How To Break 80 Early In The Golf Season

It is the start of #golf #season in #canada and I recorded my first outdoor round of 2024 at Crosswinds Golf & Country Club. Can a few simple strategies help me to break 80 already?

what you’re about to see is my very first outdoor round of the 2024 season and I’m going to show you how I was trying to approach this so that I could start the season by breaking 80 one of the things I’m trying to be very conscious of this season is having and sticking to a pre-shot routine the simplest form I like is to take a practice swing beside the ball so I get a feel of what the grass is like and then I ensure that I stand behind the ball and try to visualize my shot shape and instead of trying to be too aggressive to start my season I just chose an iron that I knew I could get into the Fairway and I hit a nice little draw with that six iron and if I’m going to start strong with this season I want to ensure that I don’t lose that pre-shot routine by only the second shot so I take my practice swing look behind the ball and you’ll notice that for me I’m very comfortable having two little Waggles there before I set the club down and swing away and you’ll notice that I was aimed off a bit to the left of that tree overhang because I was trying to draw it around into the green it didn’t draw it ended up going straight though and missed in a knife safe spot oh and don’t forget repair those divots that left me with a chip onto the green and I didn’t get as close as I would have liked here so I’ve given myself a pretty lengthy attempt to save par but in all honesty on the very first hole of my very first round of this season I’m not worried about two putting for a possible bogey here which is why I think it’s very important to have realistic expectations because that’s exactly what I did I leave that first putt short and I tap in for the Bogi but I’m happy now as you take a look at hole two which is a very straight par five I’m going to let you know that there are a couple stats I’m looking to count for this round I’m going to keep track of my greens and regulation how many putts I miss short how many three putts I have and how many times I stick to my pre-shot routine which you’ll notice here is the first time that I don’t completely do it as I only have one waggle before I swing away but thankfully I bombed this drive what a beauty so for this second shot I was left about 250 or so yards away from the green which for me I would have to hit an absolutely perfect 3-wood to get there so I decided to Club down to my fivewood and just take a nice easy swing Trying to Leave myself somewhere within 100 yards of the green and that’s exactly what I did but unfortunately dang it I forgot to hit record on that pitch shot but it’s a nice one I don’t know looks like it might be about 78 ft there it is there so it worked out really nice soft grass let trand drain that so even though the third shot wasn’t actually recorded at least this was officially my first green and regulation of the Season go me and while I would be absolutely ecstatic to have a birdie on the hole you’ll notice that I leave this one short just like on the first one and spoiler alert you’re going to hear me say that a lot today but I’m not going to be upset with a tap in par and one of the things I love about golf is just as things seem like they’re going to be relatively straightforward and somewhat easy it reminds you this is still a tough game now none of my videos are sponsored by anybody but if that Splash was sponsored by anything it would be my lack of pre-shot routine and Topping the ball thankfully Crosswinds has a generous drop zone so I’m actually not in a terrible position it’s going to be hard for me to try and get a par here but I go back to my pre-shot routine I took a look couple Waggles nice easy swing with the fivewood again and got a little bit of a draw on that and although I end up a little bit short right of the green I thankfully missed this bunker because even midseason I do not have a lot of confidence out of the sand and that helped me make the decision to not try and get too cute with a flop shot on this approach instead I just did a gentle pitch leaving myself past the pin because being anywhere on the green would be way better at this situation than flubbing it and ending up in the sand now if you’re going to break 80 one of the obvious things you need to do is putt well anytime I have a downhill putt I ensure that I look at the hole from the low side because you can see the break a lot easier that way I was also hoping on this one that my playing partner would have a little bit better attempt at his putt so I could see some more of the break but he had a rough go at it thankfully I had a pretty good read on it from looking on the other side that’s a tap in for double Bogi to leave plus three through three one of the things I like about Crosswinds is that it starts with a pretty fun layout a par four a par five a par four and now we’re back to another par five so even though I pull this t-shot into the right rough I’m not too frustrated with it because I’m not going for the green at this point anyway you’ll see on the layout here from my app that I’m trying to go about 170 yard into the left Fairway and I don’t know if it was that weird little extra pump I did on my club there or the wet grass but I pulled this one hard to the right and it went into this little tree area and as you can see I’m not sure this is going to end up very well but thankfully it was okay and I apologize for this weird camera angle but it’s because there’s a bunker directly behind the camera and I’m on this uphill slope so you’ll just have to enjoy this view of my pasty white chicken legs and this fist pump to assure you that the shot ended up really good that makes my second green and regulation both in par fivs and I’ve left myself a really good shot at a birdie putt here again I do en sure that I clean off the ball which I think I noticed I hadn’t done the last couple holes and it’s a very muddy day I line up to the putt give it a good stroke and it’s short and you can tell I’m already noticing this pattern that I do not want to continue but a tap-in par is a tap-in par and that brings us to the first par three of the day which is easily one of the nicest holes at this course it’s a fairly large circular green but you notice you have to cover water almost the entire way and as an additional challenge they even have a bunker right at the front and because I’m playing White today this is not a very long hole but I didn’t compensate for how much wind was blowing directly into my face I clubbed up one but should have clubbed up two and I ended up a little bit short thankfully I had a hard time seeing it past the bunker which gives me a chance to show off my ridiculously high vertical oh yeah this seems like a good time to mention if you’re still watching this video I would really appreciate it if you could click like and or subscribe so that maybe I can get some calf lessons but although my legs aren’t great my lag putt is actually quite good here and it’s a little bit short but I don’t mind that one at all because it leaves a really nice easy tapin par on a tricky hole I enter the sixth hole feeling pretty confident on back to back pars which is important because this is another tricky hole in particular you need to have a nice straight drive there’s not a lot of room to miss to the left but thankfully there’s a little bit more room to miss to the right because that’s what I did and because I felt pretty good with the shots I’ve had with my fivewood today I pulled it out again and although it didn’t end up great I’ve given myself a chance to pitch on and still try to save a par in pursuit of breaking 80 one of the things you really need to make sure you’re doing is not worrying too much about taking a bogey if you miss the Green in regulation your goal should just be to get on the green with that very next shot the ball rolled out a little bit further than I thought it was going to so it leaves me a bit of an uphill putt but thankfully as I walked to the hole I noticed there was a big clump of grass that was there so I did decide to move that and clean off my ball again and even though I’ve left a lot of my putt short today which has been a little bit disappointing it has given me confidence that at least I’m around the whole I’m not missing these things really far or really short so I step up to this one with a bit of confidence hoping to save a par and I do what a great putt that one felt really good and as we enter hole seven the great game of golf reminds us to never let the highs get you too high or the lows get you too low because you never know what the next shot has in store for you this is a short par 4 that with a good drive you can be less than 100 yards into the green but unfortunately I pull this one into the right rough and you’ll notice I have a really tricky second shot here from looking behind the ball I wasn’t really sure if I’d be able to get it up high enough to clear the edge of this tree so I took a look from the other side and decided to try and I didn’t quite hit this 60° as well as I should have but I got really lucky that it snuck its way through the pines and somehow ended up on the green and fresh on the heels of making a really good par putt I go back to my old tricks leave this one about 2 ft short tap in for a par which is good because the very next hole is a nearly 200 yard par three and for me it’s the toughest on the course and maybe that got in my head because you’ll notice that my pre-shot routine has one two three and a half Waggles and while I’ve been able to avoid any major disasters so far I do realize when I spray this one a little bit left that the importance of my pre-shot routine cannot be overstated at this point in the round I’ve done it on fewer than 50% of my shots so that’s certainly something that moving forward I need to make more of a conscious effort of I do pitch onto the green here and leave myself a chance for a long par save but I leave this one surprise short it’s a little bit shorter than my other ones and I do have to take some extra time on this one because it’s not just a regular tap-in but I’m really glad I did because a bogie is always better than a double Boogie and that keeps my hopes of breaking ad80 alive and as we enter the ninth hole here my main goal is to get a par because I don’t want to string bogeys back to back and I don’t set myself up for success very well here by pulling this drive right into the trees thankfully in that area it’s pretty open and I do take a look here at possibly going for the green by trying to split that gap between the trees but Common Sense prevails for me and I decide that I don’t want to blow up my round completely so I’m just going to take a four iron and try and punch it underneath the trees to get myself back into the Fairway and it’s not a great attempt because I do clip some of the branches but when I take a look at where it end up it’s going to have to be good enough I left myself about 100 yards into the green I hit a pretty good 56° wedge here but I did leave it off a little bit to the left so it was going to be a very tricky putt to try and save another par but again I’m very proud of myself here by not getting too worried about this putt that I already acknowledge even if I T Putt and take the bogey it’s not ideally what I wanted out of the hole but again it’s still not a double Bogey and still no three putts through that front nine as we take a quick look at my nine-hole stats I’m sitting at plus five and only hitting a third of the greens and regulation and although I haven’t three yet having seven putts Miss short is definitely something I need to improve on this back nine as we can tell from pulling that three-wood the pre-shot routine is also something I need to be a lot more conscious of even though it’s cut from this video I did follow it this time and I pushed the shot a little bit left that was largely because I was trying to avoid the trees it’s not ideal to start the back nine in a similar fashion that I finished the front being able to quickly forget disappointing holes is going to be a very important thing if I’m trying to break 80 consistently so I can’t let it stay in in my head as I leave that pit shot short and leave another putt short tapping in for Aoki but don’t get discouraged as you were grinding away trying to break 80 because like we’ve said already golf is a funny game and you never know what the next opportunity might be in this case it’s a par five trying to shake off those bogey Vibes and even though I missed this Fairway I’ve been pretty pleased with myself today that all of my misses have just been a little bit off this ball was sitting up just well enough that I felt really confident pulling out my fivewood and although I missed the green it’s just off into the right Fringe I’ve got a putt for [Music] Eagle okay the heartbeat sound effect was a bit dramatic but I haven’t had a lot of chances to use it and that is our first birdie of the day flap those wings and when the goal on the day is just a break 80 getting a birdie is massive so I’m feeling pretty confident here coming up to this par 4 knowing that there’s a lot of room here to use my driver again and considering I’ve been missing right most of the times I aimed left here and just tried to play off of that drw and this ended up being the nicest Drive of my day and one of the things that I’d like to just note here is that I really haven’t hit a lot of Fairways off the te a lot of my shots have missed a bit to the right and I think it’s important to highlight that because when you’re trying to break 80 you have to remember that your game does not need to be perfect overcoming the bad shots is just as important as hitting good ones now that being said I just had a perfect drive and a near perfect approach shot I just barely came up short of the green here but missing short on this one is actually pretty good because you have a nice look at the hole and I just miss it by but that’s the kind of Miss I’m trying to make with my putts just a foot or two past the hole that was a really good attempt so that brings it into this par three and I’m feeling pretty good about my shots right now in particular the last few holes I’ve been sticking more to my routine and you’ll notice here I’ve got one waggle two Waggles set that club down and let’s get after it little bit of a pull but at least I stuck to the routine just short right and that sets me up with another opportunity to lag a good putt up there again I’m trying not to leave it short and it’s just a bit short I’ll still count that one against my stats just to see how it looks at the end of the round but I’m honestly not upset about that one because it was a tough read going up that little bit of a ridge I now know that for the last five holes if I can play them in plus two or better I will break 80 and on this hole there is water down the left hand side so I play it very conservative off to the right a little bit which ends up being a nice little baby fade and ends up in the Fairway with only about 100 yards to the hole which is a very comfortable 56° for me another key to shooting lower scores is to not worry about always going the furthest possible with every shot but instead trying to leave yourself at a distance where you can hit a very confident stroke I did that here and was all over the pin but but it just went a little bit longer than I expected because I didn’t really compensate for the wind but my putting on this back nine has been much improved as you can see I just burn the edge of that hole and it’s another easy tap in par I now have four holes to go and only trying to be plus two in these and this is a short par five that I’m trying to hit the same fade as I just did on the previous T but I pull this one so it’s a bit disappointing because I could have got really aggressive on the second shot here and I know this clip is going to look a little bit long compared to the other shots I’ve shown but I do want to show the sequence that I went through here because it’s a great example of the old adage play smarter not harder I’m only about 210 yard to the green here and I know that my fivewood is enough to make it but if you notice that the ball was a little bit down in the rough and I’m on a slope so the ball’s a bit below my feet so just before I committed to that shot I had this image that it might have just smashed right into the hill in front of me and it would have left me with a really long third shot in so I clubbed down to an eight iron here and I just decided to pop it out try and leave it about 100 yards into the green again and it worked out lovely and I really wish that I would have followed it up with something nice but unfortunately that’s where the good stuff ends on this hole as Not only was I playing into the wind here but I was having a hard time seeing where the pin was actually sitting on the green so I didn’t know how aggressive to be I ended up quite short here so I did leave myself with a chance to lag the putt but I honestly don’t know what happened on this one I had such great momentum with that Putter and this this one is way shorter than I should ever leave it at this point I’m kind of in my head and getting a little bit frustrated that I’ve left this long par attempt on a par five and I really don’t like giving a bogey away on these holes so that’s a really disappointing tap in that means to break 80 I can only get one bogey on these final three holes and this Par Four really isn’t very challenging the key is to be a little bit right here and you notice I didn’t do that this is one of the few drives that I missed a bit left so it was a tricky shot into the green it’s not as blind as it looks on the camera here but I did pull it you can see the flag waving in the middle and I’m way off to the right I’m now leaving myself too many of these long putts to try and leg up and this is backto back holes where I’ve left that first putt way too short and again just missing on the par attempt tap in bogey that brings us to the 17th hole which is a par three and this is a really nice shot it’s probably one of the nicest shots I’ve ever had on this hole you can see I’m just left off to the flag there it was a little dry in if I can make this birdie it would give me a great cushion going into the 18th hole and I’m really happy that I didn’t leave this one short but it just missed off to the left side so I tap this one in for a par and I need to par 18 so at this point I know that I’ve played the type of game that I need to to break 80 I’ve kept the ball in play I’ve only had one three putt and I’ve made a couple of really good approach Decisions by not trying to get too aggressive on my shots and just taking what the holes provided to me I even did my pre-shot routine here but I ended up pulling pulling the ball and I wish I could have done a better job on this Tracer because what it actually did is it hit a tree and kicked left into the rough which is what that fist pump was all about so the golf Gods gave me a break but as you can see here as I set up to the ball and pump it once and twice and kind of two and 1 half and a third time and kind of three and 1/2 I’m now unfortunately in my head and I lost that pre-shot routine because I’ve put a little bit of pressure on myself to really try and Par this hole and I bladed off a little bit to the left but I am close enough to the green I can pitch and Putt for par here and wouldn’t you know it after a really nice chip I somehow leave a 6t par putt short and although I didn’t break 80 I am proud with the progress that I made today it’s time to get back to my practice putting mat so I don’t leave so many short and I need to stick to that pre-shot routine much more consistent IST than I’ve done but thank you very much for watching this video please click like And subscribe and I hope to see you in the next one