Six Weeks to Breaking 80?

[The Recreational Golfer]

Not to be impolite or anything, but the author of that article has to be nuts if he thinks you can learn to hit a fade or a draw reliably on command with an hour's practice. Or even three. Same goes for dialing in your wedge distances. The other stuff, too. Sure, you might have it down at the end of the session, but it's far from being a permanent, reliable skill.

Plan on about ten hours work on a new skill before it begins, emphasis on the word begins, to be something that works on the course, and keep practicing from there.

Then there's course/game management. Shooting a low score isn't only about hitting good shots. It's knowing when to use which shot. The game plan is a good start, but who is good enough to have every shot go where they planned? The key to scoring as low as your skills allow is knowing how to pick the right shot, in other words, this one and not that one, from where you are.

What is the staring point is for all this work, because it's really fine tuning. If you can shoot an 85 comfortably, maybe you can break 80 in six weeks. If you can't break 90, there are some other things you have to get under control first.

You can break 80 without doing all that work, though. Just get lucky. The first time I did it, I was a high-80 shooter (career best 84) who had a day where everything worked. I hit 13 fairways, missed the 14th by three feet, hit 12 greens, chipped to tap-in range, and never had a second putt over 2.5 feet. I played waaay over my head for a day, but it counted.

[Gerald]

It is allways a sound idea to work with a plan, but .....

Originally Posted by dsc123

I would assume that most people on here read Golf Mag and Golfdigest.  Has anyone seen Brady Riggs' six week plan to breaking 80 in Golf Magazine?  Basically, it involves four elements:

1. Dial in your wedge distances

2. Develop a go to drive

3. Pitch and Chip

4. Putting

Then its got a six week plan, with three hours of drills each week.  So for example in week two, you're supposed to spend an hour at the range working on either a fade or a draw, and commit to that as your go to shot.  Then spend an hour doing a cross the line drill with that drive, then an hour practicing your wedge distances, trying to get them to drop within 10 yards from the target.  The following week you develop a new skill and practice the old ones.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot starting next week.  If nothing else its a decent practice strategy to work on all aspects of my game.  I'll have to tweak it some; i.e., I already know my wedge distances so there's no reason to spend an hour figuring that out.

Anyone else planning on giving this a shot?

It is my personal goal to play below 77 at any course, not only at my home course.

Like I said above it is good to work with a plan, and it is best to spend time at all parts of the game, so having a plan to work on wedges, putting, driving is all a sound idea, but the biggest difference between playing around 90 or to break 80 is ball striking, for the time being forget intended draws and fades, just stay with your natural swing !!!!

As soon as you start hitting greens from 175 yds in and have a very good chipping/putting level it is sure you are ready to break 80.....

So if you are a bogey golfer (hc. around 18) you can better focus on accuracy with the irons, chipping like hell from 30 yds in, max. 36 putts per round.

Don't pratice the driver a lot, just 28 balls per session, divided in two sessions of 14 balls, with something else in between. Practice mid irons to targets.

Avoid 3 putts from 10 yds in ........... which actually means that it is better to putt within a 3 ft. circle around the hole, then to try to hole out a 30 ft. putt.

But from 90's to breaking 80 is BALLSTRIKING !

[dsc123]

I don't disagree.  I think I can get to the low 80s with better pitching and putting.  I put in a lot of work this off season on my putting, particularly on tempo, and had 31 and 32 putts my last times out, which was a good improvement from the 34-36 i used to get.  I feel like its becoming a strength of mine.

but that being said, i've got to get more consistent off the tee also.  If i can keep it on the fairway (some days i can hit 75% FIR, others 5%) i've got a good shot at making GIRs and pars.  But if my second shots are 8 irons over the trees or low pitches under the trees to get my ball back on the right fairway i'm not going to get very far.  I'm not too concerned with shaping it, just keeping it in play.

Judging from my game, I think i've got to focus on keeping the tee shot in play, and really learning to pitch correctly, then consistently.  My pitching really blows.

[Gerald]

If you do 31-32 putts and manage to reach 50% of fairways........ your mid irons must be terrible, work on your mid irons and on chosing the right clubs, some strategy will (don't let EGO block to hit a 3W, 5W, HY or Iron from the tee) bring you in the fairway more ....... you don't have to make par's at the difficult or long holes......... but you have to avoid doubles and tripples if you want to get below 80 !!!!

And the BEST tip for trying to break 80 ....... might well be trying to break 75 .........

[Harmonious]

My golfing friend is about a 6 handicap.  We always play our course from the blues (6950 yards, 73.8 rating) so there is a requirement for length as well as accuracy.  He complains that he just can't break into the 80's.  I told him he could if he would let me caddy for him.  Here's what I would do for him, and what would probably help a number of others in his situation:

1)  I would always give him one more club than he thinks he needs.  He consistently comes up short with his approaches, and at our course, you better have a good short game as there are sand traps and grass bunkers galore.  Easy to bogey if you don't hit the green.

2)  I would tell him to never try to carry fairway bunkers that are at the  limit of his driver carry distance.  Play away from trouble.

3)  On the green, I would tell him to allow for more break than he thinks.

4)  On his short shots around the green, I would tell him to get the ball rolling on the green asap, don't try the low percentage flop shots.

5)  On par 3's, use a tee.

Just those few things would drop 3-4 strokes from his round, without having to hit any shot any better than he does now.  Just better course management, and better awareness around the greens.

[Gerald]

Great advise for all of us !!!

Originally Posted by Harmonious

My golfing friend is about a 6 handicap.  We always play our course from the blues (6950 yards, 73.8 rating) so there is a requirement for length as well as accuracy.  He complains that he just can't break into the 80's.  I told him he could if he would let me caddy for him.  Here's what I would do for him, and what would probably help a number of others in his situation:

1)  I would always give him one more club than he thinks he needs.  He consistently comes up short with his approaches, and at our course, you better have a good short game as there are sand traps and grass bunkers galore.  Easy to bogey if you don't hit the green.

2)  I would tell him to never try to carry fairway bunkers that are at the  limit of his driver carry distance.  Play away from trouble.

3)  On the green, I would tell him to allow for more break than he thinks.

4)  On his short shots around the green, I would tell him to get the ball rolling on the green asap, don't try the low percentage flop shots.

5)  On par 3's, use a tee.

Just those few things would drop 3-4 strokes from his round, without having to hit any shot any better than he does now.  Just better course management, and better awareness around the greens.

1) Trouble is about allways in front of the green, so in the 10% of the approaches that the average golfer hits a great shot (too long) they will still be able to make a par.

2) at hc 6.0 you must have the abillity to drive on safe side of the fairway......... and most fairway bunkers are on the slice side.

3) Yeppp

4) Even so use a putter whenever possible, as your worst putt is allways better than your worst pitch or chip.

5) A ball on a tee is like hitting from a perfect lie ....... never do yourself short !

I would like to add :

6) play a ball that optimizes your game, and start the round with a new ball

7) play a (baby) fade into the green

8) if the area in front of the green allows for a ball rolling up onto the green, do so !

9) be organized : clubs allways at the same position in your bag, markers, tees, balls, towel, spare gloves, spare spikes, etc. must have their locations

10) allways have some food and water in your bag, so you can really stay focussed on the game till the 19th hole.

[dsc123]

So every time I decided to do this, I get stuck on the same thing--where the hell can I go to practice 80-160 yard shots and measure how far i'm hitting it with any accuracy?  I use a GPS range finder on my phone, and I'm not going to buy a laser to supplement it.

Right now i'm thinking of getting a chipping basket (i need a target), a mat to hit off of (so i'm not hitting off long, unkept grass), and a measuring wheel.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item;=260807118075&fromMakeTrack;=true&ssPageName;=VIP:watchlink:top:en#ht_2837wt_989

Any better ideas?

[Damian]

Quote:

where the hell can I go to practice 80-160 yard shots and measure how far i'm hitting it with any accuracy?

Any better ideas?

This was one thing that stood out to me as well as I browsed the worksheet.  When I'm at a driving range its hard to get a good read on how far a shot went.  Especially my range that has no green grass and irons just roll and roll.  So I focus on ballstriking and alignment instead.  For distance I go to a golf course on a late afternoon..say 5 or 6 pm.  I can usually get out as a single so I have a good 2 hours of daylight to putz around with no other golfers to contend with. I pick yardages and drop a couple balls down.  Yesterday i worked the 100 yard markers with my gap wedge.  Thats how i find my distance numbers.

I definitely believe any player can score a round in the 70s if they put the effort into their game.  Im going to use the worksheet and see how it goes.  i love the structure of it. Ben Hogan said it best that anyone is capable of building a repeatable sound golf swing and breaking 80 with it.

[Hollister]

Had a quick think about Bradys sheets then. Well, I continued with ball striking first (full swing - hit fairways, then hit greens from a defined and workable distance). I think that the short game is important, but reaching those greens is currently a bigger priority for me. So far, it paid off. Staying out of trouble and putting the ball on the green from 100 yards makes life much friendlier.

I will turn to the short game when I have more time. The up-comming vacation just suits my plans.

Anyone else had success with Bradys master plan?