Breaking 80 is the dream of every golfer. Most golfers think that breaking 80 is out of reach… that they need to have Sergio Garcia’s iron game, Ben Crenshaws putting, and Rory’s driver distance and accuracy.
To be honest, you don’t need to do any of these things great in order to break 80.
All you need are a few spare minutes each day and a solid game-plan. In addition, you need to throw out the idea that a single tip is going to magically make you better quickly. Stop chasing the FOOLS GOLD that is popular in today’s golf publications – REJECT the quick fix mentality.
Let’s be real for a moment… the golf ball and golf club are inanimate objects. If you pick up the same club and Jordan Spieth picks up the same club… what do you think the end result will be for any given shot?
So let’s drop the idea’s that new clubs, quick fixes, gadgets, or other Fools Gold are the solution. Sure, your equipment needs to be decent… but the Club Champion at my course won with clubs that are almost 20 years old – Mizuno T-Zoids.
The solution lies in gaining a better understanding of your game. Once you know your game and where it stands, we can set out a plan to FIX THE PROBLEMS. It’s very simple in theory and it’s very simple to put into practice. However, most golfers can’t dissect their game (because they don’t know their numbers)… worse, some are not honest with themselves about their skill level or scores.
In order to gain an understanding of our game, we must begin with a few basics…
In addition to the Seven Critical Skills to Breaking 80, there are a few tools you need to implement immediately.
THINGS TO BEGIN TODAY
- Start Tracking Your Stats
- Learn Your Distances for EVERY Club In Your Bag
- Start Practicing the RIGHT WAY
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Now that you’ve taken ownership and realized the problem is NOT YOUR CLUBS – but with YOU – we are more than 75% of the way to breaking 80.
Everything starts with Sweat Equity. Again, Jordan Spieth didn’t become a Jedi Master of Golf by sitting on his ass and buying a new driver every year. He also doesn’t show up at the range not knowing what he’s working on. In addition, I would be Jordan doesn’t own any gadgets or gimmicks.
So now that we know what is required, what we need to know, how do we put a plan together to break 80?
Getting better is done in tiny little increments over the course of a few months or over a year.If you are breaking 90 and hovering around the mid-80’s – I think breaking 80 is right around the corner for you… if you can apply some basic stat tracking and practice planning.
For the golfer that is close, it’s a matter of tuning up the weakest part of their golf game. So if you haven’t started tracking stats – start doing that immediately. We need a good sample of scores and stats in order to pinpoint the weak-spots… and you may have a few. That’s OK. I think probably 10 rounds is a good sample size of stats.
Track Greens in Regulation, Putts Per Round, Fairways Hit and Missed (and the side of the fairway or rough landed), Chipping Accuracy (actually step these off and write on the card), and do the same for your sand game. In addition, look at how far away your putts are from the hole when you hit a green in regulation. Beyond that, we need to know how far you hit every club in your bag.
Sound like a lot of work? Not really… you can track this as you go. Then transfer to a spreadsheet. IT’S TIME WELL SPENT.
Once we see the numbers, it’s time to put a plan of action together.
This is my favorite part of the game to be honest. Practicing, learning, working towards a goal is fun. Better yet, when you practice the right way, you will make improvements immediately. Improving is done with FOCUS.
Now, I’m going to go back on my rant again against the major golf publications and TV… they simply don’t enforce the REALITY of improvement is through laser like FOCUS.
In our Challenge groups, EVERYBODY who applies themselves gets better.
YEP. EVERYBODY.
Why?
Because we aren’t asking them to do a ridiculous amount of things. Our aim is to focus on one aspect of their game and make it better. We do it by breaking everything down into small increments. THEY MASTER THOSE INCREMENTS and then move on.
When you were learning to read, you didn’t start out reading The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire did you? Hell no.
You learned the basics and worked your way up. Our methodology in our Challenge’s is no different. In fact, we have several scratch golfers, PGA pro’s, and guys on the cusp of breaking 80 regularly participating in our Challenges.
So… what do you practice? The first step is to look at our stats… If I’m rolling 35 or 36 putts and my average score is 83 – I start with putting. Beyond that, I look at what exactly am I doing wrong in my putting? Then I put together a plan of drills and steps and I execute those over the course of SIX WEEKS. Anything less is not giving myself the best chance for success LONG TERM.
Yep. Sweat Equity. Focus. Purpose.
Now, Rich and I have broken down the following SEVEN Critical Golf Skills you need to break 80 EVERYDAY. Here they are in no particular order… because as we have learned, we all have strengths and weaknesses… we get more bang for our buck focusing on the weaknesses ALWAYS. As we bring that weakness up, we will discover another one… so the process continues until 80 is broken.
The SEVEN Critical Golf Skills for Breaking 80
1) Accurate within the Red Zone (100 yards and in)
2) Finding the Fairway with Your Drives (we don’t always need to bang the driver)
3) Short Game & Bunkers (the ability to save par close to the green)
4) Eliminating 3 Putts (mastering distance control and green reading)
5) Shotmaking Skills (rarely is there a flat shot, master the basic downhill, sidehill, uphill, downhill shots)
6) Mental Game (coming out with a plan for the course before you get to the course, making wise decisions, not making things worse)
7) Fitness (eliminate the back 9 fade, develop more power, better balance, and endurance so you can practice)
Now that you have an understanding of the process, get out there and start tracking those stats! I think you will find more enjoyment out of your golf through focused practice, goals, and challenging yourself to get better with a plan. Building your game up by YOURSELF is much more enjoyable than buying a game.
… and we’ll be covering this in our podcast this week.
If there’s anything you would like to hear on The Game Podcast, let me know!
