break 80 – Ohio Golf Blog – Golf Course Reviews

How to Break 80 – Avoid Cute Shots When Short-Sided

I’ve made this mistake enough to be able to competently write about it. In fact, I still make this mistake. First of all, some definitions – to short side yourself is to miss the green to the side that the pin is placed so that you have less green to work with between you and the pin. So if the pin is on the right side and you miss the green to the right, you’re going to have less green to work with between you and the flag then if you had missed the green to the left.

If you miss the green to the short side, my advice is to just chip the ball on the green and try to save par but be willing to take bogey and get out of there. GET THE BALL ON THE GREEN – that is the key. You’ll probably end up farther from the flag then you were on your chip shot but just get the ball on the green. You want to be putting and not chipping again.

When you head out to the course, do you tell yourself, “I want to break 80 today”? Or do you say, “I need to shoot 40 or better for the front nine”? If so, you may be setting yourself up for defeat before you get started.

If the number that you are focusing on is “80” – you may just shoot that. If you want to break 80, why not focus on 79 or 78 or even 77? Get the number “80” out of your head. If you have a halfway goal of 40 or better, change that to 38 or 37 or 36. Go out to the course with the thought of shooting 77. You can still miss that goal by as many as two strokes and break 80. But make sure you’ve convinced yourself that your goal is 77 otherwise you may fool yourself into an 81.

The same logic holds true for breaking 90 or 100. Don’t get so focused on the number that that’s all you can think about. If that’s all you think about, you’ll probably shoot the number or more.

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