Breaking 100

[trageserk]

Hey everyone,

I picked up golf over the past year and I'm pretty consistently shooting a 110 give or take 5 strokes. I don't have an issue with my drives, I hit them 270+ with a nice draw and up until recently my irons were my strong point. I started hooking them and I've been working on fixing it. My short game could definitely benefit from some work, I don't really have a soft touch around the green, so bump and runs are difficult and I can't really chip to well. Ironically, the only short game shot I have is a flop shot with my 64 deg wedge, which I have to rely on WAY too much. What're some good tips/things to practice to break 100? Anything you remember doing that helped you break it for the first time?

[Dent]

Although this topic is about breaking 90, it can still have the same theories in breaking 100.

Check it out and good luck sir.

http://www.thesandtrap.com/forum/sho...light=Breaking

[Shindig]

Hey everyone,

While I agree with Dent's comment about strategies for breaking 90 being a good idea, let's get you under the double bogey average first. Once you're in the low 100s, go to the breaking 90 thread that he linked you to and start in there, even if you've yet to actually shoot a double digit score. Step One: Find out how far you hit each club in expectation - if you were to hit ten balls from where you are, and had to play from where the majority ended up, which club would you use? This is a big problem for a lot of people with club selection: remembering their greatest shot and/or the distance they had the first time they hit that club, and either coming up short or long consistently. I once hit my 9-iron 125 yards with mild wind. But if I'm 125 yards out under similar conditions, I'm between my 8- and 7-irons. By the way, a buddy of mine was a long hitter from the onset, so your distances are possible. I'm not going to doubt any reasonable distances you post. Step two: Aim for your patterns. If you hit a draw (right to left ball flight) with your driver, aim at the right fairway, not the center. The only exception is if a straight shot would put you in trouble (O.B., etc), re-aim. This may mean going down a club. Step three: The short putts, inside 5'. Practice these until you're making them more than 50% of the time on the practice green. And then keep practicing. Step four: find your go-to club for a full shot. Know its distance and flight pattern. If you got to drop a ball in the fairway, for free, but had to take your next shot full swing with a club of your choice, what club would it be and how far from the flag would you drop? For me, it's my 8-iron, 120 yards. You aren't getting free drops every hole, and you certainly can't pick to within that many yards where you drop, but bear with me on this. You're going to use this club to hit a great many greens - all par-5s and some par-4s. Step five: course management. (5a) For each par-3, figure out the safest area to aim for. If you can hit the green, go for it. Go for the least-guarded area of the green, even if the flag's on the other side. Again, aim so your ball *ends up there* - so if your irons are drawn (right to left), aim right of that area. Your goal is to be able to get the ball on the green on your second shot, close enough to 2-putt. Take your bogey and move on. (5b) For each par-5, plan backwards. First, subtract your go-to club's distance from the yardage. Plan two shots to get you there. Pick your two safest clubs: if 5-iron 7-iron gets you there, do that instead of driver wedge. You aren't attacking a pin with your second shot. A few days ago, I played my home course and had a real shot at birdie on hole 8, a 475-yard par-5. I hit my driver (200 yards), then my 4-iron (155 yards) and the pin happened to be center of the green. I hit my 8-iron to a few feet. Get the ball on the green with your go-to club and then try to 2-putt. If you miss, get the ball safely on the green in 2-putt distance. Decide now that you aren't going for par-5s in two until you've got a double digit score. Par-5s are scoring opportunities, but don't take that gamble for an eagle quite yet. With this strategy, I bet you can play the par-3s in a bogey average and the par-5s in bogey average (at worst: probably a 5.5 average), too. Do this and you can play your par-4s in just under double bogey average and you'll still break 100. (5c) So, how to play par-4s with this strategy? Plan out each one. You probably know your home course well enough to picture each hole now. Par 4s go into two categories for you: ones on which you think you can be safely greenside on the second shot, and ones on which you don't think you can be. For the first ones, plan two safe shots to get you either to the green or to a safe area near the green - there's probably somewhere safe nearby. Maybe it's a bail-out area. Maybe it's light rough. You're going to aim for the green, with the target in mind that a miss gets you to the safe area. For the second category, treat them as short par-5s and apply the strategy from par-5s. In this case, it might be two 5-irons and an 8-iron to get on the green-side, and maybe a chip to somewhere on, and then two putts. But fine: a double bogey isn't bad when you're trying to break 100. Keep them off your scorecard for the par-3s and par-5s, and even if you make a majority of double bogeys (and no worse) on par-4s, you're in double digits. Breaking 100 is mostly about keeping big numbers - anything beyond double bogey - off the card. Breaking 90 is about being closer to par than double bogey. We'll conquer that later. It is my opinion that anyone who can put the ball in play safely off the tee to 200 yards (from the tee), knows their iron distances, is a mediocre or better putter, and can chip onto most greens into a good general area can break 100 if they apply some course management. I did it, now I want you to do it.

[tm22721]

First priority is good ball contact and ball flight. Keeping your hands ahead of the clubhead, your body oriented correctly at impact and good tempo (max speed should be just after impact).

Second is keeping it in the fairway using shorter clubs if necessary. Recovery shots are an advanced skill.

Third is to practice lagging to eliminate expensive three putts.

[blackxpress]

You say you hit 270+ with your driver but how many of those shots end up in the fairway? Most golfers that shoot over 100 spend a lot of time getting themselves out of trouble. For that matter, the problem is not limited to 100+ scorers. I play regularly with a couple of guys that shoot high '70s to low '80s and they hit a lot of errant drives. They're real good at recovery shots though. I figure they'd score a lot better if they'd concentrate more on keeping the ball in play and less on hitting it long. They take too many unnecessary chances. They try to hit it long over the hazards, cut the corner over the woods and stuff like that when they'd usually be a lot better off to hit a layup and keep it safely in the fairway. The more fairways and greens you hit in regulation, the lower your score will be. As for your short game, you've already answered your own question. If you can't chip well you can't score well. Aside from taking short game lessons from a pro, you need to spend as much time as possible at the practice green learning to hit various chip shots, bunker shots, etc. If you can get on a course when it isn't crowded (there's no one behind you) take a little extra time at each green and practice chipping on from different distances and locations. In my case, I used to be terrified from 100 yds. in to the green because I didn't know how to hit short shots. Nowadays, after lots and lots of practice, I thrive on those distances. I'm pretty deadly inside 100 yds, have lots of confidence in my short game and it's beginning to show itself on the score card. I still have a long way to go before I'm satisfied but then, who doesn't?

[TinCupTampa]

Go to a driving range... and spend an hour chipping and putting. 60% of your practice time should be spent on or around the green. Keep track of your putts for each round you play. When your number of putts per round start decreasing... your total score will decrease. This is the easiest way to lower a high handicappers score. Too many amateurs waste buckets of balls concentrating on hitting as far as they can... if they only learned how to get up and down consistantly they would realize that is the key to a low score.

Chipping and Putting are the only things we get to practice for free and the single most things amateur golfers neglect.

[nevets88]

Try this book - I thought it made alot of sense - the used one cent version plus delivery will be well under $5.

http://www.amazon.com/Break-100-Now-...2756573&sr;=1-1

[Uthinkso]

My copy of breaking 90 is on the way. Should be some good tips.

[lolzzlolzz]

Breaking 100 is a simple process (not saying it's easy, but simple): you just need to work on your swing.

I broke 100, 90, and 80 all the same way. By working on one simple swing that I can use for all shots... drives, irons, half shots. I payed no real attention to short game strategies or putting. The only thing I ever had to really "research" was getting out of the bunker, but I still generally use my same swing for that (I only open the club face and open my stance).

All you need to do is develop a correct, powerful, repeating, and simple golf swing.

[trageserk]

Thanks everyone for the input- I really appreciate it. I'm going to check out that book that nevets88 suggested, it looked pretty good. Shindig- I liked how you broke it down so it was really easy to follow, thanks a lot for that answer. It sounds like I'm gonna be practicing a lot this summer- hopefully the work will pay off.

[Prodigy]

its deff ur short game flop shots around the green are not good to musch risk do your self a favor and get stan utlety's book on the short game great book a consiyant short game is the key good luck

hope this helps .Chris

[wofat]

Honestly, I'd focus on practicing your short game like a number of others have said. If you're consistently hitting 270+ and keeping it in play, your short game must need the bulk of the work.

[Want2PlayMore]

I just broke 100 on 5-26-2008 at www.minorparkgolfcourse.com . I shot a 95. I was chipping pretty close and trying to play smart shots. Don't try the "hero" shots. The best advice I can give is to practice the short game, namely the putter. It is the only club in your bag that you use on every hole. Go to the range or a par 3 course and work that short game.

[Shindig]

Shindig- I liked how you broke it down so it was really easy to follow, thanks a lot for that answer. It sounds like I'm gonna be practicing a lot this summer- hopefully the work will pay off.

No problem! I spent a great deal of time planning how I was going to break 100, looking at several rounds at the same course, how I played each hole - which holes were consistently good for me, which were consistently bad, etc. What I wrote is more or less what I did until I broke 100. I still apply a changed version of that to my game, even now that I've broken 90 a few times.

In any case, I hope to hear that it helped you break 100. Let us know!

[Lange]

Putting is a big factor on determining final score, i find if u start draining those key 4-6 footers when needed it takes down taht scorecard.

[gr8hntr]

i have been playin for 10 months and just broke 100 last week ... a 95 and
i was very happy
my long to mid irons are what gives me the most trouble as far as making good
contact all the time .. i'll hit one thin then the next oprah (fat)
so im workin on keepin my head still and down to try to make a more repeatable
and consistent swing

good luck

[trageserk]

I went and played yesterday and my friend's dad brought along his GPS, so I can give some decent averages for the clubs

Driver-~250-255
3 Wood- 230-240
5 Wood- 220-230
24 Deg Hybrid- 190-210
5-7 Irons I didn't Check (I forgot )
8-160-165
9-140-155
PW- 110-120
SW- I refuse to hit it (I talked about it on another thread)
These are accurate yardages, no B.S. (as some may claim from a higher handicapper). I am a varsity soccer, lacrosse and track athlete, I'm young (17) and in pretty good shape. If you saw my game you'd understand that my short game truly limits me from scoring.

I putted like garbage and my tee shots were pretty errant. I played a lot out of the rough for the 2nd shots. My alignment was off as well, my friend's father also noted that after my practice swing I only moved my left foot up to the ball, leaving the right in the old spot- which led to a lot of inaccurate shots that I had previously no idea as to why they went that way. On a better note, my irons were great, I had been working 1.5-2 hours a day to improve ball striking, and it definitely played off. Although not that of a lower handicapper, my iron shots returned to being the strong point of my game.

I'll continue to work on chipping (as I had been doing in addition to working on ball striking) and I'm going to look into getting maybe 2 wedges to bridge the gap from my PW to my 64 deg (discussed in one of my other threads: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13126 ). I have also begun to work on putting, I have one of those mats that are something like 8 feet long that I'm using. I haven't had a shot to get to a real practice green, but I plan on doing so sometime soon.

Once again, thanks everyone for the posts and I'll keep everyone updated with how I'm doing.

[Shindig]

I putted like garbage and my tee shots were pretty errant. I played a lot out of the rough for the 2nd shots. My alignment was off as well, my friend's father also noted that after my practice swing I only moved my left foot up to the ball, leaving the right in the old spot- which led to a lot of inaccurate shots that I had previously no idea as to why they went that way. On a better note, my irons were great, I had been working 1.5-2 hours a day to improve ball striking, and it definitely played off. Although not that of a lower handicapper, my iron shots returned to being the strong point of my game.

Something I found that helped me with alignment on tee shots was to use the alignment marker on the ball for the line I wanted to start it on.

Also, I take my practice swings behind the ball and then walk up to it. Some pros do this, other pros (such as Ames) take their swings right adjacent to the ball. I do this because I used to just put my left foot up to the ball, if I moved my feet at all. I do this with putting, too, because I used to lean over for that. It's a bit tough to do this on the range.

Once again, thanks everyone for the posts and I'll keep everyone updated with how I'm doing.

From your update, it sounds like you're making a good assessment towards your game and are working on the parts that were hurting you. That's really tough to do - and I applaud you for it. Too many of my friends only practice their strong points.