Friday, November 1
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How to Break 100 – Golf Tips to Lower Scores

by Paul Linus

Learning any skill is a progressive journey. Leaning to play the piano, for instance, involves practicing the scales and leaning to play some basic pieces slowly at first, no one would be expected to take on a complicated Mozart sonata straight away. Someone new to carpentry might learn to carve some simple joints first, not erect a roof. Likewise someone new to golf has to construct a basic game incorporating some simple rules to negotiate their way safely round a course. To break 80 would mean some serious time on the practice ground, but being able to break 100 is about getting tactics and the mind set right.

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Tactics to Break 100

If you have already scored round a course and failed to break 100, this is where you need to be absolutely honest with yourself. Learn to break 100 first, then by all means set your sights on breaking 90, but first you have to learn to play within yourself and not take on anything that is above your capabilities.

If the par score for eighteen holes is 72, to break 100 a golfer is allowed to drop 27 shots, that in itself means power is not a prerequisite. Therefore forget hitting a driver off the tee. Just because there is one in the set you bought it doesn’t mean you have to use it. If you have a five wood make that the club you are going to use off the tee from now on.

How to Swing Off the Tee to Break 100

There is not one hole on the course that you need to hit in regulation figures. What you need to do is find a shot that hits the ball straight off the tee some hundred and fifty yards. For most people that means a three quarter swing. Yet most golfers trying to break 100 reach for the driver and wind up for full power like a pro. That is not the way to lower your scores.

golf tips

Take some balls onto the range with your five wood, tee the ball up and start hitting the ball with a three quarter swing almost letting the club fall into the ball rather than trying to force power into the shot. Learning to ‘swing’ the club slowly and gently is essential for future improvement.

Many golfers fail to do this because they think more experienced golfers would frown on the lack of power, but actually, most good golfers would recognise this as a very sensible thing to do. For the time being forget the ‘macho’ image involved with hitting a long driver off the tee. Get your score down first, then learn to increase power.

Short Game to Break 100

With a safer long game the short game is the place where most inexperienced golfers can save many shots. Spend more time on the putting and chipping green than on the range. Draw a line on the ball and aim it at the hole to improve alignment and practice getting the ball close to the hole from thirty feet.

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Make sure you practice basic chip shots with no hand action, just a simple pendulum swing, back and forward with the upper body dominating.

Play Within Yourself

This might not be the advice you were expecting or wanted to hear, but there is no magic way a golfer can break 100 without playing sensibly and progressing slowly. Try to incorporate these simple tactics into your game and see if it makes negotiating your way round the course in fewer shots. Golf can be a very deceptive game. Keep some notes on how many fairways you hit and how many putts you take to see which department needs most work.

To develop a stronger game try reading and working your way through a series of articles which deals with all aspects of learning to play golf, the first of which is How to Teach Golf to a Beginner, which might sound basic but will help you develop good golfing habits.

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