Advice - Breaking 90, I can't seem to do it.

I have been playing seriously now for one year, and I can't seem to get much lower than the mid-90's, although I think my stats are improving.

Here are my stats for all rounds played (33 approx)

• fairways hit: 44.8%
• greens in regulation: 18.7%
• recovery performance: 8.2%
• putting averages: 2.1
• 2+ Bogies: 49%

Here they are for the last 5 rounds:

• fairways hit: 52.9%
• greens in regulation: 22.2%
• recovery performance:11.9%
• putting averages: 1.9
• 2+ Bogies: 37%

So based on the stats above, where should I focus to get to the sub-90 score?

Thanks for any feedback!

Brad

If you hit lots of greens and putt well you will always get good results

So focus on putting and approach shots (just my opinion of course)

Try not to fixate on it too much. Play one hole at a time, one shot at a time without focusing on what you need to do on upcoming holes to break 90. Before you know it you'll do it.

the absolute quickest way to break 90 is to improve your shortgame.  it seems from your stats you are struggling with g.i.r. but you can make up for that if you learn a variety of short game shots and improve your putting.

I'm not convinced this is the case; it largely depends on where his misses are, and that comes down to ball striking and, to a lesser extent, driving accuracy. For the blow-up holes: where are you instead of GIR? If you're just off the green, not short sided, and so on, then the problem is the short game. If you're facing a 50 yard bunker shot, or you're short sided in heavy rough, then the issue is planning and ball striking. Get better at short game from good places, and then get yourself to those places. If I can't hit a GIR, I'll sometimes try to get myself to a spot as far as 45 yards off the green, if I will have a good lie and a clear shot at the green from there. Speaking of which, OP, do you know your quarter- and half-wedge distances?

Thanks for the feedback so far, I think for my blowups it's usually from two things, #1 - bad drives and #2 - bad second shots.

I do know my wedge distances, and I feel my short game is pretty good, the putting on the other hand....

I played 9 holes today, did bogey or better on 7 of 9 holes (shot a 46).  But the two holes an 8 and a 7 just end up killing the round, both were a result of a bad tee shot.  The 8 was on the first hole, so that is from not warming up etc, but the 7 wasn't.  I also three putted 3 times, so that is clearly and area to work on.

I used to be a sub 90 golfer, and hope this year gets me back to that range.  For me, it was eliminating all penalty strokes (OB, water, lost balls) and focusing on bogey golf.  Never even think of par.  On a par 4, you have 3 shots to get it close to the pin.  Bad drive?  No big deal, focus on two decent shots.  Good drive followed by a 20 yrd duff?  Again, no biggie, you got another shot to hit the green.  Once on the green, focus on getting that first putt close.  Picture that 15" hole discussed in another thread, don't worry about draining that 40 footer.  Get it in that range and then tap out for a bogey.

Too many people (myself included) hit a poor, short drive and then pick up the 3-wood or 4-iron to try and make up for it on the next shot.  Terrible strategy if you ask me.  Play as described above and you'll start hitting bogey after bogey.  And when you get in a groove and string together a couple of good shots, you'll pick up a par here and there.  Good luck-

well, judging from the stats you gave us....probably short game shots would help you. I don't know your shots, just a guess. if you are hitting 22.2% gir, are your next shots just off the green? maybe even just 20 yards off the green? if so, practice those little chips shots. try the bump and run type of shot. use a pw or 9 iron and run it up to the hole. I used to think flop shots were the only way to hit chip shots. I quickly learned that the bump and run can be a more reliable shot cause it is a higher percentage shot. of course, if you need to go over a bunker, then getting the ball into the air more is needed. don't even worry about making it into the hole, just get it up to the hole for an easy 1 putt. practice here first, then once you have that down, go to the approach shot. this is just how I approached improving my golf score. working well for me thus far.

I agree with all the short game advice you have been getting on this thread...I went from a 12 to an 8 handicap in less than a year by focusing 50% of my practice time on chipping and putting...simply because as amatuers we are not going to have the time to dial in our irons like the Pro's and we are going to miss greens...

However, they say that the two most important stats to breaking 80 is GIR and putting as follows:

To consistently break 80, you should average eight or more GIRs. Take a few recent scorecards, or record your next few rounds, and average your scores, then average your GIRs. Compare your results to the chart at left. I bet you're right at, or very close to, where the chart says you should be. But if you score better than your GIRs would predict-say, you hit four greens but average 83-you probably have an extraordinary short game. You need to focus on hitting more greens. If you score worse than your GIRs would predict-say, you hit seven greens but average 85-then your putting is weak, or you tend to have blowup holes, which throw off any system for predicting score:

The second piece of the scroing puzzle is putting. When it comes to breaking 80, putting is less important than GIRs but much more important than everything else. After all, more than a third of all strokes are putts. Although the "eight greens break 80" rule is a good predictor, it is possible to break 80 with fewer than eight GIRs, and possible to not break 80 with more than eight. The difference in these cases usually (but not always) is putting.

Always put yourself in the best position (according to your game)

If that means taking a bogey so be it

Much better than dropping shots

I always find a full shot (i.e 8 iron) is much easier to hit than a 15 ft chip as you can only commit to a full shot

I thought maybe a good way to do this would be to compare stats (and I would like to add that keeping your stats is a great way to improve and you can see more clearly the areas where you need to improve)...so far for 2011 I have played 12 rounds and my stats are as follows:

Avg score = 85

• fairways hit: 44.6%
• greens in regulation: 32.9%
• recovery performance: 30.8% (I call this Up & down for Par)
• putting averages: 1.84
• avg penalty strokes per round = 3.3 (mainly tee shots)

So as you can see we are fairly similar off the tee (and I don't even own a driver so this is a big problem in my game)...however, the main difference is GIR and Putting avg...which according to my earlier post is what it takes to break 80...good luck.

This is good stuff, thanks!  I agree the GIR and Recovery Performance need to increase, which means short game.   I do try for bogey or better as that is the best way to get to 90 or below.

I second this, below are mine:

(been a rough start this year...)

Quote:

This is the conventional wisdom from Phil Mickelson video clips to quick tips on the Golf Channel. The "reason why" ... you can get partial shots working much quicker than you can groove a full swing.

Short game work will help in two ways:

• Immediate payoff of getting more up-and-downs. Get a reliable chip shot and a reliable pitch shot, and collect some pars from off the green.
• Improved ball contact. If you make contact squarely on the partial shots, this can help you on the full approach shots too.

If you get more chip shots and pitch shots inside the five-foot circle, this means more short putts for par. Also, make sure you know how to lag putt. you don't want to three-putt from 30 feet if you do muff a chip shot, or if you do hit a green in regulation.

Special WUT Tip on putts: Try going non-verbal. Use your eyes to line things up, visualize where the ball will go, and stroke it. Skip the mental happy talk, become automatic.

Also: If you hit the woods well but tend to pull or push most iron shots, have the lie angle checked on your irons. If they're too flat or too upright, this hurts your accuracy. But even it you discover lie angle problems, you still need to give priority to the short game.

• greens in regulation: 22.2%
• recovery performance:11.9%

Irons and short game buddy.

Just a suggestion.  When you get into trouble, forget the hero shot.  Get back into play.  If it seems unreasonable to try and advance the ball, then don't.  Get it back into play.  Acknowledge your limitations and play within your abilities.  If you do this, your abilities will naturally improve along with your scores.  You will build confidence, and that will result in making better swings more often.  You will gradually become more adept at those recovery shots which defeat you now.  Sometimes you have to take small steps to get to the point where large steps make sense.

Learn proper technique and then practice your chipping and putting.   For most players at your level, that is where you'll will see the biggest scoring improvement per hour of practice time.

Is this a lag issue or are you missing short putts?  In other words, how long was the second putt?  If it was short, go work on those.  I missed at least a half dozen of those my last round -- and shot a 92.  If your second putt is more than 5', you need to work on speed control with putting.