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

break80 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:30:32 +0000

I recently received this question and found it very intriguing. How far do I have to hit my driver to break 80? The question reflects a misconception about breaking 80 in golf. That misconception being – you have to hit the ball far in order to break 80. I’ve broken 80 never using more than a 5 wood off the tee. Granted, hitting the ball far and accurately can make breaking 80 a lot easier but it is not necessary. When I used the 5 wood to break 80 – I was more concerned with hitting the ball accurately than far.

Let’s look into this question a little more. 8 holes on a regulation golf course are par 5’s and par 3’s. You can generally reach any par 5 with three iron shots and par 3’s generally don’t require hitting driver. We’ve already taken 8 holes out of the equation. We are left with 10 par 4’s to deal with. Let’s say that 2 to 3 of the par 4’s are playing around or slightly over 300 yards. You probably don’t need to hit driver on those few holes. Now we are down to 7-8 par 4’s that perhaps average 370 yards each. Must we hit driver on these remaining par 4’s and, if so, how far?

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.

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

How to Break 80 in 79 tips » using driver to break 80

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