for those of us high scorers

[Coreservers]

Helloo

As a player who Never scores below 100, but have stopped going over 110... what it is that stops us getting better scores.
is it fairway play. putting?
With me its mainly fairway play, my putting is good, mostly 2's occasionally 3. but fairway play is a bit dire. scuffs, runners. ground before the ball. etc. Had a lesson which has changed my stance and am hitting down on the ball much more with a neutral to closed face at the end.
just wondering what affects other high scorers.

 

[PJ87]

Helloo

As a player who Never scores below 100, but have stopped going over 110... what it is that stops us getting better scores.
is it fairway play. putting?
With me its mainly fairway play, my putting is good, mostly 2's occasionally 3. but fairway play is a bit dire. scuffs, runners. ground before the ball. etc. Had a lesson which has changed my stance and am hitting down on the ball much more with a neutral to closed face at the end.
just wondering what affects other high scorers.

I was in this category for ages

My course has very tough greens so putting is always tough but have found keeping it in play and not taking hero shots reduced my score dramatically.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

When that was me, it was decision making.

I think I could have adopted a more cautious approach, not hitting driver, not hitting fairway woods and long irons, and saved 10 shots or more.

But good grief that would have been boring. The one creamed driver was worth the 8 wasted shots it cost me ?

Still, decision making could have saved a few just by taking my medicine and chipping out / laying up when the chances of the glory shot coming off were low!

 

[Albo]

Keep it in play off the tee and keep your head still in the back swing and you'll go a way towards breaking 100 regularly

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Keep it in play, manage expectations and work on the short game and putting. Make sure if you go in a bunker you get out first time as much as possible even if you go away from the flag. See a lot of high handicappers take three or four in the sand. They also seem to hole out poorly. These seem to be low hanging fruits

 

[Voyager EMH]

I'm going to quote my long-departed dad.

He used to say that when in the early period of learning and improving there are only two difficulties to overcome,

1. Standing too close to the ball after you've hit it
2. Hitting the ball too many times.

Seems to me you are well over halfway on both. Just keep at it and enjoy. You will find your way.

 

[Coreservers]

yup decision making was and probably still is a thing. I've started however playing most holes as par 5's which seems to relax my game. i mainly use the 3 wood off a white castle tee, and get 180 - 200 yards, straightish. but yeah sometimes the driver is too much temptation. and i just go for glory. usually regret it. but hey its funny.

if using the range is no longer use a tee, to improve the stance and get more used to fairway play. and I used to do a practice swing, even if it was a bad one, id go up to the ball. Now if i do a bad practice swing, i stop myself. and do anther till i get a good one then approach the ball. Seem to make a difference.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

yup decision making was and probably still is a thing. I've started however playing most holes as par 5's which seems to relax my game. i mainly use the 3 wood off a white castle tee, and get 180 - 200 yards, straightish. but yeah sometimes the driver is too much temptation. and i just go for glory. usually regret it. but hey its funny.

if using the range is no longer use a tee, to improve the stance and get more used to fairway play. and I used to do a practice swing, even if it was a bad one, id go up to the ball. Now if i do a bad practice swing, i stop myself. and do anther till i get a good one then approach the ball. Seem to make a difference.

I think you are doing the right thing. What you hopefully make up on the par 3''s (par or a 4 so under 5's) you can give back on the longer par4's and 5's If you aim for level 5's it would give you 90 and even if you are struggling to stay around this level 5 mark you then have another 9 shots in hand to still break 100. By taking out the risk of trying to hit all the par four and fives in regulation and simply plotting your way down the hole, it should help eradicate the big scores and if you can then improve your pitching from 80 yards and in, your putting to eliminate as many three putts as possible and get out of bunkers more efficiently I am sure not only will you break 100 regularly but start to threaten the 90 mark

 

[Biggleswade Blue]

Helloo

As a player who Never scores below 100, but have stopped going over 110... what it is that stops us getting better scores.
is it fairway play. putting?
With me its mainly fairway play, my putting is good, mostly 2's occasionally 3. but fairway play is a bit dire. scuffs, runners. ground before the ball. etc. Had a lesson which has changed my stance and am hitting down on the ball much more with a neutral to closed face at the end.
just wondering what affects other high scorers.

I had been in this category for a long time, as an ocassional golfer (maybe half a dozen rounds a year) for several years, then for my first year of club membership. At the start of the winter I committed to a series of lessons (monthly), and had at least one practice session a week, so have played a bit less but still played over the winter. The last two full rounds I have played have broken 100, for the first time on my own, then again withn a card in my hand. My last few 9 hole rounds were sub 50 (which I had done a few times before, but not as consistantly as recently), and my handicap is coming down. My lessons had focussed on long game which improved enormously, then my most recent lesson was spent chipping and that was the key that unlocked the lower scores. It wouldn't have happened without the long game improvements, but the improvement around the greens was also needed. Neither would have happened without the lessons. Still plenty of work to do, but I am in a satisfying purple patch at the moment.

 

[RichA]

Keep it in play off the tee and keep your head still in the back swing and you'll go a way towards breaking 100 regularly

Not quoting you as a disagreement, as I've been concentrating on this myself - however...
I was a 100 shooter, became an 80s shooter and have recently gone back to struggling to break 100.
I had a short lesson this morning. One thing that came out of it was that I'm concentrating so hard on keeping my head still that I'm not rotating fully on my backswing and not transferring my weight.
Get a lesson, practice, relax and just hit it without overthinking.

 

[Slab]

If you have a 200yrd tee shot in you then you’ll know breaking the ton is absolutely doable.
Find something to focus on that minimizes the number of shots, even on the bad holes (especially penalty shots) i.e use the same ball for a complete 9, then once you can do this aim to use the same ball for all 18
(I don’t just mean ‘hope’ to use the same ball, I mean actually make meaningful decisions and actions/shot selections with the total aim to keep just that one ball in play)

Pretty hard to score three figures if you finish with the same ball you started with

 

[SurreyGolfer]

I had Arccos plugged in for a bit (free trial) and it 'told' me that my approach, short game and putting is a combined ~1 shot 'worse' than a 14 handicapper, but that my driving/tee shots were losing me ~13-14 shots. Now, I question the algorithms and how they come up with figures, but the theme is accurate.....I lose a sh*tload of shots off the tee so keeping it in play for me is key.

If I have a worldy off the tee or play a course where fairways run alongside side each other, I'm pushing 95, maybe 92 or 93 if everything clicked. If it's tight off the tee with penal rough, OoB or Water, or I'm just having a bad day, then I'll be over 100. Spending a lot of time at the minute just trying to get comfortable with a 200 yard drive with a 3-wood that I can hit 8 or 9 times out of 10. When I can do that I'll then try and kick on and push to 220, 240, add a driver, etc

 

[bobmac]

Helloo

As a player who Never scores below 100, but have stopped going over 110... what it is that stops us getting better scores.
is it fairway play. putting?
With me its mainly fairway play, my putting is good, mostly 2's occasionally 3. but fairway play is a bit dire. scuffs, runners. ground before the ball. etc. Had a lesson which has changed my stance and am hitting down on the ball much more with a neutral to closed face at the end.
just wondering what affects other high scorers.

There are only two things in golf you should be concerned with....
1. How you hit it
2. Where you hit it
It sounds to me as if no.1 is your problem which is normally caused by swaying.
Imagine you are standing in a barrel .....try and turn and not sway, that should improve your contact and consistency

 

[IanM]

If you are breaking 110 but not 100.... what usually happens? Steady double bogies, and the odd better? Or decent 14 and 4 bad ones? (approx.)

 

[Marshy77]

I think, and I fall into this category, we tend to either get a bit giddy when it's going well and start to try play better than our handicap or are totally rubbish from start to finish with a few good holes chucked in along the way.

If you are getting it into play from the tee then try hit 2 iron shots to the green on a par 4/5 and either look at chipping on or 2 putting if your putting is as good as you say.

My driving is rubbish but short game is the best part of my game which stops me shooting 105/115. Last times I played last year I ditched the driver and played my hybrid from the tee and was always on the fairway but obviously lost the yardage. Did pretty well until my game completely went.

I think lack of practice obviously doesn't help and stupidly looking for answers rather than either accepting your level or getting lessons and doing more practice.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

yup decision making was and probably still is a thing. I've started however playing most holes as par 5's which seems to relax my game. i mainly use the 3 wood off a white castle tee, and get 180 - 200 yards, straightish. but yeah sometimes the driver is too much temptation. and i just go for glory. usually regret it. but hey its funny.

if using the range is no longer use a tee, to improve the stance and get more used to fairway play. and I used to do a practice swing, even if it was a bad one, id go up to the ball. Now if i do a bad practice swing, i stop myself. and do anther till i get a good one then approach the ball. Seem to make a difference.

Playing to 5s is a very good thing. It’s what I did when at your stage - well I started by playing to 6s before attempting 5s. 6s is 108. You can do that.

So when you count against 6s you will find that you will be telling yourself that you are 5 under, 6 under, and quite simply that feels great. 8s aren’t disastrous (and better course management will sort them out) and 3s are stupendous. Then all of a sudden you are 9 under and 10 under - feeling great and you are breaking 100.

And every shot look to play the shot (and club) that you know you have the best chance of playing well, and play that shot to give yourself the easiest next shot (Tommy Armour rules to improving our course management).

 

[SteveW86]

If you have a 200yrd tee shot in you then you’ll know breaking the ton is absolutely doable.
Find something to focus on that minimizes the number of shots, even on the bad holes (especially penalty shots) i.e use the same ball for a complete 9, then once you can do this aim to use the same ball for all 18
(I don’t just mean ‘hope’ to use the same ball, I mean actually make meaningful decisions and actions/shot selections with the total aim to keep just that one ball in play)

Pretty hard to score three figures if you finish with the same ball you started with

My FIL managed 124 yesterday and had the same ball all the way round. ?

 

[jim8flog]

I would say reduce your expectations, which is what you appear to have done, add one shot to every hole and treat that as the par.

I have a mate that has a handicap in the mid 20s who is always getting upset when he does not par a hole. I keep saying to him " at your handicap you should not be parring any hole".

The other thing I have observed on many an occasion is a high handicap player take on shots that even a pro would not try to achieve. If you hit it in to the boonies your first though should be "How do I get back to the fairway?" not "How do I get this on to the green?".

As a general rule most shots are saved on the green rather than trying miracle shots to get to the green.

 

[jim8flog]

My FIL managed 124 yesterday and had the same ball all the way round. ?

I managed a 100 yesterday and did the same thing (probably my worst score in over 25 years). Plumb last in the comp except for those that NRd.

 

[Canfordhacker]

There are only two things in golf you should be concerned with....
1. How you hit it
2. Where you hit it
It sounds to me as if no.1 is your problem which is normally caused by swaying.
Imagine you are standing in a barrel .....try and turn and not sway, that should improve your contact and consistency

I like your solution to 1 Bob. What would be your similar snappy tip for 2?