Break 90 in Golf: Mastering Course Strategy and Mental Toughness
While sound mechanics and consistent ball striking are essential to potentially breaking 90 in golf, course strategy is just as essential when scores in the 80’s are your desire. As being considered one of the best instructors in Orlando, I am often asked how improving course strategy and mental toughness can assist a golfer to breaking 90 in golf. Within blog post we’ll explore the answer to that question. Discussing the elements you’ll need to master when it comes to performing on the course in a smarter and more efficient way. We’ll also look at a few statistics that are common to golfers who struggle to break 90. And how these statistical categories can’t only inform you of your strengths and weaknesses. But also dictate how and what to practice to make breaking 90 in golf a possibility for you.
Typical Statistics of a Golfer Struggling to Breaking 90 in Golf
Here are a few eye-opening numbers you need to consider if you are having difficulty breaking 90.
- Fairways Hit: 40-50%
- Greens in Regulation (GIR): 15-20%
- Putts per Round: 35-40
- Penalties (Water, OB): 2-4 per round
- Double Bogeys or Worse: 4-6 per round
The last 3 categories of stats should stick out to you like a sore thumb. Putt better! Which we address in a previous post within the series Breaking 90. In this post, the last 2 numbers are what we want you to understand, evaluate, and make better decisions about. Cut the penalties to just 1 a round and reduce the double bogeys to just a bogey and you’ve saved a potential 9 strokes!
Those 2 numbers are your biggest pitfalls as a golfer struggling to break 90. True, some of these mistakes can be caused by poor ball striking. However, if you know what your limits are as a golfer and you continue to make decisions and play outside of those capabilities, not breaking 90 is your own fault!
Course Strategy: Playing Smarter, Not Harder
One of the main strategic shifts for golfers looking to break 90 is to focus on what works rather than attempting to play high-risk shots you’re not capable of pulling off. Or constantly attempting to “fix your swing” on the course. Making better decisions based upon the toolbox you brought that day is always in your best interest. What’s your toolbox? Not just your clubs. The toolbox is what your body can do. And making decisions using the tools you have that day.
We can also call this playing to your strengths! Forget what you’re not good at. Remember only what you can do and play using those skills. No matter how limited you believe your skills to be, playing golf using the skills you do possess will always lead to lower scores.
Off the Tee
An example is using a driver off every tee, knowing you can’t keep that club in play. If you’re scratching your head on every tee box wondering why the club can’t stay in play, then you’re not being smart. The
Teeing it lower and using a hybrid or fairway wood is a low risk/high reward strategy to breaking 90 in golf.
evidence is right in front of you. You can’t hit the driver that day! So why are you driving yourself nuts continuing to do the same thing anticipating a different result?
If you want more drives in play, you’re going to have to do something different. Most of the time, you’ll try to “swing slower.” That doesn’t work. Then you’ll aim differently. That might work once or twice. But because your brain has figured out where you’re aiming and how you normally swing, it will only work a couple of times before returning to what you normally do. Hitting the driver out of play, making bogey or better an impossibility.
What is the best “change” in this example? Simple. Don’t use your driver! Use a fairway wood or hybrid to keep the ball in play. The yardage you sacrifice using these clubs over the driver is minimal at your current skill level. And would you rather hit your second shot from the fairway or from deep rough? Or even worse, from under a tree or behind a bush?
Hitting More Greens In Regulation
Another example of making a smart change in your course strategy is to hit more greens in regulation each round. Not 2 to 4. Why do you only hit 2-4 greens in regulation in a round of golf? Countless studies, along with Arccos data, shows you miss greens short most of the time. Why? Your ego is getting in the way and you’re not using enough club to reach the green. We’ve penned a few posts about this subject you should check out.
How can you hit more greens?
- Use enough club to reach the middle of the green with your carry distance. Not your total distance. Understanding it is okay to go past the pin and remain on the green provides you more opportunities to 2 putt and go on to the next hole.
- Your target is the middle of the green. No matter where the flag may be located on any given day, your job is to hit the middle of the green.
If you do just these 2 things and keep 3-putting at the rate you are now, there is a good chance breaking 90 is within reach. Imagine if you decreased your 3-putts too.
Minimizing Penalty Strokes
Eliminating all your penalty strokes is one of the best ways to assure yourself the possibility of breaking 90 in golf.
Penalty strokes are scorecard killers, adding extra shots without giving you any chance to compensate. The biggest mistake you’re making when it comes to penalty strokes is trying to make the penalties back in one great shot, a hero shot. You do not possess superpowers. So why are you trying to make up 1 or 2 shots all at once?
After experiencing a penalty, the first order of business is erasing the experience from your mind. And understanding what you have in front of you next. Keeping par, or bogey at worse, front and center. This typically means choosing a conservative route to the hole and not compounding your initial mistake with another one. It is always best to be conservative in these cases, making the decision that allows your strengths to provide you a realistic opportunity to save par. Or at worst, make bogey.
At your current skill level, you’re going to record at least one penalty per round. But if you can limit the mistakes to just one penalty per round, breaking 90 is a realistic possibility.
Are You Mentally Tough Enough to Break 90?
One of the main differences between a golfer who can break 90 and one who can’t is a golfer’s ability to overcome small adversities, such as double bogey or worse. Yes, those numbers are large and add up quickly to a total score. However, if limited to one disastrous hole versus several, won’t the possibility of breaking 90 increase significantly?
Avoiding the Blow Ups
Your ability to be resilient when faced with a “blow up hole” is a key factor to the possibility of you breaking 90, consistently. And the beginning of that resiliency is your ability to accept bogey as a good score when faced with small adversities on the course.
Sometimes called “damage control,” your ability to deal with a difficult shot or situation is all it takes to turn a big blow-up number into a smaller, more reasonable and acceptable outcome. The most notable culprit of these big numbers is the superhero shot. As we stated earlier in the post, you are not a superhero! So why are you attempting to impersonate one on the golf course? When you attempt to pull off the lowest of odds shot and fail, you have all but eliminated any chance of making better than bogey on any hole. From any position on the hole.
Accept Bogeys
At your current skill level, bogey is a good score. Think about the math of an average golf course being a par 72 and you bogeying all the holes. You shoot 90! Wow, make one more put or eliminate one penalty stroke and you broke through the 90-scoring barrier!
Bogey is a good score for you! And in some circumstances a good score for a better skilled golfer. You must learn to make bogeys before you make more pars. And you must learn to make more pars before you can make more birdies. There are no short cuts to this process of gaining experience.
Stay in the Present
Did you ever get to the 15th hole and realize that if you make pars of bogeys from that point on you can break 90? Only to make big numbers and post a score over 90? You got ahead of yourself! And most
Focusing on 1 task at a time and not getting ahead of yourself on the course lends itself well to you having a chance of breaking 90 in golf more often.
golfers who focus on scores will get ahead of themselves at this skill level.
Focusing on your score only increases the pressure you place upon yourself. Are you ready to manage that pressure? A good tip is to stay focused upon statistics instead. Doing so keeps you in the present, forcing you to think only about the next shot. Not the ones that are 30 minutes or more away from you.
At John Hughes Golf, we are constantly asking our clients to focus on each shot, and the laundry lists of tasks that comprise each shot. Doing so keeps you process-oriented, treating each shot as a fresh opportunity can help maintain your composure. Something you’ll need in the future to handle the pressure you place upon yourself.
Eliminate Negative Thoughts
Ask Jack Nicklaus if he remembers any shot he attempted from his 19 runner-up finishes in major championships and he can’t. He only remembers all the shots, from all rounds, of the 18 majors he won.
Lesson learned here is when you remember what you are doing well, you’re feeding your brain with what it needs to sustain positive results. And forget about the mistakes. Golf is a game that you learn from your mistakes. But remembering mistakes is not how you lower your score.
You lower your scores from remembering how you can execute. Remember how you did something in the past in a positive way that can be slightly altered or adjusted to produce a positive outcome now. Respond to all problems you face on the course with positive thoughts and memories and breaking 90 is within your grasp.
Improving Your Mistakes
Accepting the fact that you are not perfect on the course goes a long way to creating your ability to hit “great misses.” Not even the tour players are perfect. And they accept that fact as they go about making great decisions that allow their impressive misses to look like perfection to you.
Adopting a positive or neutral mindset after poor shots can stop one bad shot from cascading into a string of errors. An example is instead of letting a missed fairway or three-putt ruin your mood, view it as an isolated incident and focus on the next shot with a clear mind.
Being able to objectively put all mistakes into perspective in the heat of the moment is a skill all great players possess and use constantly. It provides them with the ability to persevere. To continue as if nothing happened. But more importantly provide information they can use after the round to make improvements and learn from what did not go their way on the course that day.
Offset that information with real statistics and you now have a way to understand where your common trends of mistakes occur on the course. Providing a pathway to create and implement more purposeful and productive practice sessions addressing those concerns.
Breaking 90 in Golf – Putting It All Together
When it comes to breaking 90, the combination of strategic choices and mental toughness makes a world of difference. Consider how these adjustments in mindset and approach could impact the example stats of a typical golfer who can’t break 90.
What if you improved from 40% of fairways hit to 50%? Greens in regulation increases from 20% to 30%. Putting statistics decreased from 40 or more putts to just 34 putts per round? And penalty strokes were narrowed to just 1 a round?
If all the above were real, breaking 90 would be a cinch! And you’d be eyeing the next scoring barrier, breaking 80, faster than you think.
Conclusion to Breaking 90 in Golf
The small improvements in each skill category of your game add up to big numbers. Particularly if your statistics show you are weak in certain areas.
At John Hughes Golf, we emphasize the need to hit a few more fairways, make smarter decisions with approach shots, reduce penalties, and improve your putting, to break 90 consistently is a realistic possibility. Each choice, each mental reset, and each adjustment in strategy compounds to shave off precious strokes. And it provides you with the confidence to break 90 on a regular basis.
Breaking 90 is a challenging but achievable goal. By focusing on course strategy, mental toughness, and consistent practice, you can improve your game and reach your goal. Remember, it’s not about perfection, but about making the most of your opportunities and minimizing mistakes.