Double digits on the scorecard to finish your Sunday round; what a feeling. What a feeling that is for the first time, hell, what a feeling it is the second, third, fourth time! This score may be elusive for some, but I am guessing that you have either come close or even completed a sub-100 round before if you are reading this post. With that in mind, let’s dig in and look at what I believe to be the five most important habits to apply to your round when trying to break 100.
Habit #1 – Start From The Green
When stepping onto the tee box, most amateur golfers grab their driver and swing for the fences. The thought process usually begins with picking a spot in the middle of the fairway and commenting on hazards you’re hoping to avoid. However, if your target is to break 100 and eventually have a conversation about breaking 90, you must be more strategic than this.
You must plan what to do when you approach the tee box after the ball lands. Will you have a good look at the green from that position? Build your tee shot from the green to the tee box. If you are looking at a 330-yard Par, 4, and your go-to or “comfort” club is a seven-iron that you know goes 150-175 yards, then what good is hitting your driver 200+ yards into the rough? Understand that your objective is to lower your score, not showcase a decent drive on every hole. Scale down to a 3-wood or 5-wood, whichever club gets you to your comfort club on the next shot, and focus on a controlled, smooth swing that keeps you in the fairway—leading us into habit #2 seamlessly.
Habit #2 – Have A Comfort Club You Trust
We all have that one club in our back that we can always count on for a solid strike. For me, it is my eight iron. It is the club I am most comfortable with, and when I step up to the ball, I do not doubt I will hit it. While you still may be looking for the comfort club you have that amount of confidence with; I am sure everyone reading can think of one club in their bag they would choose to hit before any of the others. That is your comfort club!
Ideally, you are in a good position off the tee box and pick up this club next. Being able to confidently strike a ball is a significant part of the game. With trust comes solid shots and consistency. The goal of having this club in your bag is to pay attention to the exact distance you can hit it each time you pick it up, which allows you to execute Habit 1 on each hole properly. For some of you, multiple clubs may fit into this category.
Knowing the ins and outs of your comfort club allows you to build out from the green and more effectively attack the pin and its surroundings, bringing us to Habit 3.
Habit #3 – Know Where To Miss
We have all heard someone tell us to avoid the water on the left or watch out for the bunker protecting the front of the green. It is easier said than done for most golfers, but habit three gets easy if you have effectively worked Habit one and two into your round.
At this point, we have adjusted our tee shot to land in the range of our comfort club and have put the time and effort into learning exactly how we hit that club. We are not looking for every second shot to land within 5 feet from the pin, but we aim to get you in a much better position. Knowing where to miss is the name of the game when trying to break out of the dreaded triple-digit scorecard.
When looking at your GPS watch, smartphone, range finder, a quick fact sheet from the clubhouse, or whatever, you should look where to miss if you miss. If you battle to break 100, we know that accuracy is still a struggle and that the ball may land shorter or longer than you want it to. Use this information to find your best spot to miss. Refocus your approach to quadrants on the green: front left, front right, back left, and back right of these four possible landing areas, which give you the best approach shot when you arrive at your ball. Whether chipping or putting, ensure you are making your misses good misses.
If your accuracy is still evading you, enter with the same approach, slightly more forgiving: Left or Right. Split the green and its surroundings in half and aim for the safer area of the two. Once you complete this regularly, change it up to the quadrant approach we discussed.
Habit #4 – Know Where Your Shot Ends
Habit #4 is a very generalized statement because it changes with every golfer, and for some, it changes each time you pick up the club. Knowing where your ball ends means changing your focus from your ball’s flight to the result of your strike.
When you get to the golf course and are looking to warm up a little before your round, pay extra attention to where your ball lands, where it stops, and the path it took to get there. I tell everyone it doesn’t matter how it got there if the ball ended where you intended. If you have hook, slice, fade, or draw, the important part is where the ball stops rolling.
Use the information you gain from your swing pre-round to get you into better positions and mentality throughout the day. If you are slicing everything, adjusting your aim is better than changing your swing during a round. Play your swing and focus on the habit above.
Habit #5 – Tee Box Need To Be Result Oriented
This habit will be the hardest to integrate into your daily routine but, without a doubt, will be the most rewarding to your score. Know when you put your driver back in the bag.
Many say their driver is the most important club in the bag. Allow me to rain on that parade. Driver seldom can lower your score when talking about the 100-stroke range. If anything, this club leaves you in the wrong positions, and attempts to straighten it out mid-round are usually spearheaded with aggressive swing speeds followed by slices or hooks.
The day you can put your driver away and focus on the results from the tee box instead of “dropping nasty bombs” in the fairway like Michelson is when your score begins to drop. When stepping on the tee box, you should focus entirely on the shot’s results, not the club needed to deliver those results. Once you get to this point, you can easily follow the other Habits.
Conclusion
Scores lower around the green, not from the tee box. Make sure you are working your back from the pin to build your approach for the day. Find ways to use your comfort clubs as often as possible and miss where you have the best opportunity for a quality recovery shot. If you apply this approach, you will see results almost immediately in your scores, and over a short period, you will be breaking 100 each round you play.
2 Comments
Comments are closed.