How to break 80

How many golfers can break 80

I’ve been looking for stats on this and found that 22% of all golfers regularly shoot better than 90 on a regulation length golf course (25% of men golfers and 7% of female golfers). The average 18 hole score for men is 97. And six percent of men and one percent of women golfers break 80 on a regular basis.

How to break 80 – leave the driver in the bag

When I look over some of my best scoring rounds, I realize that one thing they all have in common is I rarely used the driver. In fact, sometimes I didn’t use my driver at all and still shot one of my best rounds. This is because it is more important to keep the ball in play than to hit it far. Most players who shoot around 80 can hit the driver well and they can hit it far. Those same players may not fully realize that they can hit the three wood more accurately yet still far enough. The problem with us 80’s shooters is we always want to hit the driver farther. We are still learning how to be content with a good drive because we want to hit that great drive all the time. Those drives that get us in trouble are the ones that are keeping us from shooting even lower scores. We know that we just missed it this time and the next time we will nail it on the screws.

The fact is that if you shoot near 80 consistently then you probably don’t need to hit the driver all that often. Take a little pressure off yourself and pull the three wood. It’s more important to keep it in play than to hit it far if you want to break 80.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 – see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

You have got to play the par 5’s in even or better to break 80

It’s often irresistable to go for that par 5 in two. Everybody wants a shot at eagle. And every once in a long while, you get a shot at eagle. Most of the time, you’re trying to one putt for par or even bogey because you blew your second shot. I used to have a rule which I promptly forgot – only go for the green in two if you have an iron in your hand. I should try to keep that rule in mind.

After a seemingly infinite number of blown par 5’s, I’ve come to the conclusion that a more conservative approach is the way to go, because if you can play the four par 5’s in even par or better you will have a far better chance of breaking 80. Why choose the par 5’s and not the par 4’s or 3’s? Because you have two shots with which to set up your approach to the green.

Think about it. On a 400+ yard par 4, you have to hit a nice drive to get yourself in position. If you blow the drive, you usually blow the hole. On a 500 yard par 5, you can hit two 175 yard shots and still only have 150 to the pin for your approach. Play the par 5’s with an eye towards setting up your approach shot. This may mean leaving the driver in the bag.

Putting game to help you break 80

Here’s a little putting game I came up with. In order to break 80, you need to be able to hit decent putts from 15-20 feet. It would be nice to even make some of those 15-20 footers especially if they are for birdie. Next time you are at the putting green, take three balls. Putt to the different holes on the putting green but make sure that you are always putting from 15-20 feet. As you make a ball, leave it in the hole and continue on with the other balls until you make them all. Don’t quit until you’ve made them all.

The first time I did this, I sank three putts fairly quickly. I decided to start over and spent a good 30+ minutes trying to make all three again.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 – see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

Formula to break 80

I believe golf digest had a formula to predict your score.

95 – 2(greens in regulation) = your score

So if you hit 8 greens in reg, it would be 95-16=79.

Of course, the formula only worked if you shot around 95 or better. As you can see, you need to only hit 8 out of 18 greens in regulation to break 80 – that’s 4 on each 9.

How to go about that? Play each par 5 as a three shot hole and focus on bagging those GIR’s. Now we just need four more GIR’s. Take the four shortest par 4’s and play them conservatively off the tees so that you find the fairway and hopefully you’ll have a short iron to each green.

Another key to breaking 80 – you must sink some 10-15 foot birdie putts

I went out and played nine holes today and had 4 birdie opportunities in the 10-15 foot range. I had another of about 20 feet. I made one of them and had two that I just missed. But the one that I made, saved my bacon as I only had to bogey the last hole for a 39.

To break 80, you need at least one birdie per nine holes. To shoot par, you need to convert more of the 10-15 foot putts. Practice your 10-15 footers and keep your mistakes to a bogey and you will break 80 on a regular basis.

Getting up and down is the key to how to break 80 on the golf course

I went golfing yesterday for nine holes and took some mental notes on how to break 80 for 18 holes. In my opinion, the real keys to breaking 80 are hitting greens in regulation and getting up and down when you don’t.

When you hit greens in regulation, you have a shot at birdie and you will need 2 or 3 birdies to break 80 because shooting a 79 naturally requires at least 7 bogies. Chances are that you will have more than 7 bogies and will need to offset a few with some birdies.

Yesterday, my driving was off and my approach shots were off. Out of nine holes, I missed 6 greens. I got up and down on 3 out of 6 and shot a 40. Of course, I only played nine holes and, if I had finished the other nine, I may have finished stronger and broken 80.

But I put myself in a great position to break 80 by converting half of my up and downs. When you aren’t hitting greens in regulation, you need to be able to get up and down to have a shot at breaking 80. Although I feel that I should have converted 5 of 6, 3 out of 6 up and downs is really good. I’ve read that the pros convert about 57% of their up and down chances, so I wasn’t too far behind yesterday.

The first key to getting up and down is selecting the right club. Don’t limit your chip or pitch shots to just one club unless you have the touch of Phil Mickelson (and even he selects from several different clubs from around the green). I blew several chances yesterday because I selected the wrong club.

Example 1 – I had a short chip of about 10-12 yards. I needed to carry the ball 5 yards to the green and from there it was 5-7 yards uphill to the hole. Using my rules below, I should have taken a nine iron (given the uphill ascent to the hole) and flown it to the green and let it roll up. My lob wedge had been fairly good to me and I broke my own rule and stuck with that. I left it way short and just missed the putt. Lesson – club up if you have to get the ball to a pin above you.

Example 2 – I had to pitch the ball over a bunker and then faced another green that ran uphill from there. I took out the lob wedge again, got it over the bunker but left it 15 feet short of the pin. My sand wedge or gap sand wedge would have been a better choice. Part of my problem here was that I was so focused on the bunker that I forgot to pay attention to the second part of the shot, getting the ball uphill to the flag. Lesson – choose the right club and pay attention to all problems about the shot.

You will break 80 with a great short game

Getting up and down is one of the keys to breaking 80 so work on your short game. Remember the following rules when chipping:

3. A 7/8 iron will fly 1/3 the distance and roll 2/3 more. So if you fly it 10 yards, it will roll 20 yards.

Adjust accordingly for uphill or downhill chips.

How do you use this information? Take the club that will fly it to the green and roll from there to the hole. If you have 15 yards total to the hole and 5 of those yards are off the green. Take the club that will fly the ball 5 yards and roll it 10 yards. In this case, that would be a 7 or 8 iron.

When chipping, I prefer to keep the wrists locked for a more solid shot (much like a putting stroke). Use these formulas to help you in your quest to break 80.

Break 80 by charting your progress on the course

Instead of just keeping track of your score on the course, also keep track of the following statistics:

4. Sand saves

Keeping track of these statistics also breaks your game up into smaller goals. Off of each tee, your first goal is to hit the fairway. After that, your goal is to hit the green. From there, you need to two putt usually. This breaks each hole up into several smaller goals. This approach is much better than just simply trying to make a par.

You can also get much more detailed in your stat recording. If you miss the fairway, you can indicate if you missed it right or to the left. By doing so, you can keep track of your tendencies off the tee. You can also keep track of how far you hit each particular club off the tee. You can do the same for your approach shots. Write down the club that you used and the distance to the green and indicate whether you missed the shot right or left and how far you actually hit that club.

From there, determine how many times you were able to get up and down after missing the green on your approach shot.

By charting your shots, you will develop a greater familiarity with your own golf game. Once you’re aware of your tendencies, you can take this knowledge and put it to work for you in your quest to break 80.

Break 80 by knowing when to take your medicine

Usually what kills a round is the rule of compounding mistakes. A bad tee shot leads to a tough spot under some trees. You see a small opening and try to hit the miraculous shot under the trees to the green. You catch the tree and the ball caroms deeper into the woods. A sense of desperation sets in. You can still hit it on the green and save par. You try again with a similar result. You finally punch it out into the fairway.

Take your medicine on the second shot. Bogey is not a bad score. And you can still take almost 10 of them and break 80

Create a game plan to break 80

Although things change during the round, I still feel it is important to map out a strategy in order to break 80. Take a piece of paper and make a rough sketch of the course or enlarge the course map found on the scorecard. Plot your way through the course on the sketch or map. For each hole, choose your club off the tee in advance. On par 4’s, choose the club for your second shot in advance. On par 5’s, do the same for your third shot. Indicate targets on your course map. Take into consideration the hazards and trouble on the course when picking your club and target for each shot. To break 80, you can still almost make 10 bogies as long as you make a few birdies. Figure out which holes are the toughest for you and go into the round knowing that you can make bogey on those holes and be fine.

For those golfers who shoot near 80, you are used to making quite a few pars. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that bogey is a bad score. Bogies are fine. Double bogies will hurt you and triples will kill a round. Don’t bring double or triple bogey into play trying to make a miraculous par.

I believe that planning a round out in advance is a great exercise. Things rarely goes as planned on the golf course, but making these decisions beforehand such as what club to hit off each tee and where the trouble is on the course can come in handy during the round.

Warming up before the round will help you in your quest to break 80

This seems fairly obvious (at least you would think so), but warming up before the round with some light stretching and by hitting a few balls is a good way of helping your chances of having a good scoring round. I’ve recently made it a point to spend 10-15 minutes going through some yoga stretches prior to each round. Alvin notes in the comments below that he had his best round ever after going through some yoga warmups. I also need to make a practice of hitting some full swing shots as well. A little time on the putting/chipping green goes a long way as well. The idea is to eliminate the first shot, first chip and first putt coming during the actual round. Get these out of the way on the practice tee/green so that you can go to the first tee in the right state of mind of being ready to play golf.

Create the home field advantage in order to break 80

My first thought on breaking 80 would be to establish a home course. Find a course that is convenient to get to and consider obtaining a membership. Also determine what type of practice facilities are available at the course. It is recommended that the course have some sort of practice facilities. If so, you are more likely to use them. You will also have somewhere to warm up before your round begins. Establishing a home course is important for several reasons:

1 – It allows you to get very familiar with that particular course. If you play it 70 times a season, you will, by default, know that course like the back of your hand. If you pay even the slightest bit of attention, you’ll soon learn where you need to hit the ball and where you need to avoid trouble.

If you hit into trouble, you’ll know when to take your medicine and when you can escape. You will become familiar with every possible pin placement that the course can throw at you. You’ll learn how every green breaks before you even get to the green. By playing one course repeatedly, you can develop a strategy for breaking 80 there.

2 – By playing the course often and learning its nuances, you will feel comfortable playing golf there. Comfort is the prerequisite to strong golf performances.

3 – You will also be able to assess the accuracy of the yardages on the course. Courses change over the years but the yardages are often not updated to keep current with these changes. Play one course several times and you will soon learn that that 150 yard marker is actually 12 yards too long on number 3.

4 – After several rounds at one course, you will be able to visualize future rounds there. The night before a round, you can go through it hole by hole and shot by shot to rehearse your sub-80 round.

5 – You are more likely to play more often if you establish a home course where you have already paid for a season of golf. It goes without saying, the more you play the better you will become.

future topics – when to use the driver and when to keep it in the bag
– don’t let a bad start ruin your round
– Make the best of the hand your dealt in order to break 80

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 – see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

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