Breaking 100

Swing a broom to get your body moving

One of the simplest ways to develop distance and accuracy doesn't even involve swinging a club. Make some practice swings from your regular setup with a standard kitchen broom. The weight of the broom won't let you make the arms-only swings that many players use on the course. You'll be forced to involve your core in the motion, which promotes a blend of arm swing and body rotation (right). You're working on two things at once—exercising and stretching your golf muscles—and you'll improve the overall sequencing of your backswing and downswing.

PUTTING TOUCH

Keep the coin in place on your putter

Decelerating at impact is not the major problem I see in putting. It's the opposite: Many players take the putter back short, then gun it through to try to get the ball to the hole. The ball explodes off the face without any consistency.

Fine-tune your feel on the carpet at home. Set down a metal yardstick and place a ball in the center. Put stickers on the yardstick the same distance in front of and behind the ball, and balance a penny on the back of your putter (right).

When you hit some putts, swing the putterhead the same speed to the back dot and then to the front dot. Accelerate too much, and the coin on the putter will slide off. Your goal is to roll the ball the same distance every time.

STAT FACTS

The average 100-shooter takes 36 putts per round, including about four three-putts. One area for improvement is putting from four to five feet, where this player's success rate is 50 percent. A better percentage from this typical second-putt distance will reduce three-putts.

—Peter Sanders / shotbyshot.com game analysis