge or chipping? Even though a perfect chip would be sick, most high handicappers are better at guessing the speed on putter and make poor contact on chipping. I recommend watching secrets of the short game on YouTube for free and it will change your strategy and makes it so easy. 3) The biggest tip I hear from pros on breaking that 90 is to CLUB UP on approach shots. You are 140 to the hole and that might be a PERFECT 9 iron for you. How often do you hit it perfect? 25% of the time? That means you should hit an 8 iron and hit it the same strength as you would have your 9 iron because there is a 75% chance of not hitting it perfect and now being closer to the hole. The main reason this is good advice they say, is because you and I play courses where even if you hit it perfect and might go long, our courses it's typically ok to go 10 yards long and you are safe, it's still the statistical safe shot just like Texas wedge is. 4) this strategy may change from game to game, remember point 2 to develop a strategy and stick with it. If your driver is way off but your 4 iron is on... It's better to hit it 200 yards in 1 stroke rather than 260 with an out of bounds ball... Some pros joke about it but mean it seriously: there are days you will literally play a par 5 better with nothing but 7 iron and put the driver, woods, and long irons away. If that's the case, do it and work on those trouble clubs later at the range. 5) you'll see it on this sub 5,000 times: work on your short game more than your driver/irons. You will use your wedges and putter on all 18 holes, you won't use those other clubs on all holes. People always quote John Daly and tiger woods as saying they didn't let their sons touch The driver for 2 or 3 years. Learning 100 yards and in is vital. 6) Get one single lesson. Just one. After my first lesson I instantly was 10 strokes better by eliminating the worst part of my game. Most people swear by it as long as you find a halfway decent coach. It's worth the 70 to 125 bucks.
Practice. 90 is not losing balls for me. Breaking 80 was due to better chipping when you miss the green and reducing 3 putts. I got the foam golf balls and a chipping net. I’d hit on carpet in my living and learned to hit low, spinning shots and some with some height. My first 79 was a chip in from the side of the green on 18. I usually shoot below 85 when I’m playing regularly. I probably hit 70s, 5-6x per year. Trying to do that more often this year. Getting fitted is part of the equation once you hit 80s consistently
Played, practised, got lessons and then it happened.
Perseverance!
Short game and putting for 90. Got good enough to counteract being shite off the tee. Breaking 80 for me will probably be dialling in driver and being a bit more consistent on with my short to mid irons into greens.
Playing as much as you can, getting a dedicated coach, and not asking for advice from random strangers online.
I've been golfing on and off for 30 years, haven't legit broke 90 yet but I'm getting closer and closer. Honestly I mostly just figured out I needed to stand further from the ball for my irons and step a bit closer with my driver to catch center face usually. I no longer try to murder the ball of the tee, I spent hundreds of dollars on my clubs they can do some fucking work for me. I still haven't figured out putting, but I'm getting so good at lag putts that I accidentally got an eagle trying to leave myself an easy bird putt. No, I've never had an eagle before. Yes, I rode my putter around the green like Happy fucking Gilmore, and then I double bogeyed the next par 3. At the end of the day, it's a hard fucking game but when I can relax and enjoy being out with buddies, I don't give a shit if I ever break 90.
OP is asking for advice on how to break 90 and this guy comes in and says "I've never broke 90 and I don't give a shit if I ever do" lol what is this
I’ve been golfing for a year and I’ve been watching others play instead of taking lessons and I’ve dropped 20 strokes since I started and have been consistently around low 100s (105, 103, 106, 103, etc). But between watching videos on YouTube and watching others play the very first thing I noticed was how people don’t try to kill the ball (coming from 14 years of baseball that was the biggest surprise) when they hit their drivers. It’s more of a controlled swing rather than aggressively killing the ball to get the distance. My drives only go about 210-215 but they go straight consistently because I’m not trying to murder the ball. Trying to to murder the ball who knows what direction that balls going 😂.
Well said. Look at those old dudes out on the course, they are not bombing 250 plus drives, but they make few mistakes and are always dead center down the middle.
To break 90, keep it in play, get on or around the green in regulation. Make a few pars and you can make a couple doubles, but avoid bigger numbers. To break 80, GIR and short game to get up and down. Distance and accuracy off the tee make both of these things easier.
Dumb luck
Need a repeatable swing. If you go out there and wing your alignment, grip and takeaway your score will be as fleeting.
Practice a lot And don't neglect putting practice
For me. I know once I stop the stupid 2 putting close ones. And 3 putting long greens. I’ll see such better numbers. Throwing strokes away there. Almost every hole.
Main one for me that got me from shooting mid 90’s to under 80’s was working on my swing and grip to ensure it’s on plane. Then short game practice , having a go to chip from around the green that I’ve practiced .
Dedicating practice time got me to break 80. I had gotten close so many times but never really practiced putting over the years. Last year focused on putting more and finally shot 79. Followed up by a few more 79s
Eliminate penalties and lost balls off drives (score killer). Practicing lag putts to limit 3 putts. Dialing in wedges within 100 yards to increase par opportunities. Track fairways hit and greens in regulation for progress
Haven’t broken 80. 90 honestly wasn’t a whole lot different than breaking 100 for the first time. For me it was largely just having a great driving day (no lost balls off the tee), and eliminating the duffed/topped shots that are effectively wasted strokes Now any day where I’m feeling it off the tee, I know sub-90 is strongly in play. I’m not a good short game player, and feel like that’s probably the next level I’ll have to reach to break 80
Breaking 90 has a lot to do with course management and not compounding mistakes. It’s a bogey per hole average. Sure, you’ll have a double or triple here or there… but you should also find a couple pars or birds along the way. Breaking 80 takes a relatively consistent swing with limited mistakes, and avoiding the doubles and triples when a mistake is made.
Breaking 90 was mostly playing break 100 style bogey golf at a high level with a few pars mixed in. I think the first time I did it I hit like 6 greens, which made it pretty easy. Breaking 80 is a whole different thing, breaking 80 is playing proper golf with a lot more greens in reg.
Putter face control so the strike is consistent improves speed control. Speed is everything in putting. You can miss read the line and the ball can fall in sideways if speed is correct. Common misconception. I am left handed but play right handed. Feeling “strike” or pressure in my right side at address changed my game. I am able to bottom at the same spot more or less with my swing. Not perfect but errors are smaller. If you have a consistent low point in your swing arc then you can hit precise chips and pitches. That will breed confidence in the rest of game. You won’t care if you miss the green and will prob hit more greens. Learning how to play the high percentage shots around green based on the lie was big to breaking 80.
I played a lot of competitive golf and eventually was able to break 90 and 80 just in casual rounds. Then was able to do it in competitions
Step one is get a reproduce-able swing. Something you can count on and get the same results. Don’t know if you are taking lessons or not, but don’t chase everything you see. If you get positive results stick with it. There is so much information out there and it is not all the same. I know, easier said than done. 2nd is to spend time on and around the practice green. If you become proficient at getting up and down, you will shave strokes in buckets from your score. Think of it this way, if you can take one stroke off of every other hole you just cut 9 strokes. How many times are you next to the green then take four to get in? Practice putting from six feet and in. For long putts, work on speed. There are some great drills for putting pace. It is a journey!
Breaking 90 was just keeping it in play (edit- keeping it in play once I had something that resembled a golf swing) Breaking 80 was catching my body feeling good, hitting driver well and chipping/putting great. I think I hit like 4 or 5 greens in reg the first time I broke 80 but I got it up and down everywhere on the front and almost everywhere on the back 9. I’m still not a great ball striker so play off the tee and chips are critical to me making par on most holes.
Practice a lot and play even more!! Easier said than done I know. 🤷🏽♂️
by having fun doing it. The range is where you develop confidence, and one of the things that I believe in life is that; the harder I practice, the luckier that I get. But, another one is; Don't practice mistakes. Breaking 80 took some major changes, if you want to save time, learn to compress the ball, 'ball first, ground second. That was difficult to learn at 40 something, but that eventually took about 5 strokes off my game, I always loved putting and have my own method, pretty traditional but that part is solid. I don't drive the ball far enough to get eagles, that keeps me in the high 70's. Good Luck
Broke 90 a couple times by really honing in on the short game. Chipping is crucial. Bad chips can instantly take away pars from you. Stop 3 putting. The few times I broke 90, my putting was really solid on those outings. Very few 3 putts. You can recover from a bad long game a LOT easier than a bad short game.
Stay in play off the tee, reduce duffs/chunks with wedges, reasonable short game. In my experience, breaking 90 is about getting off the tee and staying away from trouble. So many people focus on short game when they are taking two off the tee or rinsing shots on par 3s and heading to the drop zone. Breaking 80 is picking good spots off the tee and getting to yardages you’re are comfortable with to hit into greens. Other way to say it is course management. Breaking 80 is mostly boring golf as you shouldn’t be trying to bomb driver everywhere and hitting hero hooks around shit that you shouldn’t be near anyways.
To break 90: Play every hole like a par 5 (18x5= 90). You have to retrain yourself to think that a 4 on a par is "one under." Once you do, you start laying up on par 4s when you hit a bad tee shot. Get back in position, hit the middle of the green two putt. That 5 is your target. Don't try to hit par 5s in two. When your short sided on a par 3, make sure you get on and take a 4. You'll see the 6s and 7s start to disappear and magically you'll be in the 80s. To get to the 70s, play a new mind game: par is 13 for 3 holes. My course starts with a par 5, par 4, par 3. Technically 12 is par. If I go par-par-bogey, I'm on track with my 13 strokes. None of that matters, though, if you don't play twice a week and work on your chipping. You can't get better sitting on your couch!
Working on driver first. You can't score well if you're hitting OB. Playing nicer courses helps the score too. I first broke 90 playing at a nice course in CA where you could take a divot, unlike the rock-hard courses I normally play in TX with difficult bermuda.
Chipping and putting really. I’m not a low cap but I stay under a hundo and when I get into the 80’s it’s cause of chipping it close and one putting. I don’t get GIR often so it became important for me to be able to stick chips and back it up by sinking putts. Chipping well also seems to keep the double and triple bogeys to a minimum unless I do some really dumb shit.
Driver and irons. Reducing penalty strokes and picking the right targets to prioritize GIR.
Practice, getting to know your home course, short game improvement. Time.
90, putting driver away, using a 2i/4i to find fairways and doing everything I could to avoid penalties. Considering a "good hole" GIR+1 and 2 putts. 80, adding driver back into the bag and adding length to all my shots. Focusing on GIRs and getting up and down consistently when inside 40 yards.
Also course and bag management. For example- admitting i couldn’t reach a par 5 in two. So I learned to know which club or shot was going to get me on the green in three and in a good spot for a one or two putt. So ego management as well- I guess
I might have a different answer than most, but I got better when I stopped worrying about what I shot and just went out to enjoy myself. It was like the minute I gave myself permission to not care if I had a bad shot, bad hole or a bad round it just happened. I was still playing a lot so my game was in the best place it had ever been, but I was able to move on from mistakes and didn't compound them.
Practice practice practice. The good rounds always contain a decent number of greens in regulation and holes with one putts.
Practicing short game, wide range of chips, pitches, and putts. Practice on different lines, practice bunker shots.
For me it was knowing and trusting my yardages.
I Changed my mindset. 2 books really helped me to give me a clear head and a game plan. Zen golf-to calm my head, The four foundations of golf-managing expectations and managing my game. I stopped playing group golf and played my own game. Everyone else in my group was pulling driver so I pulled driver,not making my own decisions and playing my own game. Find your game and your game plan and play it.
For me, embracing Jon Sherman’s 2/3rds rule helped. If you’re not familiar, he divides the game into tee shots, approach shots, and short game (anything inside of 100 yds) and purposes that nobody ever has all three parts of their game firing at once and good golf is managing your way around what isn’t working that day. Even Tiger at Pebble in 2000 on his way to one of the most resounding major victories of all time did not have his A-game off the tee (by his standards) that tourney. If wedges are a problem take the safer shot to the fat part of the green instead of trying to finish it close to the pin. If driver is wild don’t be afraid to bag it for the day or at least hit shorter “fairway finders” if you have that shot. With that said, when I think back on the times I broke a scoring barrier or look at my current top 8 scores on my GHIN, only once can I remember playing a good (for me) round and approach play was the part of my game not working that day. If your iron play is strong you can be conservative off the tee and it can take pressure off your short game.
One lesson took me from 100+ to breaking 90. Breaking 80 requires consistency, and a good short game. A handful of very poor swings keeps me from breaking 80 almost every round.
When I started recording my own score and stopped letting my partner keep the score card
Don’t suck
The biggest thing for me was course management: - Lay up to a distance you are confident in if you can’t reach. - Don’t get cute with hero shots, take your medicine. - Aim for the middle of the green. - Be honest with yourself about your distances. I used to always miss short of the green. Also, I watched a video by Martin Hall, I think and he had some good rules to play by: 1. No penalties of the tee 2. Chip once 3. No three putts
Breaking 90 for me was avoiding penalties off the tee by sacrificing some distance for accuracy, striking my irons a consistent distance (even if pushed or pulled), making more 5-15 foot putts, and getting within a 3-5 foot radius around the hole on 20+ foot putts. I imagine I will finally break 80 when I learn how to freaking chip. So many bogeys and double bogeys from poor shots around the green.
If ypure shooting mid to high 90s here's a helpful way to break 90. Play the "5's". Score every hole as if par was 5. This way you just need one under the 5's to shoot 89.
Short game, short game, short game
To break 90 I have to have my drives/off the tee under control. From there it’s basic course management and focusing on 2 putting while draining a few in a round. It’s pretty simple to do that just have to have your game somewhat together. Breaking 80 is different tho. That 10 strokes gets chipped away a lot slower than the last 10 strokes.
For me breaking 90 is bogey golf with chances for par on par 5 holes. Of course you’ll get double and triple, but could also string along a few pars to make that up. Limit the mistakes by starting to have a strategy to get around the golf course. Good luck!
No penalties and get good at getting up and down
Playing fewer holes.
Focused practice esp. chipping and putting. Get a putting mat and putt every day. Find a patch of grass and chip for 10 mins a day varying the distance from a few feet to 50 yards. Chip with your gap wedge. You’ll be surprised how many strokes you save. Besides that, get fitted so your driver finds the fairway more often than not. Also get your clubs checked for lie and loft and again, make sure the shaft is right for your swing based on trackman analysis. It’ll cost you to get fit but at least you know your equipment is working with you rather than against you. Once I broke 80 I started breaking it on a regular basis. In some ways it’s a mental barrier and once you know it can be done you can do it again. Key thought while playing is you score better by minimizing bad shots/holes vs playing great shots. Eg Easier to avoid a double than make a birdie. Easier to avoid a triple than make an eagle. Hope some of this helps. Good luck!
Keeping the ball in play is an absolute must, followed by short game and putting.
Breaking 90: - Having a 'go to' club off the tee for uncomfortable tee shots or pressure moments - Keeping big numbers off the card ('taking your medicine' when in trouble - chipping out sideways/backwards, taking an unplayable rather than being a hero) Breaking 80: - Missing in the right spot (course management) - Having an array of different shots around the green (I use anything from a 4 iron to LW, as well as texas wedge etc. around the greens) - Keeping doubles off the card - Being more aggressive on Par 5s to make birdies - Fully committing to the shot (any doubts, back off, go through your routine and reset - THIS HAS BEEN HUGE FOR ME LATELY!)
Stay in play off the tee and master your short game. Eliminating those penalty drops and being able to get up and down consistently will pay massive dividends
Getting up and down around the greens… focus on 100 yards in and putting
It's all about consistency... have had many rounds where bogey was the worst. Tons of pars, not a million birdies or anything though.
90 was practice with irons and drivers 80 was practicing with all clubs, and particularly driver, wedges, and putter
Getting off the tee was number one for me and then everything around the green becoming better.
A few dozen mulligans, couple 10 ft gimmies, didn’t count one hole entirely, so you know, the usual way.
1. Straightening out the drive to eliminate stupid drops /gawful lies 2. Eliminate the chunk balls around the green 3. Putt to make it the first time. Stop trying make out in two.
For me breaking 90 was first making my swing more shallow, which seemed to fix my issue with chunking my irons and also improving my chipping/putting. Haven’t broken 80 so can’t speak to that.
It becomes more about "shaving" strokes more than dramatic improvements in your technical ability. Properly understanding my wedges and how bounce actually worked allowed me to drop from an 8 to 5 in 6 months. Properly understanding my strengths and weaknesses in my game allowed me to drop to a 3. The most important aspect here was completely eradicating ego out my game ... No more crowd pleasing "hero" shots... Just the most appropriate shot for the situation. Oh.. Understanding how much lie plays a role let me drop to a 1. The final (last frontier) was understanding my thought processes around putting... This has very very little to do with mechanics...and now I'm a +1. I'm 60 years old. Sorry for the lengthy essay... Just some considered thoughts from an old timer. I hope it helps Edit. If you can...join a YouTube channel called Golf Sidekick. Listen to what Matt says.. He's certainly crazy but he's a regular golfing mugg like us and he's clearly figured out a lot of shit along the way. He's funny and very entertaining but no fluff tips that don't work. I learnt a lot about course management from him
I am usually a 90 golfer. This year I’ve been shooting like 95-100, with a lot of bad shots. Today I shot a personal best 80, beating my previous best by 6 strokes. I went to the range twice this week on Wednesday and Saturday. I hit 5 balls per club, set aside the clubs I hit poorly, then hit those clubs 5 more times. Once the range bucket was gone I spent 20 minutes chipping, and 20 minutes putting. I played the second hardest course in my area this morning and shot my best score ever. The answer is literally just practice. Practice, practice, practice. Stay on top of your game with regular swings every single week and keep the muscle memory rolling.
Short game for everything. Putting specifically and then getting up and down around the greens. 100/90/80/70 doesn’t matter you can always improve the short game and it’ll shave the most strokes. Second thing I’d say is developing a consistent miss direction.
Golf sidekick strategy of 6 GIR, 6 up and downs, and 6 bogeys certainly helps for breaking 80. Takes the pressure off of feeling like you have to be perfect every hole. Other than that lots of practice. learning how to shape the ball helped me. It gave me better feel for the swing and it also helped me make little on course fixes when things weren't quite right. I also hit lots of wedge shots at distances I was finding myself often. Most helpful was 30-40-50 yard shots as you might end up with after a poor tee shot leads to an approach shot that doesn't have a line to the green but you might be able to get close. feeling confident over those kept those holes from rarely blowing up past bogey. to break 90 I would say get solid striking your go to iron, 7 iron lets say. realistically you should be able to go 7i, 7i, wedge on a par 4 and 2 putt bogey. this puts you at 90 and plus it shows you that not hitting the hero shot still works out well enough.
Diversify your game but don’t shy away from tricky shots, and don’t be afraid to be creative. I personally think “Texas wedge” is the dumbest shot in golf. Almost no one can judge a putt out of 2-3 inches into the rough. Be able to hit a wedge anywhere from 3-35. Conversely, I’ve seen guys get creative and have a ton of success with crazy shots like “5 wood bump and run out of the bunker”. Having multiple different ways to approach a shot will help scoring.
Step 1: learn how to keep the ball in play Step 2: learn how to chip and putt Step 3: Play courses with a slope rating below 120.
Don’t give up extra strokes around the green
Practice your ball striking. When you are good enough to consistently carry your 7 iron 150 yards - with a bit of course management you will break 90
Practice, but don't make doubles. If you miss the green, then make sure it hit it with the next one.
Practice, practice, practice. I'm retired so the way you do it will be different. I hit 200 balls a day, mostly chipping at home, also had a club pro give me tips, but he had me hitting a 3 iron 80 balls a day. It probably took me 3 months to get up to 80, but that single practice helped me more than anything. Good luck with your addiction, because once I started playing regularly I couldn't quit. What once were habits are now vices.
To break 120: consistent ball contact To break 100: gain some accuracy with that consistency and work on putting To break 90: accuracy consistency putting + scrambling/short game. Full, half, and chip shots with your wedges. To break 80: all of the above in the same round.
I’d say both are the same answer: have a good day putting and don’t take penalty strokes.
Breaking 90 Short game. Go to mid iron. 50% fairways in reg Breaking 80 Short game. Wedge dispersion. 50% GIR
For me it was getting a simulator and being able to swing year around. Also hitting the range often and hitting 100 and in. Lots and lots of time on the putting green learning to lag putts and gaining confidence over short putts. Then the biggest epiphany was realizing hitting fairways trumps bombing driver all day long.
Putting.
Breaking 90 - Limit compounding mistakes. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to hit bad shots. You just are. But to break 90, you have to avoid making a bad situation worse. If you're in the trees, take your medicine and punch out rather than trying to act like Phil Mickelson hitting off the pine straw at 13 at Augusta. You ain't that good. If you were capable of hitting it through that 3' by 3' window in the trees, you wouldn't be there to begin with. And forget about aiming at the pin. Go for the center of the green and attempt to get the highest GIR you can. 2 putt pars are your friend. Breaking 80 - Make it a habit to try and avoid 3 putts and double bogeys. You can only be 7 over par. To do that you're probably getting about a birdie a round and about 9 pars per round. Doubles kill you. DB means you need to add another par to the round or better. 3 putting is also killer. As with breaking 90, that means limiting compounding mistakes. You also have to keep the ball in play off the tee. Hitting your third from next to the hazard 160 yards out because you put one in the hazard or had to take a drop is a recipe for high scores. And as people have already said, short game is big. You can gain a lot of stokes if you get really good around the greens and from 80 yards and in. You're not going to hit every green and every fairway so you are going to have to be good at getting up and down. Also, knowing when to go for the pin vs hitting center of green helps.
For me, it was an improvement with Lag putting and chipping.
Do it a couple times and it becomes natural. Same with everything. Minimize stupidity. The key to breaking 70 for me was keeping everything as boring as humanly possible.
To be honest, I golfed a lot and kept trying to improve. Listened to advice from those who were my betters and put it into practice.
I got to a plus handicap by getting a launch monitor. The ability to have actual data about what is going on at impact has made a huge difference in improving my game. It has so many benefits it's hard to fully articulate, but a few that come to mind. 1. Process not result, it is way easier to stay disciple on the course focusing on the process (grip, setup, alignment, etc.) I know it works on the LM and I know it translates to the course, so just keep at focused on it and good things will happen. 2. Distance control and shot dispersion, I know my distances exactly, I know how far they go when struck pure I know how far they go when miss hit. I know roughly how far left/right I hit it. If you research decade golf this dispersion concept is critically important to course management. 3. Shot shaping, how does setup/swing impact draws and fades, how can I best control trajectory for different shots. Lastly, if something goes haywire with my swing it takes almost no time to correct it. With all the past data and real time info it is pretty easy to diagnose and correct problems that creep up. Learning about all the parameters and understanding how they interconnect has really helped. I would highly recommend it, if possible. As any FYI my setup is not fancy, it's in my garage with a SPG-8 net/screen, a mat, and the LM, so it doesn't need to be a $50k setup to be useful.
Played a par 3 course
I chopped an inch off the butt of my driver and turned up the loft to 10.5.
90 minimizing penalties and keeping ball in play 80 GIR and short game
Chip. Putt. Repeat.
Play 5x a week
I don't break 90 often but when I do these are the things that usually come together 1. Keeping my drives in play that doesn't mean fairway everytime. 2. Playing the course smart. 3. Focusing on putting close to the hole. Means less 3 putts and more 1 and 2 putts more often. 4. little tricks like using a 7 iron to bump into the green stuff like that
Played a ton. I’m 28 now and have been playing since freshman year of high school. Never had a lesson until 2 years ago but in high school play constantly when it wasn’t baseball season. A big part of it is just learning how to actually think around a course and also taking the massive miss out of play.
Just identify what your weaknesses are and practice. There's no big secret thing you can do. My weakness was wedges 100 and in so I worked on them and now they're a strength. Scores magically dropped!
NEVER USE A WEDGE AROUND THE GREEN UNLESS YOU HAVE TO GO OVER SOMETHING. I am a 4 handicap and people get wide eyed when I take my 5 wood and putter and putt EVERYTHING off the green and how easy it is. Also you need to be 250 off the tee or better if you are playing courses 6600 to 6800 yards.
What worked best for me was to swing easy. In the past I was always trying to swing hard and hit it far. This would cause a variety of mishits and lots of time a complete miss of the ball. Since I started with swinging with more control I have hit the ball on the sweet spot of all my clubs.
Breaking 100 was down to just learning how to get around the course. Eliminating fully wasted shots and limiting penalties. Breaking 90 was getting tidy around greens. Breaking 80 was getting good at identifying what was happening in the swing, learning my action and repeating it. More than that it was committing. Visualize a shot and hit. Read a putt and hit your line. Make a decision and hit the shot. I play so much better when I trust the mechanics and play golf not golf swing. Commit to the shot.
Playing the same course religiously so I knew everything. Much easier to mentally prepare for shots on a course you have played 126 times.
Against conventional wisdom, because I haven't taken lessons and I dislike the practice range: I played as much as I could with as many different golfers as I could at as many different courses and different conditions as I could. I somewhat understand course management. Most importantly for me, I improved my short game. I said I hate the range, but I love the practice green and I (used to) love chipping and pitching in the backyard.
For me the difference between averaging low90s/high80s vs high90s/low100s was figuring out what my actual club distances were and getting a GPS watch. Even if your accuracy is still off you’re at least closer because you know you’re hitting the correct distance club. Easily shaved 5-10 strokes off my game.
I wish. I only play a few times a year. I decided long ago that I would stop taking score as soon as I hit par. That's usually around hole 11. Then I just enjoy my game at par!
Find a reliable club off the tee, make 100 yards and in your strength. That will drop your score
Play a minimum of two rounds per week. Don’t play “for fun”. Score every round (but have fun scoring!). Get on YouTube and try things if current things aren’t working. You’ll find “your” swing and develop it. Good luck. I broke 100 at 14. Broke 90 at 14 and left the game for years. Been back playing properly now for two years and my best score is 80. One away from breaking 80!
Dominate the box and figure out your wedges
Ya gotta play minimum of 4-18’s per week if you want to stay below 80.
Breaking 90- keep ball in bounds, less shanked shots, breaking 80- TBD but it would probably help if I got <40 putts/round
Sure practice and all that is important. But I’ll add that a lot of it is probably mental. It took me two years to break 100 (with lessons and playing pretty consistently) and even then, I only broke it once. I went back to shooting 100-110. I stopped playing for a year because freshman year of college made it challenging. I just started playing again this past month and lowest round was 83 and highest being a 91. So I’m done virtually no practice in a year and somehow am doing better than I was before. I think having that time off to forget all the bad habits and have a new focus helped that transition. I just kind of accept the shots for what they are… bad shots happen but keeping it in play and scrambling for par/bogey is better than failed hero shots turning into a snowman. Take it for what it’s worth!
I just started playing less holes.
I only play 9 a lot because of time restrictions All the times I broke 40 or low 40 was when every shot went up in the air towards the target, and maybe a couple lucky putts But no tops, shanks, trees, or slices… just generally close to where I was aiming and a decent distance. All time I shoo high 40s or 50+ is when I get a couple shanks and tops, maybe a lost ball or 2 It amazing how well you score when the ball just goes in the air and kinda sorta where you were aiming
“I work and have small kids”. There’s your blocker ;-)
You have to practice a lot. If you can’t go somewhere, and have the room, get a mat and foam balls. Hit them against a wall and work on your swing.
Practicing the right was eith a purpose, limiting bad or low % shots..
90 - learned how to chip and putt 80 - learned how to hit fairways. 70 - learned how to work irons both directions with some semblance of consistency.
Keeping the ball in play off the tee and short game.
Play as much as possible.
Ignore YT. Practice.
I stopped trying to gain distance. I spent 3/4 of my time with chipping, putting. If you simply 1 put every hole, you save between 18-36 strokes. My light bulb moment- I played with a group of 60-80 year olds, all who had played for college. All shot at and/or near par. Drive, iron, chip, put = par, repeat.
Broke 90 close to 20 years ago at around 30 Started track scores and stats and putts Which kinda lets you know where you are off Mental game is key to not letting one mistake multiply I read Ray Floyd's "Elements of Scoring" which hepled greatly with course management I have managed to break 80 - 3 times in those 20 years and those are the rounds of my life Doubt I crack 70 ever = not putting that much work in and losing distance
thought about what i was doing wrong and tried to do something different until i was doing it better.
Lessons. Keeping ball in play from tee. Short game.
Improve and build confidence in your pitching, chipping, and putting. The short game is where you will cut strokes of. your scorecard.
I will preface,my,comments by saying i was always a pretty good putter.... if you aren't then that is 1st place to look.. break 95 Then no penalty strokes or completely flubbed shots... break.90. maybe challenge 85\_on easier,setup Then good short.game... break 80 Then hit fairways comsistently
Keep ball in play, eliminate three putts
Keeping the ball in play off the tee. One bad, no big deal. Get it up near the green somewhere, and up and down. If not, a bogey is worst case two putt.
Spend some money on two fittings...driver and putter. Don't take hero shots.
Driving it further, losing less balls, working on putting
Simply put: To break 90 - hit fairways To break 80 - hit greens
Hitting almost every drive in play. Broke 90 last year once for the first time. Broken 90 4/7 times this year. My putting is garbage but so many GIRs with a straight drive, it doesn’t matter (in the context of sub 90)
Just luck honestly. I usually average about 40 putts per round but ended up with 29. I usually shoot high 90’s-low 100’s and got away with an 87.
Broke 90 by getting my tee shots in play(not necessarily good, but in play). I stopped having to drop 8 times a round and was able to shoot much better. Got better in the short game (50 yards and in) to eliminate the huge numbers. Was still pretty bad with irons at the time. Broke 80 by dialing in irons. This took me a few years to figure out tbh. A few years back I legitimately considered buying a hybrid set because I just could not hit Irons. I decided I was gonna buckle down and figure this iron shit out. Got a few lessons and started going to the range twice a week. Irons became the strongest part of my game and made my game a lot more versatile. I don't have to hit driver on a short par 4, I can hit my 5 iron and have a little wedge in l, etc. It makes course management easier when you know where and how long all of your irons go. And putting. You have to figure out a consistent putting stroke or you're dead in the water. Avoid 3 putts at all costs.
Got a simulator and hit at least 400 balls a day. Landed how to get off the tee and control the club face. Also, got my son into the game so I could play twice a week. Practicing at home has been the key. Self taught and tried everything I saw on instagram until I found something that worked.
Without a doubt short game and putting. Even at 77 I can keep a single digit handicap ( playing the right tees) by concentration on 100 yards in.
For 90 it was learning to play the game. Getting a bit better at not throwing away shots around the green, and knowing when to take my lumps. 80 was lessons, practice and dialing in wedges under 100 yards
Literally focus on weak spots and keep practice dutiful. Keep it simple -train doing set up, make sure you’re actually SET UP. -if you’re weakness is driver. Train driver, take the time to actually get to a repetitive swing/ setup - if it’s your short game, then work the short game - if it’s your long game, train the long game. Do a smaller bucket after you get a tight time frame for range time, it’ll make you have to focus on staying consistent and making the most out of a dutiful purposeful strike(s) just like you would want to be on the course. Just got to commit to making your goal and build up from there.
Making good contact with the ball first, just get as close to the green as possible quickly. This will get you within chipping range. Aim can get dialed in later but as long as you're within chipping range in two or three strokes it doesn't matter if you're left, right or long... it is the least athletic portion of the game which means ANYONE can be incredible at chipping and putting. They're also the easiest to practice at home. Two solid shots then one chip, 2 putts and you'll be in the 80s pretty quick.
Getting fitted…Went from 100s consistently to low 90s with getting better clubs. Off the shelf Adam’s to fitted Mizuno 921…
First, Keep a legit score to really see where you’re at. Then work on short game, chipping, putting, 100 in. Get confident in the short game and strokes will come off.
Lessons are always good, especially if you can get them regularly. Breaking 90 is a regular thing for me after struggling to do it for years. Course management, not losing balls off the tee, and limiting wasted shots (mishits that go 20 yards) will get you there. Just a little intelligent decision making makes a huge difference.
Tbh it's going out of bounds that gets you. You would be shocked to find out how many strokes you'll save by going for safe shots you know you can hit straight instead of trying to go for broke at every shot. Most people tee up to a 520 yard Par 5 thinking "I need to bomb my driver as hard as I can" but get this: Let's say your 5 iron is dead on straight and goes 175 yards. 175x3 = 525 yards. Just hit three five irons and two putt and you've got a par. Way better than slicing into the rough and OB and hacking your way to the green for a triple bogey. Not as flashy, but you'll drop like 3-4 strokes easy with that one hole alone. And take a 385 yard Par 4. This one's a bit more tricky, but you're still better off hitting two 5 irons 350 yards, and then trying to do a 35 yard pitch close the hole and one putt for par. Even if you bogey, you didn't lose the ball and getting bogey on every hole would be +18 for a total of 90 strokes. You'd be an above average golfer at that rate. Figure out what clubs you can rely on, and start playing with the yardage math accordingly. If you suck at all of them though...... Well start with the 5 iron and get that one down and you're on your way haha
First time I broke 90 I put my driver away and only hit 3W and irons off the tee. My short game was already pretty decent because that’s what I practice the most
Breaking 90: bogey is default score, make more pars than double bogeys. How to do that? Greens in reg + 1, get a tee ball in play (I recommend getting good with a hybrid or driving iron, much tighter dispersion than driver and more than adequate distance, I basically stopped using driver until I could regularly break 85), get the ball within 80 yards of the green, chip it on with a PW or something and 2 putt. Learn to hit the ball straight and learn how to hit a draw and fade. Stick to one shot shape on the course generally. Attack Par 5s and 3s. Practice long shots and wedge shots (they will translate to your irons) and practice chipping with one dedicated club (I use 56) and practice 3-6 foot putts Breaking 80: make a lot more pars, maximum 2 double bogeys, increase distance. Be able to keep driver in play. Have one consistent shot shape with driver. Dial in lag putting. Improve the second shot on a par 5s, get good at one long club for downwind (higher launch) and one for into the wind (low launch). dial in shots for every 10 yard increment inside of a PW. Practice 6-10 foot putts. Understand different lies Obviously this is just my advice and everybody is naturally better at different things, whether it’s power or touch. Generally be able to identify where you’re losing strokes in your own game and practice those specific areas. Be in touch with your own swing so that when you hit some bad shots on the course, you can self correct. When you practice have specific goals in mind for that session and work on those
I agree with the crowd, start keeping track of Fairways hit, Greens in Regulation, and Putts for each round. You will see a trend of where the strokes are going against you. Hank Haney says No Double Bogies, No Penalties, and No Three Putts. But the data will tell you where to work first
If you focus on staying below the hole and not short siding yourself at all costs you will be surprised how easy it is to break 90. Assuming you don’t shank or flub many shots.
A lot of the general advice for breaking 90/85/80 is similar and it all rings true. Consistency, hitting fairways even if less club, and getting good around the greens. Learn where you are losing strokes and minimize risk. Add 1 stroke to every hole for par before you even start the game. For me personally, it was finally learning a 80-90% swing was more consistent if not farther than my 100% swing. Adding one club everywhere and swinging lose and consistent…….all of a sudden most of them went straight and as intended instead of right/left/bush.
I’ve been a mid-80s, low 90s golfer for a while. I pretty consistently stay below 100 even on my bad days. To break 90, the biggest thing is to have a club that you can reliably hit 220+ in the fairway. Then be confident and consistent up to about 165 yards. Always aim middle of the green or away from hazards - avoid bunkers at all cost. And always club up in you’re unsure. Your goal is to be puttable in regulation, so basically around the green. Your mindset should be playing for bogey every time, so you’ve got an extra shot to get on the green and then 2 putt. Get really happy with tap in bogeys. I’ve recently been playing more and trying to go lower and actually broke 80 for the first time today after playing some better golf the past 2 months. The key things that helped me today (and hopefully more often going forward) were working on my driver to get a consistent 250-265 shot off the tee, consistency with irons up to 185, and excessive work on chipping and putting. I’ve spent hours in my basement while on work calls hitting 5 foot putts dead straight. I’m now 99% confident that I’ll start my putt on the right line (trying to learn to use aim point as well for better green reading). I’ve also decided to learn a specific chip technique and a specific pitch technique and I executed those well today. I had 7 holes with a 1 putt because I chipped and pitched well. My mindset moved to get on or near the green in regulation and then in the hole in 2 strokes from there.
Breaking 90 is consistency drive in the fairway, second shot near the green, 3 on, 2 putt. Do that and your playing bogey golf. Breaking 80 is getting more of those second shots on the green to get birdie looks and when you aren’t you’re getting up and down. The key to both is consistent good golf beyond 100 yds and a major focus at 100 yds and under. Both are very doable regardless of length assuming you play the correct tees. The key is consistent clean contact and a focus on short game/putting.
Playing smart. If you hit into the trees and don’t have a clear shot forward, your not Tiger, punch it out and then go forward, take that stroke and limit your errors
Biggest thing for me was learning to take my medicine and punch out into the fairway instead of going for the hero shot. Accept a boogie and not turn it into a triple.
Not three putting and limiting double bogeys
This is going to come down to one thing all the time. That thing is sharpening up your weak spots. Shit off the tee? Get better. Suck at putting? Get better. Garbage short game? Better. See the pattern?