How to shoot low scores? Have never broken 90

Looking for tips, tricks, ideas, mental processes, strategies to shooting lower scores

There are a number of courses in my area from some incredibly tough and long ones to easy and short ones. My scores across each are the same 90-100. My best ever score is 90 and that was both on the toughest and moderately easy course

I did the Trackman combine the other day and it says I should be posting scores 18 strokes lower than I do as per the attached images

I've tested my short game and it's comparable (or even better) than my longer game so it's not like I'm losing heaps of strokes there either

On days I drive well I'll chip and putt terribly, on holes where I shank drives I'll hit good recovery shots ect. When something is going right something else seems to go wrong

**For those that have shot low scores, do you know why that is?**

Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

> @aenemated said:

> Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

I have to disagree with this since if he's really striking it well then there's no way he should be shooting in the 90's consistently.

@eddie_ebo have you tracked where you are losing strokes over a period of say 10 rounds? By losing strokes I mean the following:

- Tee shots with driver either OB, in a hazard, or unplayable because of trees

- Very bad irons shots. I mean complete fats or things, shanks, etc.

- Poor short game. Again, fats/skulls, etc

- Bad putting. # of three putts, putts from inside 20 feet that you miss by more than 3 feet

Take notes on the scored for every hole and document where you lost strokes. Once you get the data you'll have a clearer idea of where you need to improve.

Do you have a club that’s reliable off the tee other then driver? If you have a wood or long iron you crush consistently off the tee that you can still get into the green area in regulation use that. Then when you have a decent day around the green you should see those scores drop.

Bogey golf will get you to 90. One par, in addition to 17 bogies, will get you 89. Is that the goal?

Bogey golf is hitting the green in GIR + 1, and 2 putts. You do not need crushing straight drives to get to the green in 3, on par 4 holes.

My experience tells me that playing to my ability and confidence zones helps a ton to lower the score. Heroic attempts, even mild insecurity, can lead to big numbers at any time. Confidence, and competence, every time is vital.

> @jvincent said:

> > @aenemated said:

> > Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

>

> I have to disagree with this since if he's really striking it well then there's no way he should be shooting in the 90's consistently.

I dunno man, I feel like if you're striking the ball well; you're getting yourself into trouble with poorly planned shots. Putting hazards or rough into play with, say, driver when you should hit 3W. Hitting driver on 340yd par 4s leaving less-than-full pitches. Assuming your best distance with any iron is the one to go for every time. Sure, I CAN hit a 7 iron 175 yards but that's a perfect strike under ideal conditions and a perfect lie (for me). I'll rarely ever try to pull that off in play.

Like, all your points are not signs of striking it well - OB, chunks, skulls, shanks, etc ... these are not good strikes.

I use 3-wood off the tee more often because it's straighter and distance isn't an issue for me

I hit my irons to my average good strike distance - rather than my max - and have ended up over the back of greens quite frequently

I play to the fat part of the fairways and greens

After every round I analyse my game and see where I could have saved strokes on every hole: my lag putting is poor but I'll lose plenty of strokes on full swings just the same

All the classic course and game management things you're meant to do I try doing

As far as I can tell, it's more a mental thing; which is why I was interested in the mental processes of guys who do shoot low

> @aenemated said:

> > @jvincent said:

> > > @aenemated said:

> > > Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

> >

> > I have to disagree with this since if he's really striking it well then there's no way he should be shooting in the 90's consistently.

>

> I dunno man, I feel like if you're striking the ball well; you're getting yourself into trouble with poorly planned shots. Putting hazards or rough into play with, say, driver when you should hit 3W. Hitting driver on 340yd par 4s leaving less-than-full pitches. Assuming your best distance with any iron is the one to go for every time. Sure, I CAN hit a 7 iron 175 yards but that's a perfect strike under ideal conditions and a perfect lie (for me). I'll rarely ever try to pull that off in play.

>

> Like, all your points are not signs of striking it well - OB, chunks, skulls, shanks, etc ... these are not good strikes.

^stick with it then it’s only a matter of time, spend a little more time around the practice and chipping greens and you’ll get it.

> @eddie_ebo said:

> I use 3-wood off the tee more often because it's straighter and distance isn't an issue for me

>

> I hit my irons to my average good strike distance - rather than my max - and have ended up over the back of greens quite frequently

>

> I play to the fat part of the fairways and greens

>

> After every round I analyse my game and see where I could have saved strokes on every hole: my lag putting is poor but I'll lose plenty of strokes on full swings just the same

>

> All the classic course and game management things you're meant to do I try doing

>

> As far as I can tell, it's more a mental thing; which is why I was interested in the mental processes of guys who do shoot low

>

> > @aenemated said:

> > > @jvincent said:

> > > > @aenemated said:

> > > > Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

> > >

> > > I have to disagree with this since if he's really striking it well then there's no way he should be shooting in the 90's consistently.

> >

> > I dunno man, I feel like if you're striking the ball well; you're getting yourself into trouble with poorly planned shots. Putting hazards or rough into play with, say, driver when you should hit 3W. Hitting driver on 340yd par 4s leaving less-than-full pitches. Assuming your best distance with any iron is the one to go for every time. Sure, I CAN hit a 7 iron 175 yards but that's a perfect strike under ideal conditions and a perfect lie (for me). I'll rarely ever try to pull that off in play.

> >

> > Like, all your points are not signs of striking it well - OB, chunks, skulls, shanks, etc ... these are not good strikes.

>

>

So what do you mean by losing strokes on full swings?

I'm not crazy low - I'm a 7 and scoring mid-high 70s these days - but mentally, I just think about trying to get myself in position where I can hit one of my two scoring clubs in - 8 iron or 52°. If I have one of those two in my hand, I'm in good shape. That's what I meant in a previous post about strengths and comfort zones.

> @eddie_ebo said:

>

> I hit my irons to my average good strike distance - rather than my max - and have ended up over the back of greens quite frequently

>

> After every round I analyse my game and see where I could have saved strokes on every hole: my lag putting is poor but I'll lose plenty of strokes on full swings just the same

>

These two comments are telling.

If you are flying greens consistently then you need to factor that in to your club selection.

Also, if your average distance is that much different than your max distance then you need to address your distance control. That's not course management, that's part of what I would consider hitting it solid.

I feel your pain, OP. I do know that in my case during comps I have a tendency to give up at the first mistake and adopt a 'get it all over with' mentality. It's something I've worked on a lot and made good progress. But I don't have this problem in social golf yet my scores remain mostly above 90. I get the occasional sub-90 round at my home course but it's still unusual. I'd say in a typical round my miss-hits (assuming we're talking about shots that either totally failed to launch or did so in an horrific direction) are:

* Iron (fairway) - 1 at the very most. Pretty rare.

* Hybrid - 1, maybe 2 (usually cases where the ball dribbles half the distance I wanted it to fly).

* Driver - 2 maybe 3 (usually blocked by trees rather than OB).

So I don't think ball striking is my major problem although to be fair the above list adds up to 6 which if taken off my average score would drop me down into the high 80s a lot more of the time.

I know I lose a lot of strokes in approaches. I can nearly always _reach_ the green in GIR (my driver total distance is about ~210, but my 3h is a surprisingly accurate ~190 yds beauty) but my ability to get on the green drops off rapidly outside of 120 yards. I reckon I only get GIR two or three times a round.

My chipping is okay and improving but with so many missed greens you'd think all the practice I got would make me pretty good at it.

My putting is usually pretty good with three putts being rare but I do miss a lot of 3-footers which is silly.

So in my case it's basically 'lots of mistakes at various points in the short game' I feel rather than poor ball striking. But then better ball striking might mean putting myself in better positions for the short game. If your first putt is normally within two yds of the hole one putts will implicitly be more likely.

You can't play to averages. You need to play to most likely result of a specific shot and it's next most likely result. Averages are useless unless because they are almost always out of context and can be manipulated.

> @jvincent said:

> > @aenemated said:

> > Once you're to a point you're consistently striking the ball well - it's all about course management and playing to your strengths and comfort zones.

>

> I have to disagree with this since if he's really striking it well then there's no way he should be shooting in the 90's consistently.

>

> @eddie_ebo have you tracked where you are losing strokes over a period of say 10 rounds? By losing strokes I mean the following:

> - Tee shots with driver either OB, in a hazard, or unplayable because of trees

> - Very bad irons shots. I mean complete fats or things, shanks, etc.

> - Poor short game. Again, fats/skulls, etc

> - Bad putting. # of three putts, putts from inside 20 feet that you miss by more than 3 feet

>

> Take notes on the scored for every hole and document where you lost strokes. Once you get the data you'll have a clearer idea of where you need to improve.

This in spades ^! I've done this religiously for a year. I created a spread sheet and record the number of bad Putts, Chips, Fairway shots (fat, shank, topped), shots out of the Trees, Penalty strokes, errant/short Drives, and Sand for every round. Definitely highlights where the weaknesses are.

Spend some time watching youtube vlogs by Matt on "golfsidekick" - he focuses on course management with videos for breaking 100, 90, and 80.

Something isn't adding up. If the combine says you have that level of ball striking and your short game is better than your ball striking, breaking 90 should be trivial. Some good advice so far though. If you are consistently flying greens (which most times is a more penal miss than being short) then your ball striking isnt as consistent as the combine suggests. You either should start playing to your max distance and learn to mitigate the short miss or you don't know how course conditions will alter your carry distances. I've only once played with someone who consistently airmailed greens. Big strong guy, apparently didn't know how far he hit it or how to measure distance, or simply didnt care

How does that combine work anyways?

It appears to be some sort of weighted average factoring in both average distance and offline % for the given targets. How it correlates to index, I'm not sure but I would guess it's just the running average for a given score and the persons reported index.

> @SNIPERBBB said:

> How does that combine work anyways?

The combine gives you a set of target distances and then you hit a certain number of shots to each distance. You get a score based on how close to target you were for each distance.

From what you say, you ought to be shooting lower than you are. Couple of thoughts I would suggest:

- Don't hit a club where a good shot will get you in trouble. It's one thing to pick a club such that your average shot is going to wind up on the green, but if hitting that perfectly is going to go over the green, then play the club that on your best shot is getting you to the back edge.

- Don't compound your mistakes. If you hit a drive in the woods, get it back in play as your first priority. Don't go for the hero shot.

- Practise your lag putting

- To the extent that this is mental, there are a couple of things you can do. One is play from the most forward tees and get used to shooting lower scores. The other is when you have down time (on a train perhaps or when you're going to sleep), play a round in your head. Hit good shots everywhere and get to the end in a good score. It's a matter of getting yourself comfortable going low. I have been through this where you start well and your subconscious makes you make mistakes so you can be comfortable. It's inherently uncomfortable to be shooting a score well better than what you're used to. People don't like being uncomfortable, so they fix it. One other ploy on this front is to break your round up into 6 mini rounds of 3 holes each. Keep score for each 3 hole stretch, but then forget that and start on the next one. Have a goal to shoot +2 for each group of 3 holes. Doesn't matter how you do, since each new set of 3 holes is a new start. Don't keep track of your overall score at all as you go. Then at the end, add them up and see how you did.

So it's really a brilliant way to further demoralize range heros that can't take it to the course.

> @SNIPERBBB said:

> So it's really a brilliant way to further demoralize range heros that can't take it to the course.

Yes, that is why I won't ever do one,lol

> @OldFrog75 said:

> Spend some time watching youtube vlogs by Matt on "golfsidekick" - he focuses on course management with videos for breaking 100, 90, and 80.

I love his vids. He demonstrates precisely what I said about playing to strengths.

Trackman Target Score, eh?

As was already suggested, take notes on the course. In each box for your score on the scorecard, make a mark for FIR, GIR,, up and downs and # of putts. That's plenty of information to show you where your strengths/weaknesses are. I think you'll find your statement of "When something is going right something else seems to go wrong" not really accurate. One or more of those things is off more often than not. It's been beat to death, and for good reason, but more than likely inconsistent GIR is the culprit to your high scores.

How much have you played Eddie? Maybe your doing good to shoot the scores you are or do you feel you should be shooting in the 80s now...

I broke 90 by working more on shots from 100 yards in. Pitch shots, chip shots, bunker shot and especially putting. Never can have too much practice in these areas IMO. Broke 80 when I combined all of that practicing of the short game and then focusing on Green in regulations.

jmo,

Tad

To make a very long story short:

I broke 90 focusing on:

- no OB shots;

- focusing in making just one par and 17 bogeys (course par 72). If I did double bogey, I focused on two pars, two double bogeys, three pars, and so on.

- mastering short game: first, never missing a green from inside 25 yards, then from 50 yards, then from 75 and finally from 100 yards.

- never two shots to get our from a bunker.

I consistently shot in the 80s focusing on:

- all of the above.

- no triple putts.

- at least 7 pars per round.

- at least 5 GIR per round.

- 50% of approach+putt per round.

I broke 80 focusing on:

- all of the above.

- at least 10 pars per round.

- course management.

- managing the dilema: what I would like to do vs what I can probably do.

- being positive on the putting, really attacking the hole and never being short.

Why don't you post actual round stats? That's the only way to know where you're really throwing away strokes.

1) FW hit

2) GIR hit

3) penalty strokes / round

4) putts / round.

I've made a jump from the low 90's to low 80's in the last few months. The biggest thing that helped me was figuring out how to hit my irons at about 80% of a full swing with a lower trajectory.

Then, figuring out my stock wedge pitches for 10 yard increments. For example, 40 yards for me is my Lob Wedge waist-high back swing. Then, within each ten yard increment you can move the ball back or forward in your stance to allow for some roll-out.

Then, only aim for the middle of the green. Don't even look at the flag.

Finally, two-putting is all about pace control. If your pace is within 10%, then you're almost never going to miss so bad laterally that your 2nd putt is within 6 ft. Lastly, make all of your 6 footers and in.

Avoid planning your shots in reliance on the ideal outcome - plan for the most likely outcome and guard against the most likely miss. Distance control is probably the biggest part of scoring (unless you're so inaccurate that you're losing balls). If your distance is dialed in, then your confidence will increase a lot, too.

Ultimately, if you're hitting near the sweet spot with a somewhat squared face (to path) and know your distances, your worst case scenarios dramatically improve and that is huge for maintaining momentum when you're trying to improve your handicap. That's a lot of pressure, especially if you've been frustrated lately.

Also, look at Adam Young's blog and/or videos. I think his instruction should probably be paired with a more "formal" instructor, who teaches proper body mechanics, etc., but Adam's lessons help you adapt your swing within rounds. This was the biggest skill for me to acquire in keeping a bad hole from tanking my entire round. For instance, now if I start hitting shots fat, I know to shorten my backswing and vice versa. I'm not focusing on feels, but on the discrepancy between intentions and results. I've stopped worrying about what my swing looks like/feels like during a round - just what the results tell me I need to alter and which quick fix to plug in.

You've got this, bud! Keep us posted on your success.

Thanks for the tips @mwcallison that's a good approach

And thank you for everyone's comments, I'll try and respond to most of the comments through this one post:

Bogey golf would be easy if I didn't shoot so many 6s (par 3, 4, 5 doesn't matter). Sometimes it's from 3-putting too much (at the moment that's the biggest issue), other times it's from wayward tee-shots (last 9 holes 4 tee shots ended up behind trees), then I can do stupid things with my approaches or chips and bunkers, which is why my GIRs are very low. My scorecard doesn't have as many blow-up holes as it used to but it looks like what you'd expect from a guy that shoots 90-100. **However, during the same round I'll hit some great drives, irons, wedges and putts**, I just can't string 70-odd good shots together on the course

The theory then would be to go out and practice all those shots I stuffed-up, which I do for at least an hour a day four days a week with Trackman or Zepp Golf. I make practice challenging and game-like by using the test centers and setting harder and harder goals. Hence why I can post good scores on the Trackman combine. Same deal with chipping and putting on the practice green. As someone pointed out, I'm basically a range hero but really I'm a skills test hero. That doesn't mean I always test at these levels - results may vary :P - but I do it enough of the time that it's no fluke

To answer the question on what the Trackman combine is and what the score means, the combine is 60 shots to different distance targets. The score is based on your average proximity to each of the 10 targets of varying distances. The average score for PGA and Euro tour players is 84.3 . Based on this score and others from different handicaps, Trackman compares your average proximity to each hole to their standardizes results and gives you an approximate handicap based on your average proximity to the target irrespective of your own handicap (so if you score 84 then it says your ~handicap is +5). In other words, in the test I can string 60 good shots together and display enough distance and line control that I should be shooting scores comparable to guys playing off scratch

**I've come to the point where I think it's mostly mental, as my head is getting in the way of my performance**. This is why I was curious about how those who shoot lower go about their game and what they think about. What's your perspective on your own game as maybe there is something I can learn from that?

When you do the combine, do you have to alternate shots or do you hit towards the same target 5 times in a row?