My quest to break 80 took me to Indigo Lakes Golf Course in Daytona Beach, Florida this week.

The way I look at it, to break 80 you’ve got to obviously shoot 79 or lower on a par 72 course, this means you have 7 mistakes to give away before you soar into the land of 80’s golf. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m at that stage on the golf course where my basic goal whenever I tee off is to come home under 90. That’s what I still consider a successful round.. Still, having shot an 80 this summer, I feel that it’s time to start that push for the next level. I need to break 80. I’m not getting any younger!

So, back to Indigo Lakes. I carded an 89 there this week, so that means I made 10 more than my alotted number of mistakes. Does that make sense? There were more than enough mistakes to go around, so I’ll just look at the last 10, counting backwards from the 18th hole, in an effort to identify what I did wrong and hopefully improve.

mistake #1: SInce I bogeyed 18, there must have been a mistake on this hole, which is a long par four which I actually played pretty well. I did come up a few yards short (about 5) on my approach, but still should have been able to chip it close enough for a one-putt par, so I will count my mistake as a bad chip shot, which I stubbed and pulled pretty badly, leaving it about 15 feet left and short. CONCENTRATE!

mistake #2: A score killing triple bogey on the par 5 17th means three mistakes. First, I pulled a short, low line drive off the tee into the left rough. Tailwind + wanting a long drive so I g=could go for the green = OVERSWING! I swung too hard and put myself in trouble of the tee.

mistake #3: After my bad drive on 17, I regained my balance. A decent recovery shot out of the rough and a lonf, if slightly off line 3 wood left my just right of the green lying 3. An OK s=chip shot left me with a makable 10 foot par putt. But, of course, after a day of good, steady putting, I somehow completely misread the slope of the green and ran the 10 footer about 8 feet past the hole!

mistake #4: The only thing worse than badly over-cooking a downhill putt is turning around and blasting the uphill come-backer a bout 5 feet past the hole. Yes, that is exactly what I did. I misread the first putt and rushed the second in frustration. SLOW DOWN!

mistake #5: Again, I put myself in a hole off the tee, overswinging and sending my ball into a stand of trees down the left side of the fairway. I remember standing over the ball on the tee box and thinking “it would be great to crush one about 300 yards down the middle here” . Of course the tension creeps in and another poor swing leaves me peering out from the trees down the left side of the fairway. A good recovery shot, approach, chip and putt gave a bogey from a position I never should have putt myself in.

mistake #6: This was not a bad mistake as my mistakes, a pushed tee shot leaving me pin high to the right of green with a left hand pin position on the par 3 15th, still I bogeyed the hole, so I must count it as a mistake. AIM BETTER!

mistake #7: Crushed the drive down the right side of the fairway on the par 5 11th, leaving me an unobstructed 220 yard approach to the green. Left with the choice of hitting a good 5 iron to inside 100 yards or going for the green with my 3 wood, I hit my 3 wood.(stupid!). SInce I had a fairly stiff left to right breeze, I aimed a little left. I must have some draw on the ball since it never turned in, caught a greenside hill and bounced hard left into the bushes. Lost ball, stroke penalty, bogey.

mistake #8: Pushed my drive to the right off the par 4 10th tee, an occasional recurring problem having to do with my follow through and not having my wrists come through at impact. this left me with a bad, sidehill lie out of thick rough, resulting in a stubbed second shot before I regained my footing an saved an ugly bogey.

mistakes #9-12: This unfortunate string of errors all occurred on the par 4 9th hole, which is the hole that really killed my chances of breaking 80 in this day. I had ben cruising along at 4 over through 8 when I walked to the 9th tee, I pulled an ugly line drive into the trees on the left of the fairway, found my ball, and punched it out. from about 190 yards out, a pushed 5 wood well right of the green (mistake #2 on the hole.) From a lie in thick rough, I bladed a pitching wedge through the green all the way in tot eh left bunker (mistake #3 on the hole). Hit a decent bunker shot, but a little hot about 12 feet past the hole (I’ll count this as mistake #4 on the hole, since I was able to 2 putt from there, but a really good bunker shot would have left me with a makable 1 putt)

So there you have it. I did not break 80 on this day, but at least I know why!

My Breakin’ 80 golf blog details my quest to break 80 on the golf course and gives me an outlet for any other deep thoughts I might have on the great game of golf. Be sure to visit my eBay golf club store for great deals on used golf clubs the I can no longer find a place for in my garage or my Amazon.com Golf Shop for shiny new gear!

Tags: golf, driving, tee shot, tee-off, mistkes, rounds, improvement