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Are You Better than Your Handicap?

My issue is this: if I play the hole to shoot par I will usually have the opportunity to birdie and make no worse than a bogey. If I get cocky and try to play for birdie, I end up blowing the hole and coming away with a +2, +3 or worse.

As long as I play within myself and don't try to shoot under par I'm better than my handicap. If I get to the GIR some birdies may fall but if I try to reach in under GIR I'm screwed.

Make sense?
 
I usually don't vary all that much front to back in the same round but I can vary a lot from one round to the next, even playing the same golf course from the same tees. Actually you really should not play to your handicap very often, if your handicap is accurate that score should be just out of reach for you. I felt the same way though as you do when my handicap was about 20 and I could miss the green with a chip from 20 yards off and hit 4 putts on every hole. I could always hit the long ball really well I just didn't score well until I got older and started practicing wedges, short game and putting more often.
 
I almost always have one of the sides be 5 strokes better than the other. It usually comes down to a couple of bad tee shots. More frustrating to me, is that while my cap is slightly better than bogey golf, each round seems to have something different go sideways. For example, today I putt great and was good from 100 in, but had few good shots off the tee. Yesterday I hit it great off the tee but had a few duffed tee shots and many 3-putts. When I manage to put them together on the same day, I can shoot in high 70s on my course, but this year I'm pretty consistently in the mid to high 80s. Without improving any certain shot, if I could get consistent I'd likely become a single digit cap :(
 
GolferGal said:
This is a great thread. Since we joined Grand Cypress I am now set up with GHIN so I can finally get a real handicap. I know it's going to be BAAAAD at first but I am hoping with enough play that I can finally start to see some improvement. With that said, I have a feeling I will be someone who is better than their handicap because I always have 2-3 major blow up holes and the rest of the time I am fairly consistent. And it can sometimes take me 4 or 5 holes to be truly warmed up so those first holes can look pretty ugly.
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this past weekened it took my 27 holes to get "warmed up" and I usually played well the final 9 lol
 
I can honestly say I play a little less than my handicap more like a 7 or an 8.

What kills me is around the greens or even par 3s and not having consistent GIRs
 
Ability wise, I think I'm better than my HC. But my problem is between my ears and with controlling emotion early on.

I typically start off horribly, a product not of nerves but instead of excitement and anticipation. Case in point, a couple of weeks ago at Bethpage Red. Through the first three holes, I was a whopping +8 (quad, double, double). Settle down and over the course of the remaining 15 holes, I play them +3.

As much as I've tried to change my outlook, I can't. I'm like a little kid on Christmas before each and every round and that excitement affects my play. Overall, I'm better at it this year than in season's past, the highlighted round is my worst by far this year.

Lol... if courses had a 3-hole warmup track to play before the round, I'd be tough to beat. :wink:
 
Unfortunately at my club the tournaments are played from the back tees so that's where I play to get ready for them. Therefore my rounds are erratic from those tees. I can shoot anywhere from a 79 to the low 90s. If I play the middle tees I usually shoot in the high 70s low 80s. I'm much more consistent from the middle tees. I've talked to them about allowing the seniors to play from the middle tees but so far no luck. They tell me the handicaps are adjusted, but I said I'd rather give up a couple of strokes and play from the middle tees. :)

I'm thinking of forgoing the tournaments and just enjoying myself and playing the middle tees.
 
For my last eleven rounds, the front side and back side scores were one or two shots different except once a 35-41 when I got really tired on the last 5 holes. Not all the scores were good but they were consistent.

DawgDaddy said:
39 front 40 back at my home course today, it just seems I cannot carry that kind of consistency or scoring with me to other courses, but in answer to your question I usually am pretty consistent side to side.
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DD, The best way to cure that is you just have to play more away courses. :golf: But that's my solution for everything...play more golf!
 
DevRickus said:
Depends on the day. Some days I play much better than the 18.5. Other days, it might as well be a 180.5.
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same with me, i have lost some consistency this year compared to last year, funny thing is i have practiced more this year lol
 
I think I am. My handicap is currently 31, but I think this is mainly because the goat pasture I usually play at is underrated for actual difficulty. Also, I often play in the evening, when there is a lot of wind out here which makes the course more difficult than its actual rating.

When I occasionally spend a little more and play at a nicer course, I find out how much easier it can be, even though the actual slope rating is not very different.
 
Lefty78 said:
For my last eleven rounds, the front side and back side scores were one or two shots different except once a 35-41 when I got really tired on the last 5 holes. Not all the scores were good but they were consistent.



DD, The best way to cure that is you just have to play more away courses. :golf: But that's my solution for everything...play more golf!
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Exactly right. It is easy to become comfortable on your home course and you know exactly what clubs to hit from where. This is why handicap is only partly an indicator of how good a player you are. I think it was Trevino that said that the most difficult thing for any golfer to do is to go out and shoot a great score on a golf course he or she had never seen before. Or something like that.
 
I wish I were at least, and working on it. But I know that my abilities are better than my handicap, but I can`t seem to be able to put a whole round together. It`s actually great to read that I`m not the only lost head case out trying to get a grip on this game.
 
I'm all over/ if I don't take penalties off the tee- I'm in the 80's. If I'm off driving- I'm averaging 4-8 penalties per rd.

Ended te year last year at a 13.3 OOB.

My GHIN since joining the club this spring is a 15.6 at the update
Monday.

Hard for me to go from my clubs fast greens to slow public greens. I play each week at muni's with fiends and I just can't sink putts on those slow ones.
 
I used to be better than my current handicap but now I can not consistently put two 9's together. Some days I play like a decent single digit handicapper and others I play like a 15-18 handicap. I use to carry a 5 hdcp now I fluctuate between a 9-12. So I do get a lot of 36-38 on one 9 and then struggle to a 41-44 on the other. Last year I shot a 34-44 78 this is a frustrating game.
 
mikedean441 said:
only thing Im consistent with is being inconsistent
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Ditto. I have no doubt I can be better than a 16. I've been having great stretches lately, and some really good nines, but can't hold it together for 3 or 4 straight hours. If I could, I think I'd be about a 9 or 10 right off the bat.
 
I don't know, since your handicap is a reflection of how good you can be as a golfer, but not how you averagely play I think I'm right at my HC right now, which is 12.8 right now I think. I know I can be much better, but have more work to do.
 
Outside of the Morgan Cup thread CB has made the most sane posts over the last few days.

Isn't you handicap what your potential to shoot and most people don't hit it every round? That's how I always understood it. But if I'm wrong def let me know. I don't know if I am right. To me golf is as much mental as it is physical. If I can't mentally get myself to where I'm shooting low 80's then I'm probably still where I should be right now.
 
Tough one to answer. I actually rarely shoot my handicap. I'll shoot 78, 77, 75 then go 88, 92, 87. So I am better and worse than my handicap.
 
Nah! For me, a good nine is 38 and a bad nine is 42. Now, I can put two good nines together or I can put two bad nines together and shoot between 76 and 84 but that's about it. Of course the 84 results in the draft of a suicide note.
 
I feel I'm not as good as my handicap really. I will shoot some very solid rounds. Then play horrible rounds where I hit a bunch of crazy lucky recovery shots out of trouble, get lucky with super thinned shots, make some long lucky putts, get lucky bounces, etc. and that saves my score from blowing up, but really I played poorly.
 
Good thread Seth. I usually shoot a bit better on the back nine at the course I'm playing now. In fact today I was hitting two balls and shot 49-42 with each.
 
I agree that your handicap is your potential so you probably won't shoot it 35% of the time. When I play a lot my handicap drops and the range of my scores gets smaller. Sometimes I am consistent front and back and sometimes I am not. That is why they call it golf!
 
Yoccos1981 said:
Outside of the Morgan Cup thread CB has made the most sane posts over the last few days.

Isn't you handicap what your potential to shoot and most people don't hit it every round? That's how I always understood it. But if I'm wrong def let me know. I don't know if I am right. To me golf is as much mental as it is physical. If I can't mentally get myself to where I'm shooting low 80's then I'm probably still where I should be right now.
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LOL, thanks man, you can't bring it to every thread.
 
Yoccos1981 said:
Outside of the Morgan Cup thread CB has made the most sane posts over the last few days.

Isn't you handicap what your potential to shoot and most people don't hit it every round? That's how I always understood it. But if I'm wrong def let me know. I don't know if I am right. To me golf is as much mental as it is physical. If I can't mentally get myself to where I'm shooting low 80's then I'm probably still where I should be right now.
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If people do hit their handicap or better every round, their handicap is wrong. Your index is 96% of the average differential of your 10 best scores out of your last 20 scores. So if you have a run of scores better than your handicap, the handicap will go down. So, you should shoot your handicap or better approximately 25% of the time. If you do more than than consistently, there is something wrong with your handicap. Oh yeah, while on the subject, use course rating to determine if you "shot your handicap". For example if the course rating is 67.8 but par is 72 and your course handicap is 10 you must shoot 78 just to equal your handicap not 82.
 
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