Data from The Grint shows that 93% of golfers can break 100 in golf on a good day. That data is a bit skewed, as it also includes golfers capable of breaking 90 and 80 too.
Either way, I want to focus on the 7% who can’t break 100. These golfers may have brand new clubs, spent hundreds of dollars on lessons, and spent hours and hours on the driving range. Yet they’re unable to break through that first milestone and start their journey to breaking 90.
Does that sound like you? If so, I feel your frustration. While the strategy behind breaking 100 on the golf course is simple, as you and I know, golf is not simple. Breaking 100 is nothing to scoff at.
If you’re willing to learn a couple different strategies, put aside your ego, and have the discipline to stick to (most of) what I’m going show you, you too can check this golf milestone of your goals list.
Primary Strategy for Breaking 100 in Golf
Many golfers make the mistake of thinking that you need to sink lots of birdies and pars to break scoring milestones. This isn’t true though. Look at the PGA Tour — the average number of birdies per round is 2.5-5. Amateurs – including scratch golfers – make less than that.
No, you don’t need to make any birdies to break 100. You don’t even need to make any pars. Your primary strategy for breaking 100 in golf is to make fewer BIG errors .
Don’t believe me? Look at all the ways you can add 27 strokes to your scorecard for a total of 99 without any birdies or pars on a par-72 scorecard.
| Bogeys (+1) | Double Bogeys (+2) | Triple Bogeys (+3) | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 9 | 0 | 99 |
| 6 | 9 | 1 | 99 |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | 99 |
| 0 | 0 | 9 | 99 |
| 11 | 5 | 2 | 99 |
Most golfers hate having doubles and triples on their scorecard, but if you haven’t broken 100 yet, knowing that you could have several doubles and triples should be freeing. You can ship it out of bounds or thin it across the green or three putt on every hole …and still break 100.
Do you see how powerful this is? There is so much room for error.
If you do manage to make a par or birdie or three, then you have even more room for error. You could shoot a quintuple bogey and still shoot low enough to put a 99 on your scorecard.
All that said, while you can make loads of small errors and still manage to break into double digits, you want to eliminate the BIG errors.
- Hitting it out of bounds multiple times per hole.
- Having two chips around the green AND three putting.
- Hitting it into the water and then hitting your next shot directly behind a tree and then, instead of chipping it out sideways, you try to thread it through the trees and fail.
Your goal is to avoid blow up holes. You want to eliminate anything more than a triple bogey from your game and you want to start reducing those too. And you want to eliminate compounding your mistakes i.e. hitting it behind a tree and trying to thread the trees on your next shot instead of taking your medicine and chipping out.
If you can pull that off, I’ve no doubt you’ll break 100 in no time.
Secondary Strategy for Golfers to Break 100
Your primary strategy should be to minimize your BIG mistakes — hitting balls out of bounds or in the water, hitting from one bunker to the next, or hitting from behind a tree to the water. That’s not the only strategy I want you to use in your quest to break 100 in golf.
Your secondary strategy for breaking 100 is to give yourself an extra stroke and a half per hole. The math is simple — you can add 27 strokes to your card to shoot a 99, and this comes out to +1.5 strokes over 18 holes.
You might be tempted to play for par and then just figure you have room for mistakes. I like adding 1.5 strokes to each hole though for the following reasons:
- It reduces overall stress and anxiety on the hole. You don’t need to get on the green in 1-3 strokes but instead 2.5-4.5 strokes. You’ll worry less about bad shots and won’t feel like you need to make the lost strokes up.
- You can adjust your strategy for the extra strokes you have to get to the green. You don’t have to be long off the tee or hit anything much longer than a 5i-8i so long as you hit it pretty straight.
What I like about this is that you can split the distance from the tee box to the green in 2.5-4.5 strokes. For example, if you’re playing a 200 yard par-3, split the 200 yards to the green in two. Now you just need two decent 100-yard shots and you’re on. OR play your longest club you’re comfortable with and see if you can get onto the green with a bump and run. This would give you a good shot at getting up and down and increase your odds of two putting.
Or take a 500 yard par-5. Split the hole up into 4-4.5 shots, which comes out to 110-125 yard shots. That’s likely a 9i, gap wedge, or sand wedge — easy clubs to hit for most golfers.
Even if you don’t want to use this strategy to break 100, hopefully you can at least see the benefit to breaking the hole up into digestible chunks. It makes each hole easier to manage and reduces your risk of putting the ball out of play because you’re not swinging out of your shoes or hitting shots you’re not good at.
Just remember — your scorecard doesn’t ask which clubs you used on each hole. All it cares about is your total score. So how you get from the tee box to the green and go about breaking 100 is your business.
Other Tips to Break 100 Consistently
Here are a few more tips for breaking 100 consistenly.
- Play three 6-hole rounds. Zoom in a little and focus on playing the best golf you can for six holes. This makes your round more management. It will help you focus. And if you follow your strategy (regardless of the results) it will give you a boost of confidence.
- Don’t go pin hunting, but aim for the center of the green. The pros aren’t good enough to hit lasers to the pin, so it’s safe to assume you’re not either. One of the biggest correlantions to shooting lower scores is hitting GIRs. If you’re struggling to break 100, you’re not hitting but maybe 1 green in regulation. So focus on hitting the middle of the green instead and try to increase the GIRs you get per round. Do this and your scores wil drop. Read here if you still want to attack the pin in golf.
- Limit your green-side mistakes. While you can 3-putt and get away with it, try to reduce them. You should also aim to chip only once around the green. This means eliminating silly technical errors like skulling your chips across the green.
- Reduce out of bound shots — I mentioned this already but it’s worth repeating. Everytime you hit a shot out of bounds you immediately lose two strokes – the shot you hit and your next. Since birdies are hard to come by, even for pros, it will be all but impossible for you to make these lost strokes up.
- Have reasonable expectations. I also mentioned this earlier, but you shouldn’t expect birdies or even pars. You shouldn’t even expect all that many good shots or to keep up with your buddies. Just go out and play and know that you’re going to be putting up bogeys, occasional double bogeys, and maybe a rare triple. Pars are a bonus.
- Have a 175-225 yard club off the tee. Most high shooters struggle hard with and lose the most strokes with their driver off the tee. It’s one of the hardest clubs to hit. But you don’t need to hit driver if you have 2.5-4.5 strokes to get to the green. You just need a club like a 4i or hybrid or maybe a 3-wood for your tee shot. Anything that you can keep in play and hit 175-225 yards should be enough.
- Think about breaking 90. The math here breaks down to playing bogey (+1) per hole. If you aim for that and make it your goal to work up to hitting 2-4 greens in regulation, not only can that help you to break 100 consistently, but you might find that you start shooting in the mid to low 90s on occasion.
Play Old Man Golf to Break 100
My last tip is to watch how the old timers play golf. They hit their shots 150-200 yards at a time. They don’t play scratch golf usually, but they do shot in the 80s or low 90s. How are they able to do that without being long?
They hit their balls relatively straight. This means most if not all of their subsequent shots are in play. They’re not taking many drops, hitting from behind trees, or otherwise have anything blocking them from aiming for the green.
Even when these guys chunk or thin their shots, they manage to advance the ball and not get themselves into too much trouble.
This might not sound like much fun. It might even sound boring. But I’d argue that shooting low scores and breaking through scoring milestones like 100, 90, 80, and 70 is exciting – and none of those milestones will be possible until you commit to playing smart, strategic golf.
What You Don’t Need to Break 100 in Golf
I want to wrap up this article with a tip for what you do not need to break 100 in golf. I’ve seen a couple articles suggest you see a coach or get fitted for clubs to pass this scoring milestone.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against coaching at all. I work with a coach a couple times each year to dial in my game. And I think club fitting is a great idea.
However, if you can put the ball in the air and advance it 150-yards somewhat consistently, you have everything you need to break 100.
I can break 100 and I’m playing with used 15-20-year-old golf clubs I bought from Craigslist.
If you want to get instruction or you want to get fitted for clubs, by all means go for it. But don’t think for a second that you need to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars to do it.
All you need is a set of usable clubs and some sound strategy. Now that you’re done with this article, you have all the strategy you need to break 100. Now grab your clubs and go break 100 — and let me know how it goes for you.