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Handicap - Does It Tell Your Golf Story

RoundersRob said:
I'd have to assume that you were playing a pretty hard course to be ~5 handicap and shoot over 100. That had to be an off day or a round from the tips at Bethpage Black. :)
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My handicap is not an average of my scores, but my shooting potential. Everybody has bad rounds I thought, maybe I am wrong.
 
My handicap has been between 5 and 10 for the last 25 years. I have played in New England, Texas, California, Hawaii, Ireland, Scotland, D.R., Italy, FFlorida and the Carolinas and Virginia.

I am not long and my putting is fair but I keep the ball in play and I have a good short game.

My index has travelled very well as long as I play the correct tees. My scores are almost always right around 80 regardless of where I am.
 
JB said:
My handicap is not an average of my scores, but my shooting potential. Everybody has bad rounds I thought, maybe I am wrong.
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I don't think that you are wrong at all. Perhaps I am just consistently average. I tend to avoid blowup holes but also don't make a ton of birdies either.

Perhaps that's also a small flaw in the handicap system. It's a potential of how you might play based on your best rounds and not just an average of how you play all the time.
 
First, I agree with the theory. I have friends and acquaintances that are members of country clubs. They speak in these same terms - home courses that demand superior driving and putting produce players that travel well. It makes intuitively sense, too. If you are in the fairway and hit a good iron shot your are putting for birdie, two putting for par; if you are in the fairway and miss your iron shot but have a good short game you are saving pars and making easy bogies.

I think my OOB index tells the story about me...moderately skilled with some potential, but that is too often undermined by inconsistency.
 
Great thread JB!
I think an index tells part of the story of our golf games.....not the whole novel.

Like you said, the index is the scoring potential and of course if you play one course a lot, your potential is going to be a lot better than if you play numerous courses.
I do have a "home" course where I joined the mens club to establish my ghin. I do play there a lot, but I usually play all over the local area.
There are 17 courses within 20 miles of me and I like to mix it up. This year has been a bit tough to get out to all of them due to work and family obligations, so my home course has got a lot more play.
I believe that is one of reasons my ghin is as low as it is right now. I know where and where not to hit the ball as well as how some approach areas tend to be soft or hard and what type of shot to hit into the greens.
My game travels pretty well, but I keep the ball in the fairway from the tee for the most part and I scramble pretty well.
 
I play worse at away course because I get too pumped up and spray the ball all over the place :angry:. To tell the truth I have not played well at my home course this year either. I had a few rounds in the 70's with a personal best of 73 however I have shot more rounds in the ninety's and a couple 100 + rounds. So for me, I play worse away and have also played shatty at home too so this year sucks no matter where I play.
 
I'm not the golfer that my hcp represents at all. I am prone to go on the bogey train, I am prone to put a double on the card. I don't really have a home course so I believe that my game travels well. It always has to be honest. I pay very little attention to ratings/slope and mostly play from a length that I find comfortable. A bad day on the course for me is if I shoot 84 or higher, that means I struggled. I think this is pretty fascinating stuff to be honest.
 
Hard question. My problem is consistency. I can put up a 72 no problem on a tough unfamiliar course and I can put up an 85 on my home track. I feel as though I'm a better player than my index leads on, but once again I am so inconsistent due to the lack of time available to dedicate to practice.
 
TC said:
I'm not the golfer that my hcp represents at all. I am prone to go on the bogey train, I am prone to put a double on the card. I don't really have a home course so I believe that my game travels well. It always has to be honest. I pay very little attention to ratings/slope and mostly play from a length that I find comfortable. A bad day on the course for me is if I shoot 84 or higher, that means I struggled. I think this is pretty fascinating stuff to be honest.
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This has been one of the most mature and well thought out threads in a long long time. I find the overall topic really facinating.
 
Since index is = to potential, I'd say I don't know... I can shoot anywhere from high 70's to high 90's, not so much depending on the course but just how I play that day. Most of my good rounds are on courses with alot of hazards. For me if I can get the ball in the fairway off the tee I'll have a nice round, my short game seems to play the same from course to course. My last few rounds at different courses have been not great (high 80s - high 90s), struggle off tee, but my index has lowered when I would think it would have gone higher. So again I don't know, It's confusing to me. :hypnotized:
 
coolbreeze said:
This has been one of the most mature and well thought out threads in a long long time. I find the overall topic really facinating.
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I agree man. Reading TC's response and something at the end I found very interesting regarding expectations based on handicap. Makes me think I am too hard on myself from a strictly scoring perspective as it relates to handicap.
 
My best rounds come when I get off the tee well. My miss is a hook and bad miss is a smothered hook all of 150-175 off the tee. It's pretty tough to make par all the time on longer par 4's with 5i or longer into the green.
 
mcook77 said:
I agree man. Reading TC's response and something at the end I found very interesting regarding expectations based on handicap. Makes me think I am too hard on myself from a strictly scoring perspective as it relates to handicap.
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YOu are dude. Most people are. It's the one thing I see the most at outings or MC's. Guys get down on themselves quick. Do you think I enjoyed losing to IN? No way! But I rattled off 4 bogeys in a row to his pars. He played the way I always play, but I didn't that day. You played with me cookie. I'm not the longest guy off the tee and I don't work iron shots, but I hit everything forward and consistently. No big chunks or thins or balls that cost me penalty strokes. When you eliminate those misses, your handicap will plummet dude. Just b/c I'm scratch doesn't mean I shoot even par all the time. Do I think I have the potential to? Yep, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm just glad that on Caledonia, I showcased that I am truly a scratch golfer, b/c I had old man Par licked that day. I think you could easily be a sub 6 hcp next month dude. You just have those one or two shots where you chunk it. Those are the ones that kill you. You don't have to hit every GIR, but it's nice to be up there around it. I saw a lot of dudes at the MC who played way better than their hcps suggest.
 
My handicap doesn't tell the whole story.

I'm. Much worse. My home course has no bunkers, it's straight as all heck, and the greens are really flat. The only thing the course has going for it is its length. Which isn't a problem for me, oh and trees, lots and lots of trees. Which are a problem for me .

So I would expect my handicap to go up if I played courses that were shorter but had more obstacles.

Usually the beat part of my game is Irons, and drives, and my putting is on and off.

Granted my handicap according to my golf course is 13 on 9 holes. So I'm not a very good golfer to begin with.

~edit~ my reasoning for the length not being an issue is any time I've moved back from the golds to the white or blue I shoot the same scores. Actually usually better because my approach shots are longer then 120, inside of that length I struggle.

~Joseph~
Via Tapatalk.
 
I would say my game travels relatively well. I don't play the same course over and over though. The one course around me that I have played consistently is a course that is pretty narrow. I have found that my course management has gotten better because of that. I would love to get rid of my 2 or 3 holes that kill a solid round.
 
TC said:
YOu are dude. Most people are. It's the one thing I see the most at outings or MC's. Guys get down on themselves quick. Do you think I enjoyed losing to IN? No way! But I rattled off 4 bogeys in a row to his pars. He played the way I always play, but I didn't that day. You played with me cookie. I'm not the longest guy off the tee and I don't work iron shots, but I hit everything forward and consistently. No big chunks or thins or balls that cost me penalty strokes. When you eliminate those misses, your handicap will plummet dude. Just b/c I'm scratch doesn't mean I shoot even par all the time. Do I think I have the potential to? Yep, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm just glad that on Caledonia, I showcased that I am truly a scratch golfer, b/c I had old man Par licked that day. I think you could easily be a sub 6 hcp next month dude. You just have those one or two shots where you chunk it. Those are the ones that kill you. You don't have to hit every GIR, but it's nice to be up there around it. I saw a lot of dudes at the MC who played way better than their hcps suggest.
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That makes a ton of sense and thank you for the vote of confidence and additional information.

I was surprised to see you say that as a scratch golfer anything over 84 is a sign of struggling. As a 9, I think anything over 87 or so for me is struggling. I did nothing special yesterday and shot 76 with 1 penalty shot which tells me the potential is there, just a matter of keeping the ball in front of me with a decent short game.

This is definitely making me rethink my expectations as it relates to handicap in general. I just always thought that a 5 for example should break 80 consistently.

Eye opening conversation, great thread!
 
mcook77 said:
That makes a ton of sense and thank you for the vote of confidence and additional information.

I was surprised to see you say that as a scratch golfer anything over 84 is a sign of struggling. As a 9, I think anything over 87 or so for me is struggling. I did nothing special yesterday and shot 76 with 1 penalty shot which tells me the potential is there, just a matter of keeping the ball in front of me with a decent short game.

This is definitely making me rethink my expectations as it relates to handicap in general. I just always thought that a 5 for example should break 80 consistently.

Eye opening conversation, great thread!
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I only said that b/c my highest round this year is an 83, LOL

My goal is to shoot par or better, but I don't have a problem shooting in the high 70's, especially if I'm hitting the ball well. Sometimes I can't make putts dude.
 
This is a really great thread. I personally think that my handicap follows me very well. I am at a 11 hcp now and I have shot lower than that at my home courses only. I tend to play two courses the most around my house. When I travel I tend to shoot about 5 above that. I seem to struggle with course management on new courses. I find my self in trouble a lot and have to scramble to get out of it.

On to another question or two I have about handicaps.

What should some one average over their handicap? How much over a handicap is a really bad round?
 
GrantD said:
This is a really great thread. I personally think that my handicap follows me very well. I am at a 11 hcp now and I have shot lower than that at my home courses only. I tend to play two courses the most around my house. When I travel I tend to shoot about 5 above that. I seem to struggle with course management on new courses. I find my self in trouble a lot and have to scramble to get out of it.

On to another question or two I have about handicaps.

What should some one average over their handicap? How much over a handicap is a really bad round?
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That's what I was eluding to with TC. Once I shoot 5 over my handicap, I am not too happy about it.
 
All of these subquestions are completely dependent on the course one plays. Just as shooting a low score on an incredibly easy course and a marginal score on an incredibly hard course could have similar effects to your index.
 
My current GHIN handicap is 18.5. I checked the details, and the rating is based on 9 different course/tee combinations with course slope ratings from 116 to 129. So I do think that my rating represents my true potential out on a course, even when I'm traveling. The last two times I played, I "parred" the course given my course handicap of 21, and then yesterday I was "4 under", carding an 89.

I'm getting much better with my short game and I've seen a drop of about 5 index points in my handicap over the past 18 months or so. I do still have problems keeping balls in the fairway off the tee, and it seems like I'm always playing out of the right rough due to my "aggressive" draw. So yeah, I'm a bogey golfer, which is actually something I've worked really hard to achieve.
 
One thing I know brings my handicap down is just playing 9 holes a few times a week after work. I always seem to shoot better just playing 9. I almost consider it cheating

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2
 
This is a very good thread with alot of well thought out posts.

I think my index tells the story of my game, currently a 12.9 I think I can go to just about any course and from 6300-6800 yards I have the potential to shoot mid 80's, so I would say it travels okay. Had I played my own bar in the first round at True Blue, I am sure I would have been in the low 80's, unfortunately on Sunday I had one of my "bad days".

For the most part I keep the ball in front of me and my short game and putting is decent...I just gotta hit rid of those chunks and skulls that show up from time to time.
 
I'm not sure. My handicap seems to be accurate for my course at my tees, but the traveling well not so sure. I have played about 35 rounds this year with 5 of those at other courses. The five differentials being 13.9,18.6,17.7,13.8 and 9.1 so you tell me. I really think for me home course knowledge means about 5 strokes, at least for me. I always play with the same thoughts. I am a conservative golfer who tries to play to my strengths and take my medicine when I am out of position on the golf course.

Very interesting thread.
 
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