Match play = Better scores

[Pa Jayhawk]

I've been wondering how to play match play and still keep up a handicap index. Thanks. Problem with my group is that I'm the only one that keeps one. When the hole's over we move on.

Guess I'll just have to have an artificially high index...:laugh:

{oops - did I just say that?}

Actually for our leagues, it is handicapped separately from our USGA index, and I do not hand in the scores for the USGA. In all actuality, it would not be legitimate anyways as with the layout of our course they usually play 1-8 and 17. I would bargain to guess half the people in the leagues for which I play do not keep indexes through the USGA. So while I usually play to the ESC, as does the league, I have been known to get disgusted with a hole and pick up prior. Going back to the mental strategy of matchplay, I am sometimes willing to sacrifice a stroke or two towards my handicap for the sake of preparing myself for the next hole mentally and picking up. Some of the people I play against don't grasp this, until I precede to win the next 2-3 holes because they are still thinking of the bad one, and that is long sense forgotten by the time I reach the next tee box. That and the fact that my score must reflect 1 higher than my opponent or one more than what I picked up on the card. Which is usually the ESC the majority of the time.

 

[gregfletch]

Interesting post and really good comments. I think the Zen book is excellent and as I've posted before, the new Pelz book points out that what happens is that everyone generally has a couple of "blow up" holes which pull their scores down significantly.

I agree with the comments that it is important to try and forget about your score as much as possible in order to concentrate on staying in the present and hitting the best shot you can - one shot at a time....

The only thing I would add is that you have to be ready when you hit a horrible shot and wind up in trouble. Just expect to face that a few times every round and be ready with a sensible recovery shot in order to keep from turning one bad shot into two and a big score on a single hole...

Luckily for me I'm not good at math and it is easy for me to lose track of my score even though I write it down (including putts per hole and fairways hit/missed for each hole). I think these statistics are important to track since hitting fairways off the tee and avoiding three putts are quick ways to drop your score...