Finally broke 90, but more importantly....

Hey guys and gals,

I wanted to share a recent experience with what I feel like is a serious breakthrough in my golf game. Maybe somebody who has gone from a 90's shooting down into the 70's can chime in, as I guess this is both a comment and a question.

Figured I would share my story on how my game "clicked," and got me under 90, finally......

I've been swinging a golf club since I can remember, had a very natural swing from a young age, was consistently shooting 95-105 on a variety of courses. Even during the summers that I would play 20-30 times, I couldn't lower my scores. This seriously went on for almost 7 years. I thought I struggled with the shanks, swing was off, yeah yeah....Took about 5 years off after highschool, only playing a couple times a year.

This season, I wanted to take the time to pick up golf again, and try to get past the 90 that was always so close, yet so far. In 3 months, I've taken my previous low-round average of 95, and knocked it down to 90. My high score this summer is a 95. Low - 84.

For me, part of fun golf is playing nicer courses, which around here tend to be in the range of 125-137 slopes, par 71-72. I even shot a legitimate 86 at a very difficult course around here which I had never played before...with two blow up 8's. Again - this is my first summer breaking 90.

So, what changed?, I actually took the time to step back and analyze my strengths and weaknesses. On my scorecard, I was very careful to count every single stroke (no, no gimmies, no drops uncounted, no friendly strokes). You will never get better if you lie to yourself like that, and as I did for years. See, in reality, I WASN"T shooting 95-105 previously, because guaranteed there were at least a few unnaccountable strokes left out every round.

Here comes the important part. Break down your strokes directly after the hole, and log your score. Then break it down into -

1. #Strokes to 100 yards or less
2. #Strokes 100 yards and in
3. #Putts
4. #Penalties

By simply doing that, it opened me up to a whole new way of thinking about my golf game. After my first two scorecards of the summer yielded an accurate 92, and 90 (on Away courses), I went through and broke my scores down accordingly, as I showed above. It revealed something kind of interesting. In both of those rounds, I hit 12 of 18 fairways with my driver. My putting was decent, yielding only two or three triple puts. Almost all of my extra strokes were coming from my unforced errors in the fairway, putting me OB or in really risky situations. This got my very inspired to go lower, and it felt realistic.

This is where my game (and practice) really changed. Understanding my miss, and instead of fighting it, working on it, and WITH IT. If I go hit 10 balls at the range before hitting the course, and they feel good but all of them are going a bit left - I'm NOT going to touch that on the course. I'm going to set myself up in a safe spot, so if I hit my typical straight iron shot - its safe. If it goes a bit left, I hit target (or vice versa). This has also helped me understand WHY I miss the ball, based on face angle and swingpath, and lie.


At this point, it's become natural for me to reflect on my rounds and really look at the numbers closely - the last round I played I shot an 86, with 10 strokes of unforced errors, and 9 of 18 fairways hit. I'll need to keep working on chipping due to duff chips, but for the time being I can see lower numbers coming.

Great stuff. Lot of good insight. I think their is a some value in the idea that if you lie to yourself about your score, you will never improve. Sure it might make your score card look good but in the end you are really only hurting yourself.

Well done buddy!

That's a cool journey. Congrats on taking the accountability to yourself and working on getting better

Good stuff! I'm convinced when you are consistently in the low 90s but can put up 9 holes in the low 40s if you "get hot," that means the swing is good enough. It's time to work on the mental game, remove unforced errors, focus on the short game and not try to be a hero. That's what gets the next 10 strokes out.

Thanks for the replies! Ryebread - I feel like something has mentally and physically clicked, and I agree ! I can see lower numbers appearing with a little clean up work. I also have a habit of taking risks with the 60 degree which, when replaced with the trusty pitching wedge, is helping me out. I played 9 holes on our local 6,000 yard, part 71 muni the other day and shot 46 39, so first time breaking 40 through 9. That felt really good, and showed me that there is hope!

ryebread said:

Good stuff! I'm convinced when you are consistently in the low 90s but can put up 9 holes in the low 40s if you "get hot," that means the swing is good enough. It's time to work on the mental game, remove unforced errors, focus on the short game and not try to be a hero. That's what gets the next 10 strokes out.

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this was going to be my reply as well.

surely.........understanding where the extra strokes are coming from is vital. It is also vital to play to strengths and not weaknesses whether that's a shot shape or simply managing in such a way where one plays to his/her higher percentage shots vs lower percentage ones. That all helps a ton toward better scoring imo but in the end even when we play to our strengths we still must execute most all our shots (whatever they are) reasonably well in order to score well. I am glad for you that you sort of found yourself (golf game wise) and are playing well. Good Luck continuing that trend

Congrats! You're definitely doing the right things, and you'll probably break 80 very soon!

Nwgolfr - I had a very similar experience this summer on the journey from 100+ to breaking 90 for the first time. I found that keeping track of every stroke and playing the ball where it lies (no foot wedges) had a big impact on my game.

The single biggest impact on my scoring this summer was the short game. Shots inside 100 used to make my heart rate go up so I took a lesson focused solely on pitching and chipping then spent a couple weeks at the range hitting nothing but short shots. My confidence went way up and scores dropped immediately.

ryebread said:

Good stuff! I'm convinced when you are consistently in the low 90s but can put up 9 holes in the low 40s if you "get hot," that means the swing is good enough. It's time to work on the mental game, remove unforced errors, focus on the short game and not try to be a hero. That's what gets the next 10 strokes out.

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That's EXACTLY where I'm at these days - could not have said it any better. I've posted a few 9s in the low 40s and five full rounds between 87 and 89 and feel like my swing is good enough to get down in the low 80s/high 70s. It's usually one or two blow up holes where I lose focus OR a couple unforced errors (flubbed chips, a missed short putt) that keep me from going lower.

Lately I've done better at avoiding the hero shots. I think I pretty much have that out of my system at this point.

As your score gets lower and lower you are going to find the margin of error becomes less and less but I think that is pretty obvious. Many people don't seem to realize that most of the game takes place from a relatively short distance away. If you can get the ball up in the air and get it to the green in three shots you are still possibly putting for par. Of course then you throw in a chip or two and maybe a three putt and you are at a double. You took the same number or more strokes around the green than you did from 300 yards out. I shot an 88 the other day and it could have easily been a 91+ but averaging just under 2 putts for a round certainly helps keep the scores down.

I like the data approach to game improvement! Incremental change (any direction) can be hard to see and understand, and yet it adds up. For example I have been so focused on changing my swing and ball striking that I didn't realize just how much I rely on my short game. That part of my game has improved tremendously and in addition to hitting the wedges, has become my favorite part of golf. I have high expectations and am hard on myself. I miss a short putt or get too much spin on a chip and I let that one thing bias my entire short game perspective. But there is a clear strength, and if I play to that strength rather than simply letting it save holes, my scores go down! If I had tracked my shots more formally, like the OP, I would have sorted that out sooner.

Yeah, tracking stats beyond just FIR and GIR has made a huge difference in how I approach my game too.

I track score, FIR, GIR, shots inside 100 yds, putts, and penalty strokes for every hole. It gives me concrete data about how my practice is impacting my game and really lets me know what needs work.

Truth in playing with what you brought.

Nice score and great job on accepting your miss and learning how to "play it"

I know you asked for people who have gone from 90's to 70's so I thought I'd add my take on it.

I don't track all of the things you stated, but I do track FIR, GIR, and putts. The only time I track anything on top of that is if I have a high score that was caused by something in particular. Like hitting it OB or finding water or a tree. I'll mark a little note down under that hole that just says "water" or "tree" to let myself know why that score happened. Other than that, IMO, shots 100 and in don't mean much. If it's a short course, I'm going to naturally have more shots 100 and in, and vice versa on longer courses. That number won't reflect if I played well or not for my personal game.

The biggest thing for me that took me from 90's to shooting in the 80's, was breaking down each 18 hole round into smaller 3 hole stretches. All I tried to do was break 15 for every 3 holes. By doing that, if you shoot under 15 on all of them, you've broken 90. This also breaks up the round so you can see progress on each 3, and then you're only focused on 3 holes at a time instead of worry about one high score running your entire front 9. Since this gives you 6 separate 3 hole stretches, even if you don't break 90, you can take confidence into the next round if you broke 15 on say 3-4 of them and then work from there. Might not work for everyone, but it helped me immensely.

5150 said:

Nwgolfr - I had a very similar experience this summer on the journey from 100+ to breaking 90 for the first time. I found that keeping track of every stroke and playing the ball where it lies (no foot wedges) had a big impact on my game.

The single biggest impact on my scoring this summer was the short game. Shots inside 100 used to make my heart rate go up so I took a lesson focused solely on pitching and chipping then spent a couple weeks at the range hitting nothing but short shots. My confidence went way up and scores dropped immediately.



That's EXACTLY where I'm at these days - could not have said it any better. I've posted a few 9s in the low 40s and five full rounds between 87 and 89 and feel like my swing is good enough to get down in the low 80s/high 70s. It's usually one or two blow up holes where I lose focus OR a couple unforced errors (flubbed chips, a missed short putt) that keep me from going lower.

Lately I've done better at avoiding the hero shots. I think I pretty much have that out of my system at this point.

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Glad to hear you're on the same route! I dido the blowup holes, ridding of those would help alot. That is my biggest setback currently, as I'm averaging around 9 unforced errors/penalty strokes per round, but it's been getting much better.

Thanks for the support all! I'm happy to say that I just went through my handicap, and logged 21 rounds this summer!! (we can't use any scores between Oct. 15th and Springtime.) Ten bad rounds thrown out, Low round of 41/9 on 129 CR72, high round 89/18 on 121 CR72. Somehow popped out at a 10.5 index! If that's actually correct....i'd be ecstatic. :bulgy-eyes::bulgy-eyes:

I'm a stats nerd. I started tracking my own baseball and football stats when I played in Little League and Pee Wee football. I have always enjoyed charting my own progression or regression. For that reason, I have extremely detailed golf stats that I've kept for every round since 2004. It's nice to look back on the years when I can remember playing well and then comparing to the years when I remember playing poorly.

That said... it took me until 2010 to finally break 90, which means I was playing the game 17 years before I was finally able to break that threshold. Unfortunately, it's still not a regular thing for me. But... I definitely find value in keeping my stats and seeing where the weak parts of my game are and trying to work on them when time allows.

For the most part, though... I do the same thing you mentioned and I see what my ball flight is like on the range prior to teeing off, and then I kind of plod my way around the course using that flight.

I've found that my flight changes often now. I used to be 100% certain that I was playing a fade... it just depended on how BIG the fade was going to be. Now, off the tee, I have been hitting a fade, a straight ball, a draw and sometimes a dead pull. What hurts me is when I'm playing for a draw and/or pull... and then I block one and fade it. Almost always an automatic 2 stroke penalty for me... and that tends to happen 1-3 times per round, which is where my scores are being hurt the most.

This season, I've been on a course for 29 rounds (including 9 hole rounds) and I've taken 99 penalties (some 1 stroke, some 2 stroke) which means I'm averaging almost 3.5 penalties per round. The rounds where I've had 1 or fewer penalties, I've easily scored 5+ strokes better than the rounds with 2 or more penalties. So... as I'm heading into my last tournament of the season next weekend... I've been focusing on controlling my swing and giving up some distance (especially off the tee) instead of worrying about trying to hit the ball as far as I can and yanking or slicing it out of bounds.

If I can stick with that... I feel really good about my chances next weekend in Hilton Head.

Welcome to THP! and I hope you keep playing well.

Welcome! As most of us we can eliminate the most shots 100yds and in. We all miss greens, so chipping and pitching practice will yield the most improvement. Getting up and down is key. Good luck on your journey