Improve your Tee Shots
Although hitting the ball 250+ yards to the middle of the fairway feels good, remember that accuracy is better than distance when learning to break 90. To perfect your game, eliminate penalty strokes by avoiding wild tee shots that will most likely land in a hazard. The goal is to find the fairway, and if your driver is landing you in hot soup, a long iron or a 3-wood off the tee is also acceptable if it does the job.
Master the Art of Reading Greens
Becoming a great putter is very important in lowering your scores, and an essential component of this journey is learning to read the greens. The crucial aspects of green-reading are establishing whether the ball is sidehill, downhill, or uphill, reading the putt from behind the ball, and reading from the side and behind the hole if you can’t see the break.
Assess your Golf Fitness & Commit to Practice Time
Although golf isn’t a highly charged sport like soccer or hockey, it’s a physically demanding activity that requires players to have proper fitness levels. Poor physical conditioning could result in higher scores in the last holes and poor finishes. Adopt a workout plan that improves your fitness levels paired with a consistent practice routine on the course. Allocate sometime per week or per month to hit the putting green, chipping green, and driving range and improve your shots.
Track your Statistics
Those who don’t learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them. Normalize tracking your statistics on each round of golf to learn about your strengths and weaknesses and pinpoint where more work is needed. Fortunately, there are modern phone apps where you can track aspects like the number of penalty strokes, putts, fairways hit, and greens in regulation.
Play with Better Golfers
The crowd you hang with affects your performance, even in golf. One sure way to break 90 is to play with golfers already hitting 80s and even 70s. You will naturally focus more and learn valuable tips from their winning routines.
Bottom Line
Breaking 90 is not rocket science like some people make it appear. Any golfer can do it with the right mental attitude, determination, and training. The above tips will get you on the right path to lowering your scores and hitting 80s in 2023!