Golf Workout Program is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 

Learning how to break 80 in golf can be a painful process.

For some it takes a year, others a lifetime.

Whether you want to learn how to break 80 more consistently, or for the first time, there are a few things that will give you a better chance to every time you step on the golf course.

Here are the most popular tips for how to break 80.

These tips can be used whether you’re trying to break 100, 90, 80 or even 70.

Will they guarantee that you shoot the greatest round of your life tomorrow?

No.

But they will give you your best chance to.

Let’s dive into them.

1. Warm-up (Answer the 3-Warm-up Questions)

It should be obvious but if you want to play your best golf you need to warm up.  I don’t care about “that one time”, that you played without warming up and shot the best round of your life.  I promise you that wasn’t the reason.

A good warm up not only gets your body ready for the course but also your mind.

The #1 reason you need to warm up is to figure out what your golf game is doing that day.

Are you hitting a fade or a draw?  Hook or a slice?  How’s your distance control? How far are you hitting your wedges?

These are all questions that can change from day-to-day.  While you may know that you play a fade or draw, getting a feel for how much it is moving that day will give you the confidence to hit your best shots on the course.  Save working on developing a proper golf grip for after the round.

Three things to note during your warm up before the round:

1. What shape is your ball flight? When you don’t think about anything and make a natural, smooth swing, what is your ball flight?

2. How far are you hitting your wedges? What are your 120 and-in swings in 10 yard intervals? Golf is a game played from 150 yards and in. Use these chipping drills to dial in your short game distances.

3. From 30 and in what’s going to be your go to shot? What club? Low runner? High-pitch? etc.

The simple fact is that most of us can only hit a certain amount of shots (if any) with absolutely confidence and minimal errors.  While I understand having multiple “high-skill” shots can save you when you end up in that bad situation.  For the typical golfer who is trying to break 80, they are not necessary.

Having your go-to, high percentage shots will keep you out of trouble, and making a lot of pars.  Which in turn, leads to a lot of rounds in the 70’s.

Think the about the classic saying KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

2. Practice Your Lag Putting

One of the quickest way to improving your golf game and learning how to break 80… phenomenal lag putting.

It sounds funny but it’s true.  You know what fun golf is? Hitting the green regulation, rolling your 30-foot putt to within 2-feet and tapping in for par.

Can you say “Stress free golf”?

Get to the practice green and starting practicing your lag putting.  It’ll take pressure off your irons, and make the game a whole lot easier.

These putting drills & hacks below are a great place to start.

3. Manage Your Round

“Golf is a game of misses.”

You may have heard this before and it’s true.  You’ll never go through a round and hit all perfect shots.  The pros don’t, Arnold didn’t, you definitely will not.

Being able to manage your game and avoid the big mistakes will make sure you have a chance to break 80.

What am I referring to when I say big mistakes?  Maybe a story will help.  Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You’re on a Par 4 and you hit a bad drive into the trees on the right.  You punch out to the middle of the fairway and are left with 130 yards into the green that is surrounded by water on the left side.  The greenskeeper (knowing the sucker that you are) placed the pin just 8 yards from the water.  You take aim at the pin, and hit what you think is a good shot.  It feels great coming off the club, you just pulled it “a little”.  This “a little” that would normally still end up on the green and be a decent shot, splashes in the water and you take a double.

Avoid the big mistakes.  See the sucker pin, aim for the middle of the green and try to make the long putt.  If you miss it, take your bogey and make it up on the next hole.

4. Trust Your Game

Who plays better?  The hack who is thinking about his swing the entire round, or the hack who plays his 30 yard fade with confidence?

No matter your skill level, trusting yourself the entire round is guaranteed to lead to a better result.  Keep this in mind when you go out to play your round.

If you’re hitting big fade with your driver during warm-ups, don’t try to fix it.

You won’t be able to figure out how to fix a slice in 10 minutes and it won’t do anything but lead to worse results on the course.

Instead, shoot the best score you can with the golf game you brought to the course that day.

If you have a 20-yard fade with your driver during warmups, great, play your drives up the left side the whole round with confidence.  Take your shorter drives for the day then head to the range after the round to fix it.

Key takeaways to trusting your golf game:

1. Never try to fix your swing during warm-ups or your round.  Practice is meant for the practice range.

2. If you need to fix something do it after your round or on an off day.

3. Warm-up and know what shots you’re hitting that day. If you’re hitting a fade, play your fade all round.

4. Keep it simple.

Have only 1 swing thought maximum.  I like to use “smooth”.

Stop complicating things.  Trust your game and put smooth, natural swings on the ball.

Practice at the range, play on the course.

Recommended read: 

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

5. Practice Distance Control (with Measurement)

“I would rather hit my 7-iron 130 yards EVERY TIME, than 200 yards every once in a while.”

One of the most important aspects of playing good golf is distance control.

I don’t care what club you hit, what shape your ball flight is, how ugly your swing is…

CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

It took me a while to realize this.

That was until I started to get my ass kicked by the 60-year olds who drove the ball 220 down the middle, every single time.

How to improve your distance control:

“If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.” – Lord Kelvin

1. Start practicing with a trackman (or any distance tracking device).  Getting instant feedback on every swing will start teaching you which swings produce what distances.

2. Stop swinging so hard.  Finding a consistent, smooth, tempo will result in more consistent distances with every club in your bag.

3. Focus on distances from 130 and in.  They are the most important scoring shots in golf.

Improve your distance control and you’ll be sticking it close in no time.

Use these tips and learn how to break 80 (or any score) the next time you step on the course.

Playing good golf consistently isn’t easy.  If it was, everybody would be a scratch golfer.

If you’re serious about breaking 80, you need to put the work in.

Good things don’t come easy.

Prepare for the golf that you want to play, then go play it with confidence.

And remember…

you play better golf when you’re having fun.

August Noble

August Noble was first introduced to golf at 7 years old. In 2013 he started seriously working on his game and was able to reduce his handicap from 19 to 3.4 in less than two years. He’s been helping other golfers do the same ever since.

Source link

If you are as impatient as me, you will understand the pain of finishing your round at 3:15 pm and having to wait around for two hours for the rest of the competitors to finish. Fortunately, there is a logical solution: the shotgun start.

Late last summer, I played in my first shotgun golf tournament in a decade, and, after an enjoyable day out, I wondered why there are not more of these events.

l will take you through how it works and explain the benefits, to raise awareness for this forgotten setup. My aim is to have you begging tournament organizers to arrange more shotgun starts.

What is a Shotgun Start in Golf?

A shotgun start golf tournament format sees the first to 18th group of four balls tee off, at the same time on different holes. In other words, each four-ball is assigned a different hole from the 1st to the 18th, and you tee off at a specific time.

Before I give you an example of how it works, it is only fair to touch on the origins of a shotgun tournament. In the book Now You Know Golf, author Doug Lennox cites Walla Walla Country Club Professional Jim Russell as the creator of this format.

In May 1956, Russel was rumored to have fired a shotgun off as a starting signal for entrants waiting on tee boxes around the golf course.

Now, for an example of a shotgun tournament structure. If every four-ball is scheduled to tee off at 12 pm, golfers make their way to their assigned tee box and wait for the start of play. If you are programmed to start somewhere random like the 7th hole, you may consider a couple of golf carts for your group to speed up the process.

Once you are on the tee box and starters signal sounds, each player has their turn to tee off, and away you go. Every group plays a full round of 18-holes, which means if you tee off on the 11th hole, your 18th will be the tenth hole.

The only times that I have played in a shotgun start have been in charity tournaments, where an auction is scheduled after prize giving. Without a doubt, If you operate with the typical first tee and tenth block setup, golfers may leave before the auction, leading to a loss in potential revenue.

Instead, a shotgun start helps to maintain a consistent pace of play. The ultimate goal is for all entrants to finish at the same time.

On multiple occasions, the format was a shotgun scramble. That meant that we would choose the best shot of the group and play our own ball from that position. In addition, these tournaments were typically betterball or best ball stableford.

After each hole, we recorded the two lowest scores. At the end of the round, we added the two best from each hole together. That gave us a total team score. These tournaments almost always included the longest drive and closest to the pin challenge.

Other Variations of The Shotgun Start

Reverse Shotgun Start

A reverse shotgun start is employed in smaller tournaments with fewer participants. The organizers set down tee times for the 18th and back. For example, there are forty players in a competition, totaling ten four balls.

The tournament organizers assign the first group to the 18th and the second group to the 17th until we reach group ten on the ninth tee.

The purpose of a reverse shotgun start is to free up the first tee as quickly as possible to enable other paying clientele to get an 18-hole round in.

Modified Shotgun Start

A modified shotgun start follows the same premise as a reverse setup and is designed for tournaments with fewer entrants. The organizers set up the tee system to not interfere with other paying customers’ rounds.

For instance, they may start tournament entrants off on the second to the ninth hole so that the first and tenth tees are free for others to start from.

Double Shotgun Start

A double shotgun start occurs when there are more than 72-golfers on the tee sheet. 72 divided by four gives you 18 fourballs – enough for each hole. When there are more than 72-players, you need to adjust the schedule to fit them in.

Tournament organizers may offer a morning or afternoon tee time and run two sets of shotgun starts. That makes the most sense if you have over one hundred players on the tee sheet. Therefore group A tees off the fourth hole at 7am, and B commences at 11:15am.

The challenge with that setup is that you rely on the morning field to return to the event for the prize-giving and auction proceedings.

An alternative option is to add two groups of four to each of the par 5 holes. If the proposed tournament start time is 12pm, Group A tees off at 12pm, and group B follows once A is out of sight.

Related: How to Play Golf: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Matt Stevens

Matt Callcott-Stevens started playing golf at the age of 4 when Rory Sabattini’s father put a 7-iron and putter in his hand. He has experienced all the highs and lows the game can throw at you and has now settled down as a professional golf writer. He holds a Postgraduate in Sports Marketing and has played golf for 28 years.

Source link

Just about everything one would want from a big-time golf tournament was in play Thursday during Round 1 of the 2022 CJ Cup. Some stars played well, while others missed 2-foot putts. One player hit his irons better than nearly anyone in the last two decades. Two early-week media room darlings shot a combined double digits under par.

And of course, Congaree Golf Clubs showed out in its first PGA Tour appearance since summer 2021.

Trey Mullinax and Gary Woodland share the lead at 6 under a quarter of the way through the tournament, but they’re going to have some problems in the form of top 25 players in the world coming around the turn as the week wears on. Regardless, they’re the two we’ll focus on as we take a look at what happened on Thursday at the biggest PGA Tour event of the fall in the CJ Cup.

The leader

1. Trey Mullinax, Gary Woodland (-6): These two had eerily similar rounds. Both did their damage with their iron play and putting, and together they combined to make 15 birdies on the day. Woodland summed it up well (and succinctly): “I had all three aspect of driving, ball-striking, putting going on, and it was a good day,” he said.

Whether either can keep it rolling all four rounds is another question. Mullinax ended last season playing some of his best golf. He won the Barbasol Championship and finished in the top 15 in two FedEx Cup Playoff events. However, he missed the cut at each of the first two events this season, and I rarely trust a hot putter. Woodland seemingly has more staying power, but he also doesn’t have a top 10 since the U.S. Open in June. With the caliber of horses just outside of the top spot, I’m also dubious about his chances to pull off what would be his first victory since the 2019 U.S. Open.

Other contenders

T3. Aaron Wise, Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim, Rory McIlroy, Cam Davis, Kurt Kitayama (-5)

T9. Viktor Hovland, Si Woo Kim, Taylor Moore, Tyrrell Hatton, Seamus Power, Sungjae Im (-4)

Wise is going to be interesting this year. He’s not as far away from playing his way onto the U.S. Ryder Cup team as some folks might think, and he had an all-time day on Thursday with his iron play. His 5.99 strokes gained on approach shots was so overwhelming that he was worse than field average in every other category and still shot 5 under, good for a top-five position after 18 holes.

According to Data Golf, Wise’s round was the 31st-best over the last 18 years. Some of the looks he got were flat-our preposterous, and I’m excited to see how he backs it up over the final three days.

Tom and Rory

After Rory McIlroy’s answer to Tom Kim’s question in the press center on Wednesday got so much run, this week has officially turned into The Tom and Rory Show at Congaree. They constituted one of the better groups on Thursday, shooting a combined 10 under to get into the top five on the leaderboard. Kim raved about McIlroy’s length, and McIlroy said Kim flushed everything he looked at. A duel between those two on Sunday would be all kinds of fun.

“He didn’t really miss a shot out there,” said McIlroy of Kim, who made the only bogey either of them made with a five at the 18th hole. “He’s a very, very solid player, plays to his strengths. Makes the same swing at it pretty much every time, like it’s very, very consistent, very steady. He was sort of picking my brain a little bit out there about like speed training, and I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no.’ I think as he gets a little older and maybe a touch stronger, he’ll get that naturally, but I was like, ‘Do not go down that path, you’re good the way you are.'”

They were both pretty awesome on Thursday.

Spieth?

Jordan Spieth shot a 4-over 75 on Thursday and duffed an incredibly short putt in the process. One round does not a tournament make, but the putter was a problem last year, and this golf course should suit him pretty well. It’s not a situation that needs to be monitored, but you would like to see Spieth get off to a better start to his 2022-23 season than T73 in a 78-player field.

2022 CJ Cup odds, picks

• Rory McIlroy: 9/2
• Tom Kim: 9-1
• Trey Mullinax: 9-1
• Gary Woodland: 9-1
• Aaron Wise: 11-1
• Cam Davis: 12-1
• Kurt Kitayama: 16-1
• Viktor Hovland: 18-1
• Sungjae Im: 18-1

I wouldn’t touch either Mullinax or Woodland, and as silly as it seems to back McIlroy at +450, it’s not that dissimilar to his pre-tournament odds (+650). I’m looking a bit further down the board at both Holand and Im, though. Both put together scores mostly with the putter on Thursday, but both have top 10s in one of their last two starts. If either starts flagging irons, the hunt for a trophy will be on as they sit comfortably at 18-1.

Source link

Tom Kim is having a moment. The 20-year-old Korean known for his love of fast food and his choice of the name “Tom” because of his affection for a children’s play train by the same name is suddenly accomplishing things that haven’t been accomplished since trains were the primary means of transportation for most of the world.

After winning the Wyndham Championship in August in just his 14th start on the PGA Tour, Kim crushed at the Presidents Cup, where his 2-3-0 record belied the reality that nobody was a bigger star and nobody changed the perception of their future more than him. Then he took Sunday’s Shriners Children’s Open over Patrick Cantlay, and suddenly he’s the No. 15 player in the world while winning two PGA Tour events faster (18 PGA Tour events) than Tiger Woods (20 events).

Let the hyperbole wash all the way over you, courtesy of Justin Ray.

Kim is the youngest to get his second PGA Tour win in 90 years. He’s the youngest international player since 1900 to win multiple times on the PGA Tour. The only comparison for what he’s done in his tiny career thus far is to invoke the name of the best to ever do it: Tiger Woods. Those men are the only two golfers to win multiple times on the PGA Tour since World War II, and Kim was younger; he doesn’t turn 21 until next summer.

So the obvious question, it seems, is what to make of all this. What … is this? It’s probably not the second coming of Tiger. I think we can all agree on at least that. But when you’re part of a statistical category that includes only yourself and a legend of his caliber, it’s also not nothing. Kim needs some sort of context and projection around what he’s achieved.

So, let’s start.

It would be easy to write off the Wyndham and the Shriners as two easy golf tournaments to win and discount what Kim’s achievements. However, Data Golf rates both tournaments among the 20 hardest for a regular PGA Tour pro to win throughout the year. Winning one might be an anomaly. Winning both, though? Hardly an aberration. Then there’s the way Kim has won his tournaments. He had good putting weeks in both, yes, but he also finished in the top 12 in approach shots in both events. Kim is a flusher, and flushers win a lot.

Statistically, Kim’s profile looks a bit like a slightly downgraded Collin Morikawa. There are much worse comps than “a slightly downgraded Collin Morikawa.” Morikawa is deeper off the tee, and thus gains more strokes in that category, but Kim is slightly better on and around the greens. While Morikawa is one of the best iron players of this (or any other) generation, Kim is a solid but not necessarily elite iron player. At least not yet.

So we arrive at the hardest portion of all of this to project: improvement. Can Kim make a leap as a 21-year-old or beyond to become a +1.5 or 2.0 strokes gained player (this is the very upper crust)? Or will he stay where he is (around a +1.0 player), which is still very good and pick off a few tournaments when he has hot putting weeks?

It might be instructive to take a look at Kim’s personality to catch a glimpse around the corner of his career. While Kim is playful and exciting on the course, it’s clear that he’s not necessarily excitable, which is an important distinction. As a 20-year-old, it’s quite easy to be excitable, but in situations where Kim had the opportunity to get out over his skis, he has refused. Case in point: He was asked on Saturday night at the Presidents Cup whether he wanted to play Justin Thomas on Sunday in singles. There’s not a good answer to this question, and Kim realized that and neutralized the entire situation.

“Anyone, really,” he said. “Someone’s got to play someone. So I just want to play with anyone and try to get a point for the team.”

The First Cut podcast crew is back to bring you their recap for the Shriners Children’s Open and the LIV Bangkok event. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This is how somebody who is going to mature in the right way speaks at age 20. It creates a bullishness about his career from the mental and emotional side that he understands how to be a professional and what it takes to improve into a future that is wide open for him and his gifts. However, he combines it with an innocence that embodies the 2021 Padraig Harrington quote about how there’s a sweet spot between gaining experience and losing wisdom that’s a hell of a place to exist.

“I mean, I’m playing on the PGA Tour as a 20-year-old,” said Kim after his second win over the weekend at the Shriners. “It’s hard to get tired from this. I’m a 5-year-old at Disneyland, for sure. That’s the way I would pronounce it.”

Then there is the question of the majors. Kim is incredibly short off the tee for a top 20 player in the world (even Morikawa is quite a bit longer than he is). However, a few of the 2023 major venues- — namely Los Angeles Country Club and Oak Hill — might favor his game. The last time a major was held at Oak Hill, two of the shorter hitters in the game — Jason Dufner and Jim Furyk — were in the mix for the 2013 PGA Championship.

I don’t know what Tom Kim is going to be. Nobody does — not even Tom Kim. What I do know is that the PGA Tour is always in need of 20-year-old potential superstars who think rightly about the future even while soaking in the present. In a year in which there has been a lack of celebrating the right things, Kim represents so many of them that we love about golf, and it’s likely that he will for a long, long time.

Source link

Zebra, one of golf’s most Iconic putter brands, is making a dramatic comeback to the game with a brand new range of high-tech designs that are set to create a whole new generation of fans of their eye-catching looks and even more impressive performance.

First introduced in 1976, the Zebra putter was way ahead of its time, with its mallet-shaped head, adjustable weight system, and the unique black-and-white stripe alignment aid proving an instant hit with tour professionals and club golfers alike.

Ray Floyd used one of the very first Zebra putters to win the Masters in 1976, while 18 years later Zimbabwe’s Nick Price captured the Claret Jug at the 1994 Open Championship with a trusty Zebra putter in his bag at Turnberry.

ZEBRA ENTERS A NEW ERA 

After several decades out of the limelight, Zebra is back, under the new ownership of Golf Brands Inc, with the launch a new range of Zebra putters that is set to strike fear into putting cups around the world.

Two years in the making, and with design input from some of the most experienced putter designers in the business, the latest models to carry the iconic Zebra name have been reinvented for the 21st century with high quality components and performance-enhancing design elements.

Integral to the relaunch has been Austie Rollinson, Odyssey’s long-serving putter guru, who consulted on the designs with the aim of creating the ideal balance between alignment, forgiveness, weighting, feel, and roll to help all golfers putt their best.

Golf Brands Inc CEO, Simon Millington commented “What we strived for with the new range was to maintain the classic look so that when you pick up the putter you know straight away that it is a Zebra, then we used all the latest technology and design available to make it perform at the highest level.  Working with Austie we created a range that looks like a Zebra putter should and offers the golfer a choice of head shapes that provide a blend of all the key performance categories”.

Every element of a new Zebra putter, from the head shape to the face insert, has been rigorously tested using computer-generated Artificial Intelligence Technology to find the perfect MOI and centre of gravity locations to ensure maximum performance from every model, with no stone left unturned in the search for putting perfection.

MODELS TO SUIT ALL STROKES 

Leveraging all of Zebra’s impressive design heritage, including the Major-winning striped alignment system, the new range features four modern head shapes, including a rounded mallet (AIT 1), a fang (AIT 2), high-MOI flange (AIT 3), and a wide-bodied blade (AIT 4), to suit every putting stroke and every type of golfer.

In addition to the striped alignment system, each model also features a grooved face insert that precisely controls the friction at impact needed to deliver the correct amount of topspin to the golf ball to ensure consistent distance control across a wide portion of the face.

The grooves not only work with the stroke to impart topspin, but they also serve to lower the launch angle to minimize skidding and get the ball into the ‘roll phase’ more quickly, which is vital when controlling a putt’s overall distance.

Each model also features adjustable weighting technology, with weight ports located in the sole that can be switched with a choice of different weights to change the weight of the head to suit your stroke. The sole weights, which are sold separately, are offered in 10g, 15g and 20g.

AIT #1
The model that most closely resembles the original Zebra design from the 1970s, the AIT 1 is an over-sized, face-balanced mallet that boosts MOI and

forgiveness. A horseshoe-shaped soleplate lowers the centre of gravity, while two 15g weights in the toe and heel creates a highly stable head at impact. Weighing 355g, it is offered in RH/LH with 33-, 34- and 35-inch shaft lengths, with a ¾ offset. (RRP – £179.99)

AIT #2
Zebra’s take on the classic fang design sees the weight pushed to the clubhead’s two-pronged extremities to boost MOI for straight shooting and an instantly smooth roll.  Weighing 355g, it is offered in RH/LH with 33-, 34- and 35-inch shaft lengths, with a ¾ offset. (RRP – £179.99)

AIT #3
Another high MOI model, this exciting new design is all about enhancing forgiveness, with the four weight ports on the sole placed forward and outward to deliver high MOI and a supremely balanced head.  Weighing 355g, it is offered in RH/LH with 33-, 34- and 35-inch shaft lengths, with a ¾ offset. (RRP – £199.99)

AIT #4
Designed for players that prefer the look and feel of a blade, this new wide-body, heel-toe weighted design boasts all the forgiveness golfers demand of a mallet but placed in the more refined head shape of a blade. The weight savings from the insert design enables more mass to be located in the toe and heel areas to further enhance forgiveness. Weighing 350g, it is offered in RH/LH with 33-, 34- and 35-inch shaft lengths, with a full offset and 25° toe hang.  (RRP – £159.99)

SHAFTS & GRIPS
All four models are fitted with KBS Stable Stepped Shafts as standard. Stiffer than traditional putter shafts, they are designed to offer increased stability when used with heavier head weights.  A Winn VSN midsized pistol grip is offered as standard. Excel polymer material with a new hexagon pattern offers unmatched feel and performance, while providing that comfortable yet tacky feel that Winn is renowned for.

 All Zebra putters come with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase (conditions apply).

Visit: www.zebragolf.co.uk

Source link