My father had a subscription to Golf Digest. New issues floated around our kitchen table a few days, then ended up either in my bedroom or his bathroom.

He liked the top writers, which reflected in his game. To him, golf was four hours of clever jokes and enjoying time together outside, always continued with a sturdy 19th hole session on our terrace. Back then, to me golf was all about score, so I’d turn straight to the pages of Breaking 100/90/80. A teen growing a touch stronger and more coordinated daily, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I would beat him and his friends legitimately.

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Same as every beginner ever, I couldn’t break 100, but still I read all three sections. The demonstrative photos and tight metaphors for mechanics and strategy appealed to my instincts of how to get better. When a grandiose variation appeared briefly—Breaking 100/90/80/70—I read this bonus section with a thrill not unlike opening up my first car on the straightaway of county road past our town. It wasn’t right, but who was going to stop me?

As we enter 2025 and the 75th anniversary of Golf Digest, so happens I’ve become the editor, and it strikes me the most magical number in golf is actually 75. It’s the grandaddy connective tissue of scoring barriers. I realize higher handicappers might feel excluded. Tee it forward if you won’t hear me out.

With enough dedication and reps, your typical able-bodied weekend warrior will find a way to break 80 once in life. The right set of bounces, biorhythms, lucky putts and good misses will come together on a day the rough’s cut low. But to break 75, this same person really needs to play something that looks like golf. Although the course might be 1,000 yards shorter than what’s on TV, the flow and shape of the round starts to resemble a pro, albeit with some butter on the lens.

As with any jump to a new level, it comes from adding an inch here and an inch there. For the 80-shooter looking to get to the mid-70s, our statistician friends at Arccos Golf distill three main keys: Hit more like 12 greens in regulation than 10. Take 31 putts instead of 32 or 33. Realize that 250 yards and straightish off the tee is all you need.

From the other direction, 75 is the ceiling of respectability for tournament players. Pragmatically, trophy hunters in their prime know how to keep in contention by grinding out no worse than a few strokes over par on an off day. Emotionally, the score is more significant to marginal and/or once-proud players thinking: “Why am I doing this to myself?” So far, individual stroke play with a pencil is the best form of sadomasochism the Western world has come up with, and to these sickos (self, included) a 75 feels infinitely better than a 76.

Far and away, golf’s greatest 75 is shooting one’s age. Plus or minus a lap around the sun, this is the sweet spot when the feat might reasonably start to become a notion for most. The equation of skill plus health divided by inevitable medical decline is as tricky as any, but it’s the one we all want to solve.

Nobody has broken his age more times than Gary Player, 89, who’s deep in the thousands and adds to his tally every time he plays. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Kaat shot his age lefty and righty, earning a spot on our new list of the 75 Coolest Records. My father, who gave up golf years ago, will never shoot his age. Maybe I’m too young to be thinking about it in my early 40s, but it’s certainly where I hope to end up. Heck, forget score, I’d sign up just to be playing golf at age 75.

So happy birthday Golf Digest, which we’ll celebrate all year. One repeating gift is a new series by Jaime Diaz, “The Best I Ever Did,” kicked off in this issue alongside Lee Trevino, who shares what he figured out in his 1971 run of three national open wins in 20 days.

And cheers to this game of a lifetime and to Breaking 75, whatever that number means to you and loved ones in your golf orbit.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com