The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

First, a background on me:

I've yet to break 90 and my swing is all over the place. I am left-handed and consistently slice the ball way, way, way, left. I think my club-face is extremely open at impact due to my swing plane, which is very very outside in, and for the life of me I cannot get it inside out.

Anyways, there are generally 3 plateaus which I listed, all which come with their own set of skills and mindset. What do you think it takes to achieve each plateau?

Breaking 100: Being able to 1 chip and 2 putt consistently, and being able to strike your irons consistently.

Breaking 90: Being able to put the ball in the fairway off the tee, and being able to hit your long irons well. Being able to hit a decent draw/fade when the situation requires it.

Breaking 80: No penalty strokes. 250+ yard drives (straight) on all long holes. Being able to 1 chip and 1 putt in almost all situations. Hitting a good percentage of GIR.

What do you guys think?

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

Work on your fundamenals to break 90...

Grip
Posture
Ball address
Alignment
Weight distribution (Right handed golfer: Right side for driver and left for wedge shots)

Then work on your swing plane and tempo...

Read a lot of books, free at the library...

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

"Breaking 80: No penalty strokes. 250+ yard drives (straight) on all long holes. Being able to 1 chip and 1 putt in almost all situations. Hitting a good percentage of GIR."


IMO this describes people who break 70 a lot. If you get it up and down every time and hit say 11 greens, you aren't struggling to break 80. I swear this year I am going to work mostly on the short game.

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

[ QUOTE ]
Breaking 90: Being able to put the ball in the fairway off the tee, and being able to hit your long irons well. Being able to hit a decent draw/fade when the situation requires it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, not so much and no, IMHO.

If you're looking to break 90 and can hit higher-lofted woods and/or hybrid clubs decently, I suspect that most teaching pros will tell you to get rid of the long irons entirely. Just having some kind of consistency with longer clubs is the important part. You want to be able to advance the ball to somewhere in the area of the green in regulation.

As for shaping the ball, I don't see that as a key to breaking 90 at all. It's a luxury unless you're playing an extremely tight course, and even then you can gameplan around a lot of those situations. Being competent around the greens (avoiding 2 chips or 3 putts) is infinitely more important.

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

[ QUOTE ]
Breaking 80: No penalty strokes. 250+ yard drives (straight) on all long holes. Being able to 1 chip and 1 putt in almost all situations. Hitting a good percentage of GIR. What do you guys think?

[/ QUOTE ]

You list 4 points here. I think if you do any 3 of them, you should have a very good chance at breaking 80 on most courses.

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

One key to lower scores is know where your misses are likely to end up.

Having strong tendencies, recognizing them, and doing something about them will have a very positive effect on your score.

That, and short game, of course.

Short game struggles I see with many golfers:

Putting- horrible, horrible, speed control.

Chipping- mishitting chips due to trying to scoop the ball in the air.
A player's chipping will always poor if the club is on the upswing at the ball.

Using your #'s of
Breaking 100- 95% of players that don't break 100 "scoop" chips.
Breaking 90- 75% of players with this goal "scoop".
Breaking 80- Half of golfers with this goal still scoop, at least half th time.

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

As others have mentioned, if you do all the things listed in your breaking 80 category you'll regularly be shooting under par. As far as breaking 90 is concerned I don't think being able to hit a draw or fade on command is particularly important until you get to a very high level of golf.

Re: The 3 progressions: breaking 100, breaking 90, breaking 80
 

PokerFox, I think your 100 and 90 goals are pretty good.

I'm in the high 90s range right now (only 3 trips, variance, shrug).

I think you're dead on though. I shot 100 a couple days ago despite only hitting one fairway off the tee and two greens in regulation.

I don't see the big deal of trying to get from 100 to 90, personally. I used to always be well over 100 but now that I'm in the 100 range, I think it will be relatively easy to get low 90s by doing the things you listed (hitting fairways off the tee the main one for me).