Curious ... how long did it take you to first break 80 ??

[GHIN0011458]

Come to think of it, breaking 80 on a par 72 7100 yard course is a lot different than breaking 80 on a par 70 6000 yard one. I presume you all mean breaking 80 for the former case?

Yeah, that's incredibly hard and would put you at something like a 4 handicap.

Also, there are par 70's out there that give you an extra two strokes :)

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/78435/curious-how-long-did-it-take-you-to-first-break-80#post_1081277"] Come to think of it, breaking 80 on a par 72 7100 yard course is a lot different than breaking 80 on a par 70 6000 yard one. I presume you all mean breaking 80 for the former case? Yeah, that's incredibly hard and would put you at something like a 4 handicap.[/QUOTE] Also, there are par 70's out there that give you an extra two strokes :)

The one I broke 80 on was rated 68.9/122. So, at least 1 stroke anyway.

[David in FL]

Come to think of it, breaking 80 on a par 72 7100 yard course is a lot different than breaking 80 on a par 70 6000 yard one. I presume you all mean breaking 80 for the former case?

Yeah, that's incredibly hard and would put you at something like a 4 handicap.

So, what's the course rating? @inthehole

Par 72.  Certainly not 7100 yards though!

[rkim291968]

I am not a lower hcp guy but I broke 80 (79) in my third year of playing golf at age 51.   I was occasionally scoring in low 80s so I know it was coming.    At the time, I was playing the best golf of my life (got down to 12 HCP in that month).   I couldn't break 80 since then.

[GHIN0011458]

I remember mine, it was cool for sure. Almost felt like Dan with 10,000 hours left thinking I was going to make the PGA Tour. I still have my ball from the first time I did too. I kept it not because of breaking 80, but because it was the first round I ever played with the same ball throughout. Now in rec rounds I'll use the same ProV for 2 rounds usually. Always good to look back where you started :). It was  Srixon Z URS for the record.

[onkey]

For me, it happened 30 years after I started playing golf, but only 4 years after becoming a golfer.  For the first 26 years, I never played more than a dozen rounds per year, for the next 4 averaged more like 50 rounds each year.  I took a few lessons at the start of the year that cured me of flipping and it took about 15 rounds to break 80 from that point.  It took 6 more rounds to do it again.

[Mulldog]

I can remember most of my golf milestones..

Breaking 100 after 7 rounds. 90 after 50 rounds and breaking 80 at age 16 after around 100 rounds ~2 years from first picking up a club.

Got into single figures after 3 years.

At the start of this year I was breaking 80 one in every 3-4 rounds, so I ramped up my practicing, concentrated on my weak points, upgraded my equipment to suit my game.

I have shot under 80 11/15 rounds including my last 6!

Broke par for the first time ever 4 months ago!

[ditchparrot19]

I'm pretty sure it took me 4 or 5 years (and several hundred rounds) of committed playing. Before that I just dicked around with golf – I actually started playing when I took a class in college, but played college baseball and then in numerous semi-pro leagues until I was 26 and my arm nearly fell off. After that I got into golf pretty heavily.

I choked several times with good chances to break 80 before I finally did it with a 76. A few years later I took a full dozen years off, then came back to the game in the summer of 2012 and broke 80 again last summer – again with a 76.

I don't have a 79, 78 or 77 on my ledger this year, but I've got a pair of 76s.

[flopster]

I started playing around 10 or 11. Only played 9-holes until I was at least 16 though. I remember shooting 39 for 9-holes when I was 15, but never broke 80 until I was almost 30. It was a HUGE and difficult threshold for me. It still is. Only 6 of my last 20 rounds were in the 70's. Breaking 80 is something that a lot of even avid, decent amateurs never do achieve.

Similar instance here, I think I was 27 when I finally broke 80, the story was I finally started putting some real effort in trying to improve my swing so I spent a good month and a half working on it almost every day, when I finally went out the course was a par 70 but I played 36 that day and didn't just break 80 I smashed it with back to back rounds of 72 and 74, needless to say I was on top of the world after that day.

This is the course, http://www.tildenparkgc.com/

[dfreuter415]

For the lower hcp guys ... would like to know approx. how many years of playing or roughly how many rounds you had under your belt when you first broke 80.

I started playing the big courses around the age of 10 or 11. I really didn't play regularly until I had a summer job at age 14, and then only once or twice a month in the summer. But, when I started driving at age 16, I would play weekly, but only in the summer. I finally broke 80 at age 20 with my college buddy, Daryl, at a municipal course in Murraysville, PA.

As for the number of rounds, I would guess somewhere around 125-150.

[inthehole]

I'm jealous of all you guys who started playing golf early in life.    I guess I'm glad I at least started while I'm middle aged & not too old (kind of wonder sometimes how good I could have been with a good back and knees).      Could always be worse - a lot of guys wait until they retire to try it, imagine there would be some serious regret there...

[Lihu]

I'm jealous of all you guys who started playing golf early in life.    I guess I'm glad I at least started while I'm middle aged & not too old (kind of wonder sometimes how good I could have been with a good back and knees).      Could always be worse - a lot of guys wait until they retire to try it, imagine there would be some serious regret there...

I've met quite a few people who started at retirement, and they are the happiest bogey golfers I've ever met. One of them got under 10 for a short time, and enjoyed his time there. He still enjoys playing even though he plays bogey now at 75. I'm pretty much where I want to be now, but just want to improve my ball striking because it feels really good hitting a 3i blade almost 200 yards. If I ever get below 10 HC I'd be happy. If not, still happy. Things like making a shot out of a cement barranca for a par save, hitting a 464 yard par 4 in two shots or hitting a wedge 50 yards over a tree landing a few feet from the pin are what makes me happy. I don't feel a need to do it every single hole to shoot 65. That's really for the young guys with lots of talent. We started about the same time, and I can see potential for us to do better. However, you should be satisfied with what you've accomplished. Rest on your laurels a bit, you did it completely on your own. I had to have lots of help, and probably more to get better if I get better.

[rkim291968]

I'm jealous of all you guys who started playing golf early in life.    I guess I'm glad I at least started while I'm middle aged & not too old (kind of wonder sometimes how good I could have been with a good back and knees).      Could always be worse - a lot of guys wait until they retire to try it, imagine there would be some serious regret there...

I am not. In younger days, I played other sports that were more fun than golf, less costly, and better for my health (mental & physical).  Sacrilege, I know.

Back to OP ... I think breaking 80 can be done relatively easily.  Breaking 70 is going to take a miracle for most who started golf late.

[Fourputt]

For the lower hcp guys ... would like to know approx. how many years of playing or roughly how many rounds you had under your belt when you first broke 80.

I'm finishing up my 4th full season (I'd guess around 450 rounds so far ... most of these are 9 hole rounds after work) ... I've broke 40 on one side or the other a bunch of times, but my lowest score is 82 ... just can't hold it together for an entire round to break through the 80 glass barrier.     Thx

Cant say exactly.  I started playing semi seriously in about 1974 when I was age 27.  Took a break from golf starting about '77 or '78 where I was only playing two or three times a year.  Didn't start playing a lot again until about '83 or '84.  I first broke 80 in the Club Championship in 1989, shooting 73, the score that is still my personal best - I was age 42, so I guess that means 15 years.  I will say that I never really worked at trying to do it, never practiced anything but short game, so it was a huge surprise when it happened.

P.S.  Rating from the tees I played was par 72, 6423 yards, 69.4/120

[ditchparrot19]

I am not. In younger days, I played other sports that were more fun than golf, less costly, and better for my health (mental & physical).  Sacrilege, I know.

I agree wholeheartedly – golf was a good thing to take up after I was done with the team sports. Wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

[BuckeyeNut]

I didn't start playing until I was out of college and married.   Co-workers twisted my arm and dragged me to the course for the first time early in 1992.........I was hooked!  I estimate that I played 50-75 rounds in 1992.   I mostly scored over 100, but I turned the corner fast mid-late summer.....my first sub-100 round was a 93!!

Starting January1, 1993.....I've kept a record of every round I have played since.  I was consistent in the 90s and starting to trend to averaging in the mid-higher 80s by late summer.  I carded my first 39 (par36) for nine holes Sept 19th......I shot 39-43=82 which was a career best.  The course was called Racoon International outside of Columbus and played to 6200yds'ish from the whites......68.5cr 120slope.   I was improving by the end of the year and flirted a few times with breaking 80.   My low round was 80 at Turnberry Golf Course outside of Columbus....par72....69.3CR 120slope    This was a mild late season and I played right up through December.  I played 99.5 rounds in 1993.....

1994...I was able to start playing in FEB and never lost a step. March 13, I was playing with my dad when I broke 80 for the first time.  (par72 69.3cr 120slope) at Turnberry Golf Club outside of Columbus....I crushed through the barrier with style carding a 77!!   I became accustomed to scoring in the 80s.

I broke 80 18 times in 1994 and my career low round by the end of the year was a 75 at Hickory Grove in Harpster Ohio.(Par72 6418yds 69.8cr 116slope) I played 118 rounds in 1994.

Through the late 1990s, I returned the favor many times by getting new players hooked on the game!!

[dfreuter415]

I am not [jealous of all you guys who started playing golf early in life]. In younger days, I played other sports that were more fun than golf, less costly, and better for my health (mental & physical).  Sacrilege, I know.

The one advantage of starting golf early in life is that fundamentals become more natural and seem to stay with you, witness my daughter. She began lessons at age 11 and lettered 4 years in high school. She is now 29 and has lived in New York City for a number of years. She can still come home and break 90 from the men's tees, while only playing 3 or 4 times a year.  BTW, I, too, played a few "other sports that were more fun than golf" when I was young, so I guess I had the best of both worlds. Also, I would argue that these other sports (basketball, fast pitch softball, etc.) weren't necessarily more fun, they just produced more adrenaline.

I didn't start playing until I was out of college and married.   Co-workers twisted my arm and dragged me to the course for the first time early in 1992.........I was hooked!   Starting January1, 1993.....I've kept a record of every round I have played since.

That's great that you have a log of your scores since 1993. Has to be quite interesting.

Here's one question, how did you get an index of 3.1? Did you take lessons, or was it just hard work and natural talent?

[boogielicious]

In my 4th season if I recall.