Breaking 80: A Practical Guide & Tips to Consistently Break 80 in Golf

When I learned how to break 80 in golf, I shot 76.

It was a shock because I had tried so hard for so long to try and get my score below 80, and it just happened. However, keeping the score below 80 was much harder.

Breaking 80 consistently is hard work.

However, there are some key skills that need to be developed in order to learn how to break 80 in golf consistently.

I’ll share those with you so you can start making the steps toward lower scores.

How to Break 80 in Golf – Too Long, Didn’t Read

To break 80 in golf, you have to develop a course management plan, be in good physical condition, understand the role of the wrists in the golf swing, and work on hitting fairways and greens in regulation, but most importantly, you have to change your mindset on the golf course.

Here are the six most important things you can do to break 80 in golf:

• Develop a practice plan.
• Set a goal that you can achieve (you can do this in pieces).
• Learn to control the clubface using the proper wrist positioning.
• Strengthen your mental game.
• Know how to react when the plans change.
• Dedicate the time.

What is the Significance of Breaking 80 in Golf?

When you break 80 in golf, you will be considered a single-digit handicap. Although handicap is a complicated formula with slope and rating involved, most golfers that shoot in the 70s are single-digit.

Single-digit handicap is considered good.

By the time you break 80 in golf, you can officially call yourself a good golfer.

That’s a very small number of people.

What are Myths about Breaking 80 in Golf?

One of the most common myths about breaking 80 in golf is that you have to be young and able to hit the ball a long way.

This isn’t true.

In addition, sometimes golfers think you need golf lessons and a coach to be able to break 80 in golf.

Not true.

What you need to break 80 is a plan, and we can help you put that together.

How to Break 80 in Golf Consistently

Every golfer and golf professional goes about this process of breaking 80 in a different way.

However, these important steps in learning how to break 80 will all happen at some point in the process.

Knowing Your Game

Do you know how far you hit each of your clubs? Not how far you want to hit them or how far you should hit them, but how far they all go.

Do you know what your miss is? How about your strengths and your weaknesses?

To break 80 consistently, you have to dive deeply into who you are as a player, what makes your game great, and what makes it not so great.

If you still hit a big slice off the first tee box, breaking 80 might be hard. If you can learn to turn that into a fade that plays nicely on a dog leg par 4, you may have something to work with.

A golfer that is currently shooting 90 every time they go out to play, but has a good understanding of their golf game, has a chance to break 80.

Players that are spraying the ball around the course and don’t have much awareness will struggle.

Many golfers ask us for the minimum technical skillset necessary to break 80.

To break 80 consistently, you have to hit high lofted shots with some control, chip the ball within a few feet of the pin at times, make a few 15-foot putts, and most importantly, know how to recover should you hit a poor shot.

I also encourage you to think about what causes you not to break 80. Is it the slice? Is it the position of your golf clubface at impact? Is it the putting? Are you hitting the ball out of bounds?

Try to wrap your mind around what makes you the golfer you are and use that throughout this process.

Checking the Equipment

Your golf clubs are your tools. You get 14 of them in your bag, and they are what you will use to try and break 80.

Many golfers have problems with their equipment that requires some tweaks before breaking 80 consistently can happen. We will never tell you that using a new $600 driver is your key to breaking 80.

In fact, what’s more important than the technology of the golf club is the way the club fits your game.

For shorter or taller players, the lie angle needs to be corrected. The shaft may need to be tweaked or changed for slower or faster swinging players. The key is finding something that matches your game. Golf club fitting has become more accessible and more accurate.

If you have yet to use a launch monitor or some form of golf technology to determine if you are playing with the proper equipment, now is the time.

Make the tweaks that you can to the clubs that you have so you feel you can confidently shoot in the 70s each time you are on the course.

Also, keep in mind that some equipment is built for higher handicap players. Clubs that are oversized or have wide soles can make it hard to hit a draw or a fade. If you are playing with a starter set or something like a bargain complete set, the feel and consistency you need to break 80 is hard to obtain.

Upgrading your equipment to fit the needs of a mid handicap (or better) player is a good step in the right direction.

Learning to Control the Clubface

When you first started playing golf, you probably felt like you were swinging a club. You held on to the handle of the club and swung it with speed to see what you could do.

Many golfers think of this almost like baseball or hockey, as it can feel a little similar in the beginning. However, as you improve, the game of golf becomes more about swinging the clubhead.

Of course, you still hold the grip and swing the entire club, but now the only thing that matters to you is what the clubface is doing at impact. This is a good thing; golfers that break 80 in golf think about and need to know how to control the clubface.

Wrists control the clubface. The clubface angle at impact is either square, open, or closed, and that is controlled by the angle of the wrists. Use HackMotion to learn exactly what it takes to get to a wrist position that creates a square clubface at impact.

Developing a Practice Plan

Nothing easy comes for free, or something like that, right?

With golf, you can’t break 80 unless you put the time in and develop a plan. At some point, your game may be good enough to walk up to the first tee and shoot 79, even when you don’t play well.

However, this takes time.

One of the best things you can do is create a structured practice plan for improvement.

The practice plan should include a certain amount of time that will go into your game each week, as well as various areas of the game to work on.

Go back to your golf game analysis and the reasons you came up with for why you don’t break 80. Whatever this is, be it chipping, putting, or the driver and make this about 40% of your practice time.

The rest of the time should be split up into different areas of the golf game.

I also recommend having some ways to practice at home as well as on the golf course. When you can practice in more than one way, it helps to ensure that you can get enough time in.

Even just a few minutes of putting in the living room can help get you the time needed to reach your practice goals.

It’s essential to set up a practice plan and write it down. If you follow the plan, you must first have it written down and decide to stick with it.

Setting Achievable Goals

It sounds great to say you are going to work on your golf game for an hour every day, but it’s not realistic for most.

If you can play golf twice per week and practice twice per week, you should get to the point of being able to break 80. This process could take years for those currently shooting in the mid-90s, and it could take months for those in the mid-80s.

Balance practice and play, so you are learning and implementing.

Realistic goals should be set not just for practice time but also for the results that you are looking to obtain on the course.

Let’s say you track the stats on your last round of golf, and you realize that you had 33 putts.

Thirty-three putts are too many.

If you hit every green in regulation and had 33 putts, you can get away with it, but chances are you had a few missed shots during your round, and therefore breaking 80 will take less than 30 putts.

A realistic goal is to make less than 30 putts during your next round of golf. Less than 30 putts would mean you get up and down a few times and maybe even make a birdie or two.

Notice that we didn’t set a goal of making 20 putts for your next round.

You need to set goals you can achieve so that there is some positive reinforcement involved in this process.

Breaking 80 can happen in baby steps.

Improve Physical Fitness

When you look at PGA Tour players today, compared to PGA Tour players years ago, the level of physical fitness in the modern player is really quite impressive.

Why is this? What do the players stand to gain from being physically fit?

The answer is that it’s easier to play golf well when your body is working the way it should. If you are not tired coming down the 18th green, or your back doesn’t hurt when you make the turn, golf gets easier.

To take this a level further, we know that hitting a long drive helps improve overall scoring (because your approach shots are closer to the hole). Golfers that are physically fit have the best chance of increasing the distances they can hit their shots.

More power and more speed do help you to break 80 in golf, especially if you know how to channel it! Better physical fitness also lessens the chance of injury which is a tremendous benefit for any golfer on a mission to break 80.

Mental Game Improvement on the Course

The better you get at golf, the more influential the mental game becomes.

PGA Tour golfers can all hit the ball far and straight, but the ones with the better mental game can win week in and week out.

To consistently break 80, you must focus your mental game around being positive and only allowing positive those on the golf course.

These are my best tips for how to improve your mental game to perform better on the course.

Stay Positive Always

I know it sounds a bit crazy to be positive about hitting a golf shot out of bounds or hitting a ball into the water, but you have to be.

One of the best ways to look at it is that the hole is not over.

If the ball goes in the water, challenge yourself to make a bogey. You can recover from a bogey and go on to break 80 that day.

In addition, learn to think about a golf hole in a positive way and not look for all the negative that can happen. How many times have you said to yourself, “don’t hit it in the water!”

Stop doing this.

Instead, think, “Ok, let’s get this one in the fairway.”

Overcoming Fear and Anxiety on the Course

It’s perfectly normal to hate a hole on the golf course. We all have these holes. The key is to learn to work around it and become more confident.

One way to go about this is to change your strategy.

If you have a hole that you always bogey, try hitting a different club off the tee box. The change of club could be all that you need to change your mindset and make a par.

Learning to Control Your Emotions

Don’t be the person that throws the clubs.

It’s just not necessary.

We get it; golf is frustrating, but taking it to the extreme of throwing clubs and slamming things is just not worth it.

If you can internalize some of those emotions and then redirect them toward hitting a great golf shot, the chance of breaking 80 is considerably higher.

One of the most fantastic tips I ever received was to treat a birdie the same way I treat a bogey.

If you want to smile after a birdie, fine, but you still have work to do. If you want to frown after a bogey, fine, make a birdie on the next hole.

The most stable golfers are often the ones that learn to break 80 the quickest.

Understanding the Power of Visualization and Positive Self-Talk

Visualization and positive self-talk will help you not only succeed in golf but in life as well.

However, that’s a story for another day.

Start building yourself that you are a good golfer, can break 80, and will shoot in the 70s.

When you are pessimistic about the game and negative about your abilities, it’s very difficult to expect positive results on the course.

Once I decided I wanted to break 80, I continued to tell myself that my ball striking was good enough to get me there; I just had to pull it all together.

Visualization is something that can be used off the golf course.

Play through a round of golf in your mind and plan out the shots that you are going to hit. When you are on the golf course, go through that visualization again and try to implement it.

On-Course Strategy

Now that you have spent this time practicing and preparing to break 80, it’s time to bring it all to the course.

Here are some of the most important aspects of on-course strategy.

Golf Course Management is Essential

Golfers who consistently shoot in the 70s know how to analyze where to put their drive so that they can place an iron shot on the green.

Sometimes the middle of the fairway isn’t the best.

Sometimes it makes sense to hit the ball down the left side so you can approach the right side of the green a little easier.

Single-digit golfers also look at the pin location and choose a spot to place their approach shot based on the pin location.

An uphill 15-footer for birdie is often better than a downhill 10-footer.

In addition, when you learn what your misses are, you will play to avoid them creating problems on the course.

For instance, my miss is left; if a pin is on the left side of the green, I’ll go for center, and even if I miss, I’ll still be on the green.

Sometimes You Have to be Aggressive

Golf course management can also give people the idea that being aggressive is not necessary.

However, excellent golf course management is knowing when to be aggressive.

There are times during a round when you should go right for the pin or hit a putt with a little extra speed.

Each time you decide to be aggressive, it is essential to look at the risk vs. reward of the decision.

Make sure that the reward outweighs the risk.

There is More Than One Shot to Be Played

Great golfers have quite a few tricks up their sleeves.

When you are looking at a 100-yard shot to the pin, chances are there are three or four different ways that you can play it.

If you still are a bit limited in your shot selection, work on practicing shots that are high, low, straight, fading, drawing, etc.

The more tools you have, the easier it is to score low.

Smart Decisions Lead to Lower Scores

Smart golfers shoot lower scores.

It’s as simple as that.

If your golf ball is buried in the rough behind two trees and you think the 3 wood is the best decision, you are not ready to break 80 consistently.

Golfers that shoot in the 70s make plenty of mistakes, but they recover quickly and get a bogey on a bad hole.

Bad decisions lead to the 7’s and 8’s on the scorecard.

Incorporating Golf Technology

Some golfers are hesitant to incorporate technology into their game.

However, in this day in age, you will probably struggle to keep up if you can’t at least admit that technology is helpful.

When learning how to break 80 consistently, you will want some kind of distance-measuring device. Whether a GPS unit or a laser rangefinder, it is essential to have a very good idea of how far you have to the hole.

In addition, when you are working on your game, incorporating tools like HackMotion into your practice routine can give you more awareness.

HackMotion is a device that measures your wrist angle at setup, the top of the backswing, and at impact. Even the best players in the game realize that their wrist position is often responsible for the improper clubface angle at impact.

If you struggle to make a consistent impact, your wrist angle could be causing the problem.

One of the great things about using technology like HackMotion as part of your practice routine is that it lets you practice without the help of a professional. If you want to work on your game, even when a professional teacher is not available to assist, HackMotion can take your place.

Technology and data will help you break 80 in golf when it’s used both on and off the golf course.

Tips on How to Break 80 in Golf

Now that you have a plan in place to help you break 80, there are still a few last-minute tips that could help you get there.

These tips will change depending on where your game is currently, but you can keep them with you for years to come as you maintain your single-digit handicap.

• More than one chip shot: learn how to hit a variety of different chip shots; you will need low and high shots with spin and without.
• Find a putter you are confident with: regardless of your ball striking, the putter can save you.
• Attack The Par 5’s: par 5 is your easiest place to make a birdie; if you want to go low, you have to try and birdie as many of them as possible.
• Be Aggressive On Birdie Putts: don’t leave a birdie putt short; the birdies are so valuable in scoring; they can erase bogeys and make up for a challenging hole; leaving these putts short is a waste.
• Bogey Isn’t Bad: we get it, it’s frustrating to make a bogey, but you can recover, try not to turn a bogey into a double, and you will stay under 80 more consistently.
• Take a look at physical conditioning: 18 holes can be up to five miles of walking; if you start to get tired and make bogeys at the end, think about adding some exercise into your plan to break 80.

FAQs

Here are a few most commonly asked questions about how to break 80 in golf.

How long does it take to break 80 in golf?

For golfers who commit to a practice plan and are serious about shooting lower scores, breaking 80 can happen in one to two years.

However, some people play their entire lives and can never break 80.

What is your handicap if you shoot 80?

Golfers that shoot 80 have a handicap of around 8, and golfers that consistently break 80 are single-digit handicaps.

Is it easy to break 80 in golf?

Breaking 80 in golf is not easy if you have any inconsistency in your game.

Once you develop a consistent swing that hits the center of the clubface often, breaking 80 becomes much easier.

Summary

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to break 80 and how your game can change from becoming a little more intentional and focused.

There is no reason not to start on this project today; start working on your mental strategy, or go hit a few balls with your least favorite club in the bag.

Great golfers put the work in, and now that you have all the details you need to break 80, you can do it too.