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More Impressive: a Single Digit Handicap or Breaking 80?

al15abc

al15abc

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I've been playing some fairly consistent good golf the past 3 weeks. My Handicap has gone from its highest in the past 2 year of 13.2 (about a month ago) to the lowest it has ever been to a 10.5. My two big golf goals have been to break 80 and eventually make it to a single digit handicap. I've been close to breaking 80 the last 4-5 rounds, but can't quite get there yet. So, what do you think is more impressive or a better goal to have; breaking 80 or a single digit handicap?
 
Single digits. Usually that means you are consistently around 80 or below. I went from 13.5 to a 7.7 over the last 2 years and its definitly hard work!

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Agree, in order to get to single digits you have to be able to break 80. Although breaking 80 once will not keep you at single digits in most cases depending on the rating/slope of the courses you play. Getting there and staying there are two different things.
 
Sounds like you are very close to both of your goals. Keep working at it!
Being a single digit takes time and consistency.
 
My goal was to get to single digits as well and did it this year. What you have to do to get there is break 80 now and then, so they will both come soon for you, I'm sure.
 
if this was me, it would be to break 80 as the stepping stone...then try to dial in for the single digit cap...but in my ACTUAL case, it's break 90 and HOPE everything else falls into place for a low/middle teen cap.
 
Personally, I think breaking 80. My current handicap is 9.0, the lowest it’s ever been. But I’ve only broken 80 twice - once last June (77, +6) and then again about three weeks ago (79, +7). I feel far more pride and accomplished when breaking 80 than I do about my handicap, although I’m proud of that as well.
 
Single digit. It shows consistency over a great number of rounds rather than just posting 1 good round.
 
Definitely depends on the course, but I've broken 80 plenty of times, never been a single digit handicap.
 
This is an interesting question. I have broken 80 numerous times in the past but I never had a single digit cap. Carried an 11-12 for a long period of time. So, as to what’s more impressive to me - single digits. To get there, you will have to break 80. To stay in single digits, you will need to do with regularity.
 
Breaking 80. I shoot low to mid 80s pretty consistently and stay around an 8-10 handicap. Breaking 80 consistently is hard for a high single digit - especially on courses with slope ratings > 120.
 
Just looked at my GHIN Stats and see that the courses I play are all around a 130-137 slope rating. Just find it interesting that I am so close to a single digit handicap without breaking 80 yet, didn't think that was possible.
 
wubears71 said:
Breaking 80. I shoot low to mid 80s pretty consistently and stay around an 8-10 handicap. Breaking 80 consistently is hard for a high single digit - especially on courses with slope ratings > 120.
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Couldn’t have said it better.
 
I think it depends on the courses you play for sure. Personally my goal is a single digit cap. I've never broken 80 but have knocked on the door close to a dozen times over the last few years.

I think I've shot 80 maybe 9-10 times and the best I've been is an 11.2 during that stretch. If I get to a single digit cap I'm going to have to work hard to stay there.

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Single digit index will have you breaking 80 a few times at least in your twenty scores used to calculate the index. Being able to break 80 is a great achievement, and, like many things in golf, once you break through a barrier, it becomes more easy to do regularly. So, I think the two go hand in hand, but breaking 80 comes first.
 
I think maintaining a single digit HC will include some under 80 rounds. Obviously it’s not required but I would think it would happen on occasion.
 
Breaking 80.

I've gotten to a high single-digit handicap now for the first time in my life on the back of one sub-80 round. The rest of the counting rounds are 80-85 (2 or 3 of which should've been sub-80).

I've broken 80 three times. I'm looking forward to the fourth one.
 
In addition to what has already been said, keep in mind that a full length course may typically have course indexes anywhere from 65 to 76. Therefore, the difficulty of breaking 80 can vary greatly depending on the course and tees you play. Handicaps account for a lot of that.
 
One kinda follows the other. Once you get your game to this level, its almost like needing to just get out of your own way a little bit mentally and just get used to shooting a little lower score and not get overly excited about it to the point you expect to do it every time. Each time your scores keep trending down, its like another reset point. "Ok, I got this. I can shoot this score."

I quit keeping an index a lot of years ago just to avoid the torture. ha!
 
Sounds like you're close on both.
It depends on where you play, but I'd go with the single digit cap. The stars can randomly align to shoot a round less than 80. They have to stay aligned to get to single digits.
 
OldandStiff said:
Sounds like you're close on both.
It depends on where you play, but I'd go with the single digit cap. The stars can randomly align to shoot a round less than 80. They have to stay aligned to get to single digits.
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Exactly this. You have to continue to consistently shoot lower scores to stay in single digits.
I can just as easily shoot 75-76 as 85 sometimes, but it is how you bounce back after that 85. A single digit HC usually will bounce back with a good round.
 
As someone that is far from being a single digit handicap, I'll take the break 80 right now.
 
I float right around the single digit handicap most of the season, but I never participate in events where a handicap gets used. As a result, I would much rather go out and post a sub-80 score day in and day out. As others have indicated, if you can achieve rounds where the first digit is a 7 then the single digit cap will come naturally. Most people would understand a score of 78 more than they would a handicap of 8.
 
Sox_Fan said:
Single digit. It shows consistency over a great number of rounds rather than just posting 1 good round.
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^ This. I've broken 80 once, but I'm still a 17-18 handicap - just had one particularly good day where everything was working well and I made minimal mistakes. A single digit cap is going to be breaking 80 pretty regularly.
 
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