The best advice for breaking 90, according to low handicappers

Golf is full of milestones, but one of the biggest for recreational golfers is breaking 90. Once you can do that, you graduate from hacker to weekend warrior.

Those who have broken through that barrier likely remember the euphoria of accomplishing that goal. It may not be the same as slipping on the green jacket, but it’s still something worth celebrating.

For those who haven’t quite summited that mountain, the dream of breaking 90 endures. And here at GOLF.com, we want to help you accomplish that feat. Below, you’ll find the best advice for breaking 90 from a handful of our single-digit handicappers on staff.

Nail your fundamentals, play mind games

Breaking 90 for the first time is a huge milestone in any golfer’s career. Don’t get too frustrated if you haven’t crossed that threshold yet. Your time is coming. That being said, you can do a couple things to grease the wheels a bit. First and foremost, you need to practice your setup. You’d be surprised how easy it is to forget the fundamentals when nerves are running high. With a solid setup, that’s one less thing to worry about and you reduce the chances of making an avoidable error.

The second piece of advice is to play to an adjusted par. Many golfers’ egos and expectations are what end up ruining their rounds. Instead of putting pressure on yourself to make par on a long par-4, attack it like you would a par-five. This adjustment gives you a little extra breathing room and increases your chances of making bogey or better. And, on a par-72 course, you only have to make par or better on one hole to break 90, which seems a lot more doable, in my opinion. My final nugget of wisdom is to distract yourself by playing short matches, seeing if you can beat three-over-par for those particular holes. —Maddi MacClurg (6 handicap)

Keep the driver in play

I know what you’re thinking. What does this arrogant plus-handicap know about breaking 90?! But these days the guys I play the most golf with are satisfied with keeping things double-digits and ecstatic to sneak under 90. And the biggest key I’ve noticed as they’ve started to shave some strokes: When they find a way to keep the ball in play off the tee, it makes all the difference. I implore you to find a way to stop losing tee shots. Golf is tough enough from the fairway; there’s just no way to succeed when you’re playing from the trees, dropping from the water or re-teeing hitting 3. Can’t do it!

Now look, I’m not one of those old-school “hit 3-iron off the tee” advice-givers. The driver is the biggest club and flies the farthest. Find a way to hit it in play. Take a lesson. (Seriously, take a lesson. Maybe a few lessons.) Hit the range. And then get on the course to learn your tendencies and learn where the driver goes when you’re nervous, tense, tired, under pressure, into the wind, etc. Don’t get too caught up with hitting bombs — we’ll get there later. And be kind to yourself. This is a hard game. May as well get started in the right direction. —Dylan Dethier (+2.6 handicap)

Get comfortable with your nerves

Back when I was a teenager trying to break 90 for the first time, the biggest challenge I faced was breaking through the mental barrier of the feat. I knew I had the ability to break that magic number, but my mind always got in the way. I can’t tell you how many times I came down the stretch on the back nine with a chance to post a score in the 80s, only to make a big mistake and mess it up.

When I finally did break 90, I remember feeling totally comfortable with the situation. I’d been there so many times before I wasn’t even really nervous. You’ll find yourself getting nervous when approaching any major milestone in golf. The only way to combat those nerves is to get comfortable with them.

If you’re trying to break 90 for the first time, the best advice I can give is to put yourself in that position as many times as possible. You likely won’t accomplish your goal the first (or second or third) time you’re in position to do so — but that’s ok! Every time you get in that spot, you learn to handle the nerves a little bit better. Keep knocking on the door and eventually you’ll break through. Then, it’s time to focus on breaking 80. —Zephyr Melton (4.6 handicap)

Avoid blowups

I played a lot of golf with my mom this year, and she is right in this scoring zone. She averages rounds in the low-to-mid-90s but I know a high-80s day is definitely possible for her! Whenever she has a good round, or even a good side of nine holes, we discuss the difference-maker. For her, it tends to be the same thing each time: avoiding blowups. She hits it straight and keeps it in play consistently, so the most frequent derailments generally occur around the green, something like bunker trouble or a wayward chip that gets compounded by a three or four-putt. It’s really, really hard to break 90 if you have a couple of 8s on the card, so avoiding those momentum-killers is key.

Distance is also an important factor, so I would suggest making sure you play the appropriate tees. Even from the forward tees, my mom can’t always reach every par 4 in regulation. So, the goal becomes to make those holes into par 5s. And some par 5s become par 6s. Being realistic about your distance capability helps a lot with the mental challenge of breaking 90. Make it a goal to get to the green in as few shots as you can, hitting your most confident club each time. It can also help to think about each hole in a round as a par 5. Two sides of “even par” gets you to 90. A par on the par 3s and bogeys on the par 4s and par 5s on a par-72 course gets you to … 86! Doesn’t that seem downright feasible? There’s also a nice mental lift that comes from being “two-under” after a par on a par 3. —Jessica Marksbury (9.8 handicap)