Any single digit Handys willing to share.....

[David Murrietta]

Hey Everybody,
Like everyone else, the nice weather is getting me out again. Nice and fun, except I'm finding myself in that same rut of being stuck in the mid 80's.( On easy Municipal local courses). I've had 3 rounds in the 70's last year.(78,79,78). But right now, I dont even remember anything about those rounds. It seems like I've been stuck in the mid 80's forever.
Do any of you single digit guys remember a breakthrough you had in practice or play. Or maybe equipment change or swing change that led to shooting consistent 70's.
I'd love to hear different roads you guys took to get there. Maybe something in common will click, and help get me on my way.
Thanks,

[ManchesterGolfer]

Having a goto club to get me in place off the tee, instead of trying to hit driver on every hole helped me get consistant scores.

[ezra76]

Find out where those extra strokes are coming from. I'm like you though, I've shot in the high 70's multiple times last year. For me it was about picking my holes to play more agressively. Course Management and not trying to play above what I'm capable of doing. There is a long par 5 for example, dogleg right at around 400yds. at the bottom of a hill. Trees line the fairway all the way and in them will cost you 2 strokes on the hole. I always used to hit driver, then I smartened up and went 3w or 5W off the tee, 5-7iron second and have 100yds. right at the green almost every time on a 3rd now.

Another thing was short game. Nobody hits every green and nobody makes every 10+ ft. putt. To keep scrambling for those pars, chipping it close is key. I worked a lot on chipping and absolutely love to do so. Every once in a while I get lucky and knock one in too, that's my favorite.

Good Luck.

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by ezra76

Find out where those extra strokes are coming from. I'm like you though, I've shot in the high 70's multiple times last year. For me it was about picking my holes to play more agressively. Course Management and not trying to play above what I'm capable of doing. There is a long par 5 for example, dogleg right at around 400yds. at the bottom of a hill. Trees line the fairway all the way and in them will cost you 2 strokes on the hole. I always used to hit driver, then I smartened up and went 3w or 5W off the tee, 5-7iron second and have 100yds. right at the green almost every time on a 3rd now.

Another thing was short game. Nobody hits every green and nobody makes every 10+ ft. putt. To keep scrambling for those pars, chipping it close is key. I worked a lot on chipping and absolutely love to do so. Every once in a while I get lucky and knock one in too, that's my favorite.

Good Luck.

Ezra is my horo, er - I mean Hero. Course Management and short game. That's all you need to know.

[flomarilius]

Uhm its pretty simple really but thats easier said than done. Wedge and short irons. That is primariliy what can make the difference of a 30 hcp and a 2hcp. You definetly want to be putting birdie not chipping from 2 feet off the fringe, it makes all the difference. Now if your driver cant get you inside short iron (7-LW) range I dont think someone can shoot in the 70s. Putting in my opinion isnt that important when you know you can lag it in to 2 feet as your birdie attempt then tap it in for par.

[jho786]

Last year I began consistenly shooting in the upper 70's but a few rounds I shot 82-84 and really knew what my trouble was. Poor course management. I would sometimes play for the pin and either hit it short or hit it past the hole and have a tricky putt downhill which led to a 3 putt. I worked on my mental ga,e and thought about each shot individually and evaluating the yardage, lie and angle to the green a lot more. I noticed that I hit more GIR's when slowing down and playing high percentage shots.
Another thing I am doing this year is working on chipping/ pitching. I want to chip the ball a bit more instead of getting it up in the air. I now have a 56* wedge so that should help me chip with spin better. Also, I used to try and go after the ball every time I hit driver. Most of the time Id miss right and be playing in the rough or the trees and losing distance. Now I say to myself "Stay inside your limits" and whenever I do I kill the ball. Last summer, I went Driver, 6 Iron into a slight downhill 540 yard par 5 and made eagle, staying inside myself on both shots

[LyleG]

The big difference for me was simply using my head.

- I dont hit driver on ever hole any more.
- I hit a lot of hybrids off the tee.
- On par 5's I dont always swing for the green on my second shot. I base my second shot on the lie and the trouble ahead of me. Any doubts at all and I lay up to what I feel is a comfy yardage.
- Unless the hole is in a GREEN LIGHT area of the green, I play to safest part of the green.
- I ensure I have enough club for the shot. It means I may be long on occasion, but I am seldom short.
- I am realistic about my abilities. This means if I have any doubt that I can pull it off I dont hit it. This means pitching out at times, and sometimes means accepting a bogey, because always remember a bogey beats a double.
- I am aggressive on putts inside 15 feet, and more conservative on putts outside 15 feet.
- 75% of my practice is short game
- I developed a pre-shot routine
- I think positive 100% of the time

[robereno]

when I first moved into the 70s from the 80s it involved a tip from the best player at my club to spend two weeks doing two things. 1. no matter how close I was to the pin or how good I was hitting it I should always aim at the middle of the green. The 2nd was to play all par 5's as a 3 shot hole even if I had a chance to "go for it". I took the suggestions for two weeks and moved my game into the mid and high 70s, eventually as I got even better I modified the theory a bit but never forgot it

[petersmells]

Short game. If your miss the putting surface you have to be able to get up and down.

[Clugnut]

Last year, I really focused on hitting greens. I made it my mission to simply hit more greens. Pick a club that makes your second shot easy, whether it be driver or a four iron. Aim at the center, and make sure of your two putt. By the end of the season, I was hitting 11-13 GIR. If you hit 12 and two putt them all, you only have to get up and down twice to shoot 76.

Like the other guys say, course management and short game. I add, and greens!

[Fourputt]

I'm not a regular visitor to the 70's any more, but I used to hit there often enough to get my index down to 9.6. My best suggestion is to play better.

Really.... play smarter, develop a bulletproof short game, and stay out of trouble off the tee. It's been my experience that missing greens is caused more by missing fairways off the tee, and then making questionable shot choices from trouble, than it is by hitting bad approach shots from the fairway. If you shoot regularly in the 80's, your iron game is reasonably good, and your misses from the fairway are usually manageable.

IMO, it's the trouble you get into by missing fairways that really damages your scores, especially if you lack confidence in your wedge game. You are tempted to try shots from trouble that are low percentage plays because you can't accept that your bad tee shot may have just cost you a bogey. Now you hit a bad 2nd shot.... and you are really in trouble. You are still in the same basic situation, only one stroke farther on... and so it continues. Play for the bogey after that bad tee shot, and you will be surprised how often you still have a good chance for par.

Use your head instead of your ego to make decisions on the tee and stay out of trouble more often, then suck it up and take your medicine (again using your head) when you do still hit the occasional bad shot. In other words, play the percentages more often. Then practice your wedge game, practice your putting.

[Bravo]

Like any club, we've got our share of scratch players of damn close (+2 or less).

Last summer, I was practicing on the range while one of these guys was out there doing the same...

He spent 5% of his time combined on Driver, fairway woods and long-intermediate irons.

He spent 95% of his time on the game from 100 yards and in.

His comment on the tee game: All he cared about was putting it somewhere in the fairway.

Somewhere.

He told me that the whole game comes down to what you after you have put it in the fairway on the tee shot...

[Sandpiper3]

I can tell you how big your mind is on this. Ive been playing like crap in the last two tourneys ive played during the beginning of the break here (79-81, then 88-79). Im noticing im making a lot more doubles, and in the second tourney i played the par3s at +10, which is absolute crap. So many of them were stupid mistakes that left me in near worst positions that i was lucky to make doubles, where as the position i was in the shot before shouldnt have been worst than a bogey.

That, and ball striking, i was missing a lot more GIRs than usual, my short game was the only thing keeping me under 90 all weekend, thats really how bad my ballstriking has been all week.... Itll be better for my tourney this weekend though, ive got my mind back around with my last round having a -1 on the back nine to break 80 haha.

[fore142]

once you are down around 80, you have the ball striking to shoot 72. It is course management, short game, and putting that will get you to go low.

[dave.]

I have lots of break throughs,they last until the next one then run out