A Simple Weekly Golf Practice Routine to Help You Shoot in the 90s

Breaking 100 is one of the biggest milestones for a recreational golfer.

You don’t need a perfect swing or 250-yard drives. You need to eliminate the mistakes that turn bogeys into triple bogeys.

Your priorities should be:

• Keep tee shots in play
• Reduce penalty strokes
• Develop a dependable approach shot
• Get your first chip onto the green
• Reduce three-putts
• Learn how to recover safely
• Stop turning one bad shot into three

At Golf Gear Authority, this practice plan focuses specifically on those areas.

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Practice Session 1: Putting and Short Game

Drill 1: 3-Foot Putting Circle

Place golf balls approximately three feet from the cup at different positions around the hole.

Rather than hitting the same straight putt repeatedly, you’ll encounter slightly different breaks and speeds as you work your way around the cup.

Your first goal:

Make 8 out of 10.

As you improve, work toward making 10 consecutive three-footers.

What This Drill Improves

• Short-putt confidence
• Starting direction
• Alignment
• Face control
• Putting under pressure

A three-foot circle-style drill is also commonly used by instructors to practice short putts from different directions around the cup.

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Drill 2: Lag Putting Distance-Control Drill

Three-putts can destroy a round when you’re trying to break 100.

Instead of practicing 30-foot putts with the expectation of making them, practice getting them close enough to comfortably make the second putt.

Set markers at:

10 feet → 20 feet → 30 feet → 40 feet

Then alternate distances rather than repeatedly hitting the same putt.

Scoring

Inside 3 feet: 2 points

Inside 6 feet: 1 point

Outside 6 feet: 0 points

Hit five putts from each distance.

Your objective is developing better speed control, not trying to hole every long putt.

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Drill 3: Chipping Contact Drill

Your first short-game objective when trying to break 100 should be simple:

Get the first chip onto the green.

Don’t worry about flop shots or generating Tour-level spin.

Practice making predictable contact.

A useful way to do that is to establish a repeatable setup and work on controlling the bottom of your swing rather than trying to scoop the ball into the air.

10-Ball Challenge

Hit 10 chips.

Give yourself:

1 point: Anywhere on green

2 points: Within 6 feet

Your first target:

8 of 10 balls on the putting surface.

As your contact improves, start making your target area smaller.

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Drill 4: Chipping Landing-Zone Drill

Once you’re consistently getting the ball onto the green, start working on where the ball lands.

Place a towel approximately 5–10 yards onto the green.

Now try to land your chips on the towel.

Move the towel to different distances.

Don’t focus only on where the ball finishes.

Pay attention to:

Landing point → Bounce → Roll → Final position

This will teach you how different clubs react around the green.

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Practice Session 2: Full Swing

Drill 5: Approach-Shot Target Practice

Now move to the driving range.

Choose one club you trust from approximately 100–150 yards.

Depending on your game, that could be:

• 8-iron
• 7-iron
• 6-iron
• Hybrid

Choose a specific target on the range.

Don’t just hit balls into an open field.

Hit 15 Balls

Track:

Target area: 2 points

Reasonable miss: 1 point

Major miss: 0 points

You’re training dispersion, not maximum distance.

A predictable 135-yard 7-iron is far more useful when trying to break 100 than occasionally hitting one 155 yards.

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Drill 6: Driver Fairway Drill

Now pull out your driver.

Pick two objects on the range that represent the boundaries of an imaginary fairway.

Your objective isn’t hitting the ball as far as possible.

It’s:

Keep the ball between the boundaries.

Hit 10 drives.

Score Them

Fairway: 1 point

Rough but playable: ½ point

Penalty/OB: 0 points

Try to score:

7 Points or Better

Then perform exactly the same test with your:

• 3-wood
• 5-wood
• Hybrid

If you score 4 with driver and 8 with hybrid, you’ve learned something important.

Hybrid may be the smarter tee club on tight holes.

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Drill 7: Play Imaginary Holes on the Range

This is one of the most important changes you can make to your range practice.

Stop hitting 20 consecutive balls with the same club.

Instead, play an imaginary golf course.

Example Par 4

Driver → 7-iron → Wedge

Example Par 5

Driver → Hybrid → 8-iron

Short Par 4

Hybrid → 8-iron

The important rule is:

One Ball Per Shot.

If you hit a bad drive, don’t hit another.

Imagine where the first shot would have finished and choose the next club accordingly.

Now you’re practicing golf instead of practicing golf swings.

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Practice Session 3: Scoring Practice

Drill 8: Up-and-Down Challenge

Take one golf ball to the practice green.

Drop it in different locations around the green.

Play each location like an actual hole:

Chip → Putt → Putt out

Don’t rake another ball into position if you hit a bad chip.

Finish the hole.

Play 10 Holes

Your starting goal:

30 Strokes or Fewer

As you improve:

28 → 27 → 26

This puts pressure on both your chipping and putting.

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Drill 9: Bunker Contact Drill

For a golfer trying to break 100, the first objective from a greenside bunker isn’t hitting the ball three feet from the pin.

It’s:

Get Out in One Shot.

Draw a line or small target area in the sand and practice getting the club to enter the sand in approximately the same location repeatedly.

Once your contact becomes consistent, introduce the golf ball.

Hit 10 bunker shots.

Your Goal

7 out of 10 onto the green.

Then work toward:

8/10 → 9/10 → 10/10

Bunker drills using lines or marked areas in the sand are commonly used to teach golfers to control where the club enters the sand.

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Drill 10: Trouble-Shot Recovery Practice

Golfers trying to break 100 often waste shots attempting impossible recoveries.

So practice the opposite.

Put your ball:

• Behind a tree
• In deeper rough
• Against an awkward lie
• Somewhere without a direct shot toward the green

Then identify the easiest route back to safety.

Your goal isn’t hitting a miraculous low hook through a six-foot opening.

It’s:

Get back into the fairway in one shot.

Learning a controlled low punch can also give you a useful option when branches prevent a normal trajectory.

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Drill 11: Pressure Putting Challenge

Don’t end your practice session casually hitting putts.

Make the final drill count.

Hit:

5 putts from 3 feet

3 putts from 5 feet

2 putts from 8 feet

Goal

Make 7 of 10.

Once you can consistently make seven:

Target 8/10.

Then:

9/10.

The important part is recording your result so there’s a consequence attached to every putt.

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Track Your Mistakes During Actual Rounds

Practice becomes much more effective when you know why you’re shooting 103 instead of 98.

For your next three rounds, record:

• Penalty strokes
• Three-putts
• Double chips
• Failed bunker escapes
• Duffed approaches
• Tee shots requiring recovery
• Poor course-management decisions

Suppose after three rounds you discover:

Penalty strokes: 5

Three-putts: 7

Double chips: 4

That’s 16 obvious scoring opportunities.

Now your next week’s practice schedule becomes obvious.

You don’t need to rebuild your swing.

You need to work on driving accuracy, lag putting and chipping.

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Your Weekly Break 100 Practice Schedule

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Five Rules for Breaking 100

1. Keep Your Tee Shot in Play

Distance comes second.

2. Develop One Reliable Approach Club

Find the club you trust from roughly 100–150 yards.

3. Get Your First Chip Onto the Green

Eliminate double chips.

4. Reduce Three-Putts

Work heavily on speed control.

5. Never Turn One Bad Shot Into Three

Take the easy recovery.

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Final Verdict

Breaking 100 isn’t primarily about developing a beautiful golf swing.

It’s about becoming more predictable and eliminating unnecessary strokes.

That’s also why this practice plan shouldn’t consist of generic range sessions.

Every drill has a specific purpose:

Short Putting → Make more makeable putts

Lag Putting → Reduce three-putts

Chipping → Eliminate double chips

Approach Targets → Improve consistency

Fairway Drill → Reduce penalty strokes

Imaginary Holes → Improve decision-making

Up-and-Down Challenge → Improve scoring

Bunker Drill → Escape in one shot

Recovery Drill → Prevent blow-up holes

Pressure Putting → Transfer practice to the course

Follow the plan consistently, track the mistakes costing you strokes, and then spend more practice time attacking your biggest weakness.

That’s a much faster path toward 99 than simply hitting another bucket of drivers.