Let's talk about blowup holes.
75% of golfers will NEVER break 90 in their lifetime.
So let me ask you a hypothetical question about YOUR GAME...
If I could grant you ONE SUPERPOWER for your next round, which gives you the BEST chance at breaking 90?
- A) You hit 10/14 fairways
- B) You hit 12/18 greens in regulation
- C) Eliminate all 3-putts
- D) Zero blow-up holes
I think I know your answer. It’s obvious, right?!
What if I guaranteed that in less than 90 days, with only 1-2 days of practice per week, you could add this superpower to your game and break 90 every round?
I'm going to take a WILD guess here...
For your "superpower", did you choose to eliminate blowup holes?
If you did... GREAT CHOICE.
If you didn't... Buckle up, we've got a LOT to talk about.
Years ago, I was a beginner at this game. I remember being TERRIFIED to hit my 3-wood because every swing felt like I would either chunk or top it.
And the driver? Not much better. I sliced the living daylights out of that thing for years.
The irons felt okay until... I caught a case of the shanks at my District qualifying tournament in high-school and fired a whopping 103.
That round left some serious mental scars. And if you're anything like I was, you can relate to this feeling.
It's the feeling of walking on the first tee hoping to have a "breakthrough", but secretly knowing that the blowup holes are just around the corner, and by hole 8, you'll be 15 over par with an army of destructive swing thoughts and ZERO strategies to make things better.
While I can't wave a magic wand and change your game overnight, I have good news.
With a few mindset shifts and some data-backed improvements to YOUR unique swing, you can turn this ship around.
I know this because I've been there and done it.
Remember that 103 I shot at my district qualifier?
One year later, at the SAME qualifier, and on the same course, I shot 79.
Here were the first 3 holes of that round:
- Quadruple bogey
- Bogey
- Double bogey
You read that right. I was 7 over par through 3 holes.
And then... I made 15-straight pars to shoot a 79.
This round taught me a very important lesson.
Blow up holes are OKAY if we don't let them ruin our round.
There is a good reason why Justin Thomas was so impressed with Steve Stricker's streak of double-bogey avoidance:
I know, I know...
We can't compare ourselves to the pros.
But I highlight this to illustrate the fact that even the pros have blowup holes on a frequent basis and deal with this painful part of golf.
Let me drop two truth-bombs on you now:
- Blowup holes are EXPECTED
- Perfect "bogey golf" is a MYTH.
What a sub-90 scorecard looks like
We've all heard this NONSENSE:
All you need to break 90 on a regulation, par 72 golf course is 17 bogeys and 1 par.
Simple for an armchair golf coach to say, but as players, we know this is NOT reality.
There will be double-bogeys.
There probably will be triple-bogeys.
There could be quadruple bogeys or worse.
Perfect bogey golf is RARE. Heck, I don't think I've ever seen a scorecard with 17 bogeys and 1 par.
Instead of playing perfect "bogey golf", you should be focusing on:
- Damage control - bogeys are WAYYY better than doubles, doubles are WAYYY better than triples, and triples are WAYYYYYY WAYYYY WAYYYY better than giving up (usually from embarrassment) and posting a 9 or 10 on the scorecard.
- A few good holes - you just need to make 3-6 pars, which usually come from those par 5s and par 3s! If you can throw a birdie in the mix, that's a BONUS!
Your PERSONALIZED roadmap to breaking 90
Everything I just said sounds simple, but I'm not going to sugarcoat things.
Golf is hard.
And when you're searching the internet for golf instruction, it gets even harder because most videos and courses teach a "cookie cutter", "one size fits all" golf swing.
But having worked with hundreds of golfers just like you, I've come to a humbling conclusion:
Every golfer is different, which means every LEARNING PATH is also different.
You may have a physical limitation or mobility issues.
You may have a "unique" swing (like Matthew Wolff, Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson, or Dustin Johnson) that you don't have any interest in changing.
You may prefer playing rather than practicing.
You may NOT have great practice facilities available to you.
You may prefer a "structured" lesson series OR... A "buffett style" collection of lessons.
I get it. And that's why at The DIY Golfer, my goal is to give you the tools and knowledge to "do it yourself".
My goal is to give you the convenience of online instruction while offering the personalization of in-person lessons.
The secret to breaking 90 every round
In just a few months, your future self is going to be laughing at your current self, wondering how on earth it once felt so difficult to break 90?
But seriously... Here's what one of my former students had to say after working with me:
Before I took the Break 90 course I was shooting around 95 to 100 on my home course, a regulation par 72, 69.0/122 course. This is a course that I have played for 15 years. I felt that I should be better than that so I invested in the Break 90 course. Now a year later I am routinely breaking 90 and score in the 83 to 85 range most of the time.
I’ve had countless golfers share similar stories, and as a golfer myself who has gone through the struggle of breaking 100, 90, 80, and even 70, these messages get me fired up every time! I love seeing golfers break those scoring barriers!
But each scoring barrier comes with different challenges.
As someone who has broken all of them (except 60!), here are my observations of WHAT IT TAKES to break through each barrier:
- Breaking 100 - at this point, you’re in full-on learning mode, trying to survive out there.
- Breaking 90 - YOU ARE HERE. And to break through, you must keep learning, but also start playing smarter golf shots, managing expectations, finding the right equipment, and most importantly, learning how YOUR swing works and what to do when it breaks.
- Breaking 80 - very few golfers will break 80, but to join this group, you will need to combine course strategy with shotmaking and a bit more practice time.
- Breaking 70 - you have to practice. A LOT.
Breaking 90 for the first time is a great accomplishment. But you’re looking to do it EVERY ROUND. Here are the things you need to make that happen:
- CONFIDENCE off the tee - you don’t need to be perfect, but you need a “go-to” shot that will put your golf ball in play consistently
- CONSISTENCY on approach shots - no pin-seeking required here, we just need to eliminate big misses and capitalize on those 80-140 yard approach shots from the middle of the fairway.
- GOOD ENOUGH short game - you don’t need to be Phil Mickelson here. You just need an arsenal of BASIC short game shots you can rely on to minimize damage.