Biggest handicap cut in a short time?

randomer

What is the most shots you have heard someone cut from their handicap in a short time, say six weeks or eight weeks.

Looking to put in a lot of effort over the next couple of months, and try to drop my handicap from 15. Interested to hear of any stories where people have made dramatic cuts over a short time, and what methods they employed.

Thanks!

royalcarlowgc

when i was 14 joined the club given 20 handicap. that summer got down to 11.
next year down to 6, year after 4, year after 2, year after scratch.
secret = lived on the putting / chipping green. thats what its all the about.
oh to be a young lad again!

randomer

royalcarlowgc wrote: »

when i was 14 joined the club given 20 handicap. that summer got down to 11.
next year down to 6, year after 4, year after 2, year after scratch.
secret = lived on the putting / chipping green. thats what its all the about.
oh to be a young lad again!

Wow, that's impressive.

My plan is to focus on the short game too. Hoping to fast track it by going to the Dave Pelz school at Killeen Castle next weekend for the three day scoring school. Then spend the next month on the chipping and putting green implementing what I have learned.

Hacker111

randomer wrote: »

Wow, that's impressive.

My plan is to focus on the short game too. Hoping to fast track it by going to the Dave Pelz school at Killeen Castle next weekend for the three day scoring school. Then spend the next month on the chipping and putting green implementing what I have learned.

Hey, I went to the Pelz school... I play off 12... did not find it much use TBH...waste of cash... Finnish guy is decent but its nothing new... group based so very little focus on you individually..money much better spent with one on one pro short game lessons etc.... its a decent set up but too high a level... basically you are paying for the Pelz name......

royalcarlowgc

thats a good idea. if you have a decent enough long game and put the hours into chipping & putting there is no reason why you cant get to get to 10 -11 by the end of sept.
i dont know much about that school but i go to eddie doyle at the heritage.
hes really interested in making you improve etc

strokes1

Not as good as the young lad above but I went from 25.1 to 16.7 (8.4) in about 8 weeks last year! Had two lessons form the club pro who changed a couple of things, now I cant remember what they were... d'oh!

randomer

Hacker111 wrote: »

Hey, I went to the Pelz school... I play off 12... did not find it much use TBH...waste of cash... Finnish guy is decent but its nothing new... group based so very little focus on you individually..money much better spent with one on one pro short game lessons etc.... its a decent set up but too high a level... basically you are paying for the Pelz name......

Which course did you do? I did the one day course just after I started playing (about two years ago), and thought it was great. I don't think any course/lessons on their own will make you good, it is the work afterwards that counts. I think the course will give me the knowledge needed to put in place a schedule and plan outlining what I have to work on to get to single figures (my first goal).

pinseeker

Hey randomer
started last march with handicap of 16 and by august had handicap of 5.
Have recently moved clubs where im currenly off 4.
Think everyone knows that getting up and down is huge in shaving shots off,along with putting.If your solid ball striker then short game is where you will shave shots.
Thing that ive noticed from being paired with different guys is that some mid handicaper's have good short game and putting.What i see most often is the losing of balls and poor choices that leads to the scratches and costs them being cut.

Short game and putting is major part but just giving info on what i see.
How many times for example do you see tee shot with out of bounds say on left with all the room on right but some always find the trouble.Biggest thing i do is pick areas that are safe off tee or for approaches.Sure we all make errors but key is to try keep ball in play more often with good choices.

That will shave strokes off handicap and with some short game practice you will be on the road to single fingers i hope.

k.p.h

pinseeker wrote: »

.Sure we all make errors but key is to try keep ball in play more often with good choices.
.

Thats a top piece of advice.! When you see guys playing off scratch laying up on a par 4 after a wayward tee shot. you really know their is something in it.

Been leaving the ball short more often now. Pulling a 6 instead of a 5. Worth at least 3 shots a round to me. I can hit my 6 as sweet as anything so its far more consistent and I never end up off the back with the akaward (impossible) up and down. Just rely on the chip/pitch up and down. Make them most of the time and walk away with par. Last year they always turned into 6's.

A soft ball and a sharp wedge makes some difference to the attitude I must say

Garda S Horgan

Got from 22 to 9 in the last 4 years. Got to 8.5.
Shot 76 a week or two ago and get many round in the 70s so I'm looking to get to perhaps 7 this year.
I spend all my time at the chipping area doing proper chipping, and by that I mean chipping 30 or 40 balls from different angles and lies and then putting them all out on the green following the same routine for every chip and every putt. For 90 chips and 90 puts it takes about an hour and a half and your back is sore after it. It makes a massive difference though.
If I want to practice irons or drives I play 9 holes.
I think I only need to hit about 9 or 10 GIR and after that if I'm happy to get up and down on 4 others then I'll be sorted.

Yours etc,
GSH.

Trampas

to reinforce royalcarlowgc.

If you had Martin Kaymer teeing off for you and you took the next shots you would find you wouldn't shot much better.

If you teed off and Martin Kaymer took all the next shots you would knock massive shots off the round.

randomer

pinseeker wrote: »

Hey randomer
started last march with handicap of 16 and by august had handicap of 5.
Have recently moved clubs where im currenly off 4.
Think everyone knows that getting up and down is huge in shaving shots off,along with putting.If your solid ball striker then short game is where you will shave shots.
Thing that ive noticed from being paired with different guys is that some mid handicaper's have good short game and putting.What i see most often is the losing of balls and poor choices that leads to the scratches and costs them being cut.

Short game and putting is major part but just giving info on what i see.
How many times for example do you see tee shot with out of bounds say on left with all the room on right but some always find the trouble.Biggest thing i do is pick areas that are safe off tee or for approaches.Sure we all make errors but key is to try keep ball in play more often with good choices.

That will shave strokes off handicap and with some short game practice you will be on the road to single fingers i hope.

I haven't been keeping any stats on my game, so any information I have is anecdotal, and probably very wrong. Saying that, bunkers have been a major issue for me.. I had 23 points on the front 9 at Castleknock (after scratching the first), was on 27 points after 11 holes. On the 12th hit the bunker with my second shot. Then I just went to pieces... Took 2 shots to get out of the bunker (badly), and scratched. Think I hit bunker on each of the next five holes and took 2 shots each time to get out. Missed a six footer for birdie on 18, finished with a par and ended with 33 points.12 points on the back nine, and a run of 3 points from 6 holes. I don't think my problem is fitness related, because I had the opposite round the following week, 12 points on the front nine, 22 on the back. Saying that, I have spent the last two months, while I have been away working, focusing on my fitness and am a lot fitter than before.

My last four rounds have been completed with one ball, so I haven't been going out
of bounds. But I am going to start using the Golfshot iPhone app to record where all of my shots are going and get some detailed analytics.

LuckyGent88

When i started off when i was 12 i got a handicap of 45 (cant anymore i think), i got down to 24 by the end of the summer Went on to win Golfer of the year twice when aged 15 and 17 God those were the days.
Have been stuck on 3/4 for last 3 years now though :mad:

mcgarrett

I was 16.5 at half past 2 and at 7pm I was 14.1.

44 points today, scratch was 36, so 8 x .3 = 2.4 cut. :eek:

beginning to feel like a golfer at last

WH BONNEY

k.p.h wrote: »

Been leaving the ball short more often now. Pulling a 6 instead of a 5. Worth at least 3 shots a round to me. I can hit my 6 as sweet as anything so its far more consistent and I never end up off the back with the akaward (impossible) up and down. Just rely on the chip/pitch up and down. Make them most of the time and walk away with par. Last year they always turned into 6's.

I am a bit confused, is this your srategy when you hit an errant tee shot or are you often deliberately laying up after a good tee shot.

Villain

Was playing off 23.8 until last Sunday got cut to 19.9 after shooting +11 in VPar

Garda S Horgan

Villain wrote: »

Was playing off 23.8 until last Sunday got cut to 19.9 after shooting +11 in VPar

Wow. your username is apt. I bet the other players loved seeing a +11 coming in.
I thought that once you are over 18 you drop 1 full shot athen it goes into 0.5 and then 0.2? I was always in whole numbers until I reached 18. Maybe thats changed now. If you're shooting +11 off 24 then going to 20 isn't too harmful. Great reduction though. Getting until 18 is the next target I assume.

Yours etc,
GSH.

PhilipMarlowe

4 Men's Categories Garda...
Cat 1 < 5.4
Cat 2 is 6 (5.5) to 12 (12.4)
Cat 3 is 13 (12.5) to 20 (20.4)
Cat 4 is 21 (20.5) to 28 (28.4?)

Cat 1s get cut by 0.1 per shot better than CSS, Cat 2s by 0.2, Cat 3s by 0.3 & Cat 4s by 0.4

So Villain shooting +11 in vPar:
Starting rom 23.8 (Cat 4)
9 reductions of 0.4 (3.6 in total) brings him to 20.2 which is then into Cat 3.
1 more reduction of 0.3 in Cat 3 brings him to 19.9

So his +11 in vPar is really only 10 shots better than the CSS.. you can relax

Garda S Horgan

Licksy wrote: »

4 Men's Categories Garda...
Cat 1 < 5.4
Cat 2 is 6 (5.5) to 12 (12.4)
Cat 3 is 13 (12.5) to 20 (20.4)
Cat 4 is 21 (20.5) to 28 (28.4?)

Cat 1s get cut by 0.1 per shot better than CSS, Cat 2s by 0.2, Cat 3s by 0.3 & Cat 4s by 0.4

So Villain shooting +11 in vPar:
Starting rom 23.8 (Cat 4)
9 reductions of 0.4 (3.6 in total) brings him to 20.2 which is then into Cat 3.
1 more reduction of 0.3 in Cat 3 brings him to 19.9

So his +11 in vPar is really only 10 shots better than the CSS.. you can relax

Very clear. Was it always like this? I think I remember going down in full shots to 18, but maybe I'm showing my age.

Yours etc,
GSH.

Villain

Yea it was off the Yellow Tee's so CSS was 71, second place was +5.

I had 85 Gross in strokes so hopefully I can do well again in the coming weeks and down below 16.

Its funny most peoples reaction to my score was "why didn't you relax" i.e. +7 or 8 would have been enough. I hate that I want to get as low as possible I was raging I didn't get higher, I was +7 after 9 holes!