How to Break 100 in Golf
Breaking 100 in golf involves sharpening your fundamentals and learning good course management.
While most golfers want their swing to look like Tiger Woods, the smart golfers want their scorecard to look more like the 15-time major winner.
A pretty swing doesn’t necessarily translate into posting low scores, so you must focus on playing good golf in all aspects of the game. From hitting more fairways to developing a better short game, breaking 100 takes patience and focus.
But luckily, you don’t have to go into battle blindfolded.
In my top 10 tips for breaking 100 in golf, I will show you a step-by-step plan to help you make more pars, prevent the dreaded double bogey, and help you set an all-time best personal score.
Tip #1
Develop a Pre-Shot Routine
To repeatedly hit a great shot, your golf swing must remain consistent. And that is a difficult task for even the best golfers in the world. However, your swing can become something new once you hit the golf course.
Let’s say that during your practice sessions, you are hitting a high fade, but then once you show up for your round and start hitting golf balls on the driving range, you are producing a mid-range draw.
Every golfer has experienced this frustrating phenomenon, so how do you combat it? Developing a fool-proof pre-shot routine helps you maintain consistency for hitting solid shots.
When teaching my students about their routine, I always have them start behind the ball and visualize the shot they want to hit. While standing behind the ball, I suggest they stay loose by swinging the club several times.
While swinging, I want them to choose a target area and find the path to produce that specific shot. Then, they need to find a spot a few inches before the golf ball to help them line up their shoulders and feet at the address.
Once aligned to the ball’s flight path, they should take their eyes to the target and waggle the club. You never want to stiffen your arms or feel heavy at address, and you need your whole body to feel loose and ready to produce high swing speed.
After you feel safe to swing, find a spot on the ball to focus your eyes. Remember, the swing rotates around the head, so maintaining a quiet head position helps anchor contact. After you lock in on the ball, start your swing.
Tip #2
Learn Strategic Course Management
After we’ve developed a solid pre-shot routine, you need to learn how to attack the course efficiently. So many golfers, especially high handicappers, fail to understand how to view the course strategically.
Every shot you take on most golf courses needs a quick, efficient examination. During your next round, pay attention to your surroundings with a focused eye. By avoiding a bad shot into bunkers, water, and thick rough, you can save your score for that hole.
As you look at the course before each shot, remember that you also need to consider your next shot.
Hitting the ball on the green means you’re putting, so you don’t need to overthink that shot, but as you hit the driver or use your long irons on an approach shot, realize that by not paying attention to where you aligned at address, you could create trouble for your game without even noticing it.
While it might add a little time, don’t be afraid to ask your playing partners if you are aligned with your target. Sometimes our eyes play tricks on us, and we believe we are pointed in one direction when we’re aimed at a different spot entirely.
If you are struggling with alignment, there are excellent training aids that can help you in the practice range.
Tip #3
Develop a Consistent Practice Routine
When attempting to break 100 in golf, you must improve every aspect of your game. One of the easiest ways to strengthen remains setting a regular practice schedule that works on your swing every day.
If you have the means to get regular lessons, nothing will improve your game faster than having someone there to give you immediate feedback.
The internet has also created easy ways to communicate with coaches worldwide for instant feedback that you can implement during practice sessions.
Most coaches, including myself, will stress that you should practice your game around the greens daily. While most amateurs want to hit their driver 50 times and then call it a day on the range, you must practice better to improve your average score.
Setting aside time for essential skills like lag putting, chipping, and distance control with your putter can help you break 100.
After carding a few pars during your upcoming round, you’ll begin to feel that you are playing golf the right way and that confidence will spill over into everything you do as you get your game in shape.
Tip #4
Eliminate Fat Shots
Most amateur golfers that fail to break 100 tend to hit behind the golf ball. By hitting the ground first, you lose most of your swing speed, and failing to strike the ball cleanly causes you not to maximize distance.
When you hit behind the golf ball, that signals you are leaving your weight on your back foot at impact. You won’t hit one shot fat if you properly transition your weight from your back to your front leg. To break 100 in golf, you need to make more consistent ball-first contact.
Another possible problem when hitting ground-first is the wrong placement of your ball position at the address. It would be best to always have your ball positioned slightly ahead of the center of your stance to help adjust for weight transition.
If you are hitting a wedge, the ball can start in the center of your stance, but as your club progresses, your ball position should move forward.
Tip #5
Hit More Fairways Using Draw-Bias Driver
If you struggle with a slice on the tee box, you must play a driver with draw bias and plenty of slice correction. These drivers remove side spin from your drive to help you hit the ball straighter and more predictably.
To break 100 in golf, you want to start with hitting more fairways, and adding more forgiving clubs, such as a draw-bias driver, to your golf bag can help you accomplish that simple goal.
By playing with the right clubs, especially off the tee area, you can get the ball close to your intended target to help put yourself in a better position to attack the green.
If you want a draw-bias driver that can grow with your game, look at the adjustable weighting drivers that allow you to slide the weight to add subtle slice correction.
These drivers are expensive, but if you are looking for a club that will grow as your game improves, these woods offer total customization over your shot-making from the tee.
In the end, when you hit the driver, you want to see positive results, and the draw-bias driver can help you find more fairways with additional distance.
Tip #6
Use Fairway Woods Effectively on Par 5s
When it comes to Par 5s, you want to make par. Even though the hole is longer, the scorecard allows you to utilize that 5th shot to your advantage. Since most courses carry 2-4 par 5s on the scorecard, you can significantly reduce your strokes taken to help you break 100.
One of the best ways to improve your chance of making par on these longer holes remains to play with the fairway wood once you are sitting in the fairway after your tee shot.
Fairway Woods are great golf clubs for quickly getting the ball into the air with maximum distance. The golf club offers a low, extended profile that swings smoothly and transmits massive energy transfer to the ball if you swing the club relatively hard.
Sitting on the tee on a par 5, you must get the most distance from the first two shots on the hole.
Let’s say the hole measures 500 yards. If you can hit your driver 200 yards and your fairway wood 150 yards, then you are hitting a mid-iron into the green.
If your averages with the driver and fairway are longer, you are hitting a wedge onto the putting surface.
Learning to maximize distance with your intermediate woods are cheat codes to help you break 100.
Tip #7
Find Large Target on Approach Shots
To break 100 in golf, you need distance and accuracy with your tee shot, and the same holds when you hit shots from the fairway toward the green.
Isolating a more significant target as you hit your shot into the green can help stabilize your swing and improve your positioning as you address the golf ball. If the green is large, split the putting surface into two halves and hit your shot toward the half that steers you from trouble.
Remember, we want to avoid scorecard-killing triple bogeys, so the second shot needs pure ball striking and solid location.
While you should always hope to be sitting on the green after most shots from the fairway, even placing the ball where a short chip shot is needed should be considered a victory when looking to break 100 in golf.
Tip #8
Carry a 56-Degree Wedge
Carrying a 56-degree wedge, commonly called a sand wedge, makes it easier to hit crisp shots around the greens. In the end, getting the ball on the green in as few strokes as possible helps the scorecard, so you want to use clubs that make that more straightforward and efficient.
The 56-degree wedge offers more bounce with a wide sole, making it a weapon when hitting chip and pitch shots.
Although the pitching wedge might offer more distance from the fairway, the 56-degree wedge provides a better shot shape with more spin to holding shots on the green.
Most amateurs believe playing a 60-degree lob wedge offers a better opportunity to hit the ball safely, but that loft can create problems for inexperienced players.
By focusing on the 56-degree wedge, one of the most forgiving clubs, you can eliminate wayward shots and help your accuracy when hitting shots inside 125 yards.
Tip #9
Hit Every Short Game Shot with the Same Wedge
Playing all of your shots around the green with the same club, as with the aforementioned 56-degree wedge, remains my best tip for improving your game around the greens.
The more comfortable you are with your club, the more consistent and reliable you will score.
You might also see a chipping club advertised as a short-game miracle, and while they are helpful, you can accomplish the same results by learning to chip with the 56-degree wedge.
Tip #10
Avoid Three Putts
You might hear golfers on Sunday say they had too many “three putts” during their round and always wonder what that phrase means.
A three-putt is when a golfer puts the ball three times on any hole. It typically means the golfer carded a bogey or worse on that hole simply due to their putting.
Good lag putting remains essential for high handicappers looking to break 100 in golf. A well-struck lag putt puts the ball inside roughly three feet from a long distance. Having this distance control with the putter can prevent three putts and make more pars.
Amateur golfers make too many three-putts on the putting green, causing them to score a triple bogey or worse. When you are sitting in the fairway, about to hit an entry shot into the green, a two-putt remains your goal to card a par.
In your quest to break 100, your putter needs to become the most reliable club in your golf bag, and efficient lag putting remains the best method to save strokes with the flat stick.
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