6 Ways To Consistently Break 90 (Proven By Data!)

If you’re desperate to break that 90 barrier then you’re in luck, because we have the formula to help you get there. Making that breakthrough into the 80s might seem like it requires big improvements – and you simply might not know where to focus on improving.

But with the help of the incredible data and insights provided by Shot Scope, we’ve identified the six key areas you need to target. In this article and video, Top 50 Coach Adam Harnett has some simple and achievable strategies, tips and drills that will help you take your scoring to new heights.

1. Hit one fewer ‘troublesome’ tee shot

A troublesome tee shot is simply one that doesn’t allow you to hit your second shot towards the green, such as a drive out of bounds, into a penalty area, or into trees, bunkers or long rough that means you have to hit a recovery shot back into play.

The Shot Scope data shows that average 90-shooters have 4.9 per round, while average 80-shooters have 3.3, so reducing your number by just one or two a round will see your scores tumble.

Adam says: “You need to understand your shot shape, stick to it, and use it in your strategy. Don’t try and fight it. A common mistake that slicers make is teeing up on the left of the tee (if right-handed), because they think it gives them more room, but it doesn’t.

You want to do the opposite to give yourself a better angle across the fairway and more room to land the ball in play. Tee it up on the right, aim up the left edge and allow your natural shot to bring the ball back into the fairway.

This way, you’re giving yourself the whole fairway to hit. If you draw or hook the ball, tee up on the left and aim down the right to achieve the same thing.”

2. Increase your distance off the tee

There is direct correlation between driving distance and scoring – generally speaking, the further you hit it, the lower you will score. Of course, we don’t want to be swinging wildly and hitting more ‘troublesome’ tee shots as a result of our thirst for power. But if you can add yardage without losing accuracy, your scores will improve. The Shot Scope data tells us that the average 90-shooter hits it 225 yards, and the average 80-shooter gets it out there 236 yards – and a 10 to 15-yard increase is very achievable.

Adam says: “A lot of golfers try too hard to control the direction of their drives and it actually robs them of speed because they pull the handle through to try and steer the face. This keeps the clubhead behind your hands, so you don’t get the full extent of the energy you’re generating into the golf ball.

You want the clubhead to be moving at maximum speed through the impact area at the bottom of the swing, so you want to feel the clubhead release and win the race back to the ball. Think of it as the last part of a whip – you want to create that swoosh noise at impact.

Really pay attention to where you hear that noise in your practice swings and make sure it’s in the impact area. It’s also key to make sure you have a driver that’s well fitted and set-up for your swing to maximise your ball speed and accuracy.”

3. Hit one more green in regulation

Greens in regulation is a really helpful stat to monitor – you should be on the green in one shot on a par-3, two shots on a par-4 and three shots on a par-5. It’s not rocket science to understand that if you hit more greens in regulation your scores are going to improve.

But what might surprise you is how much of a difference a relatively small average improvement in this statistic can have. A typical 90-shooter is hitting just 3.6 greens in regulation per round, while that only jumps by 1.8 to 5.4 for average 80-shooters.

Adam says: “Knowing how far you’ve got to the flag, as well as the front and back of the green, and how far you really hit each club is vitally important. You can make sure you have all that info with a combination of a rangefinder, GPS and shot tracking data from Shot Scope.

Choose your club based on your average yardage, not your Sunday best. If you’re looking to break 90, aiming for the middle of every green is great. You don’t need to attack flags, especially when they’re near the edge of greens and a miss will leave you short-sided.

You should also understand your miss tendencies and take them into account. If you tend to miss more on the left, favour even more towards the centre of the green when playing to a flag on the left.”

4. Be more consistent from inside 50 yards

Pitching from inside 50 yards is an area of the game that doesn’t get a lot of attention, and a lot of players very rarely practice it, as a result. But it should be a priority if you’re looking to get your scores down into the 80s, because it’s something that you will have to do on a lot of holes, and the difference between good and bad can easily result in a swing of two or more shots.

The good news is, you don’t have to knock it close every time. Simply hitting the green more often is a big plus, with 90-shooters failing to hit the putting surface from inside 50 yards 3.2 times per round. That drops to 2.1 per round for 80-shooters, but I bet that’s still more than you were expecting.

Adam says: “Most golfers are missing greens because they duff or thin the shot, so you want to have a standardised technique that will help you make solid contact every time. A narrow stance helps reduce the length of the swing and naturally turn our body through the shot – not just swinging with our arms and hands.

Put your weight a little bit on the left side (for right-handers) and then it’s just a case of turning the body back and through with relatively minimal wrist hinge. Club selection is important, too. You need to have enough loft to carry over any obstacles but generally the least loft you can get away with will make the shot a bit easier.”

5. Make one less three-putt per round

There’s very little a golfer hates more than three-putting. It feels horrible and the damage to your score is immediately obvious. The Shot Scope data demonstrates that 90-shooters average upwards of 4.5 three-putts per round, and reducing that by just one will help you get into the 80s.

Adam says: “Speed control is key for avoiding three-putting. The common mistakes I see are backswings that are too short and then a big acceleration, or too long and then decelerating through impact. I like to do a drill on a flat green that builds consistent swing lengths with a constant speed, so you get predictable distances.

Start by swinging the putter head from the outside of your back foot to the outside your front foot. Do this a few times and the ball should roll around the same distance each time, and you’ll know how far that swing sends the ball.

To increase the distance, put some tees in the ground an extra three inches outside your feet and repeat the process swinging from tee-to-tee. Do this while gradually increasing your swing length and it will calibrate your stroke to the distance of putt.”

6. Hole one more putt inside five feet

Hole more putts and you’ll shoot lower scores – and that starts with the short ones that we all expect to hole, because the reality is that we all miss our fair share of them. The average 90-shooter fails to find the bottom of the cup 3.6 times per round from inside five feet, and that drops to 2.7 for 80-shooters, so cutting out just one of these silly misses each time you play can have a significant impact.

Adam says: “You don’t have to be perfect to hole these putts. I use a drill with two tee pegs slightly less than half a hole outside each edge of the hole. If I can roll balls between those tees from five feet, then the hole is going to get in the way a lot of the time. If you move that same width of tee gate away from a hole, it looks really wide and helps inspire confidence.

Pace is important here, as well. You want the speed that would take the ball nine inches past the hole if it didn’t go in, because that’s fast enough to hold its line and slow enough that it should still drop in if you hit most of the full width of the hole.”