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85 on a course you don’t know is pretty good. I struggle to hit that on our local course, which I know like the back of my hand. But then again, I don’t study the back of my hand at all!
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Played a few round recently, tried using my old mans old driver. It has a shorter shaft (despite him being 6ft6 thought would be longer than mine), and feels like it has a bit more weight in the head. I seem to be squaring the face up quicker with it and finding a lot more fair ways. Still have the odd one where I get a bit loose and the hands open right up goes flying right, but probably finding 2/3 fairways the last 2 rounds with it, as opposed to basically none.
Yesterdays round started horrifically, couldn’t find a fairway to start and the irons were cutting a fair bit. Started with 55 on the front, couldn’t get much worse and then had a 44 on the back. Difference was finding more fairways, the long irons were still off but at least they were up there and i could chip on and 2 putt for a bogey. Was like 2 different golfers.
Got the first handicap and I got to say I am a little confused. It’s 16.1 when my best round I put in was a 97. So i expect I’ll blow that right out and will be a little bit until I have a hc I can play too.
Not sure if this is exactly right Special, but I think for the purpose of handicap they only allow for double bogey on any given hole, so even though you may have had a 97 as your best, take off any triples and above and you may have only had a 90. Same goes for the other h’cap cards. Have you been given your handicap off 3 cards or 5? If three, then yeah it will go out a bit.
That sounds about right, I had a few holes triple or above in my last 2 rounds, outside of that quite a few pars and a couple birdies.
I expect I won’t have a hc I’ll be able to play to for quite a few rounds but that’s ok it’s all progressing nicely anyway.
You arent supposed to play to your handicap everytime,
Back to Basics: Handicapping 101 – Playing to Your Handicap
What does “playing to your handicap” mean, and how often are you going to actually do it? Having a good understanding of what your chances are will not only help you make sense of the Handicap System, you won’t feel so badly those times when you don’t hit your number!The first thing to know is how important USGA Course Rating is, and exactly how it plays into the equation.
Ever heard the term “Target Score”? Let’s say you’ve entered a tournament at Stone Creek GC, and you’re going to play the Blue tees, which has a Course Rating of 71.4 and a Slope Rating of 127. What’s the best score you could probably hope to shoot that day? Your Handicap Index is a 15.2, so it converts to 17 (using Course Handicap Tables or “Conversion Charts”). Now add the 17 to 71.4 for a total of 88 (rounded). This means you’ve played to your handicap for the tournament, which is a good showing!
This little bit of math illustrates that playing to your handicap is not about how well you think you played or the number of putts you had, but a measurable number. Notice that par has not been mentioned? That’s because playing to your handicap is not how your net score relates to par (forget about par – it just doesn’t give you enough information about a golf course’s difficulty in order to relate it to handicapping).
How often should you play to your handicap? Taking each component of the Handicap System formula into consideration, at the end of the day, playing to your handicap actually happens only once out of four to five rounds. But don’t get discouraged – there’s a good reason the USGA came up with this probability.
Even though all scores must be posted (the system needs lots of data to work correctly) the formula bases your Handicap Index on the better half of them. If, however, all of them were used, players with higher handicaps would see significant increases while those with lower handicaps would not increase as much. This would tip the balance of the system heavily toward higher handicap players.
So keep setting your target to play to your handicap – it’s good to have a goal! – but don’t feel badly if you only play to it 20-25% of the time.
Thanks for that, makes perfect sense! and I know most only play to the HC a small percentage of times. I suppose it is just difficult to get my head around when the title of this thread is ‘can I break 90’, 16 seems awfully low, but I know that will come out to a more even number. The 44 on the back yesterday gives me hope it’s not far off though!
hope is what keeps us playing this silly game! 😉
And resilience is what brings us back when hope is dimming!
10 degrees, soggy underfoot and drizzling rain, but no wind. Scored 91 (again ) with one penalty stroke for a lost ball.
Two steps forward
1) pitching onto the green was better today. I used 9i, PW, GW with partial shots and SW and LW . The Cleveland CBX2 wedges worked in the softer condtions.
2) Scrambling back into play and scoring after mishit shots was good.One step back
1) Miss -hits possibly from me trying to make up for lack of distance. Over hitting resulted in 10 shots. Club up and swing easy stupid!3 users liked this post.
After having lost 6 or more weeks of the best weather of the year to play golf ( thanks Dan Andrews) our course is now soggy and wet.
Both my pairs of golf shoes are currently drying in the back enclosed veranda.I was looking for some more water proof/ resistant golf shoes, then I thought of my snow boots. They should be ideal for the next months of golf. We are not going skiing this year anyway. My feet might be a bit too warm, but dry at least and I can hose the muck off them.
Update:
Clubs
Driver: 12 degree Cleveland HB Launcher ( nice and forgiving)
Cobra Fly 7 wood 20 degrees
Cobra F9 5 wood 17 degrees
Cobra F9 SL 19 hybrid
Cobra F7 25 degree hybrid
Milford Golf SL-7 irons 6-GW + SW and LW in summer ( hard lies suits low bounce)
Wedges: Clevelnaand CBX2 56 and 60
Putter: Ping Valor mallet or Gravity Golf Arc Master for sand scrape courses
In/out for conditions: F9 4 wood for the Fly Z if windy; if big deep sand bunkers a C3i wedge 65Bag? Pro FX bargain new for $70
Buggy? Second hand with curtains for wet windy conditions.
Clothing? warm
Wet Weather gear? often
Umbrella? for sun protection / little used
Golf Ball? Srixon AD333
Glove? wet weather Srixon
Sunscreen? yes
Anything else you care to share? I like Arccos on my I phone, but useless if the screen gets wet.
I played in the comp this morning. It took 4 hours, waiting for every hit. The group in front were slowwwwww!
I find it difficult to maintain concentration under these playing conditions.Two steps forward:
1) I feel confident with my clubs now. New wedges arrived yesterday.
2) pitching into the greens was good today. it is too soggy to land short and expect any bounce at all.One step back
1) tee shots are hitting the fairways more often,but still lacking distance .Whats better for your scoring?
Hit more fairways but lack a little distance?
Or hit it further but miss fairways?
That obvious, but I want both distance and accuracy! Don’t we all ?
4 hours for 9 or for all 18?
For 18, but it felt like 6 hours having to wait for every shot
I played in the comp this morning. It took 4 hours, waiting for every hit. The group in front were slowwwwww!
I find it difficult to maintain concentration under these playing conditions.Two steps forward:
1) I feel confident with my clubs now. New wedges arrived yesterday.
2) pitching into the greens was good today. it is too soggy to land short and expect any bounce at all.One step back
1) tee shots are hitting the fairways more often,but still lacking distance .Yeah I meant 40 . That reminds me of a mate’s brother -in -law who was a doctor in regional Victoria. We were visiting their town and he asked if he could join us in a game. He said he scored around 70. I thought he must be good. Then he added if he played the other 9 holes , it would be double that. He wasn’t kidding.
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I played a practice 9 hole this morning. Score 80. Damn why can’t I do this during competition? No wind for a change.
two steps forward
1) birdie on the 8th when I chipped a bunker shot into the hole. I know; fluke!
2) 208 m draw shot with my Driver. Yes!!!!!! It seemed effortless.One step back
1) I hit a GIR on hole 4 ( my nemesis hole) and then 3 putted! Doh!Leave the Driver in the bag and find a club you can hit about 160 m for tee shots and stay on the fairway (4W, 5W, 3 Hybrid?)
When you can control your slice , try the Driver again.
I think warming up with the clubs is a bit over rated. Limber and strecthing is more importnat. just swinging a wedge with a loose grip, stretching the hammys and rotating the kness a l a Migual is usually enough.
I’d rather spend time on the practice green, especially in this weather.Who is Migual?
I tend to agree with the limbering up, using a heavy wedge or two to get the joints and muscles warmed and flexed. The orange whip copy certainly does that after 30 swishes.
When I can I like to hit some short wedge shots, slowly increasing the distance, then hit the first tee shot a few times. It is not so good if you can’t get it right though!There is only one practice area. Most country courses don’t even have that.
I recently bought an orange whip style device to use prior to playing to warm up and get my swing into rhythm. A few minutes of that will limber me up, plus a few minutes putting and chipping.I need to spend a little more time honing my tee shots on the practice area mid- week Monday/ Friday (? Sunday ) when the course isn’t busy.
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