Luke Kerr-Dineen’s route to 79 starts with avoiding double bogeys

Luke Kerr-Dineen’s latest Game Plan episode gives golfers trying to break 80 a specific place to look: the shots that turn an ordinary miss into a double bogey.

Golf Digest published the 14-minute, 43-second episode September 28 and shared a clip October 2. Kerr-Dineen starts with a simple scoring example. On a par-72 course, 11 pars and seven bogeys add up to 79. A round in the 70s can therefore survive several imperfect holes without needing a birdie.

His framework includes “greens in regulation plus one”: reaching a par-three green in two shots, a par-four green in three or a par-five green in four. He credits statistician Lou Stagner with that measure. It gives a player a way to judge whether a miss still leaves a reasonable route to bogey.

Kerr-Dineen then separates a ball in ordinary rough from one that demands a recovery shot. Trees, deep trouble and some fairway bunkers can cost a shot even when the ball stays in bounds. His advice is to identify the safer side of a hole and choose a club and target that give those obstacles less influence.

The same planning applies near a green. Identify an easier place to chip from before choosing the approach target. On the putting green, he recommends including longer lag putts in a warm-up to work on speed control.

An older Golf Digest lesson from Trent Wearner offers a related example on long par threes: use enough club to keep a natural tempo, then assess the most forgiving place to miss. That lesson was published in 2013; it supplies background rather than a new claim from this episode.

Both pieces make the next shot part of the decision. The useful question is whether a target leaves a playable miss, as well as whether a good shot can reach the flag.