Handicaps

Nehpets

This has probably been done before but what handicaps are you all on?

Might as well keep this as topic to post on how they change too!

Also, how long would it take to make a significant improvement to your game, and drop handicap by a measurable amount?

PhilipMarlowe

resumed at 8 in 2004 after a few years break from playing (1997 to 2003)
Got down to 7 during 2004
Down to 6.4 in 2005
6.4 -> 6.2 -> 5.4 -> 5.0 -> 4.9 -> 4.5 ->4.1 -> 3.9 last year...
2007 ???

Going to be a struggle for me but would love to keep to 4 if I can this year.
Since I first got a handicap, I have never increased, though the .1's got me from 6.1 to 6.4 before dropping the next year.

Practise I guess is the key... my sharpness is off but it's early in the season (he said hopefully). Try to be as consistent as you can at whatever level you can play at.
If you get into trouble, no hero stuff just get back in to play....

Hardest part I find and the difference between the good and the great is the ability to think about each shot individually rather than the whole round together.... able to move on from a bad shot and try to hit the next one properly.

cson

Started at age 14 (Our Club will only allow you get a senior handicap at this age) off 19,
Age 14 - 19
Age 15 - 14
Age 16 - 11
Age 17 - 6
Age 18 - 4

I'm 18 now and off 3.7 to be exact. But a word to the wise to everyone....Unless you think you are capable of going to 2 or less DO NOT go below 6. Where i'm at now is no mans land regarding cups and shields, not quite good enough to play Barton Shield and Senior Cup but too low to play Junior Cup and Jimmy Bruen. Those cups and shields teams are great craic....I miss them....:(

FlutterinBantam

Flutter is 5.7,and he aint goin lower.

Playing h/c 6

MisterAnarchy

I'm 6.2 .
I havent played in many competitions over the last few years so my handicap has stayed constant.
Want to get to 5 (Name will be in bold on handicap list ).
My long game is good but short game is pretty average.
If I miss a green I'll struggle for par .
Must just practice from 100 yards in.
They say if a 12 handicapper had a pro taking his shots from 100 yds in he'd shoot level par.

slumped

cson wrote:

I'm 18 now and off 3.7 to be exact. But a word to the wise to everyone....Unless you think you are capable of going to 2 or less DO NOT go below 6. Where i'm at now is no mans land regarding cups and shields, not quite good enough to play Barton Shield and Senior Cup but too low to play Junior Cup and Jimmy Bruen. Those cups and shields teams are great craic....I miss them....:(

That is a terrible attitude to have - you should try your hardest and see where it takes you, even if that does mean a couple of seasons without inter club golf.

What if a 19 handicapper decided he did not want to go lower because then he wouldn't be a bandit? Would that be OK?

S

Mister Sifter

I started playing back in scotland when i was about 10 or 11 and my first handicap was 36 at around age 12. After that i went down fairly rapidly and was off 6 at 15. Lowest i got to was 2 (almost 1), and i was playing at a decent levl, representing my county and all that jazz. However, studying and moving to dublin have taken their toll in recent years meaning i didn't play very much for a couple of years so i've now slipped back up to 3.6.

The illness is better now and i'm fairly settled now though so i'm going for it this year. I want to get back to where i was. Could take a few seasons though.

cson

slumped wrote:

That is a terrible attitude to have - you should try your hardest and see where it takes you, even if that does mean a couple of seasons without inter club golf.

What if a 19 handicapper decided he did not want to go lower because then he wouldn't be a bandit? Would that be OK?

S

Those cups and shields teams are the best craic ever at our club. Anyway I'll probably have a cut at getting to 2 or scratch or whatever during the summer, I've not played much golf this year cos of the leaving

MisterAnarchy

cson wrote:

Those cups and shields teams are the best craic ever at our club. Anyway I'll probably have a cut at getting to 2 or scratch or whatever during the summer, I've not played much golf this year cos of the leaving

I'd imagine you would need to be playing an awful lot of good golf to go from 3.7 to scratch in a Summer.

cson

Indeed. I think I may have set the bar a bit high on that one. Anyway I have utmost confidence in my abilities

TheDoc

I've recently turned 19 years of age and play of 9.8.

Was 8.4 for a week there last summer and had a horrible time and fell back to ten.

Worked hard during summer and have sorted my kinks out, waiting for my greens to get over their pole forking and I expect fully to be off about 8 or 7 come end of August. Thats without any further improvement or un improvement.

pwee

I haven't played a lot in the last 3 years, actually have only played 4 times in the last 2 years. Defo getting back into it from 2moro tho. I'm off 7.8, my lowest was 5.8.

Par72

I'm at 3.1 at the moment. Was 2 for most of last year and hoping to get back down to that soon

milltown

I think I'm in the wrong thread!

Still off the 22 I got last year as my first ever h/c. Hadn't been playing much or long, only starting to play towards a 28 h/c, when we decided to join Elm Green. Disgusted to lose 6 shots when the best card I'd handed in was 105. After an operation last year I'm starting to see progress and hope to be playing to or beating my handicap by summer's end. Ironically, my mate who joined with me got 17, regularly tops 36 points, even 40's, and reckons they robbed him too!

Derek Zoolander

as per my thread off 10 now...been playing for a few years but never joined a club until this january...hopefully will be able to play to 10 by the end of the summer...just need to sort of my short game now and I might just get there

GreenHorn

I'm a struggling 14... I can only play to it on my very veryyyyyyyyy best day... but then, that's the idea isn't it...

Nehpets

So did you all start young? Just gonna be 18 when I start playing properly

badbrian

My handicap is 14. I can't play to it because I can't hit fairways regularly enough (long but wayward). I've ordered a new driver which I hope will give me a new lease of life. I didn't play during winter so I need to work on my short game in the next little while. But I love summer golf. Luv it I tell yah.
Took it up in my 20's but only started trying to take it a bit more serious in the last 6 years or so when boozing lost some of it's appeal.

sternn

My short journey so far as a golfer...

Never hit a ball until i was 15
2 summers ago, i played off 28 for the whole summer, only getting cut on one of the last competitions to 27.2

Last summer was amazing, came down to 13 in those 3 months

And recently, just as the 18 hole comps started, iv come down to 9

Come on lower handicap!!!!!

By the way, im 18 now...

cson

As boring as it may sound.....

My suggestions to someone starting off
1: Get 4 lessons off a professional (Or even a low handicap player if you know one) and specify the 4 things you want him to do with you: Set up (Fundamentals), and short game, short game short game.

2: When practising, pull a 5/7 iron and practise only the fundamentals. Practise your short game like a demon (Have about a 4:1 ratio between short game practise and normal practice). At my club I used to go out to the 15th hole which is miles from the clubhouse at about 8 every morning in the summer. It took the first group about 2 and a half hrs to reach the 15th where I could putt and chip to my hearts content. (Dunno what other clubs are like on this, but mine was ok with it).

3: Buy a Bob Rotella book, any of them and read it. Don't buy any instruction books/magazines.

4: For 6 weeks, leave the driver at home. Forget it. Use a 3 wood/utility/iron off the tee.

Well thats my advice on it.

MisterAnarchy

Nehpets wrote:

So did you all start young? Just gonna be 18 when I start playing properly

I started when I was a kid .
My Dad used to bring me to the practice ground with him and he taught me the basics.
He was a golf nut and was years ahead of his times as he used to analyse the mechanics of swings and read lots of books.
He would grab my hair so that I couldnt move my head ,think he learnt that from Jack Grout who coached Jack Nicklaus.
If I had been more interested perhaps I could have been like Tiger Woods

Marshy

cson wrote:

As boring as it may sound.....

My suggestions to someone starting off
1: Get 4 lessons off a professional (Or even a low handicap player if you know one) and specify the 4 things you want him to do with you: Set up (Fundamentals), and short game, short game short game.

2: When practising, pull a 5/7 iron and practise only the fundamentals. Practise your short game like a demon (Have about a 4:1 ratio between short game practise and normal practice). At my club I used to go out to the 15th hole which is miles from the clubhouse at about 8 every morning in the summer. It took the first group about 2 and a half hrs to reach the 15th where I could putt and chip to my hearts content. (Dunno what other clubs are like on this, but mine was ok with it).

3: Buy a Bob Rotella book, any of them and read it. Don't buy any instruction books/magazines.

4: For 6 weeks, leave the driver at home. Forget it. Use a 3 wood/utility/iron off the tee.

Well thats my advice on it.

Yeah some good advice there. Just 1 question, what do you mean by the fundamentals?

cson

Fundamentals = Grip, Stance, Ball Position, Alignment, your set-up basically. Most important aspect of the golf swing. Its also the area where most professionals will look at/work at if start spraying it a bit.

TheDoc

i started at 10 yrs of age, my handicapp was 33

im now 19 off 10

fullstop

4.1 currently, lowest being 1.9 less than 2 years ago. Think i need to go practice