If you’re reading this then I’m going to assume you’ve crossed the first golfing milestone of breaking 100 and now you’re looking to take your game to the next level.
Breaking 90 is a special milestone for every golfer. It will feel even more special once you find out What Percentage Of Golfers Break 90…
Breaking 90 means you’ve now joined the top level of golfers! This means that you will become the Tiger Woods of your friend group, the big dog, the master chief, and the guy everyone asks for spare tees…
You’re so close to shooting in the 80s that you can already taste the Nikey deals. But to get to somewhere you have never been you’re going to have to do things you’ve never done.
Below is a list of 21 things I have tried and implemented that helped me drop 20+ shots off my scorecards within 3 months.
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Warm-Up And Get Loose Whenever Possible
You roll out of the car head straight to the clubhouse, grab your scorecard (maybe a pack of tees) and walk over to the tee box, get in a few practice swings while you wait for the group ahead to clear off, step up to the tee and hit a bad drive, followed by a mix of shanked irons, bad chips, and inconsistent putts, only to “find your groove” after a few holes. Sound familiar?
Well warming up before most rounds can help you start better and avoid making double/triple bogeys early on which is crucial for breaking 90.
Limiting these kinds of scores early on will put help keep a positive mindset.
Your warmup doesn’t have to take forever. Just go to the range/ practice net (whichever your club has) and hit a few shots with your clubs to get loose. Then make your way to the practice green and roll a few puts. It doesn’t need to take hours, ideally, it should take around 20-30 minutes.
Once you hit a good shot on the range with a club put it back in the bag and take out another one. I find it helps me mentally to finish with a good shot for each club just before the round starts!
Check out our full Warm-Up Routine To Lower Your Score if you need help working on your routine.
Work On Your Pre Shot Routine
This one can be difficult since you’ve probably had the same routine since you started playing golf. But just because you have a routine doesn’t mean it’s good.
For example, my old pre shot routine was a little on the long side… I would take a few too many practice swings and would only stop when the last one felt right. It wasn’t really a routine at all, more of a divot-taking session.
If your current routine is on the long side then it needs to change. You want to limit the time you have to think before a shot. The goal is to try to focus on just one swing thought for every shot.
The sweet spot for your pre shot routine should be no longer than 15-20 seconds.
Most of the PGA tour players’ routines start by standing behind the golf ball to visualize the shot, followed by a practice swing or two before they step up to strike the ball. It should flow naturally into your actual shot and give you confidence.
Short and sweet should be the way to describe your routine!
It’s okay to have a couple of pre shot routines for different shots. Obviously, your putting routine will be different from the one off the tee. Nobody wants to see you swing your putter around.
If you need some help check out this post on How To Build A Pre Shot Routine that will lower your score and increase your confidence.
Getting Your Ball Safely Off The Tee Should Be The Goal
If you’re going to avoid blowing up your scorecard and ruining your chances of hitting 90 then you’ve to sacrifice distance so you can get more balls in play.
This is one of the toughest pills to swallow and is easier said than done for most golfers (including me).
Having the discipline to swing the golf club easier or hit an iron on tight holes takes time. Believe me, I know it’s tough when every fiber in your body just wants you to take out the big dog and rip one down the fairway.
However, if you’re going to shoot in the 80s you need to try to limit the number of times you end up dropping shots from the tee box in each round. The only way to do this is by swapping distance for accuracy. Hitting a long iron or hybrid off the tee box on a par 4 at first glance doesn’t seem like much fun.
But at the end of the hole would you prefer to tell your golfing buddies to put you down for a par/bogey or a double bogey? Wild tee shots make for even wilder scores.
Learn To Recover From Bad Shots
Hitting a bad shot will happen no matter how good you are at golf. But recovering from bad shots will keep your score from blowing up past the point of no return.
How many times have you hit a bad shot that goes into the trees, and you find your golf ball and try to go for the green through 60 yards of trees? Probably a lot. Now, how many times have you actually nailed the green from those shots? Probably never.
Breaking 90 requires that you play it safe. You have to go for shots that you are confident you can make the majority of the time.
This means the next time you end up in the trees you look for the biggest gap that gets you back to the fairway and not the green.
By playing for safety first then going at the green you keep yourself in the game and can still grab yourself a bogey and move on to the next hole.
If you go for the highlight reel clips you will end up stuck in the trees, chunking your irons, dropping endless shots, agitating yourself, and putting yourself in a negative mindset for the rest of the round.
Just take your medicine and move on.
Work On Approach Shots From 100-150 Yards
You know that the best way to make your round totals drop through the floor is by dialing in your short game.
There’s nothing worse than stepping up to the golf ball hoping you’re going to stick it beside the hole only to push the ball off the backside of the green.
For me, I started easily shooting in the 80s almost overnight by just getting this particular area in check.
How I did it was by actually using my wedges when I went to the driving range, no more cranking the driver through a large bucket of balls… well most of the time anyways!
From this distance, you just need to feel confident with 2 clubs. For me, it’s a pitching wedge and a 9 iron. By going to the range and just drilling 2 clubs you will get more comfortable and confident when addressing the golf ball on the course.
Don’t worry about fancy approach shots leave that to the pros just focus on getting the ball up and down.
When you go to the driving range spilt your basket of balls into 3 piles. 1 pile for shots from 0-50 yards, the 2nd for 50-100 yards, and the last pile for well… 100-150 yards.
Checkout this article for a more in-depth look at improving your Approach Shots or your Half-Wedge Shots.
Going For Birdies Or More Than a Few Pars Will Ruin Your Score
If you’re shooting 90s there is a good chance that you’re hunting for birdies or pars. By doing this you’re more likely to try to hit some hero shots to save par.
But you aren’t on the PGA Tour which means you mess up these shots a lot. This means you quickly start adding double and triple bogeys to your scorecard.
If you forget about birdies or pars and just focus on collecting bogeys you will shoot in the 80s.
Firstly it takes some of the pressure off you mentally throughout the round and secondly, it will lead to smarter shot decisions. It means you don’t have to be the weekend all-star.
You can now lay up, aim for the fattest part of the green, hit an iron off the tee, play it safe and allow yourself a bad shot here and there. I found that when I start looking for bogeys the pars and birdies would come out to play more often.
On the flip side when I used to go out looking for pars they would be nowhere to be seen.
If the course par is 71 then finding 18 bogeys will have you in the 80s club. Obviously, if the par is 72 you need at least one par but if you don’t force it they will come.
Two Putts Are Golden
Three putts are awful, they make you question why you even play golf.
It can be so frustrating when you are lipping out putts you know you should be making. It’s equally as frustrating when you put too much juice into it, you’ve put it past the hole and now you have a longer putt coming back the other way.
Or worse of all when your golf buddies tell you it’s a gimme but you putt it anyways… and miss… now that’s pain.
How do we avoid situations like this and nail more two-putts? The only way around this is to work on your pace on the green.
Don’t even worry too much about what way it breaks, what should be your priority is leaving it close enough that you have a makeable putt.
This tip is almost the same principle as going for bogey. If you set out aiming for 18 two putts it takes some of the pressure off and you will naturally start picking up some one putts here and there.
If you can significantly lower the number of three puts in a round, your score will start to come down.
Practice green sessions are more important than some of your range sessions. If you go the driving range twice a week then drop this to one and practice your putting stroke one of the days. It might not be fun at the start but once you start draining some putts you won’t go back!
If you struggle with putting checkout this post showing How You Can Improve Your Putting.
Pick The Right Shots To Break 90
Are you even a weekend golfer if you don’t try and pull off shots you see on the PGA Tour? You might want to sit down for this one… but you’re not good enough to pull those shots off on the regular so stop.
If you want your score to drop you need to focus on what you can do.
I’ve been there, and I’ve tried to do a signature Phil Mickelson flop shop at least 100 times and nailed it maybe once. I know how good it can feel when you finally make it but the other 99 times ruined my score on that hole.
To make it to the promised lands you need to be realistic about what you can do. Check out the 3 areas below that will help you keep the scores low every hole.
Don’t Worry About Trying To Shape Your Shots
Staring down a green where the pin is tucked in just over a bunker and thinking you’re going to try to hit a little fade will result in a slice 9 times out of 10.
Checkout the below post if you need help fixing a slice:
Fixing A Slice With Your Driver
Similarly, you might believe you can draw your ball around the tree to safety but most likely it will end it cracking the tree or possibly you! You’re better off not worrying about your shot shape just yet.
How do I know this? Because I’ve been there and if I’m being honest I still go back to visit from time to time only to be reminded why I stopped going… To shoot in the 80s you don’t need a range of shots you just need to be able to get the ball from point A to point B.
It really doesn’t matter if it’s a draw, fade or if you hit the ball with the opposite end as long as it consistently hits the mark. Leave the hero shots to the professional golfers, once you focus on what you’re able to do you will start making more pars and consistent bogeys.
Pick One Shot And One Club For Chipping
Your chipping can make or break your ability to shoot lower scores so it’s important to make it as simple as possible. We all know the pain of deciding to hit a sand wedge around the green only to catch it heavy or catch it cleanly and end up on the far side of the green (if it stayed on the green that is!).
You might feel you need to use all your wedges in your bag but that logic is costing you strokes
If you want to pencil in a lower score every hole then you need to pick one wedge and commit to it. My go-to choice is a pitching wedge, it gives me more confidence that I will be able to put it close to the hole or at the very least on the green!
All you have to do is decide what’s your go-to club going to be. To break 90 you just have to get it on the green.
You shouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself to stick it a foot from the hole. If you have a putt then you have a chance!
Know What Clubs Get You Out Of The Rough… And What Clubs Don’t
Just by reading that heading you already know what these clubs are for you. You know for example that whenever you try to hit a wood out of the thick rough it ends badly.
You also know that you’re confident that most of the time your 7 iron is going to do the job.
So many shots are gained by the pressure of hitting out of the rough on a long par 4 or 5. From now on you’re going to figure out what’s the longest club you can hit confidently out of the rough and ignore the fact you are 200+ yards out from the green.
All you need is for your next shot to be close enough to the green giving you a chance at an up and down. Do this and the rough won’t be so…rough in the future.
Dial In Your Mental Game
This probably doesn’t come as a surprise but the mental side of golf has a huge influence on what you shoot on the day.
Let me know if this has happened to you… your playing well and heading onto the last few holes, you suddenly realize that you’re playing well and if you don’t make a mess of things you will break 90… only to play the worse golf of your life ruining your chances.
How can you prevent this? Well to do so you should get a mental game book or audiobook to read or listen to before your next round.
These books will give you perspective on how you should approach your game. One book I would recommend as your first that helped me was Golf is Not a Game of Perfect by Bob Rotella.
Just try to focus on one hole at a time… Easier said than done I know! But some of my best rounds have started with back-to-back double bogeys, you just never know what the next hole will bring. Realistically you don’t need to play aggressive golf to break 90.
Practice the Right Way
You might not really want to do this but if the only time you pick up a club is when you’re about to start a round then breaking 90 is going to be tough.
You don’t need to spend hours a day but even going to the range 1-2 times a week will 100% improve your golf game. After a while, you will build confidence in your golf swing… if you practice the right way.
You might go to the range but the majority of the time you spend there is spent gripping and ripping that driver. Just letting the face of the club devour ball after ball. How are you supposed to execute shots with the rest of your bag?
During your range sessions try and split up your time. Split your basket up so you still get to hit the driver but the rest of your bag gets the same attention too.
Once you start hitting great shots with the rest of your clubs you’ll never go back to just focusing on the long game again.
What really helped me and my game was trying to only focus on one thing per training session. For one session you could focus solely on trying to hit your long irons off the deck and then the following session would be mainly focused on your wedges.
Obviously, this depends on whatever part of your game you feel is holding you back!
Read this article that focuses solely on breaking down a Golf Practice Plan To Break 90.
Or check out this article on How To Practice Golf At Home the correct way.
Watch It On TV Or Youtube
I’m going to be 100% honest I sometimes struggle to watch the full coverage of golf when it’s on TV, I love playing the game more than watching it.
However, I do enjoy watching it on Youtube and subscribe to channels like Good Good, GM Golf, Rick Sheils, just to name a few. I find it easier to concentrate and observe what is going on with these short clips.
If you want to get better you can’t just watch it mindlessly you have to study it and start asking questions like the below…
Why didn’t they hit their driver on this hole?
Are they keeping their heads down when they put?
Do they always attack the pin?
What are they doing around the greens, are they using any specific shot type the most?
Once you watch it enough you will learn about course management. If the pros leave the driver in the bag for some par 4’s then why don’t you?
Work On Your Overall Fitness
Does this sound familiar, you are about to come onto the last 6 holes of the course, and you’ve played well so far but towards the end, you start to feel tired and lose focus.
You’re probably more focused and kicking your feet up when you get home at this stage. If this sound like you then your fitness is costing you strokes at the end of the round.
Working on your overall fitness can easily knock a few strokes off your round totals. This could mean adding in a day or two during the week where you go on a walk, jog or lift a few weights. Not only can it help with your endurance but with your overall strength too.
As you get stronger the ball of the tee box will start going further naturally which can set you up for some easier second shots to the green.
Personally, I can say for a fact that when I started lifting weights a few times a week I found golf a lot easier. I had more control over the club, it felt like I barely had to swing the club and the ball shot off and my consistency carried through until the last hole.
Focus On Your Recovery In Between Rounds
To break 90 you’re going to want to feel 100% on the day. Unfortunately, the majority of weekend golfers tend to pick up small injuries either on the course or when working throughout the week. You know the ones I’m talking about a sore lower back, twinged shoulder, bad elbow, or a dodgy knee.
This is why it’s so important to look after your body in between rounds. If you’ve got an injury you’re going to restrict your swing. Not only that but the pain will make you lose your focus.
This doesn’t have to be the case and you don’t need to hire a professional sports therapist or spend money on massages every week to become injury free.
One thing in particular that helped me with my chronic lower back pain was doing just 5-10 minutes of stretching most days. Check out this article for the Back Stretch Routine I use to keep loose.
It helped loosen out my muscles which helped prevent injuries but also the additional flexibility helped my swing.
Something else you should try is using pain relief products. There are plenty of lotions or patches that can help relieve pain. You can carry pain relief patches in your bag every round making for a great addition to the bag.
You could also invest in a back massager or massage gun, they probably cost about the same as an actual massage. The main benefit is that there are no recurring payments and can be done before or after a round with ease. There are plenty online to choose from just make sure to check out the reviews.
Give Your Clubs A Good Clean
It’s funny because nearly every golfer I have met always makes sure that their balls are squeaky clean… but then their wedge still has sand from a bunker they played out of 2 weeks ago.
If your clubs are filthy it means you’re lacking in confidence.
Have you ever thought to yourself that a little bit of dirt isn’t going to make a difference for you, maybe a professional golfer but not you? That’s you doubting your abilities!
Even a complete beginner can be affected by dirty clubs. When a club is filthy it affects how far the ball will travel and how much spin can be put on the golf ball. This applies to all levels of golfers not just pros.
For example, you could hit a wedge from a bunker on the first hole and nail the green, then hit the exact same shot again without cleaning the club and the end result will be different.
To break 90 we need to have consistency and clean clubs are a good start.
You don’t have to give them a bath in between rounds or anything just buy yourself a cheap club cleaner online or in the club shop before you head out on your round.
Check out this blog post if you want to know How To Clean Your Golf Clubs easily without damaging them or this post on What To Do With Old Golf Balls.
Can’t have clean clubs without some clean balls!
Know Your Average Yardage
If you can apply this step then you will be one giant step closer to shooting in the 80s. A lot of the time golfers choose clubs based on times they hit that club really well.
You might remember the time you carried your driver 250+ yards and thought you know what… I think I can carry that water. But then it splashes in the water and your dropping for 3. I’ve been there a bunch of times myself don’t worry!
This is why if you want to shoot lower scores you need to know what you hit on average with each club. Not the exceptions but the averages.
Once you figure out how far each club usually goes you will have more confidence in your shot selections and course management.
I would recommend finding a local driving range with ball-tracking technology or investing in a device online.
Some of them can be a little pricey but if you are hitting the range a lot they can massively improve your practice sessions.
If Your Getting New Clubs Then Test Them Out
It’s almost an unwritten rule that if you’re trying to lower your score that you need better clubs, your current golf clubs fitted, or new grips to do so. Most of the time you might buy clubs because you like how they look, your driver has become worn out, or because that’s what the pros use. But if you are a mid-high handicapper that’s going to get you in trouble.
Sure the pros use blades and have extra stiff shafts on their drivers but that’s why they are on the tour. This isn’t like one of those old sporting commercials where you get special abilities by using what the pros do.
More often than not you will pick the wrong clubs for your skill level.
That being said I am not saying buying clubs won’t help your game and if you have an old set currently then you will definitely benefit from the new technology in modern clubs.
What I am saying is to go and test out the clubs before you buy them. Most golf shops offer a service when they look at your swing, club head speed, skill level and suggest what clubs will benefit you the most.
Would you just buy a car on your phone without giving it a test drive or have a mechanic look at it first? The same should apply to your golf clubs.
Manage Your Expectations
Nobody likes hitting a bad shot whether it’s a big slice, topping the ball, snap hooks, leaving putts way short, or catching your wedges heavy.
The hard truth is that you are not a pro golfer so the key to breaking 90 isn’t to eliminate all bad shots but learn how to handle them. By accepting that bad shots will happen during every round your going to be better at brushing them off and getting back on track.
We’ve all been there if you let a bad shot get into your head it will only lead to more bad shots… which lead to bad holes… which leads to a bad scorecard… which eventually leads to swearing you’re never going to play a round of golf again.
Even the pros have bad shots and don’t seem bothered and they’re playing for fat stacks of cash. That’s why it’s important to focus on one shot at a time and not get too far ahead of ourselves.
The Secret Tip To Breaking 90 I Forgot To Mention!
This tip is the most important on this list and without it I feel you are doomed to blow up scorecards, mark down endless double bogeys, and question the meaning of liver every weekend.
For any of the above tips to work, you need to only work on a couple of these at a time.
I’ve been there before binge-watching golf lessons on Youtube or TikTok and reading all the articles on Google but my game never improved. This was because I tried to implement all the tips at once.
You might say I was spinning too many plates at the same time and it always ended in broken glass and rage-filled golf sessions.
My scores only started to drop when I would try 2-3 tips a week if even until I felt they were actually working. My advice would be to start with the low-hanging fruit first and work your way up to the ones that require more effort.
That’s what worked for me and I hope it does the same for you. But remember there is nothing wrong with bogey golf on your journey to break 90.
Also don’t be afraid to look at getting a golf lesson or two.