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Just what is the 10 to 20% percentile? How long did it take you?

rollin

rollin

"Just playin golf pally"
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It is often suggested that most people who golf do not shoot (legit) below 100 and dont do it consistantly. I have heard many times for many yeras that if one shoots 90's consistantly enough that they are better than probably 80 to 90% of "all" golfers. This suggests if one shoots 90's fairly consistantly then they (when considering "all" golfers) are in about a 10-20% golfing population.

Perhaps more or less there but I just dont know how accurate the suggestion really is. Reason i bring it up is that so many people seem to pick up this game and within a short time frame are shooting somewhat consistant 90's golf. Often are stating such scoring within less than a season or even within just a few months. Not picking on anyone at all and I know that some people are gifted and may posess good natural ability in this game to obtain decent developement more quickly than others. It does happen for sure but it is mentioned time again by so many people that it leads me to believe the suggested statistic may actually be way off line.

Leads to believe that if your "not" shooting 90's golf within the first year/few months of playing that it is actually you who may not be with as much as a majority as suggested and shooting fairly consistant 90's golf doesnt really put you in any smaller percentile of ability. I admit that i am jealous of the amount of people who walk into this game and in short time frames (sometimes just months) are maintining 90's golf. Can be at or better than my level after 20yrs of playing. Its an ego defalter (lol) but i live with it and more power to them. But if one doesnt play 90's golf in the first year or even two are they really still in the majority as suggested or are many more shooting fairly consistant 90's than is suggested? Or perhaps are too many people simply just full of it? When/how long did it take you to shoot in the 90's and then when was it done on a consistant basis? Do you think the percenatge of 90's golfers is much much higher than is suggested? is it not really the accomplishment we credited ourselves for doing because so many seem to do it and get it done reletively quickly?
 
I know this is what USGA shows:

HANDICAP INDEXPERCENT OF TOTALCUMULATIVE
+1.0 or better+0.92%+0.92%
+0.9 to 0.00.68%1.60%
0.1 to 1.00.95%2.55%
1.1 to 1.91.26%3.81%
2.0 to 2.91.62%5.43%
3.0 to 3.92.07%7.51%
4.0 to 4.92.60%10.11%
5.0 to 5.93.20%13.30%
6.0 to 6.93.77%17.07%
7.0 to 7.94.35%21.42%
8.0 to 8.94.76%26.18%
9.0 to 9.95.13%31.31%
10.0 to 10.95.43%36.74%
11.0 to 11.95.66%42.40%
12.0 to 12.95.72%48.12%
13.0 to 13.95.69%53.82%
14.0 to 14.95.47%59.28%
15.0 to 15.95.10%64.38%
16.0 to 16.94.69%69.07%
17.0 to 17.94.33%73.40%
18.0 to 18.93.78%77.17%
19.0 to 19.93.34%80.51%
20.0 to 20.92.96%83.47%
21.0 to 21.92.62%86.10%
22.0 to 22.92.30%88.40%
23.0 to 23.91.98%90.38%
24.0 to 24.91.68%92.06%
25.0 to 25.91.43%93.50%
26.0 to 26.91.19%94.69%
27.0 to 27.91.00%95.69%
28.0 to 28.90.82%96.52%
29.0 to 29.90.68%97.19%
30.0 to 30.90.54%97.74%
31.0 to 31.90.45%98.19%
32.0 to 32.90.36%98.55%
33.0 to 33.90.29%98.84%
34.0 to 34.90.24%99.08%
35.0 to 36.40.92%100.00%

BUt that could be limited to those who actually track their handicap through a valid handicap system. Wish that information was shared.

http://www.usga.org/handicapping/articles_resources/Men-s--Handicap-Indexes/
 
If the ego is deflating, why not get professional assistance to make sure that it does not continue. People should have as much fun as possible playing and if one is upset with their abilities or are having their ego deflated, it can be a pretty easy fix with perhaps even a single lesson.
 
I picked up the game 3 summers ago when I was 24 going on 25. That summer I rarely broke into the 90's, lot's of 50-55's per 9. Last summer I became a consistent high 90's golfer...48's and the like. This summer I have become a consistent low 80's shooter. Had a PB of 74 earlier this summer have shot par on a handful days while playing 9 holes. Still have days where I struggle for a 45 or 46 though.

Having said that, I play will a lot of people who have been playing for years and years and can't even think about breaking 90. There is big difference between those who golf often and don't improve and those that simply golf to get better. One of my best friends is a guy I used to love playing golf with, we consistently went back and forth for the first two summers. Now I have to give him at least 10 strokes for 18, he hasn't tried to get better. He goes to the course and swings. I have become obsessed with getting better, because it is fun to hit a shot that you have in your mind.
 
I'm not sure if the OP was more of a statement or a question. I'll guess a little of both. JB is right in that lessons can help quite a bit. The quickest way to lower scores is short game improvement. How many times have you gone to the range and watched people pound away at drivers and fairway woods. Crush through an entire bucket and walk away thinking they did something. As most of us know, the most strokes in the golf game around inside 150 yards...two to three putts, a chip or two, and probably a short iron before all of that. I believe that most people focus on the driver because they believe if they can get the driver in play that everything will be set up for the rest of the hole and while there is a hint of accuracy to that though it is fleeting. I challenge everyone on your next 7 trips to the range to not hit anything longer than your 150 yard club. You should know your distances with all of your 150 yard and in clubs without having to guess.

Now as far as the OP question "how long did it take you?" I would say legitimately 2 years to go from the 100s to the 90s on a regular basis. That was back in high school. My freshman year on the golf team I was always in the 100s. I spent the entire next summer on the golf course. There is no range where I grew up. Literally played 18 to 72 holes a day for 3 months. My sophomore year I was in the low 90s on a regular basis during golf season. Same summer schedule. Junior year I was in the 80s on a regular basis. Same summer schedule. Senior year I was high 70s to low 80s on a regular basis.
 
Completely agree with yoopergolfer. I can remember playing golf with a guy from my Dad's work growing up and I always wanted to beat him because he shot in the upper 70's or low 80's. Around the age of 13 I started to beat him pretty consistently and still do today. He is an athletic guy so he cannot play for months and then go out and pick it up and shoot 80, but that is how he approaches the game. He does not go out and practice or take any lessons or even try to find the best equipment for his game. He just shows up with what he has and hits it around. Golf has been an obsession for me since I was young and going to the range and banging balls for 4 hours has never been a problem just to be able to pull of the one shot during the round I previously could not. Just a suggestion, but like JB said maybe get a lesson or two and instead of playing a round every Saturday morning, maybe practice for one Saturday and play the next alternating each week. Something tells me if you are practicing what you learned in a lesson for 4 hours you will see yourself getting better in a very short time.
 
I don't know if I could put a number on it, but I do know that I regularly see golfers who can barely break 100 at the courses I play. This was even more true in Utah and back east in NJ. I much more rarely see golfers who are on par on better than I am, although as I mentioned I see more good golfers out here vs. back east. I don't know if you're in the 20% if you play in the 90's, but you're definitely in the 30 - 40% I'd say.
 
It took me several years to consistently shoot 90's and I still do a lot today. Golf to me never came easy and it still doesn't, but I don't base my enjoyment for the game on the number at the end of the day.

I think in this small golf driven community that people excel faster than a larger sampling. Those who are here are probably more focused than the average golfer as a whole.

I look at it like this: To shoot in the 90's (for real) is probably better than average as a whole. There are probably more people who legitimately shoot in the 90's and 100's than 80's or lower despite what they claim especially if you follow the rules to the letter. That's not to say everyone is padding scores either.

That's part of the reason I enjoy playing the game with those that I haven't played with before. It gives me a better sense of where my game is at compared to others rather than just the same playing partners. You can typically get a good sense without actually tracking the numbers.
 
3 years to get my HDCP to 19.1. I'm trying to get it lower, but time to do that is becoming less.
 
Hmm.. I honestly think that the percentages are probably correct. I think there are many types of golfers out there in the world...but i tried to simplify it id agree yooper.. there are some that just play to get away and there are some who play to get better. I believe natural ability help, but you have to honestly work to get better. Wether thats range tjme, on the course training or even lesson. Trust me coming from a man that refused lessons for awhile, if u have a good teacher it is AMAZING what they can do for you.
The second part ( the elephant in the room) is sometimes people arent completely honest when it comes to their number. Did they count the ob, the time the xlub touched the sand, the mulligan. .. seriously maybe its bad luck but ive been with many people who "forget" "block out" or just plajnly falsify their score. Maybe on purpose or hell maybe nobody ever told them some of the penalty stroke. .
I come from being a 2-3 handicap olaying as 10 right now...and truthfully unless its in a tournament I have kore fun now then I ever did before..

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Good morning. I am on the golf course 4-5 days a week. And from what I see, hear and talk with people about, there is only 1 or 2 people that is capable of shooting a legit par, or even 80 on any given day.
I think the numbers are pretty good representation. For all, but a select few, golf is a social event and entertainment, some exercise activity. The leagues in the middle of the week, are, women's, men's, and most of these people are retired and seniors. These groups keep their handicaps, for tourneys and league plays.
What is the average age of golfer? And then what is the demographic of the golfing population?
You go to any men's league on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and how many 20, 30, or even 40 year olds are playing?
Out of 2.1 million golfers in the U.S., the average age is about 55 years old. According to USGA stats.
So, you shoot in the 80's golf, I think your probably in the 5% range, just because of the numbers of golfers and the average age.
 
some are taking this the wrong way. This was not a rant that I am not very good at golf after 20years. I only admited the ego part just be honest and sort of laugh at myself but i dont live my life by my ego and it hasnt ruined my enjoyment of the game. Perhaps i should have worded that part differently so as not to be taken as wanting to cry about it.

In over 20years it has not been at all a dominating work. Many years I only played a few rounds. Then some years some more. Had lessons in the begining and then after a few years tailed away from the game only to casusaly play here and there. Only a ouple of times did I play and practice more frequently for maybe a couple years at a time. Time and money have just not allowed it. Played more in the begining and also more for a couple years in the middle and now these last two seasons more than ever. My 20 years of golf may only add up to what many of you have done in just 4 years worth. Heck, until this year i never played more than 15 to 20 rounds. But if i played 17 rounds it was alot for my time and money. this year about 45 rounds which is more than double any other year.

So i do understand why i am not very good. I took lessons this year for first time in many years and have thrown in some good practice type of range sessions (which is how i always do range) and my short game is better than its ever been due to practicing and even though i went backwards after the lessons I am improving now slowly. When i say my ego is hurt some may be taking this to mean that i am crying about why is everyone else so good. Wasnt my intent. I do feel though that many people can put in as much efforts as me (which is not a ton) and even less and yet be much better but thats just the nature of the beast. And of course that can deflate the ego some so i admit that and thought to mention it but its not what my intended target of conversation was.

But i did want to know is just how common among the masses is it to shoot consistant sub100 rounds and how fast did you get there? and just how true it is or not that very many more are doing it than we may think.
 
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Oh...well then I rambled on the wrong topics...I tend to do that. Id say its actually far and few between people shooting sub 100 or sub 90. If you look at the amount of golfers out there and difficulty of the game those are hard numbers. To some of us maybe not , but we are a unique bunch. For the majority I dont see a massive transition to where people are just shooting under a hundred that quick..

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I started when I was 12. Didn't break 100 until I was 14 or 15. I consistently got into the 90s at around age 22. Broke 90 for the first time last year (I was 27). Now I'm trying to break 90 on a consistent basis. I'm going to try to speed up my improvements by visiting a club fitter soon. And I've been pondering Golf Tek lessons (I taught myself to play at age 12 by watching pros swing on TV, so I lack formal training lol).
 
I started playing at 13. I could break 90 consistently by the time I was 15. I think when I was 14 I first broke 90 but it wasn't consistently.
 
I started playing when I was 13, on Caddie's Day (Mondays) at the course I caddied at. Although I could break 100 after a couple of summers, it was strictly a result of youth, flexibility, and athletic ability.

I didn't take the game seriously until I was 17 or so. That Winter I read some instruction books and began to understand what causes hooks and slices, pronation, swing plane, tempo, etc... During the ensuing Summer I turned a slice into a draw (or hook) and began to break 90 consistently.
 
I was like a lot of the non-THP golfing population for the first 10 or so years I golfed. I picked up the game in grade 9 but only played maybe a half dozen times a year and breaking 100 was not an option without a lot of cheating (not to pick on younglings, but I play with a lot of teenagers who say they're single digit caps but nobody has seen them break 90 unless listening to them about playing with their friends). I started playing regularly 4 years ago. By the end of the first year I was breaking 100 normally and threatening 90 regularly. With a lot of work on my swing (particularly shot game) and a lot of rounds (easily 100+ per year), I took about 8 strokes off my cap each year. This year I started at an 8 and fluctuated b/w 6 and 8. Seems I've hit a wall. My wedge play and chipping/pitching is very good, but need to improve (in order) fairways hit, putting, and long iron play.
 
It took until I got serious and picked up a real set of clubs, after that less than a year to get to the 80's and inside two I was shooing in the mid to low 80's.

Took 2 years to get back to the 80's after about 10 years off.


Getting to where you want to go takes help sometimes. Usually people want to be like me, ie: figure it out yourself. It takes taking ego out of the picture and realizing you need help to get where you want to go to "take the next step" so to speak and seek professional help. Visual learning can speed that process and take less than 10 hours of instruction to get where you want to go.
 
I started playing about 35 years ago, and it wasn't until 2008 that I started breaking 100 with regularity. I think I first broke 100 in 1990 or so, but didn't play enough or seriously enough to really get better. It took Jacqui wanting to take up the game five years ago before I started playing more than once in a while, and I improved a lot in a short period because of it.
 
Technically....32 years and counting for me to break 100!

I didn't take a single golf lesson until 17 months ago, though, so it's really not even two years, and that includes a 7 month off-season.

I have known a couple guys who skipped the 100's and started out in the mid-90's. Incredible! And pretty rare, I would gather.
 
From reading through the thread, I would have to say I am one of the lucky ones who has been slightly 'gifted' in that I picked up the game very quickly when I was about 14 and was soon shooting in the 90s and then eventually beating my dad on a regular basis. Although never having had an official handicap I got to the point of shooting low to mid 80s and playing to what would probably have been a handicap of 12

After leaving school I ended up not playing for a number of years, but then through work I started playing more often again and was very quickly shooting mid 80 scores again, with one round of 79 which is my PB and I have not got anywhere near it recently. Work changes then meant I couldn't play as often up until last year, but due to a couple of injuries I have struggled to improve and scores have usually been around the 84-88 range with the odd bad round thrown in. To clarify, I consider a bad round for me to be one where I don't break 90 on a course that I have previously played and know. If it is a course that I have never played, then I am happy with bogey golf
 
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