Customer Reviews

How to Break 90 : An Easy, Step-by-Step Approach for Breaking Golf''s Toughest Scoring Barrier

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3 star:		(1)
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For several years, I was locked in a zone of shooting around 95 on basically every course I went to. No matter how well I was swinging the club, there'd always be a couple holes with a double or triple bogey that would prevent me from breaking 90.

To be sure, my fundamentals have improved over that time: my drives are longer and straighter, and my short irons were ending up closer and closer to the pin. Still couldn't break 90.

Since I bought this book about a month ago, I have broken 90 in four consecutive rounds, and even had a darn good chance of approaching 80 my last time out. Yet, my swing is the same. So how has this book helped me? It drilled in three simple rules, which I will summarize:

1. Play to your level. I can have a difficult time with long irons, and this book taught me how to play a course wisely by using strategies rather than equipment. For example, there's a darn good chance that trying to land a 200 yard iron shot will get me in trouble, while two easy wedge shots will get me close to the hole. Why risk water, sand and rough in the unlikely chance for a birdie on a long par 4?

2. Stay out of trouble. The book gave me simple strategies to manage a golf course conservatively to encourage greater consistency. Golf is a lot easier to play from the short grass, and this book tells you how to leave yourself with easier shots.

3. Focus on the short game. There's great sections on chipping, pitching, sand play, and putting. It is simple tips that help me select the right shot for the right situation, and has opened up my eyes to the whole "feel" game. By learning how to read grains, survey bunkers, and a refresher on chipping, I now know how to select the right one of three pitch shots, for example. This saves valuable strokes. Believe me: golf is a much easier game when you're confident that your par-saving putt after a missed green will be within 5 feet of the hole, rather than having chips chunked, hit thin, off line, or just plain messed up.

Next thing for me to practice from this book is how to shape shots and how to better read greens. I am very confident that my scores will start to approach the low 80s by the end of this year because of this book.

However -- This book isn't for someone who has basic questions about grip, stance, or swing plane. There's probably three or four illustrations in the whole book. If you can consistently hit your short irons straight, fair pretty well with your 3 and 5 woods, and aren't a disaster with your mid irons, this book is for you. If you have a consistent slice or a tendency to chunk shots in the fairway, How to Break 90 isn't going to fix your swing problems. Get a few lessons at your local driving range, give 'em a few weeks to sink in, THEN buy this book.

I bought this book, even though at the time I was trying to break 100 rather than 90. I really liked the way the authors focused on course management and the short game rather than swing changes. I also liked the little bits of humor scattered throughout.

The authors make the point that if you average a 5 on every hole (something they call "Level 5's"), then you will shoot 90. I took this a step further and told myself that if I could shoot Level 6's, that's a 108. So if I could shave a few strokes from there, shoot 5 on a few holes (which isn't that tough, even for me), then I could break 100.

Sure enough, using thier course management advice and focusing on shooting 6's, not thinking about par, I broke 100 several times in the my next few rounds.

I'm now re-reading the book, and practicing some of the advice I thought was too advanced back then, and refining some more to hopefully break 90 soon.

This book truly helped my game....one of the few books I can say that about!

If you regularly card a 100 to 110 this is the book for you! There are no slick gimmicks or awkward exercises in this book. It just shows you how to maximize the swing you have and avoid the costly mistakes that most people make again and again.

I loved the early chapter about "personal par". To shoot a 90 means you average 5 shots per hole. Rather than pushing your game to shoot the stated par on a hole, take your shot-making ability and try to card a par plus one on every hole. Voila! You are now shooting a 90, which is a respectable score with any partner on any course.

Guess what?! This book worked for me and it can work for you, too. Read it this winter on those long, cold nights when you long for the chance to be out in the sun sinking a tough breaking putt.

I just read this book and have had little time to put all the ideas into practice. I am exactly the person this book targets, an inconsistent player who has good holes and then blows up a few which prevent me from consistently breaking 100, let alone 90.

That being said I feel this is one of the best instructionals I've ever read. This book is the antithesis of the "tip" model that so many books are based on. There's no doubt that sometimes one small change here and there makes big changes in consistency for a player. For me the biggest change in distance and accuracy was the importance of the shoulder turn. This book does address good components of a swing but it does it in a narrative style rather than using lots of drawings. Overall, I'm visual as most of us are, but I felt that the words expressed a lot. Best of all these guys have a good sense of humor and their tongue in cheek I feel checks egos nicely. That's an important part of improvement in golf. I am amazed at the guys I know who swear they break ninety that I know from watching them they couldn't break 90 on a nine hole executive par 3. To improve you have to be realistic about strengths and weaknesses and that's what is nice about this book. I've long had a sneaking suspicion I'd be a better player if I just played more conservatively instead of pulling clubs out that a pro would and trying to pull off a shot a pro did on TV. These guys are quick to point out that historically bogey golf is good golf. We have so professionalized our expectations that people really have lost sight of the relative stature of scores. Most people who play golf don't do it regularly and very few even break 100.

The section on how to read shots into the green was good. I've seen the info before but it really sunk in this time. I've always seen the flag and fired even though I have a 5 iron in my hand,guess what? According to these guys I should be laying up with a iron I am more comfortable with and wedging into the green. I haven't tried that yet but I'll bet I start knocking those snowmen off my scorecard. I can't wait to try.

I started golfing regularly (about 3 times a month) last summer, practice at least once a week at the range, took a few lessons and finally broke 100. At that point I purchased "How to Break 90".

This book does an excellent job at teaching course management to avoid the dreaded blow up holes which ruin our scores. You will learn how to break down each hole to avoid hazards and to play within your ability. Instead of blasting a long iron or fairway wood on your second shot to the green of a typical par 4 hole, the author advises you to layup with a shot within your means to achieve your "personal par". There will be situations in which you can take chances and "go for the green", but in most cases, the risk doesn't pay off for golfers of our ability.

This book, together with practice will help you lower your scores. In fact I broke 90 (84) for the first time last month. I still hit plenty of bad shots but instead of trying to pull off a heroic shot to save par, the book has taught me to take my medicine and I usually do no worse than a double bogie.

Besides the outstanding course management help, "How to Break 90" also teaches you a variety golf shots in easy to understand language with a sense of humor. Highly recommended to all weekend golfers who want to improve.

This book is not your traditional "how-to" golf instruction book. It teaches golfers with moderate skills how to think their way around a golf course. They stress the rule of 5's which basically comes down to the fact that you can bogey every hole and shoot 90. If you are trying to break that 90 barrier, this is a good book for you.

I am fairly new at golf and decided to read this book to help me get lower scores. For the most part the book has been helpful but I do wish there was a cheat sheet or series of diagrams at the back that recaps ball position, swing path, foot position etc. It is hard to keep all the advice in your head and somewhat difficult to find any specific passage on club advice.

My biggest complaint - and this is true for almost every book on golf that I have looked through up to now- is that they don't tell you how to hit a 3 iron. They just suggest that you can never hit this club - go and sell it - don't even look at it, etc. This kind of ticks me off because after I finally found some simple advice on how to hit long irons, they have become the most reliable clubs in my bag! They could have spent a little time talking about swing plane and that it is different for every club and here is where your hands will likely be for each club on your backswing - etc. It is not as hard as they blow this up to be.

Sadly - even though the advice in the book is good my score hasn't changed at all. I did tell a friend not to use his driver and his score got better - hurray for him!

Level Fives is the simple system the author introduces to help the good golfer become an 80's shooter. Level Fives just means adding 1 to par for each hole and having a plan for when to go for GIR and when to get a safe GIR+1 and leave 2 putts for bogey.

In addition to the course management stuff, there is also good advise on working the ball and some basic mechanics for good putting, chipping and pitching. This book combined with Bob Rotella's Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect really helped me to lower my scores.

If you hit it well on the range but always seem to have a few big numbers that wreck your score, this book and Dr. Bob's will definitely help you. I also read and am a big fan of the Pelz putting and short game books as well as Hogan's 5 essentials for the full swing. And of course what library would be complete without Harvey Penick's Little Red Book.

Also, not to ramble, but for general golf fun I like Bill Murrey's Cinderella Story and John Feinstein's A Good Walk Spoiled.

I got the Tiger book and wasn't overly impressed.

I don't know whether it was just my focus or the book or both, but I'm now scoring in the mid 80's regularly. The think I liked about the book is that it is practical...that's what makes it work! You won't learn the perfect swing or the perfect anything here..you'll just learn how to score using your basic skills!

Some of the book is a rehash of things you already know, but that's golf...you already know WHAT to do, it's just DOING IT.
This book helps you use your brain to score. Good luck.

Your scores WILL drop if you read this book (thoroughly)
and start putting its commonsense advice into practice.

Of all the instructional books I've read in ANY category (and
I say this as a professional writer myself), this one stands
out for its clarity, sense of humor, and easy readability.

However, for the next edition, let there be more diagrams!

In spite of the authors' brilliant description of the swing -- the
best I have read yet -- I wish they'd have included a diagram
of a solid take-away, my own personal golf bugaboo.

(Perhaps the authors assume we already know how to do it.)

All the same, for a relatively small cash outlay you can't beat
this book.

But you will beat your friends.