What to Practice If You Want to Break 100, 90, or 80

Most juniors practice the same way no matter what they shoot. They hit balls, work on technique, and hope scores eventually follow.

But scoring doesn’t improve evenly. Scores drop when players remove specific, predictable mistakes, not when they try to get better at everything at once. What you practice should reflect the errors that are actually costing you strokes right now.

Goal: keep the ball in play and eliminate blow-up holes

Players shooting around 100 average 3–4 penalty strokes per round, hit only 2–3 greens in regulation (10–15%), and take 36–40 putts, often with multiple three-putts.

That combination makes it almost impossible to score.

What to practice:

• Keeping tee shots in play (fairways aren’t required, penalties are the issue)

• Advancing the ball toward the green every shot, even after mistakes

• Simple short-game shots that reliably get the ball on the green

Saving just two penalty strokes can immediately turn a 100 into a 96 or 97. Breaking 100 isn’t about great shots. It’s about avoiding disasters and limiting double bogeys to three or four holes per round.

Goal: eliminate double bogeys