How to Break 100?

[FooFader]

I'm also I believer of 70:30 ratio in favor of the short game particularly chipping and putting

I been able to break 90 and 80 consistently with a strong putting and chipping and this putts less pressure on my long game

I think it's foolish to believe there's a certain ratio that fits for everyone. Everyone has certain strengths and weakness in their game. For me it's chipping and putting that I need to practice more often to get my scores lower

Playing devils advocate here; you could also infer from this that you are reliant on your short game to make you for your poor ball striking. Meaning short game is your strength so you should practice your long game so that you can take better advantage of your short game. If you can get up and down from 30yards in lets say, wouldn't you rather be near the GIR and scrambling for pars rather than scrambling for bogeys because you sliced your tee shot into the hedge or chunked an approach leaving you with 150y ards in still?

[AmazingWhacker]

I don't think anybody disagrees that the short game is what you need to lower your score. If the question where how to break 90 or 80 then I would agree that the short game is what will do it. Most golfers who shoot over 100, though, need accurate distance even more than chipping and putting. When I used to shoot over 100, I had a tendency to always be hitting on the green for par or bogey. Doesn't matter how good a chipper I was, I was not going to break 100 until I started hitting greens in 2 or 3 shots instead of 4 or 5. Hitting my driver better took 14-15 shots off my score. At the same time my irons were getting better, too. I guess it's possible to hit driver great but irons bad but, IMO, not of you're swinging correctly (ie not using a super strong grip or other "trick" just to hit the driver). Not that I always hit irons and driver great on the same day but you almost can't work on 1 without helping the other...unless, as I said, you are doing something tricky/non conventional with your driver.

[Braivo]

I have always had a fairly strong short game.  I use a very basic pitch shot most of the time that I was taught by a club pro when I was about 11.  It works consistently well, nothing fancy, it gets the job done.  I took a few years off the game and the short game came right back to me, but the full swing was a mess.  I was not breaking 100.  I have been slowly fixing the long game and my score is consistently dropping through the 90s.  Not practicing short game at all.

My advice, simplify your short game, lock it in, then move on to practicing more of the full swings, that is where strokes can be saved in bulk.

[iacas]

I'm also I believer of 70:30 ratio in favor of the short game particularly chipping and putting

I been able to break 90 and 80 consistently with a strong putting and chipping and this putts less pressure on my long game

I think it's foolish to believe there's a certain ratio that fits for everyone. Everyone has certain strengths and weakness in their game. For me it's chipping and putting that I need to practice more often to get my scores lower

I don't think anybody disagrees that the short game is what you need to lower your score. If the question where how to break 90 or 80 then I would agree that the short game is what will do it.

Most golfers who shoot over 100, though, need accurate distance even more than chipping and putting. When I used to shoot over 100, I had a tendency to always be hitting on the green for par or bogey. Doesn't matter how good a chipper I was, I was not going to break 100 until I started hitting greens in 2 or 3 shots instead of 4 or 5.

Hitting my driver better took 14-15 shots off my score. At the same time my irons were getting better, too.

I guess it's possible to hit driver great but irons bad but, IMO, not of you're swinging correctly (ie not using a super strong grip or other "trick" just to hit the driver). Not that I always hit irons and driver great on the same day but you almost can't work on 1 without helping the other...unless, as I said, you are doing something tricky/non conventional with your driver.

Let's put it this way…

If you're currently shooting 93-95, or 103-105, and you'd like to quickly break 90 or 100 in those situations, then I agree that you could and perhaps should work on the short game.

But it's almost always wrong to think that to continue to move forward and to improve with any balance at all, or even close to it, you should practice the short game even the same amount as the full swing, let alone over twice as much.

There's very little Separation Value® to be had in the short game, and the skills themselves are relatively easy.

GIR is King, nGIR™ is Queen.

Some links:

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[DougJ]

I hope everyone had a great holiday.    I just want to give you an update on my progress.

My last 10 scores  from  Dec to Aug.      96 ,99,102,99,95,94,99,100,100,101   My handicap has gone from 26.7  to 24.2.

Now with the weather warming a little here in Virginia,   I am hoping to start playing more.   By the way,    I am still doing the 70%, 30% practice rule as I stated earlier.

Doug