jnordwell
Active member
Well good to know Mr. Know it all.. lol I'm a 11.4 and I strive for 84-87. So figured a 10 would be below me..but hey I golf for fun not for tournaments
Nebulous Question Alert: At what handicap is one considered a "good" golfer?
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I have lived on both sides of that equation. @LLIB is right that most golfers define a good golfer in relation to their play. But there is something else at work here. Single-digit golfers regularly get told by other golfers that they are good enough or almost good enough to play professionally. They know there is a HUGE difference between their abilities and that of a professional golfer.
Acesteve
Well-known member
a decent professional and an ameture in any sport should never be in the same sentance. for the same reason that someone making 750K a year and a billionaire should never be in the same sentence.
Once upon a time a pro on the boston Celtics last name scalobrini was trashed on boston sports radio as not worthy of being a pro. The best street baller in Boston went 1/1 with scalobrini (spelling) to roughly a 30-0 game. So a poor pro generally is 30x better then a great amature.
Only in golf would we compare ourselves to Pros. Totally silly.
When I was playing rec league hockey, the San Diego Gulls (a WCHL team at that time) used our rink as their practice facility for a while. They took the ice right after one of our scrimmages and I hung around to watch, standing right against the glass in the rink I had just finished playing in. These were all guys who weren't even good enough to play in the NHL, but the difference in speed, skill and ferocity between our game and theirs was freaking terrifying.
Any amateur golfer, regardless of handicap, who thinks they compare in any way to even the worst pro on any professional Tour, is delusional.
greenOak
Well-known member
Voted 12. I'm very confident that over 90% of golfers are worse than 12 and I don't buy the "actually 95% of golfers are trash" argument. The handicap statistics and/or forum surveys will say otherwise but its important to realize those are extremely biased samples.
Acesteve
Well-known member
I think it's all relative to the people you play with. An 18 playing with a 5 is going to feel like a complete turd. An 18 playing with a 28 is going to look like a seasoned vet.
That 4 foot birdie putt in your weekly muni round would feel a lot different on Sunday in a major with a gallery, the whole world watching on TV, and a few hundred thousand dollars on the line.
I can miss it just fine without any added pressure.
Acesteve
Well-known member
I'm a 3 handi on the range. add emotion and pressure on a course alone and I'm a 12
For me it would be a 7 or below HI.
David7
Well-known member
Opinions will vary but let’s be honest here, bogey golf is respectable by any amateur standard. I’ve only been playing for two years, shoot double bogey golf and get paired with strangers all the time. I have never seen anyone shoot lower than a 90 at the public courses I play.
Anyone shooting in the 80s or lower is a great player relatively speaking.
Anyone shooting in the 80s or lower is a great player relatively speaking.
Et Tu Brute?
Well-known member
I'm a short-hitting, older hacker with a handicap index that runs in the 16-19 range, mostly. On an easy course, from the 5,500 yard tees, playing by myself with nothing on the line I almost always shoot in the 80's and a few times of year I'll post a 78 or 79. Bogey golf involves either some lost balls or a bunch of three-putts.
My golf game is far, far from "great" and I'd say it's not really "respectable". More like adequate to keep me amused while I get my daily exercise.
David7
Well-known member
I think you’re better than you give yourself credit for, and would be one of the best golfers on a public course at any given day.
The average index for men is 17. Anything 16 or lower is above average, which is arguably “good”. That said, I picked 10 because when I reached that point I felt a level of control over my game that didn’t exist before. That seemed like “good” to me at the time
10 because that means you are normally deep in to the 80s consistently and hit the 70s sometimes.
darthweasel
Well-known member
made me laugh because, particularly when I am block practicing working on something, I can produce a series of really beautiful shots that make me look like a highly competent golfer.
. A couple days ago was working on clubface control and as there was a target at 145 had my 9I in hand. Literally only worried about clubface...my setup is locked, my swing path is locked, my weight shift is locked...I know my 9i distance so there will be no distractions I can purely concentrate on the clubface. I proceed to put ten balls in a circle around that post that most would be 1-putt and the rest a very makeable putt. That made me really proud and a guy next to me had been watching and we started chatting between shots.
Based on those ten shots taken over maybe 15ish minutes he was positive I was a low single digit and would not believe I was a 12 (has dropped a point to 11 this week, but still...).
The difference between laying up the exact same shot 10 times in a row and then laying it on the course when I have had a driver (completely different swing) immediately before or some other shot/combination of shots...sure enough, first time I was on course with something like 147 to the pin, I lined up, went through the exact same sequence...and immediately put the ball 20 yards left of the pin and a bit short. For me a reasonable shot, compared to the range work? absolute trash.
My range game is strong but my real game...needs improvement!
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This is true. Worth noting is that the vast majority of golfers don’t have a handicap. So, that 17 tends to be an average of the better amateur golfers.
Scalabrini was great LOL.....he was very well spoken and talked a lot about the difference between pros and ams, regularly saying he was closer to Lebron than any amateur was to him.
Beyond this game you reference, he played several other 1 on 1 games with ams. Many of them are likely still on Youtube. It's just fun to see, i mean the most unskilled "bums" in the NBA, the type of big man who couldn't even dribble the ball on the floor without it being stolen, is waaaaaaaaay better a dribbling than you are LOL
Even me, i am a good player. But the difference in short game between me and a PGA tour pro is a chasm. They can put it to 3 feet from lies i'd happily take 25
It’s a testament to how great professionals are that they make it look so easy as to convince amateurs we are close. We are not. We can quantify this in golf with indexes.
Acesteve
Well-known member
Thanks for posting. You are much more detailed in describing it. It was a distant memory but you captured it perfectly.
I played with a group of college golfers down in Phx metro many years ago. No pro's but college guys. They dropped putts like I'd never seen before and when the missed, it was typically 4ft long. I can't imagine the putting of a top pro.
Acesteve
Well-known member
Like this as well and I want to share why. It was only in 2023 that I could say that my warmup swing before the round looked really good. not just accuracy but the height on the ball was amazing. What I wanted to see is that some of that made it to the course; and it did. In my winter rounds, I went to pausing at the top and this helped me take more to the course. My theory is that on the range I don't rush and I build a rythem. Trying to pause gets me to slow down a bit.
The rest of my theory says the perfect lie conditions of a range is not realistic. Case in point. On #17 my last round I had 177y to a pin with a 30ft elevated green. I hit my 4y 185. I made a nice swing and totally flew the green right over the flag. Leaving me with a downhill lie to a green 20ft above me. Likely hit the best 4h I will hit in all of 2024 and it took me 2 shots just to get on the putting green. So a double boogie after a great drive and best 4h of my year. on the range I would feel great about that 4h
CTRosarian
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My father was fortunate enough to play every week at Wailua, Kauai with a score around 100. He did this for about 7 years.
When we moved to Oahu his score instantly dropped to 90 playing at the Ala Wai municipal course. It is much easier to play on flat course like Ala Wai.
Golf is best played with a lot of social skills not reflected in the score.
Someone who plays fast and respects his partners and others on the course is good golfer, no matter what the score.
When we moved to Oahu his score instantly dropped to 90 playing at the Ala Wai municipal course. It is much easier to play on flat course like Ala Wai.
Golf is best played with a lot of social skills not reflected in the score.
Someone who plays fast and respects his partners and others on the course is good golfer, no matter what the score.
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I said 10 but realistically if you can consistently break 90 and are sitting in the 80s during a regular round you are pretty good. So that probably is more like a 14-16.