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Five tips to break 100

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Breaking 100 is a huge mental hurdle for golfers when actually most are easily capable. Here are PGA Pro Jack Backhouse and Hannah Holden to help

break 100 in golf

Breaking 100 can be a huge mental hurdle for golfers. You’ve likely had a bogey or better on every hole on your course, but putting it all together is the tricky part. Let’s take a look at 5 tips to get you around the course in less than 100.

5 Tips To Break 100: Play away from danger

This might seem like an obvious tip, but too often we see golfers hit the ball to places where it was very clear you wouldn’t want to visit. Before playing your shot, assess the target and look at where would you definitely not want to go, and where could you go and not be penalised too badly and then aim more towards the latter.

It’s better to miss your target in a good place and take 1 extra shot than to aim at the target, miss in a bad spot and then take 2 or 3 extra shots.

5 Tips To Break 100: Prioritise Strike

With every shot we hit the ball must advance down the hole towards the green. Topping it and hitting fat shots regularly is a surefire method of racking up high scores on holes.

If you’re looking to break 100 it might be worth making some changes to your address and swing that guarantee a cleaner strike more often. Moving the ball back in your stance and moving your hands and weight forwards is a good way to do this.

5 Tips To Break 100: Play your chips to the middle of the green

At this standard, we are not expected to hit the ball on the green in 2 very often. So we can expect to have a lot of short shots around the green. A big error that golfers make is not getting these on the green every time, often trying to get the ball too close and then making a mistake which means they have to chip or pitch again.

To minimize these errors one idea would be to chip with the 8 iron a lot more regularly and aim more towards the middle of the green. This gives a golfer a huge margin for error and much better results, getting the ball on the green, 2 putting and moving on stress-free.

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5 Tips to Break 100: Consistently advance your fairway woods

The Average 100 shooter will often have to hit many fairway wood shots in a round. It is very common for golfers to top or hit heavy shots due to the length of the shaft or trying to help the ball up in the air. If this is you it’s a good idea to play your fairways like an iron shot rather than a wood shot.

This might not be optimal for maximum distance, but if you can consistently get the ball moving down the hole with your fairways, you will have more short shots into greens which will result in lower scores.

5 Tips To Break 100: Don’t try to play the hero shot

Hitting the ball offline is fine and a normal part of any standard player’s round of golf. What you do from a bad position is very important when it comes to lowering your scores.

Watching golf on TV has conditioned us to think playing freak shots around trees or over water is easy, but in reality, this is a great way to have more penalty shots or lost balls. 99% of the time it is best just to play out sideways and just get the ball in play, as this way we make fewer mistakes and only take 1 extra shot instead of 2 or 3.

Breaking 100 is more about making fewer mistakes than hitting better shots, so next time you go out try to play as conservatively as possible making no mental errors out on the course, you will find yourself in a position to break 100 a lot more.

About the author

Callaway Epic Max driver review
Jack Backhouse

A member of the PGA for 13 years, Jack has lived golf for more than half his life. Inspired by Tiger Wood’s winning putt at the 2008 US Open, an obsession began with watching slow motion golf swings on the internet and reading What’s In The Bag articles in magazines.

Not destined for a life behind the desk in a pro shop, Jack has focussed more on coaching, working closely with regional teams in North Yorkshire and helping golfers of all levels on their journey to enjoying playing the game more. Jack has coached many junior golfers into the county teams, and once worked with a player at the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie.

After letting his game fall apart prior to COVID, Jack rediscovered his love for playing golf after joining Silloth Golf Club in 2020 and whipping round the windy, firm links course. Playing regularly with a half set of clubs he has a passion for shot making and developing skill, and claims to have the sharpest 30-100 yard game in the North of England (only because he doesn’t know anyone in the South), and now maintains a +1 handicap at a club much closer to home, Sand Moor GC.

Jack has always tinkered with his equipment, once building his own Frankenstein one length set of clubs after watching Bryson DeChambeau burst onto the scene after winning the US Amateur. He firmly believes in getting custom fit and is happy to debate anyone about blade irons being superior to any other iron category.

Jack loves: playing quickly, 2 ball golf, match play, heathland courses, pencil bags, foursomes, Tiger Wood’s swing 2005-2009.

Jack hates: buggies, unnecessary trees, giving shots, the 7 iron loft debate, graphite shaft lovers weird superiority complex.

What’s In Jack’s Bag:

Titleist TSR2 Driver

Titleist TSR2 Fairway wood

TaylorMade P7MB 3-P

Titleist SM10 wedges

TaylorMade TP Reserve Blade putter

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