“That was terrible!”

“I can’t believe I did that.”

“I’m so stupid!”

“This is just ridiculous!”

I’ve forgotten all that he said but you get the idea. His comments did nothing to help the situation. He just hit one bad shot after another. Some of his shots weren’t as horrible as he was making them out to be.

His fellow competitors didn’t even care to stand near him although I believe they are forced to stand together for certain camera shots. I’m sure they were tempted to ask him to keep his comments to himself except for fear that he may explode.

Just when Eugene thought he was completely out of the competition, his fellow competitor, Gerina, fluffs one out of the sand and leaves the ball way short of the hole. Eugene wasn’t ready to capitalize on the situation because he had convinced himself that he was finished.

As I watched the episode of The Big Break, it became clear that Eugene’s poor shots had snowballed on him as a result of his negative attitude. I could relate to his situation because I’ve done the same thing. I’ve hit a poor shot and said similar judgmental things about myself and my abilities on the golf course. I often pepper my comments with obscenities as there are no tv cameras present. I can’t really recall a time when such commentary helped my game. It often resulted in successive poor shots.

On the other hand, I’ve played my best golf when I was not judgmental about my playing. Often my best rounds are accompanied by some song that’s been caught in my mind that I can’t shake. I’ll hear that song in my head throughout the entire round. Apparently, that’s all that is necessary to fill up my mind and keep negative thoughts out.

It’s only natural to get a little down on ourselves on the golf course; however, have your moment and then move on. Or better yet, accept the fact that not every shot is going to come off as intended. They say that football cornerbacks have to have a poor memory. If they dwell on the fact that they got burned on the last play, they are only going to get burned again. If your last shot didn’t turn out as intended, don’t dwell on it. When you address the ball for your next shot, it should already be out of your mind.

Let’s start with the latter question first. If we assume that our set up position at address is ideal then we obviously want to return to that position or very close to that position at impact. If your head remains relatively still during the back-swing and is still to the point of impact then the rest of your body hasn’t done much to get off track. If your body is in good position up to the point of impact, then you probably haven’t done much to screw up the path of the club. In short, if you can keep your head relatively still then your body will stay in good position and so will the club head.

With my own swing, I noticed that my head moved back several inches during the backswing. This meant that my whole body was swaying back as well. At this point, I have to move my whole body forward the same amount on the down swing to hit the ball well. If I didn’t do so, I would probably end up hitting a slice. If I overcompensated then I would probably hit a pull hook.

How did I notice what was happening with my head? On a tee shot with the sun behind me, I noticed my shadow. During my swing, I watched my shadow out of the corner of my eye and saw my head move back several inches during the backswing. To combat this at first, I tried to just keep my head still. That tactic worked a little bit so I got the idea to post my right foot by setting my weight on the inside of it as I took my backswing. I figured that if I was swaying back away from the target, I should post my right leg against this. It seems to have worked splendidly and I’ve gained accuracy as well as power.

Use this newfound accuracy and power on your way to break 80 in golf.

When I began my pre-shot routine, I always measure my lie. What do I mean by measuring my lie? I set the club on the ground behind the ball and then grip the club where my hands fall next to the grip. If the ball is above my feet, I will end up gripping lower or more towards the clubhead. If the ball is below my feet, I will end up gripping the club more towards the end of the grip.

Take this measurement when the club is directly behind the ball. Don’t make the mistake of taking the measurement when you are taking your practice swing. For example, if the ball is above your feet and you measure from where you take your practice swing, you will likely hit the ball fat because you didn’t grip down on the club enough.

You can take the same measurement with any shot including those with the putter. Believe it or not, you can still hit putts both fat and thin.

Use this tip and save yourself several strokes on your way to breaking 80 on the golf course.

I had said to myself after that failed attempt that there was no need to try and hit it on to the bottom level. I could have just hit the ball 40-50 yards back to the upper fairway and left myself with 215-220 to the hole. With the downhill drop and the wind behind me, it plays like 185-190.

On this occasion, I ended up just chipping back on to the fairway. I left my third shot just left of the green and got up and down from there for par. After sinking my putt for par, I thought, “Now that was smart golf.”

The lesson here is that we often try to overcompensate when get into trouble. My first thought was to get as much back as I could after hitting my drive off to the right. Trying to bite off too much brought too much risk into the equation. If I pulled it off, I’d have 140 to the hole. If I didn’t, I was looking at bogey or worse on an easy par 5. Instead, I played conservatively after getting into trouble and did not worsen my situation. I chipped back on to the fairway and relied upon my long iron play and short game to rescue me.

If I had tried to pull off the impossible shot, I’m basically telling myself that I have no confidence in the other aspects of my game.

If you shoot scores close to 80 then you must have a pretty decent all-around game. Don’t be afraid to rely upon different aspects of your game when you get into trouble.

To break 80 on a regulation course, we can bogey up to 7 holes and par the rest. If we get a birdie or two, we can bogey 8-9 holes and break 80. If we designate the longer par 4’s as our bogey holes, technically we don’t need to hit driver on any of them. We just have to reach the green in three strokes and two putt from there.

How far do I have to hit my driver to break 80?

The truth is you don’t have to hit your driver at all to break 80.

Move your grip slightly towards the shaft of the club. In baseball, this would be called choking up, but, in golf, choking down would be the more correct term. Anthony Kim does this on the PGA tour. Choking down on the club gives you a lot more control over the club, your swing, and the ball flight. I did this with my driver and was surprised to find myself hitting the ball more solidly and farther than if I gripped at the very butt of the club.

Experiment with this and you may find that you can use this tip for breaking 80 in other ways as well. If you want to hit a fade, grip at or towards the end of your driver. If you want to draw the ball, grip closer towards the shaft.

Moving your grip is an easy in-round adjustment that can help you in your quest to break 80.

You take the club back, start your downswing, pop the ball up but don’t hit it hard enough. The ball ends up in the bunker where the sand is still wet from last night’s rain. You try to get cute in the bunker and fluff one near the hole because you still haven’t learned. All of a sudden, what should have been, at worst, a bogey becomes a triple. What a nightmare!

What should you have done?

JUST GET THE BALL ON THE GREEN! DON’T GET CUTE WHEN YOU HAVE TO CLEAR A HAZARD!

I don’t care if you have a 25 foot putt remaining, just get it on the green. Take your bogey and move on to the next hole. Bogeys are not bad scores when you are trying to break 80. Doubles and Triples are.

1 – If your grips are worn – re-grip. Re-gripping your clubs is an easy fix that will definitely give you a big bang for your buck.

2 – If your grips are still in good shape, keep them clean with soap and water and a little elbow grease.

3 – Next, look at your glove. It is worn or does it have holes in it? Get a new glove and keep an extra in your bag just in case. Hogan called the grip the engine house of the swing. You can easily see why I’ve focused on your golf grips and golf glove first.

4 – Are your golf shoes still in good shape? If not, consider replacing the spikes or the shoes as may be necessary.

5 – Keep your club-heads clean as well, including the grooves. It’s hard enough making solid contact without extraneous materials getting in between the ball and the club-head. Looking down at a clean club-head inspires confidence.

6 – Have new golf balls ready for each round. Golf balls can only take so much pounding. As happy as I was to play with the same ball for almost 100 holes, it probably didn’t help my score after it got a round or two old.

7 – Make sure you have what you need in your golf bag. There’s nothing like getting to the course and discovering you just have one glove that is still wet from playing in the rain the day before. Besides tees, balls, and towels, I carry band-aids, Neosporin, mosquito repellant, sun screen, aspirin, water, an extra glove or two, divot tools, wire brush, pencils, umbrella, rain suit, cold weather gear, a right handed glove, plastic bags to keep items dry, ball markers, sun glasses, hat, and sometimes even extra socks.

Here we are slightly on the upslope just off the edge of the green. In fact, I have about 6 inches of the second cut to get through and then about three feet of fringe to plow through as well. This shot was just over 20 feet. I was hesitant to take a putter here because I knew that I had to hit it a bit harder to get it through four feet of fringe and second cut. My other concern was being on the upslope and popping the ball up into the air with the putter.

My other options:

3 wood or rescue club to pop it just over the fringe and let it roll from there to the hole. Problem with this play was that I may hit it too hard and send it well past the hole.

I could take any club from a lob wedge through a five iron and chip it. My best option would be to take a five or six iron and fly it just over the fringe and let it roll the rest of the way. A seven iron that flies five to six feet should roll another 12+ feet. So a six iron that flies four feet should roll up near the hole.

In the end, I stuck with the putter and put it to within two feet and made the par. I went with the putter because I decided that it was the easiest shot. If I hit it poorly, I should still be inside six feet.

Also try playing from the front tees even if it means playing from the red tees. The idea here is to get you used to going low with your score.