The story of Clugnut's BS handicap

[Clugnut]

I had sort of an epiphany this past weekend in Virginia. I played 54 holes, and I think I hit three proper golf shots.

I've been living a lie. The lie of the vanity handicap.

You see, golf in central PA is not, how do you say, challenging? Wide open courses, slow greens with little slope, short rough. Williamsburg opened my eyes. Namely, Robert Trent Jones and the Golden Horseshoe Club. Went around that beauty in a tidy little 94. And I was low man in my group. I entering a new phase to my golf life. Its time to play proper golf. So, to purge myself, I need to confess.

Clugnut's recorded Myscorecard handicap: 6.4

Clugnut's more realistic, tough course handicap: about 15

There, I feel better.

So, I am dedicating myself to hitting golf shots that have integrity. No more 300 yard drives, no more 145 yard wedges. Screw it, its not worth it. I started it off today by going to the range today. Hit about ten pure 7 irons at the 155 stick. That's a good start. Who's with me?

 

[Rockford35]

So....the penis.....really about 3 inches?:biglol:

R35

 

[zaphod]

I completely agree with the pure 7 iron 155 yard shot. For me good golf is not hitting great shots but rather limiting the severity of the bad shots. Improve the worst half of your bad swings and your game will improve faster than improving your best swings.

I am constantly looking for a bulletproof 90% reliable swing than the perfect swing. i have not enough time or patience to achieve the "Tour" (Leadbetter???)
mechanics.

Best of luck

 

[h3king]

I'm with you!

BTW i'm from PA, by wilkes barre. Maybe we can play a round sometime this summer if you want.

 

[Sandpiper3]

Probly Clug, did you look at the course rating of the two courses? (the VA course and the course you post most of your scores from?).

The course I base my "handicap" off of is a 74.2, therefor, I shoot a 74, and that is technically for handicap purposes me shooting even par (for a very simple way of explaning it). From what ive understood, course rating is what they assume an average true scratch golfer will shoot on that random given day. I played a course that was a 76.9 course rating, with the winds only 3 people, in a very good competitive feild collegiate tournament, I guarantee any pro would have been happy with a 70-72 on that course on that day.

Dont worry aoubt it, your CAPABLE of playing to that 6 hdcp, doesnt mean you will very often, the way it's setup, its forward/potential based.

IMO, a handicap is completely pointless, I haven't kept a "handicap" in two years. My pro knows I am capable of shooting under par, he just signs it at .9 for tournaments I am required a handicap and it's no problem (dont tell the USGA or RCGA:laugh.

 

[Eracer]

Course handicaps have zero, nada, zip relation to what the average golfer can expect to shoot. I can shoot 90 on a course that's rated 69.7, and easily shoot a 105 on a course rated 74.5. So, my index would be completely different if I played all the time on either course. It's stupid.

I could play Sawgrass 30 times in a row and end up with a 30 index, then go play a tounament at an easy course and take everybody's money because my index is 12 points too high.

Course ratings need to be adjusted for index, and should look something like this:

Course Rating:
Index = 0 Course Rating = 72
Index = 1 Course Rating = 73
Index = 2 Course Rating = 74
Index = 3 Course Rating = 75
Index = 4 Course Rating = 76

and so on...

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

I had sort of an epiphany this past weekend in Virginia. I played 54 holes, and I think I hit three proper golf shots.

I've been living a lie. The lie of the vanity handicap.

You see, golf in central PA is not, how do you say, challenging? Wide open courses, slow greens with little slope, short rough.

I had that same epiphany when we moved up here and my index went from just over 15 to around 24.9 in the span of one year.

While this is the entire concept of slope and course handicap in giving you an accurate idea of what you would shoot on any given course, IMO this may be accurate in general courses of around 120-125 slope. When you get on a course with closed quarters, it may still be accurate for a single digit handicap that rarely sprays the ball, but I don't think it accounts as accurately for the number of penalties that a mid to high handicap will take on any given day. I lost 9 golf balls my first round here as a 15, which was likely more than I lost the prior year combined. Played with one guy that lost 18, and he probably played to around a 23 handicap. While he stopped keeping score after about 7-8 holes, he continued to count lost balls. Just as I know that I am currently a much better golfer right now at a 17.5 index than I was 4-5 years ago at a 15. I also know that the rounds in the 70's and specifically the two 75's I shot on my old home course does not even hold a candle to the rounds I shot up here of 80 on my current course which with adjusted course handicaps, they were not considered as good. While my course handicap reflect the difficulty of the course in being 21 at a 17.5 index, I know that in shooting such I had a decent round in being able to stay out of trouble and understand why they say most golfers will not shoot their handicap as often as you would think. Where any other course I play where I am even remotely familiar with the course, or when we visit our old area, I fully expect to shoot about 5 strokes under my course handicap and if I do not at least shoot my handicap it was a poor round. It is no coincidence that last year out I shot in the 80's on 10 of the last 12 rounds I played on other courses in other areas, where in that same time frame I only shot in the 80's one time on my home course. Although late in the year I tend to get alot more rounds in the 80's up here.

Perfect example being we went to Orlando after being away from golf about 2 months. The first round was bad, but then had 2 in the 90's and one in the 80's on courses I had never played. We came back up here, our course opened 2 weeks later, and I have posted 3 rounds over 100, one of which was 112, then in the last 2 days finally shot a 100 followed by a 99. Which granted it is shaking off the rust, but there was much more rust in Orlando I just didn't pay the price dearly for my poor shots. I actually hit the ball better on the 99 than I did for 3 of the rounds in Orlando, and the meager 1-4 strokes difference in course handicap just does not give justification to a harder course. In the same sense, we have had some pretty decent golfer visit us and play on this course and I only recall 1 breaking 100.

This off season, they did do a lot of work trying to clear things out and make the course a little easier, or I should say more "golfer friendly", but there is only so much they will be able to do. While this is likely one of the toughest courses up here, it is not like there are many courses around that are as friendly as our old area and I would say that the average slope off the white tees up here is probably around 130, where I would bargain to guess in our old area it was around 122 or so.

 

[Clugnut]

To be fair, I shot 86-86 on two other hard courses. The only reason for the improvement was that I rarely hit driver after the first day. Those tight corridors really get in my head. The last day at Golden Horseshoe Green course, I shot a nice 39 on the front, than broke the driver out to go around in 47 on the back.

I'm not complaining about the courses. They matched most of the tight tee shots with shorter holes, so that you had a chance just hitting hybrid. It was just a different game, and I didn't have that game.

 

[eclark53520]

Jay...i want to bring something up...YOU TYPE TOO DAMN MUCH!!!

lol, if we had a word count instead of a post count, you would be way ahead of most people on this board...every post from you is like War And Peace...lots of good and interesting information but damn!


ANYWAY, i play muni's and not tough ones, i dont even know if they are rated...so i would probably shoot an ungodly number on a tough course...

 

[Sandpiper3]

eclark, have you had the pleasure of reading a Cypressperch post? He posts the longest ones ever, but always quality posts so its worth the read.

Haven't seen him around much lately, hope he drops in sometime.

Only course I played in PA that was tough was Peek N Peak, and only reason that was tough is cuz I played from the tournament tees (nationwide). I think I woulda been close to the cut line, shot 74-72 the two rounds I played there. Sadly I only made 4 birdies in those two rounds, that was A LOT of pars....

 

[Bossman641]

I know what you are saying.

I am used to playing the local courses. I have played them all hundreds of times. I know where to be on every hole, I know what club to hit off each tee. Last year I played a dozen or so rounds with my gf's dad around the Chicago area. It was like night and day. My courses are fairly wide open and there are only a few places you have to worry about getting in real trouble. Playing the new courses, every tee shot was so much more intimidating. I found myself hitting 2 irons off the tee quite often. The biggest difference was on the greens, much more sloped and there were places around the green that were impossible to get up and down. I found it all quite challenging. I normally found myself shooting about 2-3 strokes higher than I'm used to, but it was a lot of fun. I was still able to squeeze out a few rounds in the high 70's but I felt like I really worked for them. I'm hoping to play a lot more "new" courses this year.

 

[eclark53520]

eclark, have you had the pleasure of reading a Cypressperch post? He posts the longest ones ever, but always quality posts so its worth the read.

I dont think i have ever come across a post of his...i haev only been here since december though..

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

Jay...i want to bring something up...YOU TYPE TOO DAMN MUCH!!!

lol, if we had a word count instead of a post count, you would be way ahead of most people on this board...every post from you is like War And Peace...lots of good and interesting information but damn!

I have always figured I would rather be criticized for having said to much and be judgde for the content and concise nature of my posts, as opposed to not getting my point across and having to respond a second, third or forth time or being misunderstood for having said too little.

Plus if your second statement hold true, it is part of the reason. I have manage to say what I want in probably 1/3 of the posts for people who have been here for less time. If you really want to look at in a logical sense and work with the law of averages theory, you would also need to average in the times that I chose to say nothing because that is either what I felt my comments would add to the conversation, or what I likely knew in regards to the topic. Which to me would be more displeasing in nature. So taking that into consideration, I am likely still below many in word count per possible posts as opposed to actual posts.

Probably just my work experience on knowing how annoying it is to have to make three and four comments to pry an answer out of someone simply because their response is to vague, or worse, having to look for the hidden meaning. I like to think it is reflected in success of while taking the time to say it correctly the first time, I still spent less time and thereby made/saved more money by having spent less time doing so in the long run. Plus you I usually never have to look for the hidden meaning, because usually do not hold back on saying precisely what I think.

 

[ezra76]

I just joined the Golfchannel handicap service. I've only used my 6 most recent rounds, so like starting all over. I'll be at about 15-16 when they review it next week. I look at it like a challenge.

I had the same type of experience yesterday playing with my boss at the private course. I stopped keeping score after losing 2 balls on the same hole and probably shot about 106. I got the $hanks, really bad and couldn't get rid of them on the last 2 holes.

 

[Burg]

I had sort of an epiphany this past weekend in Virginia. I played 54 holes, and I think I hit three proper golf shots.

I've been living a lie. The lie of the vanity handicap.

You see, golf in central PA is not, how do you say, challenging? Wide open courses, slow greens with little slope, short rough. Williamsburg opened my eyes. Namely, Robert Trent Jones and the Golden Horseshoe Club. Went around that beauty in a tidy little 94. And I was low man in my group. I entering a new phase to my golf life. Its time to play proper golf. So, to purge myself, I need to confess.

On a side note, I live in Hampton (30 minutes from Williamsburg) and am finishing up law school at William and Mary. I'm blessed to be in this area because there are tremendous courses in Williamsburg, and on the Southside (30 minutes from my house the other way). Glad to hear that you enjoyed the Williamsburg area. The courses are challenging but fair for the most part. The most difficult thing to get used to is the fact that you can't miss left or right or you'll be chipping out of the woods. If you return, just remember that the 3 wood is your friend unless you're really on with the big stick.