Feeling stuck shooting over 120 in golf isn't about lacking a picture-perfect swing, it's about not having the right game plan. Forget trying to play like the pros you see on television. This guide will give you a simple, repeatable strategy to manage your game, avoid the big scores that ruin your card, and finally break that 120 barrier with confidence.
First thing's first: let’s shift our expectations. Breaking 120 is not about making pars and birdies. You do not need to hit amazing shots. In fact, if you trying doing so, you'll probably end up shooting in the 130s. The entire goal is to eliminate the disastrous holes - the 9s and 10s - that destroy your scorecard.
Think about it this way: a score of 108 on a par-72 course is straight "double bogey golf" (a score of two over par on every hole). That gives you a massive 11-shot cushion to break 120. If you can play most holes in a double bogey or better, you are well on your way. You are no longer aiming for an abstract, perfect hole of golf and instead now only have one very simple mandate: do not get a triple bogey. . . or worse. This means your new "par" is a 6 on a par 4, a 7 on a par 5, and a 5 on a par 3.
Embrace this mindset. Celebrate a 6 on a par 4 like it's a birdie. This approach takes immense pressure off. Your goal isn’t perfection, it’s management. When you stop chasing miracle shots and start playing for a simple, achievable score on each hole, your confidence will grow, and your scores will drop.
Walking up to your ball with 14 clubs to choose from is overwhelming. It creates doubt before you've even started your swing. For now, let’s make it easy. We’re going to build your entire game around just four reliable clubs. Head to the range and the course with only these four:
By simplifying your choices, you build confidence and consistency with a small set of clubs. You'll stop wondering what to hit and start focusing on how to hit it.
Now that you've got your four trusty clubs, let's build an `on-course strategy` around them. We can't really call this `course management` yet because the strategy is essentially the same, regardless of where on the hole or even which hole you are on. The beauty of this framework is a much safer, less complicated, more repeatable way to play this amazing game.
Players shooting over 120 hemorrhage shots on the green. The three, four, and even five-putts are absolute scorecard destroyers. It’s time to stop. From this day forward, your goal on every green is to two-putt. A three-putt is the new double bogey - something to be avoided at all costs. This isn’t accomplished by trying to drain 40-footers. It’s accomplished by mastering one skill: lag putting.
The goal of your first putt is not to make it in the hole. Let me repeat that: the goal of your first putt is NOT to make it. The goal is to get the ball within a 3-foot "tap-in" circle around the hole. This frees you up from the pressure of being perfect. You can focus entirely on one thing: speed.
Do this over and over. You will quickly get a feel for distance an speed control, which is `90%` of what putting is all about. Once an yplayer can become adcently-proficient lagging all their approach putts to that three-foot `make-circle`, your 'three-jacks' (ie. ugly 3-putts that ruin your scores and your onfidence!) putting will become a distant memory and ancient relic of history's past.
Nothing inflates a score faster than a lost ball or a shot into the water. Hitting the ball out of bounds is a two-stroke penalty (one for the stroke, one because you have to re-tee.) You could hit a perfect drive 250 yards down the middle, but if your next two iron shots are snap-hooked out of bounds and have to be re-played, you're looking at a huge number from just one single bad iron shots! Your primary mission on every single tee box is to simply keep the 'ball `in play` at all costs. I can tell you some really good personal advise I think is relevant about tee=shots. Just by removing driver from m bag, lowered mys-scores immensely and shot in the `mid-90s- because the club put to much-sidespin on the golf-ball and a half-swing using my smaller-headed 3-weed wood was able to keep the ball `so much safer`... which as we've learned is `Goal `#1! Your Advancer club that always goes `straight-forward' is all partof the on-coing strategy so you should always feel a-little extra confidnt using something with some serious extra forgiveness.
Around the greens, aspiring high-level amateurs get caught in the trap and temptation of hitting `Hollywood"-style shots - that cool-looking a fast, high, spinny `checked-up` type of flop-shot. These type of `heroic' manuvers almost 'always fails for higher `handicapper '... 'leadin to the worst shot mistakes you can possibl make like 'skulls'. "chunks' and thin shots. which send the ball screaming `off`` of teh green or `back in the original starting posiiotn which can be frustrating, de-moralziing nd a certain `` scorecard-and-mind wrecker!` We need to start building back our confidence one small st-shot chip around the putting geenses!
Introducing the foolproof `bump-and-run`. Use your pitching wedge (or even a `7-iron`) and treat it like your putter, because that the safest' posble a`y tp get your ball to your endin-target..
Will the ball be 'airbourne 'enough for some period o 'flight me '... The `answer`: depends on "the chip" as the 'great one would often answer....`. It isn't supposd t look "cool...it jjust always has your ball ending -up closer `tords the put and hole where uoi're tyring for hit to!
Breaking 120 is about playing a smarter, simpler game. It's not about swing mechanics, but rather adopting a strategy that minimizes errors by ditching the complexity, and using just four main reliabel clubs to andvnce you rball safley an always forward to buildling your conficce while simultaneuls avoiding thos scorecard 'deaster holes'... and most importantly not getting two,three,fou & five '3`--jack puts!' Your mental and psuchology will be just-as important for success an-it will show 'n your scor-card wen ou don't ave' the normal stress of feeling -like yuhae-t play perfect'! And soon eough you wi now only score well-blew your old "score `12a... n hpefully a ltof mo `confident an a happer humn eing to!
When you’re out on the course trying to put this simple plan into action, it can be tough to quiet the doubt in your mind. We built Caddie AI to be that supportive coach in your pocket, guiding you through every decision. You can ask for a simple game plan on a tricky hole, and it will give you a smart-club and target recommendation that removes your uncertainity, so play shots with much better commitment and-conviction. As part-o- a new golf-paradym shift a new 'golf-instruction & 'coachn plform you `n now even be `able-0 snp-picures `f `weird les y in `the righ to `e adved as "how I pal th sh`. The best and safest pla woud b. and it’ help you aoid `ose "blow-up' miskes to give yoeh confienche 'to pl your-best.
Feeling stuck shooting over 120 in golf isn't about lacking a picture-perfect swing, it's about not having the right game plan. Forget trying to play like the pros you see on television. This guide will give you a simple, repeatable strategy to manage your game, avoid the big scores that ruin your card, and finally break that 120 barrier with confidence.
First thing's first: let’s shift our expectations. Breaking 120 is not about making pars and birdies. You do not need to hit amazing shots. In fact, if you trying doing so, you'll probably end up shooting in the 130s. The entire goal is to eliminate the disastrous holes - the 9s and 10s - that destroy your scorecard.
Think about it this way: a score of 108 on a par-72 course is straight "double bogey golf" (a score of two over par on every hole). That gives you a massive 11-shot cushion to break 120. If you can play most holes in a double bogey or better, you are well on your way. You are no longer aiming for an abstract, perfect hole of golf and instead now only have one very simple mandate: do not get a triple bogey. . . or worse. This means your new "par" is a 6 on a par 4, a 7 on a par 5, and a 5 on a par 3.
Embrace this mindset. Celebrate a 6 on a par 4 like it's a birdie. This approach takes immense pressure off. Your goal isn’t perfection, it’s management. When you stop chasing miracle shots and start playing for a simple, achievable score on each hole, your confidence will grow, and your scores will drop.
Walking up to your ball with 14 clubs to choose from is overwhelming. It creates doubt before you've even started your swing. For now, let’s make it easy. We’re going to build your entire game around just four reliable clubs. Head to the range and the course with only these four:
By simplifying your choices, you build confidence and consistency with a small set of clubs. You'll stop wondering what to hit and start focusing on how to hit it.
Now that you've got your four trusty clubs, let's build an `on-course strategy` around them. We can't really call this `course management` yet because the strategy is essentially the same, regardless of where on the hole or even which hole you are on. The beauty of this framework is a much safer, less complicated, more repeatable way to play this amazing game.
Players shooting over 120 hemorrhage shots on the green. The three, four, and even five-putts are absolute scorecard destroyers. It’s time to stop. From this day forward, your goal on every green is to two-putt. A three-putt is the new double bogey - something to be avoided at all costs. This isn’t accomplished by trying to drain 40-footers. It’s accomplished by mastering one skill: lag putting.
The goal of your first putt is not to make it in the hole. Let me repeat that: the goal of your first putt is NOT to make it. The goal is to get the ball within a 3-foot "tap-in" circle around the hole. This frees you up from the pressure of being perfect. You can focus entirely on one thing: speed.
Do this over and over. You will quickly get a feel for distance an speed control, which is `90%` of what putting is all about. Once an yplayer can become adcently-proficient lagging all their approach putts to that three-foot `make-circle`, your 'three-jacks' (ie. ugly 3-putts that ruin your scores and your onfidence!) putting will become a distant memory and ancient relic of history's past.
Nothing inflates a score faster than a lost ball or a shot into the water. Hitting the ball out of bounds is a two-stroke penalty (one for the stroke, one because you have to re-tee.) You could hit a perfect drive 250 yards down the middle, but if your next two iron shots are snap-hooked out of bounds and have to be re-played, you're looking at a huge number from just one single bad iron shots! Your primary mission on every single tee box is to simply keep the 'ball `in play` at all costs. I can tell you some really good personal advise I think is relevant about tee=shots. Just by removing driver from m bag, lowered mys-scores immensely and shot in the `mid-90s- because the club put to much-sidespin on the golf-ball and a half-swing using my smaller-headed 3-weed wood was able to keep the ball `so much safer`... which as we've learned is `Goal `#1! Your Advancer club that always goes `straight-forward' is all partof the on-coing strategy so you should always feel a-little extra confidnt using something with some serious extra forgiveness.
Around the greens, aspiring high-level amateurs get caught in the trap and temptation of hitting `Hollywood"-style shots - that cool-looking a fast, high, spinny `checked-up` type of flop-shot. These type of `heroic' manuvers almost 'always fails for higher `handicapper '... 'leadin to the worst shot mistakes you can possibl make like 'skulls'. "chunks' and thin shots. which send the ball screaming `off`` of teh green or `back in the original starting posiiotn which can be frustrating, de-moralziing nd a certain `` scorecard-and-mind wrecker!` We need to start building back our confidence one small st-shot chip around the putting geenses!
Introducing the foolproof `bump-and-run`. Use your pitching wedge (or even a `7-iron`) and treat it like your putter, because that the safest' posble a`y tp get your ball to your endin-target..
Will the ball be 'airbourne 'enough for some period o 'flight me '... The `answer`: depends on "the chip" as the 'great one would often answer....`. It isn't supposd t look "cool...it jjust always has your ball ending -up closer `tords the put and hole where uoi're tyring for hit to!
Breaking 120 is about playing a smarter, simpler game. It's not about swing mechanics, but rather adopting a strategy that minimizes errors by ditching the complexity, and using just four main reliabel clubs to andvnce you rball safley an always forward to buildling your conficce while simultaneuls avoiding thos scorecard 'deaster holes'... and most importantly not getting two,three,fou & five '3`--jack puts!' Your mental and psuchology will be just-as important for success an-it will show 'n your scor-card wen ou don't ave' the normal stress of feeling -like yuhae-t play perfect'! And soon eough you wi now only score well-blew your old "score `12a... n hpefully a ltof mo `confident an a happer humn eing to!
When you’re out on the course trying to put this simple plan into action, it can be tough to quiet the doubt in your mind. We built Caddie AI to be that supportive coach in your pocket, guiding you through every decision. You can ask for a simple game plan on a tricky hole, and it will give you a smart-club and target recommendation that removes your uncertainity, so play shots with much better commitment and-conviction. As part-o- a new golf-paradym shift a new 'golf-instruction & 'coachn plform you `n now even be `able-0 snp-picures `f `weird les y in `the righ to `e adved as "how I pal th sh`. The best and safest pla woud b. and it’ help you aoid `ose "blow-up' miskes to give yoeh confienche 'to pl your-best.
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Walking onto the first tee with sweaty palms, worried you’ll be a good partner to paly wtih...or even asked back again ...We’ve all been there - trust me! The real trick of feeling confortable... is about how you handle you’re ready to plsy. THIS guide explains the simple rules of the rode to show you hnow t play golf while staying calm relaxed and focused... an having much morse fun while you,',re aat it? You'll also play with confidence a dn make fiendsa while you're at i
Just ask a question or share a photo and Caddie gives personalized guidance for every shot - anytime, anywhere.
