The best tips for breaking 90, according to mid-handicappers

I have fond memories of playing golf in high school. Racing out to the course every day after the final bell. Putting competitions on the practice green. Goofing off on the range. When I think back on that time, I can’t help but smile.

Perhaps the best memory I have, though, is the first time I broke 90 in a tournament. It was the final event of my freshman season, and I’d been on the cusp of breaking through several times before — but I’d never quite accomplished the feat. Then — finally — it happened. Seeing that 89 go up on the board was one of the best feelings I can remember.

I’m sure many of you reading this site have your own fond memories of breaking 90 for the first time. I know many of our staffers do, so I asked them what the biggest key to their breakthrough was. You can check out their answers below.

1. Tighten up your short game

There was a time when I thought distance was the key to all success metrics in golf. Then I began to accept the fact that I’m never going to be Bryson DeChambeau hitting the ball 300-plus off the tee. Dedication to speed and strength training just wasn’t in the cards for me. If it’s in you, that might unlock what you need to break 90 for the first time. But for me, it was all about the short game. 

I started to focus on shots 100 yards and in. I’m not a big driving range guy. My practice was spent at a local pitch and putt course. This allowed me too really dial in my wedges and putting. I treated those rounds as practice sessions where I would drop multiple balls around the green and hit a few shots off the tee (if no one was behind me, of course). Before I knew it, those short game results translated to full-sized courses, and I noticed my scores droop into the 80s. —Tim Reilly (8 handicap)

2. Get a lesson

Other than playing a par-70 golf course? (Thanks, Bethpage Red!) I’d say it was focusing on two things: swing plane and impact position. As with many regular 90s shooters, my swing was egregiously out-to-in, resulting in a gnarly slice that only worsened as I tried to close the clubface (read: swung more out-to-in). I worked hard on “shallowing” my swing, which I accomplished by putting headcovers on the ground around the golf ball (front-left and back-right for a righty) to serve as “bumpers” for my swing.

The real surprise, though, was my impact position. After going through my first swing lesson, I learned that my wrists flipped at impact (from a bowed lead wrist to a cupped one), making it nearly impossible to make proper contact with the ball. After practicing keeping the bowed wrist all the way through impact, my consistency shot through the roof, and better scores soon followed. —James Colgan (9 handicap)

3. Eliminate the big numbers

Well, since I was a better golfer 20 years ago than I am now, when I finally broke through and started shooting in the 80s consistently it was largely due to eliminating those big numbers. But I think even more importantly it was cleaning up my short game. I’d do anything now to regain some of the short-game touch I had when I was younger, meaning when I used to miss greens, I was confident enough in my game that I could pitch it close and get up and down a decent amount of the time. It’s easy to flub a chip and then hit another bad one to 20 feet away and maybe two-putt, so being able to scramble and save par a handful of times a round is crucial. —Josh Berhow (14 handicap)

4. Find “it”

Find ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ might be — a grip, a move, whatever — bake ‘it’ in and think just about ‘it’ as you play. One or two thoughts. I found everything else kinda fell into place after that. (If you’re curious, for me, ‘it’ was finding the right amount of shoulder turn with various clubs and making sure I got to that point.) Or just play winter rules, but you didn’t hear that from me. —Nick Piastowski (14 handicap)

You can sign up for your own USGA Handicap here.