Is breaking 80 in your first year a good sign?

[N255]

Ok so I've been playing around a year now and have broke 80 twice albiet once on a par 67 lol. But i shot a 79 on a par 70 6300 yrds links course and was wondering is this a good achievement? I certainly dont have great fundementals or a rory mcilroy swing And i still shoot in the high 90s occasionaly.

Is it just good ball striking if i feel i'm no natrual at the game or a good short game? ? and is it possible I could get to single digits in 5 years?

[GJBenn85]

I think everyone would be thrilled to break 80 in their first year.  Most cannot do it after golfing 20 years!

[RyderJ]

Breaking 80 your first year is fantastic...doesn't matter how difficult the courses you are playing are...unless they're par 3's...lol. Seriously though, posting a good score is about more than having the perfect swing. It's about knowing your limits, and managing them to the best of your ability. Having said that, I think you will find that as your handicap begins to lower it will become increasingly difficult to continue on in that path. So, once you're playing 10 off you will find it substantially more difficult to drop your HC to, say 6-7 off.

Originally Posted by N255

Ok so I've been playing around a year now and have broke 80 twice albiet once on a par 67 lol. But i shot a 79 on a par 70 6300 yrds links course and was wondering is this a good achievement? I certainly dont have great fundementals or a rory mcilroy swing And i still shoot in the high 90s occasionaly.

Is it just good ball striking if i feel i'm no natrual at the game or a good short game? ? and is it possible I could get to single digits in 5 years?

[N255]

Yeah people say that to me but I still struggle of the tee sometimes and have rounds of 92 95 etc when i play well its usualy down to the ball striking and being round the green in 2 saving some pars getting some bogies and throwing a few birdies in on the par 3's.

I can shoot mid 80s and feel I could be better but I understand alot of golfers would love to have those scores I just hope its a gd sign that I can get to single digits in a few years- i'm a late starter in golf,24 lol

[RyderJ]

It's NEVER too late to start playing golf, my friend....never...

[GJBenn85]

Originally Posted by N255

Yeah people say that to me but I still struggle of the tee sometimes and have rounds of 92 95 etc when i play well its usualy down to the ball striking and being round the green in 2 saving some pars getting some bogies and throwing a few birdies in on the par 3's.

I can shoot mid 80s and feel I could be better but I understand alot of golfers would love to have those scores I just hope its a gd sign that I can get to single digits in a few years- i'm a late starter in golf,24 lol

I'm 25 and started golfing in February of this year.  Before that, I never swung a club except for hitting the occasional bucket at at a range which was less than a dozen times over 13 years.  I broke 100 for the first time a few months ago and have been hitting in the low-mid 90s since.  Keep waiting to break 90, so you should be thrilled that you have broken 80 and can hit in the mid-80s after less than a year of golf.  I sure do wish that I had been able to take up golf at 12 when I first showed interest in the game.

I wouldn't count on becoming a single digit handicap, but it is certainly possible.  Learn to control the mental component of the game; I am convinced that is almost more important than perfecting your swing.  My game goes south with zero chance of redeeming the round once my mental state sours, which does not even have to be caused by golf itself.  Just getting a text or phone call that pisses me off ruins the round for me because I start taking my frustrations out on the ball and lose all tempo.

[BuckeyeNut]

Originally Posted by N255

Ok so I've been playing around a year now and have broke 80 twice albiet once on a par 67 lol. But i shot a 79 on a par 70 6300 yrds links course and was wondering is this a good achievement? I certainly dont have great fundementals or a rory mcilroy swing And i still shoot in the high 90s occasionaly.

Is it just good ball striking if i feel i'm no natrual at the game or a good short game? ? and is it possible I could get to single digits in 5 years?

I'd say you have a good beginning......................

I'd like to hear how the story ends!!

[N255]

Me too. As i said I don't think im in anyway a natural at the game and don't swing like a touring pro that's why i was shocked at having these surprising rounds and was just hoping it is a good sign of things to come.

Hopefully if I work alot on my game I can get better and shoot more rounds in the 70s.

Originally Posted by BuckeyeNut

I'd say you have a good beginning......................

I'd like to hear how the story ends!!

[mdl]

Like RyderJ said, great accomplishment.  It too me 3 years to break 80 (though the courses I play are all par 72 except for one, and I shot a bunch of 80s and 81s on those courses before breaking the barrier).  But either way, it's a good accomplishment.

Also like RyderJ said, you'll find getting from a 15 to a 10 HC is MUCH easier than going from 10 to 6.  Learning to play to your strengths on each hole definitely helps, and improving short game a lot also helps, but I've been working hard at both of those and the progress has definitely slowed.  If you're a solid player you can have a couple crap holes and miss a few greens on approaches with clubs you shouldn't really miss with and still hit in the 80-85 range as long as you can get a couple nice up and downs and hit a few putts, but I've found that for me at least to consistently break 80 I'll need to take another even bigger leap in consistency and yet another big leap in short game and putting.  Keep at it!

[mcfc_nick]

single digits within 5 years will be a walk in the park if youre shooting 70's already as long as you practice, the more you practice the easier this game gets

[sean_miller]

A player in the teens and twenties (index), can have a good month (or week even) on some higher rated courses (higher course rating and higher slope) and see a 5 point drop or more. Actually playing to that new index is the trick.

Originally Posted by mdl

Like RyderJ said, great accomplishment.  It too me 3 years to break 80 (though the courses I play are all par 72 except for one, and I shot a bunch of 80s and 81s on those courses before breaking the barrier).  But either way, it's a good accomplishment.

Also like RyderJ said, you'll find getting from a 15 to a 10 HC is MUCH easier than going from 10 to 6.  Learning to play to your strengths on each hole definitely helps, and improving short game a lot also helps, but I've been working hard at both of those and the progress has definitely slowed.  If you're a solid player you can have a couple crap holes and miss a few greens on approaches with clubs you shouldn't really miss with and still hit in the 80-85 range as long as you can get a couple nice up and downs and hit a few putts, but I've found that for me at least to consistently break 80 I'll need to take another even bigger leap in consistency and yet another big leap in short game and putting.  Keep at it!

[WWBDD]

Maybe you're just bad at math.

[Shorty]

I'm not actually sure what breaking 80 means anymore.

From what I understand, in the U.S., you have several tees which players can use,according to their ability and the course protocols. (I am guessing the OP is from Northern Ireland)

From what I'm understanding, if you play off a certain colour, most par 4s would be reachable with a drive and a shortish iron.

So....breaking 80 from the tees that make the course shorter would perhaops not be as much of an accomplishment as breaking 90 off different tees.

Here in Australia, we really don't have that setup.

We have "championship tees", which in many cases may only be 5 or 10 metres back from the normal ones, and "social" tees for social players which knock maybe 50 metres off each hole.

My course is not particularly long, but on many courses around here, many of the the par 4s are just not reachable for the average player, even from the normal tees. Consequently, breaking 90 can be an achievement. Go to the "social" tees and suddenly unreachable par 4s become a drive and an 8 iron.

So...breaking 80 when the par 4s are reachable and the fairways wide with few large trees between fairways is not the same as breaking 80 from what we would call a normal setup.

If a player here breaks 80 in competition on a proper course, that is a really good round. Especially after 2 or 3 years.  Perhaps almost unheard of.

OTOH, if an 18 marker here went and played a course off the easier tees, he'd probably expect to break 80 comfortably.

For the term "breaking 80" to have any meaning, you have to have knowledge of where it was done and from what tees. An apple breaking 80 might be an orange shooting 98.

[B-Con]

Good job, OP! [quote name="Shorty" url="/t/53368/is-breaking-80-in-your-first-year-a-good-sign#post_649558"]

I'm not actually sure what breaking 80 means anymore.

From what I understand, in the U.S., you have several tees which players can use,according to their ability and the course protocols. (I am guessing the OP is from Northern Ireland)

From what I'm understanding, if you play off a certain colour, most par 4s would be reachable with a drive and a shortish iron.

So....breaking 80 from the tees that make the course shorter would perhaops not be as much of an accomplishment as breaking 90 off different tees.

Here in Australia, we really don't have that setup.

We have "championship tees", which in many cases may only be 5 or 10 metres back from the normal ones, and "social" tees for social players which knock maybe 50 metres off each hole.

My course is not particularly long, but on many courses around here, many of the the par 4s are just not reachable for the average player, even from the normal tees. Consequently, breaking 90 can be an achievement. Go to the "social" tees and suddenly unreachable par 4s become a drive and an 8 iron.

So...breaking 80 when the par 4s are reachable and the fairways wide with few large trees between fairways is not the same as breaking 80 from what we would call a normal setup.

If a player here breaks 80 in competition on a proper course, that is a really good round. Especially after 2 or 3 years.  Perhaps almost unheard of.

OTOH, if an 18 marker here went and played a course off the easier tees, he'd probably expect to break 80 comfortably.

For the term "breaking 80" to have any meaning, you have to have knowledge of where it was done and from what tees. An apple breaking 80 might be an orange shooting 98.

[/quote] True, the tees you play from make a difference, and it's encapsulated in the CR/SR. If your social tees are really 50 meters shorter on each hole, that means that they're knocking several strokes off the CR (do you have CR in Australia?) and a lot off the SR. In fact, that's almost 1,000 yards shorter over the whole course. In the US, usually tees on a standard course don't go under 5,500 yards and about 65/110. If they do go under that, they're usually on an "executive course", which is a course that's designed to be shorter than average. These are a lot more rare, though, it's not like every course has a set. I've "broken 80" on an executive course and carded a differential of 16 -- I didn't count it as breaking 80. :-P

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by B-Con

True, the tees you play from make a difference, and it's encapsulated in the CR/SR. If your social tees are really 50 meters shorter on each hole, that means that they're knocking several strokes off the CR (do you have CR in Australia?) and a lot off the SR. In fact, that's almost 1,000 yards shorter over the whole course.

People who play off social tees do not have handicaps.

People who have handicaps never play off the social tees.

So.......if someone said "Oh yes, I had 78 at your course" and I learnt that he was playing off the yellow (social tees) I wouldn't rate it at all.

OTOH  - if he said he'd been playing for 2 years and had 85 off the normal tees, I'd be mightily impressed.

[sssam]

Breaking 80 in your first year of regular golf I would say is a very good achievement and a strong sign of good things to come if you stick at it. In the UK we have much the same system as in Oz (I am Australian though live here), there are whites which are used for competitions, yellows which are for non-competition play, and red for the ladies. However the differential between the whites and the yellows is rarely massive, 50 metres (or even yards) would be the biggest difference you'd see and that would only be on a hole or two fro most courses. Even if you are playing off the yellows I would say it's still a very good sign to break 80 in your first year of golf.

Quote:

Just getting a text or phone call that pisses me off ruins the round for me because I start taking my frustrations out on the ball and lose all tempo.

My home course doesn't allow mobile phones and I turn it off as a matter of course elsewhere. I play golf to try to get away from the stresses of everyday life, nothing worse than having a nice round interrupted by a ringing phone - whether it's yours or someone else's.

[inthehole]

I've been playing just about a year as well & haven't broken 90 yet.     I'd say you're breaking the curve ...

Originally Posted by N255

Ok so I've been playing around a year now and have broke 80 twice albiet once on a par 67 lol. But i shot a 79 on a par 70 6300 yrds links course and was wondering is this a good achievement? I certainly dont have great fundementals or a rory mcilroy swing And i still shoot in the high 90s occasionaly.

Is it just good ball striking if i feel i'm no natrual at the game or a good short game? ? and is it possible I could get to single digits in 5 years?

[QuazerSKITS]

Congrats! I've been playing for just over a year myself and i broke 80 3 weeks ago... Gross 79 on a par 71 course. I play in the UK so dont know about course slope system rating or whatever that is but the course plays 6,095yards. The feeling is great and it gives you the confidence of knowing that you have it in you to break 80. Now its just a case of playing consistently well.

Course management is paramount in getting low scores i think personally. I'd rather hit driver, 8i, W into the 510yard par 5 and hopefully putt for a birdie knowing that i'm less likley to mess up hitting low irons than trying to rip a 3w or Hybrid at the green in 2 which only happens 2/10 times... the other 8 times its a hook/slice/block/chilli dipper/thinned shot. lol. I think to many mid-high handicappers, like myself, make the mistake of going all out at every hole... which inevitably leads to mistakes which end in bogeys or worse!