Breaking 90 is a huge milestone for many golfers and it can often feel frustrating that you don’t know what you need to do to shave those shots off your score to get into the 80s. Let’s take a look at 5 tips to break 90 in golf.
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How to break 90: Know how far your clubs go
Many amateur golfers aren’t sure or overestimate how far they hit the ball. It is vital that you know exactly how far you carry a club, and then how much it runs out. This way you don’t needlessly get caught up in hazards that you wouldn’t have gone in if you’d hit the right club.
It’s also important to add that it’s important to know how far your average shot goes, not your once-in-a-lifetime best. It’s called average for a reason and yes it will be shorter than your best, but playing for your average will get you on the green a lot more than when you play for your best.
How to break 90: Don’t expect to make long putts
Higher handicappers tend to have a big misunderstanding of what is a good putt, and what a reasonable outcome is from any given distance. Tour players average just under a 50% make rate from 8 feet, and it radically drops when the ball is outside of 15 feet, so what does the average 90 shoots really expect to happen?
More often than not, unless the ball is within 5-6 feet, a mid 90’s player should just be happy with having a 2 putt and moving on. The key to this is having good speed and leaving putts in the right place, and staying patient when you don’t make many putts in a round.
How to break 90: Get out of bunkers every time
90s shooters often fear the bunker, when actually it is a very easy shot to play as it’s the only shot you will ever play where you want to hit it fat.
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The key to getting out every time is hitting the sand in the right place. Being able to hit the sand 1 inch behind the ball every time will get you out of every bunker regardless of the lie, slope, lip height etc.
You can improve this by simply drawing a line in the sand and making swings at the line. Review every swing you make and adjust your low point forwards or backwards as required.
How to break 90: Don’t aim at the flag
Sometimes shooting lower scores is often about course management rather than improving your technique. When you find yourself in a good position, it can be tempting to aim straight at the flag on approach shots even if it’s tucked away near the edge of the green.
This is more often than not the wrong thing to do, as it will just cause you to be short-sided more than you should be and bring double bogeys onto the scorecard. If we are shooting over 90 we just don’t have that precision yet.
It’s either better to aim at the centre of the green, or even aim away from the most penal trouble when playing, and just accept that sometimes we will miss. By playing this way your misses will be closer to the green, or just not in bad positions when you do miss.
How to break 90: Learn to hit your hybrids and fairway woods
As a 90s shooter, you are quite likely to have many hybrids and fairway wood shots for your 2nd shot on par 4s and 5s so it is important to be able to hit these well.
The first thing to note is that we want to hit these more like irons, rather than driver. We need a slight downward hit on the ball to avoid the heavy shots and tops that won’t go anywhere and cost us on the scorecard.
Try moving the ball more towards the middle of your stance, and think about creating a small divot in line with your left foot. The key with these clubs is good contact.
Try all these tips on the golf course and in your practice sessions and we will have you scoring in the 80s in no time at all.
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