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. As I say in my ebook on breaking 80, 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.

For more tips on breaking 80 check out my publication - “79 tips to break 80 in golf”

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.

For more tips on how to break 80, consult my publication, 79 tips to break 80.

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.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 - see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

The short par 4 is basically offering you an easy par, perhaps (if you are trying to break 80) you would be wise to take the easy par instead of trying to pull off the improbable eagle.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 - see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

If you shoot around 80 or break 90 on a regular basis then you can score a par on every hole on the golf course. At one time or another, you have parred every hole on your home course if you have played it enough. I’ll even venture to say that you’ve probably birdied almost every hole on that course at one time or another. I’ve birdied every hole on my home course multiple times. Unfortunately, these experiences lead us to falsely believe that we can par all the holes in a given round. You may not start with the expectation that you will shoot 72 but as you get to each tee box your goal becomes par for that particular hole. You might as well have set out to shoot 72 from the very get-go.

To break 80, we need to leave this kind of thinking behind. Take out the scorecard for the course and pick out seven holes. You can pick out the seven hardest holes according to the scorecard or the seven most difficult according to your personal experience. Or you can even pick out the seven hardest based upon the conditions on the day you play. If the wind is particularly strong, you can choose several holes based on the fact that you will be playing them into the wind. Or maybe several holes result in sidehill lies after the tee shot - pick those. Or go by the most difficult greens when you choose. No matter how you do it, pick the seven most difficult holes and add one to the stated par on each of those.

Cross out or obliterate the stated par and write your new par on the scorecard. Change the total par to 79 from 72. Change the par for each nine holes as well. This is your new personal par. After all, we are not trying to shoot 72 yet. We are trying to break 80. You can even change the par to 76, 77 or 78 if you want a little cushion.

Now learn the new par for the holes that you have changed. Consult your revised scorecard after every hole and say out loud your new par before you begin the hole. From this point, you must play the hole according to your new par. If you added a stroke to a par 4 that means you must play the hole so that your approach is your third shot.

Let’s take an example. I’m looking at a scorecard with a 398 yard par 4 and it is the number one handicap on this particular course. The hole is a dogleg right. The tee shot is from an elevated tee and requires a fade (normally). From the fairway, you usually have a long to mid iron into the green. It’s important to avoid the rough. Let’s say, with my new par of five, I want to have an approach shot of 120 or so yards to the flag. I’m now left with 278 yards to get to where I want to be. I need to cover this ground in two shots. Obviously, I don’t need to pull a driver and try to hit a 278 yard fade. For that matter, I probably don’t need any of my woods or long irons off the tee.

I can break it down as simply as two 140 yard shots to get to my approach spot. I can hit two mediocre seven irons to get to where I need to be. If you miss either one, you still won’t be too far off - it is only a seven iron.

Remember, our goal is to break 80. Forget about par on these holes. Check your ego at the clubhouse. If you do this, I guarantee you will have a great shot at breaking 80.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 - see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

For me, the most similar recent experience that comes to mind was when I was trying to par the back nine at a golf league outing. I was one under par with two holes to go. I bogeyed the 17th hole and had to par the last to shoot 35 (even par for the back). I hit my approach over the green and I had a tough downhill chip out of deep rough that I had to hit with perfect touch to get it close. I got it to about six feet from the hole. As you can see, there was no relief as the pressure built on each shot. I somehow sank the putt and shot 35. Just like when you are trying to break 80, the pressure can build on each shot.

The problem is that we rarely get in these situations, so we don’t have much experience playing under the gun. If you want to break 80, you’ll benefit from placing yourself in pressure-packed situations on a frequent basis. I try to play in amateur tournaments 2-3 times a month. Or you can put some money on the line to create a little pressure the next time you play a round.

Usually when golfers are under pressure or nervous, their shots follow a pattern. For me, I lose the ball to the right when I’m under pressure. I know that I need to work on releasing the clubhead on my practice swings so that I have a better chance of doing it during the real swing. By knowing my tendency under pressure, I can adjust for it as well. I’ll aim a little farther left of my target when I’m faced with that 120 yard approach shot again.

From my tournament experiences, I also know that I need to adjust my expectations. The difficult shots that I pull off in a no pressure round may not be such a good idea with something on the line. You’re better off playing more conservatively when the pressure is on.

Strangely enough, my putting seems to get better in pressure situations. Maybe I’m more focused in this area of my game when something is riding on it.

The point is to get used to playing in pressure situations so that when you have to par 16, 17 and 18 to break 80, you will know your tendencies, play more conservatively, know what parts of your game you can rely on, and won’t fold under the pressure.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 - see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.

I’ll repeat that point just in case you didn’t get it the first time: IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO KEEP THE BALL IN PLAY THAN TO HIT IT FAR.

Most players who shoot around 80 can hit the driver well and they can hit it far. Those same players may not fully realize that they can hit the three wood more accurately yet still far enough. The problem with us 80’s shooters is we always want to hit the driver farther. We are still learning how to be content with a good drive because we want to hit that great drive all the time. Those drives that get us in trouble are the ones that are keeping us from shooting even lower scores. We know that we just missed it this time and the next time we will nail it on the screws.

With a driver, a slight miss-hit may find you in the woods or in a fairway bunker or all wet in the drink. A slight miss-hit with a three wood may still find you in the fairway or in the rough. In either situation, you still have a shot which is usually more critical than the 30-50 yards that you may have lost from not using the driver. It may also be another 30-50 yards to the woods, the fairway bunker or to the drink.

The fact is that if you shoot near 80 consistently then you probably don’t need to hit the driver all that often. Take a little pressure off yourself and pull the three wood. Pull the driver when you’ve determined that the risk is slight compared to the reward. It’s more important to keep it in play than to hit it far if you want to break 80.

Looking for more tips on how to break 80 - see my publication, 79 tips to break 80 in golf.