I really think I’m close from being a 97-103 golfer to 90-95. It really would only take hitting 4-6 FIR to get there at 200+ yards to get there
That’s quite a big spread there. If you’re currently missing an extra 6 fairways that’s a lot to correct and each fairway miss is generally costing you a minimum of 1 stroke and often more.
The difference between 100 and 90 is enormous. If you hit 3 rounds in the high 80s this will become more clear to you.
Also, what par is your course and what tees do you play from?
I suggest putting these stats on every scorecard, marking it for each hole:
Fairway: Yes/No (par 3s are N/A)
Green in Regulation: Yes/No
Putts: Number of putts on each hole
This will give you a clear indication of how consistent you are. For fairways, most courses have 14 available holes. You want to consistently hit at least 10 to lower your score (this is by far the easiest stat to improve on).
Greens in regulation is far more difficult. You’ll want to hit at least 6 per round to lower your score, but based on what you’ve said I doubt you hit more than 3 in a typical round and many people in your score range don’t ever hit any greens in regulation in a usual round (most are usually near or around the green on that shot).
The lower the putts the better, but you’re unlikely to have major lowering of scores until you can get this consistently into the 32 or lower range. Don’t ever expect to break 90 if you average 36 putts or higher.
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I keep track of a lot of these stats.
- I putt 34 times per round. 87% of my holes are two putts or better. My lag putting is pretty good, but I should be sinking more putts in the 6-10 ft range. I’m very good at 5’ and under.
- FIR is miserable, I only hit the fairway 19% of the time
- Because of that, GIR is miserable at 8%. It’s basically only the Par 3s. I’ve been on in regulation on a Par 4 or 5 less than 5 times in 16 rounds.
- Par 3s I average 3.83 for under 90 golf. But on Par 4s I average 5.95 (!) and on Par 5s I average 6.71.
If you’re currently missing an extra 6 fairways that’s a lot to correct and each fairway miss is generally costing you a minimum of 1 stroke and often more.
When I say I want to hit 4-6 fairways I mean in total, not in addition. I average roughly 2 FIRs per round. Those are generally the two fairways I always lay up on.
Par 72, play from the whites at about 6k yards total.
I putt and chip well enough that if I hit 6 GIR I’m probably in the mid 80s. I’ve hit 6 GIRs in exactly one round. I shot a 71 on a Par 62 course that translates to a +14 differential (or about an 86 on the course I normally play).
Basically I can’t hit a driver. And when I say I can’t hit a driver, I really fucking mean it lol. I’m so close though, I can do pretty well on the range right now, I just can’t replicate it on course yet. It doesn’t help that the course I play on right now won’t let you hit driver on the driving range because some houses are getting hit, so I can’t dial it in during a warmup. It also doesn’t help that my home course is lined with big ass trees so if you miss even a little bit you’re often stuck behind a tree without an approach in. If I get my driver from “absolutely shit” to “mediocre at best” I think I can hit low 90s comfortably. I don’t think I’ll break 90 consistently though from that.
Goal isn’t to break 90 yet though. Goal is still to break 100 consistently. Rounds this month sorted by most recent first are 105 (don’t play after PT), 98, 99, 101, 102, 102, 101, 71 (Par 62), 83 (Par 62).
It seems very obvious from this that you need to badly change your approach off the tee. I used to captain scramble groups at an old company’s golf tournament and all my teams routinely finished second to a much better golfer’s win every year team. The final year I was there we lost by one stroke. I think I finished 2nd in that tourney 6 times and I never had any golfer outside of me who averaged below 90. My skill was knowing when I needed to choose someone’s shot to use.
The reason we could never get over the top (these were with different teammates most years) was because there would always be one player who would refuse to see and act on his limitations. One year where I had an excellent team that should have won we lost because I could not get a long hitter to take the driver out of his hands. Part of the scramble is that you have to take 3 tee offs from each player. He routinely hit 300 but it was usually nowhere near the fairway.
As we were coming up to the 15th hole, he still hadn’t gotten his third tee shot in. I practically begged him to take an iron off the tee, as he hit those far and straight. He refused and we had to deal with one of his errant drives we couldn’t birdie or par from. Another 2nd.
All that’s to say that you clearly see major limitations in your game and keep acting like you’re going to overcome them (athlete’s syndrome). You’re not without a lot of lessons and you’ll never be consistent thinking you can fix them with will yourself. Getting lessons will make you a vastly worse golfer before you get better, so that’s also something to consider.
Ask yourself this question. What is the longest club in your bag you can hit straight consistently? I’ll give more tips once I know that answer.
It seems obvious you do better on executive courses because there are fewer chances to use driver. Hopefully my tourney story is a good cautionary tale. Many recreational golfers are incapable of hitting a driver. That’s okay, many of those same golfers also do not need to hit a driver to have fun on a golf course. A driver clearly doesn’t make your rounds fun. Golf is a massively easier and more fun game from the fairway.
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You’re absolutely right about how my best scoring option today would be to not hit driver off the tee. While I may never get to the point where my driver is a plus club in my bag, I know I can do better than what I do now. I do better on the range every day, I just can’t quite translate it over yet.
The longest club I can hit consistently is my 3H or 4i, both of which go around 165-180. I’ll hit the fairway with these 6/10 times, rough 3/10 times, trees 1/10. A pure scoring strategy on a typical 400 par 4 would be 4i/3h off the tee leaving 240 in. 7 iron (9/10 good hits with this club) to leave 100-110 in. Easy 9i or PW to get in on in 3. Two putt, bogey.
I did a lesson and it helped a bit. Got my setup/grip straightened out, but I need to just practice a bit more. I didn’t like anything else the guy did though. Looking for another coach but feeling like I’m improving right now so not desperate.
I have been super curious about my club face and club path numbers for a bit. Might spend 40 bucks for an hour on a trackman sim, can’t play 18 today because my daughter is still sick.
Approximately 100% of golfers who shoot around 100 know that they’d card consistently lower scores if they just hit 7i every shot until they are inside 150.
Approximately 0% of them are going to stop blasting tee balls into the woods because leaving the big dog in the bag is lame and not fun.
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It feels so good when you get that one drive in 5 rounds just right
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There’s definitely a lot of truth in that lol. Hit a drive 280-290 carry today at the range and it felt amazing. I like long putts just as much though.
I think I need to be a bit more selective about when to use the driver and when not to. Still though it’s going to be a weapon if I truly get it figured out on course.
Drive for show. Putt for dough.
Getting back to this, try to play a round just using the hybrid from the tee where you’d use a driver. I think your weird layup style is strange too. 6000 yards isn’t that long (can you post the scorecard while getting rid of any course identifying information?). Hole layouts would be nice to see too.
Try hybrid hybrid if you hit the fairway. There is no situation where being around 100 yards out is better than being much closer for your third shot. You also as a generally short hitter want to get really good 50 yards and in. Your goal should be for your 3rd shot to be within 20 yards of the green and that your 4th shot becomes a makeable 1 putt. When I was a very short hitter, I was deadly around the green (it’s how I could flirt with the 70s despite never being able to hit a 400+ yard par 4 green in regulation). My chips were rarely outside a 1 to 2 foot putt. That will also lower your score some.
Yeah, I’d say being able always chip to 2’ or less is definitely one weird trick for decreasing your score!
I left that dangling, but it was really attached to getting good 50 yards and in.
Hybrid and woods off the deck are a bit of a struggle.
I’m far more comfortable with a mostly full PW 9i swing than I am at 50-75 yards. I’m not really comfy with partial sand wedge shots and my 58 degree wedge isn’t my strong suit yet.
sorry won’t do a scorecard either. Nothing personal, people are just too fucking weird
Then try to get closer. Do you hit the 4 iron consistently off grass? The shorter shots are very easy to practice on the range, so that’s more making an excuse to not diversify. You can also choke down vs. completely shortening your swing. Again, all that can be practiced on the range.
I’d also suggest getting a heavy steel shafted SW. it will change your game if you get good with that. I hate all these degree wedges. Very easy to make errors with them.
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Basically I’m far more likely to fuck up as the clubs get longer. It’s a continuum. That gets better until we get to my 7-pw, which are all about the same. I’m definitely improving on this, the 6i is coming around pretty well, and the 5i is ok.
I just fuck up the longer clubs with an out to in swing path too often. On the tee, I’m better about it generally but even then it can be a problem.
Maybe I’m overthinking it, but the problem is that an errant shot puts me behind a tree pretty often. I also find it pretty demoralizing to pull out a 58 for a 55 yard shot and blade it over the green.
That blading will happen way less with a steel shafted SW. I’m talking like a 40 dollar club.
Driving range to practice the 4 iron off grass. 4 irons are not that easy to hit. 5 irons are fairly easy to hit. 6 irons are easy to learn to hit with precision.
I won a bet about 20 years ago when I was a high single digit handicap that I could break 100 using just one club(no putter). The bet got made at the bar the night before after a similar discussion to the one you guys are having.
I picked 6i and it was an easy win. I think I shot 91 on a medium difficulty par 72. It really changed my overall thought process about what club to hit off the tee over the years since.
I would also say these decisions are very course dependant. If the course is wide open bombing away every hole makes sense because shorter approaches on average will have better results and if there isnt much trouble to get into why not. On a tight course maybe your typical 90s-100 golfer should never hit driver but obviously like others have said that’s a repugnant thought to the average weekend warrior.
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When I misshit my driver it’s usually so bad that I often end up in other fairways so it works itself out. But like Amead said, gotta let the big dog out to play lol.
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