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How long did it take you to break 100?

David7

David7

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I’m getting close, last year I ended with rounds between 106-108 when I was doing my best. Typically play nine holes once a week and score around 53-54. New York player so long off seasons.

This will be my third season and I started thinking, am I taking longer than normal? I know I’m a fast player so that’s not an issue at least.

I saw some comments on Facebook (I know) disparaging 25 handicaps and people saying condescendingly that they should take lessons, others that they should pick up a different sport.

I wish I was a 25 handicap to be honest.
 
I am a beginner. Lesson next month. Man, I would be okay with scoring 110-120 for a long time. I could only dream of the low 100's. You will get there.
 
David7 said:
I’m getting close, last year I ended with rounds between 106-108 when I was doing my best. Typically play nine holes once a week and score around 53-54. New York player so long off seasons.

This will be my third season and I started thinking, am I taking longer than normal? I know I’m a fast player so that’s not an issue at least.

I saw some comments on Facebook (I know) disparaging 25 handicaps and people saying condescendingly that they should take lessons, others that they should pick up a different sport.

I wish I was a 25 handicap to be honest.
Click to expand...
Keyboard warriors suck, ignore them. It's easy to be a hero online, where you don't have to back your s**t up.

It took me several years to break 100, but don't compare yourself to anybody else. We all have different levels of talent/athletic ability, and will also progress at different paces according to other variables (how much we practice/play, etc.). If I play 18 holes a week and don't spend any time practicing, I'm lucky to hold on to what I have; any less than that and rust starts setting in. I know other guys who play once or twice a year and can blow the dust off their clubs and shoot in the 80s/90s.
 
I started breaking 100 when I was in high school but I had played baseball since I was 4 and a lot of tennis for years so I was pretty athletic. Just took playing often enough and learning how to not lose a ton of balls and all the incurring penalties. I started breaking 90 when I learned how to have a short game.
 
Golf is hard, but you must be hitting that shot or making that putt every round that makes it worth coming back.

You'll get there
 
I broke 100 really quickly. I was a pretty decent baseball player so hitting a ball with a stick was natural. At least it would have been if golf wasn’t so backwards. But I couldn’t do it in front of others for another 3-6 months because my mind would immediately jump to how ugly my swing is and thoughts about how everyone would be judging me.

I still play worse in front of other people but it’s just not as bad. I’ll overcome that when I overcome that. Same as breaking 100. It’ll happen when it happens. For me, constantly focusing on the end goal hurt my chances more often than not. Only took me 8 years to realize that I needed to be present in each shot and not mapping what I needed to shoot on the remaining holes.
 
Honestly it's a tough question. I've seen some golfers with truly horrible swings and misses regularly break 90. I've seen golfers that can stripe a ball regularly struggle to shoot under 110. I think it's always going to come down course management and the ability to consistently hit the ball ok as well as limiting 3putts. If you can two putt every hole then you have another 63 strokes with the other clubs.

For what it's worth I picked the game up again after a long hiatus and broke 100 after 6 months playing at least weekly and practicing multiple times a week. I'm still hovering between high 90's and low 100's as my pattern. If I didn't practice that much id be struggling to break 90 purely because of consistency.
 
It took me two or three years. I’ve been at it 13 years and I still shoot rounds over 100.

Some folks excel at this game, some of us do not. Some players like to credit/blame everything but natural ability on their success or the struggles of high handicappers.

Please keep something in mind, @David7… this forum is anything but average, both in sample size of skilled players and in the way they accept high cappers like you and me. Sure, you’ll have a couple judgemental a-holes who’ll blame slow play on new players or look down their noses at high cappers like us, but the overwhelming number of members here - regardless of their skill level - would play a round of golf with you in a heartbeat.

Keep working at it. Get as good as you can with whatever you have to work with and continue to be a decent person on the golf course. Maybe put your name in for a THP event. (If you haven’t already, playing golf with a good player is an excellent learning opportunity.)

Good luck!
 
David7 said:
I’m getting close, last year I ended with rounds between 106-108 when I was doing my best. Typically play nine holes once a week and score around 53-54. New York player so long off seasons.

This will be my third season and I started thinking, am I taking longer than normal? I know I’m a fast player so that’s not an issue at least.

I saw some comments on Facebook (I know) disparaging 25 handicaps and people saying condescendingly that they should take lessons, others that they should pick up a different sport.

I wish I was a 25 handicap to be honest.
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I know people that have been playing at least a round a week for over 20 years that still cant break 100. They still love the game and keep at it. Some don't even try to "improve" any more, they just take it as it is and enjoy themselves. Those are usually some of the most chill, well adjusted, pleasant to be around folks compared to some of the ego driven hyper competitors I have played with.
 
There’s really no set table for when you should break a threshold. Some people are stupid good and smash it quick, some never do. There are things you can do to speed up the process with regards to practice, course management etc, but time, money, physical ability, they all can get in the way.

Focus more on enjoying yourself and sometimes just thinking what’s the best way to make a score on the particular hole, given what skill I brought to the course today. You’ll figure out how to scrap it around with enough practice, and the scores will melt off.
 
I started playing when I was 14, and I think I had probably got my first sub-100, a 98, after about 2 - 2.5 years - maybe 25-30 rounds (we're talking in the 1980s and there was no apps or cloud to record data I probably threw those cards away 20 years ago). FWIW my first round was a 168.

That was playing off UK yellow tees (mens tees) even though I was a junior, the alternative was ladies tees - and well I was a 14 year old boy.

Losing balls, and then 3 or 4 putts was the key driver in my higher numbers - as I reduced those - the scores dropped.

Good luck with it - it'll come if you play enough and manage the course.
 
I have been playing for many years. I started when I was 9. I broke 100 within a few years of playing. One of the keys is to play more. As you play more the scores should come down.
 
I started playing with I was about 7. I'm not sure I broke 100 until I was in at least middle school, perhaps high school (yes, I was that bad). I also shot plenty of rounds that were 100+ in my adult life.

Don't stress about it. Just keep putting the proper work in and it will come.
 
My first time was my third year playing. I started breaking it regularly a year or two later. Now i almost never shoot a 100
 
Several months until crossing that threshold.

David7 said:
I’m getting close, last year I ended with rounds between 106-108 when I was doing my best. Typically play nine holes once a week and score around 53-54.
Click to expand...

With that few holes per week it might be better finding a nice par three course and hammer it hard, and often. It won't be a waste of time.
 
If I’m being totally honest, I broke 100 right away. Not by much, but I started out in the 90s. I’ve always been pretty decent at sports right away. Not the best by any means, but I pick stuff up pretty quickly. I’ve shot over 100 like three times total I think.

But regarding the people that talk bad about higher caps or tell them to do something else. f**k em. This game is hard as hell.
 
I can't remember shooting a hundred or worse but I started playing at 10 so I know I have.
 
Two and a half years before I got my first sub-100, and even now gong on year five I don’t always break it. I always try for bogey golf but sometimes I just can’t make it happen often enough.
 
I was also young when I started playing. I got a partial set at age 10 and was shooting in the 40’s for 9 by age 12
 
Yeah the internet sucks in many ways. It's what makes places like this very unique.

It's interesting because a 25 handicap in golf isn't really that bad. I play a lot of sports, or have played a lot of sports.....And in many other sports people far less acoomplished than the equivalent to that play regularly. You should check out men's basketball nights or softball leagues.

I broke 100 fairly quick but i took it up after college and had been a pretty high level athlete

Keep at it!
 
Once I found a course that had erasers on pencils I broke 100 all the time. 🤣

Once I took the game seriously it took me about a year to breakb100. I lived in New England then and had the same long off-season. Once I moved to AZ it took more years to break 90 and less time to break 80. It is taking me awhile to break par bit I will get there at least once. Eraser or not. 😁
 
People do that?
 
It depends on the person

Took me a solid 3 years to break 100 on a regular basis

One of my buddies still hasn't broken 110 once even though he's been playing for 3 years

But last November I met a random (he was young, in his 30s) who got assigned to my group who said he began playing during the summer and stepped onto the course for the first time in August... and he looked like he was shooting in high 90s/low 100s which we were all impressed by
 
I shot 130 the day I decided I wanted to get better at golf. I broke 100 after 6-8 months. I'd think I was past shooting over 100 and then pick up a new bad habit and regress. I was a 20 handicap after my first year, but only a 23 after my 2nd year.

Golf is hard and mental, usually the harder I try and more I care about the results, the worse I play. Relax, learn, and have fun.
 
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