How to brake 80

This may sound simple but very, very few golfers ever brake 80.  It is estimated that only about 2% of golfers ever break 80 so this may seem like an unreasonable goal.  The first two steps to breaking 80 is breaking 100 then 90.

We will cover shooting in the 80’s and 90’s later but why not make a big goal and work towards it?  Let’s take a look at the different parts of the game that you need to excel at to break 80. Remember, this is not to break 80 every time but to break 80 at least once.   Breaking 80 most of the time takes a very good short game, good ball striking and good mental game.

Short Game

Most players I play with that shoot around 90 think there short game is pretty good but is really is very poor.  It is common with these players to be near the green on a par 4 in two and leave with a 6 or 7.  To break 80 you are going to need to practice from 30 to 40 yards from the green.  Getting up and down out of green side bunkers at least 1/3 of the time is also a necessity.  You will need to get the ball up and down around 40% of the time and rarely if ever take more than three shots from this distance.

Putting

The worst putter on tour is most likely a better putter than anyone you have ever played with.  We watch the players on tour and often hear the announcers talk about how poorly they are putting.  They may seem like bad putters but compared to most amateurs they are great.

Most poor putters have all kinds of extra motion going on during the putting stroke.  Keep you lower body still, head calm and keep the angles in your elbows and wrist constant during the stoke.

To be a good putter you should aim for 1.8 putts per green you hit in regulation and 1.4 putts per green in missed greens.  See chart for putting goals.

To do this you must read the greens pretty well, aim properly and then start the ball on line with pretty good speed control.

Chipping

This is probably the Achilles heel for high handicappers.  Most amateurs would be better off putting from 20 yards off the green than attempting to chip.  There is nothing wrong with putting from off the green but you need to be able to chip at a proficient level to break 80. Good chipping comes with practice so use the fundamental listed below and go spend hours practicing.   Some of the key points to chipping include;

Setting up;

• Keep your weight on your front foot 70%
• Posture, make sure you start with and keep good posture
• Position the ball back of center in your stance
• Point the butt end of the club at your left hip
• Tilt your spine towards the target

Motion

• Keep your grip pressure firm
• Most of the energy comes from turning your shoulders and torso
• Keep your weight on your left foot
• Keep your head fairly still
• Make a descending blow on the ball
• Limit arm and wrist hinge

Always try to imagine where the ball would land and how far it would roll.  Normally you want to land the ball a minimum of  3’ on the green.  There are many philosophies on which clubs to use to chip with but to keep it simple pick a very lofted club and also a 8 or 9 iron for shots that you want to roll farther.  Use these two clubs and get great at chipping.

Coordination

Many players that can’t break 80 have coordination issues.  There are several site online that you can go to for drills on improving your hand eye coordination.  If you suffer from poor coordination please work on this because you will have a nearly impossible time breaking 80.

Practice this easy drill at home.  Hold the club by the head of the club in your left hand.  Pick out a picture in the house hanging on the wall.  Stand just far enough away from the picture that you can just tough it with your arm fully extended with your hips and shoulders facing the picture.  Then touch top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right then the center of the picture.  Do this for a two minutes and switch hands.   You may be surprised how much better your ball striking becomes after a couple of weeks of doing this drill every night.

Ball striking

You need to be a pretty good ball striker to break 80, not a great ball striker.  You will need to have pretty good fundamentals in your swing;

• Functional grip
• Decent posture
• Proper weight shift
• Decent arm motion
• Decent tempo
• Repeating swing plane

This is a quick overview of ball striking and you can certainly view myhome4golf.com instruction pages and learn more about ball striking.  The point here is that your ball striking must produce a fairly similar ball flight.  It doesn’t matter if it curves right or left as long as you can count on it.

You don’t need to be a great ball striker to break 80 but on the day you break 80 you will need to strike  the ball pretty good.  You will need  the ball to curve in a similar manner and you must eliminate big ball striking mistakes.

Swing mechanics

We have all played with player with not great swings that have shot in the high 70’ but this is rare.  Swing mechanics don’t need to be great but they must be functional.  There are many key swing mechanics that good players use but we will just comment on two of them for this article, body and arms.

Body mechanics in a general terms include posture, weight and motion.  It is important that your posture at set up is good, straight spine, slightly bent knees.  It is important to keep your weight balance between your toes and heels during the swing.  Click here to learn about body motion and pressure mapping!

Arm mechanics are a must with good players.  Golf swings may look different with different good players but lets focus on then the player has the left arm horizontal in the downswing and the right arm horizontal on  the follow through.  Downswing, left arm straight right arm bent 90 degrees shaft angle 90 degrees from left arm.  This will completely reverse in the follow through with the right arm straight on the follow through at the horizontal position.

Mental Game

As important as everything above is this is the most important part to scoring.  You can have a average short game, ball striking and with a good mental game break 80.  I have seen it a ton of players that were average golfers that were good at scoring break 80.  When is the last time you played a perfect mental round of golf?  Did you really think your way the best you could through the round?

Pre-shot check list

• Wind condition
• Yardage
• Best club to use for shot
• Shot shape
• How is my ball striking today
• Risk reward, is this a red, yellow or green light shot
• Where is the best place to miss
• My ball flight, high, low, curving where etc.
• Elevation
• Risk reward analysis

These are just some of the decision that need to be made before we hit the ball.  We must then set up perfectly to the ball and then hand it off to our athlete to ht the ball.

Next time you play a round of golf really focus on making good decisions and then accepting your results.  Getting mad about bad results doesn’t help.  Making a better decision based on your playing ability that day can help you achieve a lower score.  Make the best decision you can make, set up based on that decision then swing with as much confidence as you can muster.  After that analyze your results without emotions so you can then modify you next decision if necessary.

Breaking 80 isn’t all that easy which is why only about 2% of golfer shoot 79 or better.  That number should be closer to 20% if you follow the guide above.  I’m off to a PGA Seminar on body motion with BodiTrak so good luck with your golf!

Jim Hartnett, PGA

www.myhome4golf.com