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Break 100: 5 Training Aids I Used to Shoot 96

Item: Break 100 Training Kit
Author: Tommy Strawn

By Tommy Strawn · July 29, 2026 · 9 min read

Break 100: 5 Training Aids I Used to Shoot 96

I shot 103 for an entire summer. Not 105 some days and 98 others. A flat, stubborn 103. I bought a new driver. I read three books on course management. I took a lesson where a pro told me my swing plane was “a little steep” and sent me home with a drill I forgot by the time I reached the parking lot.

None of it moved the number. What moved it was accepting something I did not want to accept: I was not losing strokes because my swing was broken. I was losing them in two specific places, over and over, and I was too stubborn to practice the boring fixes.

Shot Scope has tracked millions of amateur rounds, and their data backs this up. Golfers scoring in the 100s average 8 troublesome tee shots per round and 4 three-putts. That is 12 avoidable strokes right there. Fix half of those and you are shooting 96. Fix three-quarters and you are at 92. I did not need to rebuild my swing. I needed to plug two leaks.

I spent $235 on five training aids. Eight weeks later I shot 96. Five aids, added one at a time over eight weeks. Each one below has the drill I used, the time it took, and what it actually fixed.

Why Your Score Is Stuck in the 100s

You keep hitting tee shots into trouble. Shot Scope data says 100+ shooters find trouble off the tee 8 times per round. That is a penalty stroke or a punch-out on nearly half the holes. You are not hitting it sideways because your swing is fundamentally flawed. You are hitting it sideways because your alignment drifts, your tempo gets quick under pressure, and you have never actually trained a consistent contact point. Each of those has a training aid that fixes it through repetition, not swing theory.

You three-putt four times per round. The Shot Scope benchmark for breaking 100 is no more than 4 three-putts. Most 100+ shooters are at 5 or 6. The killer is not the 4-foot miss. It is the 35-foot lag putt that rolls 12 feet past the hole, leaving a comebacker you are not confident you will make. Your distance control is untrained because you have never putted to a target that gives you feedback on speed. A putting mat with distance markings and a ramp trainer fix that at home in 10-minute sessions.

You need feedback on both of these. That is where training aids earn their money. A lesson tells you what is wrong once. A training aid trains the fix into your body through repetition.

The Five Aids That Got Me to 96

1. SuperStroke Alignment Sticks: $15

You have no excuse not to own these. They cost less than a sleeve of Pro V1s. Most beginners do not slice because of a deep swing flaw. They aim wrong at address, feel something is off mid-swing, compensate without realizing it, and produce a wild miss. Alignment sticks fix the root cause: your body is pointed somewhere other than where you think it is.

The drill: Lay one stick on the ground pointing at your target and a second stick parallel to it, three inches inside your feet, to check your shoulder alignment. Hit 15 balls twice a week, verifying after every few swings that your feet, hips, and shoulders are all parallel to the target line. If your shoulders drift open, the stick shows you instantly.

Time commitment: 15 minutes, twice a week for three weeks.

What it fixed: My tee shots stopped missing in two different directions on the same round. Once my alignment was consistent, my miss became a small, predictable fade I could plan for instead of a 50-50 coin flip between dead right and dead left.

2. Orange Whip Trainer: $119

Tempo is the silent killer for high handicappers. You stand on the tee, the group behind you is waiting, and you swing 20% faster than your practice swing. The ball goes sideways. The Orange Whip is a weighted, flexible trainer with a ball on the end. Swing it too fast and the shaft wobbles like a wet noodle. Swing it smooth and the weight lags behind your hands, teaching you the rhythm that keeps your driver in play.

The drill: Swing the Orange Whip 30 times with your eyes closed, focusing on feeling the weight lag at the top of your backswing and through impact. That lag is your tempo cue. Do this before every range session and before the first tee. The smooth rhythm transfers directly to your driver swing.

Time commitment: 5 minutes before every practice session or round, 3 times a week for 4 weeks.

What it fixed: My blow-up holes went from 2 or 3 per round down to maybe 1. The Orange Whip did not change my swing. It changed my rhythm. A smooth 92 mph swing in play beats a jerky 105 mph swing in the trees every time.

3. Lag Shot 7-Iron: $129

This is a real 7-iron with a flexible shaft designed to wobble if your tempo is off or your hands flip at the ball. It trains the same tempo lesson as the Orange Whip but with a club you actually hit balls with. If your hands take over at the bottom of the swing, the shaft bends visibly and the ball goes nowhere. You cannot fake a good swing with this club.

The drill: Hit 20 balls with the Lag Shot at the range, focusing on feeling the shaft load at the top and release through impact. If the club wobbles, you are rushing. Slow down until the shaft stays smooth. Then hit 10 balls with your real 7-iron and notice how stable it feels by comparison.

Time commitment: 15 minutes, twice a week for 3 weeks.

What it fixed: My ball-striking from the fairway improved enough that I was hitting greens instead of chipping from 30 yards short. The tempo I built with the Orange Whip translated into actual ball contact with the Lag Shot.

4. Perfect Practice Putting Mat: $60-$180

This is the one that saved me the most strokes. The Perfect Practice mat has distance markings printed on the surface and a slight incline at the end so the ball returns to you. The markings are the key. You learn what a 10-foot stroke feels like versus a 20-foot stroke versus a 30-foot stroke. That is distance control, and distance control is what eliminates three-putts.

The drill: Set up the mat in your hallway or living room. Putt 20 balls from the 15-foot mark, trying to stop each one on the printed line at the end. Then move back to 25 feet and repeat. The goal is consistency of finish distance, not making putts. You are training your hands to calibrate stroke length to putt distance.

Time commitment: 10 minutes, 4 times a week for 4 weeks.

What it fixed: My three-putts dropped from 5 per round to 2. The 35-foot lag putts that used to run 12 feet past the hole started finishing inside 3 feet. That is 3 strokes per round from one mat and 10 minutes a day.

5. PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer: $30-$40

The Perfect Practice mat trains your distance control. The PuttOut trains your finishing speed inside 10 feet. It is a ramp trainer: putt the ball at the right speed and it sticks in the micro-hole on top. Too hard and it rolls back down to you. Too soft and it never reaches the ramp. You get instant feedback on whether your 6-footer had the right pace to actually go in.

The drill: Set the PuttOut 8 feet away on the putting mat. Hit 20 putts, trying to get the ball to stick in the hole without rolling back. Count how many stick out of 20. Track your number over 2 weeks. You will see it climb from 8 or 9 up to 14 or 15.

Time commitment: 5 minutes, 4 times a week for 2 weeks, layered in after your distance control work on the mat.

What it fixed: The 4-to-8-foot second putts that used to turn into three-putts. Once my lag putting improved on the mat, the PuttOut made sure I finished the job from close range.

The Eight-Week Plan

Weeks 1-2: Alignment sticks (tee shot direction) and the Perfect Practice mat (lag putt distance). These are the two easiest wins and require no range access, just a backyard and a hallway.

Weeks 3-4: Add the Orange Whip (tempo before range sessions) and the PuttOut (finishing speed inside 10 feet). By now your tee shot direction and lag putting have stabilized.

Weeks 5-6: Add the Lag Shot 7-Iron (ball-striking tempo from the fairway). With alignment and tempo already in place, you can focus on clean contact without the other two problems distracting you.

Weeks 7-8: All five aids, rotating. Alignment sticks and putting mat daily, Orange Whip before sessions, Lag Shot twice a week, PuttOut after mat work. This is your maintenance routine going forward.

Total cost for all five aids: about $235. That is less than two lessons with a PGA instructor, and you get to keep using every piece of it forever, at home, on your own schedule.

What I Would Skip

Skip the swing analyzer apps and wearable sensors at this stage. They tell you your clubhead speed and swing plane in exhaustive detail, but a beginner shooting 103 does not need more data. You need fewer penalty strokes off the tee and better lag putting distance control. A $200 sensor will not fix either of those things faster than a $15 stick and a $60 mat. The extra numbers just add noise to a problem that is actually simple.

Worth It?

Yes. This is not a kitchen-sink list of ten products you will use twice. It is five specific tools aimed at the two score-leaks that keep you in the 100s, paired with an eight-week plan that moves through them in the right order.

I keep the scorecard from the round I broke 100 in my golf bag. I shot 96 that day. Two penalty strokes, two three-putts. The rest of the round was boring, which is exactly what you want. Every time I am tempted to buy a new driver instead of doing the drills, I look at that card first.