Michael B

I posted on this topic thread a couple weeks ago about my experiences, and long journey, to breaking 80 (with my lowest round at 73, thus far). However, I thought about what other information, other than my experience getting to sub-80 rounds and what was key to that, would be helpful to the prospective reader of this thread who may be trying to get closer to 80 or break 80 for the first time. I think it's helpful to hear that the ability to break 80 doesn't mean that you are now precluded from having bad rounds. Yes, a "bad" round for someone who cam break 80 is probably better than the majority of golfers' good rounds. But I think it's important to not get down on yourself after you break 80 and then find yourself with a score in the high 80s or even low 90s. I'm a 6 handicap (or even closer to a 5) with my scoring range over the past two years of 73 to 88. My scoring average is probably around 81 for all my rounds the last two years, but that's different than my handicap (which, in simple terms is the average of my better half of scores). If one looks top the PGA Tour, scores generally range from 63-77, with scoring averages around 70 or so (which is right in the middle of that range). I am stating all of this because I know I was often really upset after and during a bad round, thinking something like, were my sub-80 rounds flukes, and/or did I lose my entire game and will I get it back? Yes, when you break 80 for the first time, yes, that's a great accomplishment. But don't put tremendous pressure in yourself now that your did it. Enjoy the success, and just keep doing what you were doing top get you to your first sub-80 round (,i.e., practice, practice, practice).

1) How long did it take to break 70? If it took you 2 years, was that 2 years from the first time you picked up a golf club, or did you just play around for the first year and then take the second year seriously? I started playing at 12 years old at a public nine hole executive course. I played mostly with a friend whose father was a scratch golfer when he was in his 20s. I played a single year of JV golf when I was 17, when I was coming off knee surgery and couldn't quite yet make it back to playing varsity tennis. At that time, during my matches (we only played nine holes), I was shooting 43-49, playing by every rule. Over the next year or two, my handicap dropped to around a 14, where it stayed for all of college and seven years of graduate school, due to playing enough to maintain but not improve. I had shot in the low 80sa number of times during those years, even getting a few scores of 80, but didn't have the length to really get enough greens in regulation to break 80. It was after graduate school, when I got a job (30 years old) and was settled in a particular location that I knew i needed to totally change my swing to get more distance (as my average drives were consistently dead straight, but maxed out not much more than 200 yards). I realized that I had a reverse pivot and I took a few lessons a year over the next few years to get rid of that reverse pivot. That first season when taking lessons to totally redo my swing, at 30-31 years old, I was shooting in the 90s. The next year, age 31-32, I was in the high 80s. Finally, by the third year after deciding to fill rework my swing (age 32-33), I finally got back to the scores I was shooting before I made the swing change, low to mid 80s. Then, the next year, it happened (age 33-34), those years paid off and that's was the summer I started to regularly break 80, in the high 70s. So it took about 22 years. I am now (at age 39) about a 6 handicap and heading, it seems, to scratch (lowest around ever was a +1, 73). I am still not a long hitter (230-250 yard drives), but the REAL key to breaking 80 is a great short game. Unless you're hitting 15/18 greens in regulation, which is an insanely high percentage, as 12/18 greens on regulation is a pretty darn good round for an amateur, you need to get up and down a bunch. 2) What methods did you follow? Did you pick and choose from different instructors, books, DVDs, or even just watching tips on the golf channel? Did you follow a single set method/book/DVD/instructor and follow it like it was your bible? I take about three 30 minute lessons a year and will watch Golf Channel for random tips. 3) What does it take to score in the 70s consistently (in your opinion of course)? --Enough distance to get to all par fours with mid irons or shorter for approach shots. --great short game