Handicap expectations?

When you go out for a game, how close to your handicap do you expect to play? It seems that a lot of golfers expect to play to their handicap every time they go out, if they don't then it's a bad round.
My belief is that your handicap should reflect your ability when you are playing well. I believe that I should play under my handicap perhaps 2 rounds in 10, play to my handicap maybe 3 times in 10 and the other 5 times play over it.

I never go out with the expectation of a score, the reason is because if you are over your handicap at a point in your you might start to panic and play worse , whereas if you are under you might get carried away and bottle it.

It's a cliche, but I just try to go out and play well, i'll count my score up afterwards.

I thought I once read that you should expect to play under your handicap 3 or 4 times a year? Something like that anyway. As D4S says, it is meant to be an indication of what you are capable of, not what you shoot regularly

I always feel I ought to be able to play to my handicap at my home course, but in reality the numbers are probably as D4S suggests. Away from home I always expect to come in under my handicap, and usually do.

I'm around those numbers that you mentioned D4S. The handicap system works as such that being around those numbers would leave your handicap fairly stable, assuming the two rounds weren't ridiculously low.

smirthers, would you not expect to come in over your handicap on an unfamiliar course?

Just aim to play as well as i can, and whatever happens happens. Having expectations before or during a round can take away the fun of it.

OK, let's rephrase the original post then. Let's replace 'How often do you expect to play to your handicap' with 'How often do you play to your handicap' using the same criteria as above

tarka wrote:smirthers, would you not expect to come in over your handicap on an unfamiliar course?

You'd think, wouldn't you? Yet my society handicap is 7, my club handicap 12. Last two 'away' rounds have been +11 and +6, and the +11 I felt I'd played awfully. Home course is very penal so most other courses feel like I'm getting off lightly if I hit a bad shot. Last 2 home rounds + 14 and +12, felt like good rounds.

Good point D4S, I've been labouring under the misguided assumption that I should be shooting my handicap or better on a regular basis and quite frankly it's been strangling my game and it's got me verging on a full blown slump! I've gone from 6.3 to 7.2 with only a couple of buffer zone medals halting the slide.

My ball striking is just as good if not better, I've now got a much more positive view of my putting yet I'm still sliding in the wrong direction. Club champs coming up Sunday and one little voice is saying "oh no 7.4 by Saturday night" the other little voice is saying. "c'mon, this is a chance to arrest and reverse the slide, you know you can play well, you have all the shots - time for a correction, you are overdue one"

In reality both little voices should shut up and just let me get on with it.

I'm hereby chucking my seasons handicap target out of the window and freeing myself from all expectations, realistic or otherwise. There....I feel like a man released!!

Smithers

have you got your entry in for North Weald? I might need to have a little whisper in the Secretary's ear

I don't even think about handicap, I just want to shoot my best ever score, and that is every time I go out!

About once every 2 years on recent form.
When Im well into the round say 13/14 I start thinking about what is required to hit at least buffer zone.But it seems that to get to handicap I need a bit of something special on 2/3 holes,chip in or a long birdie putt that sort of thing

Precisely why you shouldn't think about it, it's difficult to do though granted, but not writing your score down on your playing partners card is a good start.
Or instead of counting your shots, you count how many fairways or greens you hit.

super

you're not really participating in the spirit of this thread

OK, I played to my handicap three times last weekend and only ended up getting cut 0.1.

Rubbish.

super_realist wrote:OK, I played to my handicap three times last weekend and only ended up getting cut 0.1.

Rubbish.

Now that is annoying! Rarely happens at my place as the SSS is one shot above par and seldom comes down in competitions.

Havent played to may handicap yet this year, but I always note my score and am always very aware of my score when I play, in addition to which I always note my number of putts per hole

our sss is -2 - That is annoying especially when you are of low single figures

how often do i expect to shoot my handicap? always!
how often do i actually do it? never! but my course SSS is 1 over par.

I try and do what super does, and only think about my score after walking off the 18th green. hate it when people ask me scores at half way point eg I make you 16 points for the front nine? answer: i don't care.

It's interesting that how well we think we've played is always governed by our handicap.

I play off 6 and one of my regular partners is off 17. Now if we're playing in a stableford and he scores for example 36pts and I score 25 the discussion in the bar will go along the lines of

"you played well today John"

"Yes I hit the ball really solidly and holed some great putts blah, blah, blah, you really struggled though Hibbz what on earth happened" "

"Yeah I know couldn't hit a thing embarrassing"

Truth is though assuming no blobs we'd both have taken the same number of shots to go round.

Surely a shot is a shot is a shot? Isn't it?

Ray, your handicap is relative to the CSS of the day, not the par of the course, it shouldn't matter whether CSS is above or below par as to how frequently you play to your handicap.

Ray

I cant understand why you don't 'know' your score, you should always know where you stand to par, or to your handicap!!

If not, how else can you expect to play to your handicap, and how else, when you dont play to it, can you know where you went wrong?

drive4show wrote:Smithers

have you got your entry in for North Weald? I might need to have a little whisper in the Secretary's ear

I posted it this very morning, as it happens. Don't worry, I'm not quite so confident among proper golfers, and over 36!

SmithersJones wrote:

drive4show wrote:Smithers

have you got your entry in for North Weald? I might need to have a little whisper in the Secretary's ear

I posted it this very morning, as it happens. Don't worry, I'm not quite so confident among proper golfers, and over 36!

Excellent, that's about 5 or 6 of us now

JD, your score isn't really important, and nor is whether you play to your handicap, I've shot 80 and played really well and i've shot 69 and stunk the place out. One was to my handicap and one certainly wasn't, but I got more satisfaction from the 80 than the 69.

The score is whatever it is, it isn't always related to how you play.

SR

You are taking the p***

Your score is the only thing that is important!

Rubbish, one of my best ever scores was courtesy of chipping in three times, now while the chips were of course good, at least one of them was thinned, and what that meant was that I'd missed three very simple greens to hit from the middle of the fairway. What's good about that?, it means that an important part of my game wasn't working well.
Whereas I've been delighted with hitting 17/18 greens because I'd put the ball exactly where I wanted it almost all of the way round, even though my final score might have been higher.

Regardless of how you want to over analyse it, in the end score is the only thing that is relevant, nothing else matters or will change anything!

You could shoot 69 and me 70, I could have hit it great, and missed a load of putts, end of the day, you win, its how many not how!

I don't believe that at all JD, I play golf to be the best I can be and to play the best I can, I don't play to win competitions or beat other players. I am in direct competition with myself to become a better player, naturally good scores, and winning competitions are a by product of becoming a better golfer, but they are not the only benchmark.
If you look at a score and decide whether you have played well or not based upon solely that, then it is insufficient evidence to say whether you have played well or not.
Sometimes putts just don't drop, it doesn't mean you didn't play well, sometimes you'll thin the ball right where you want it, Does that mean you played well?

You

D4S - who is in for the North Weald thing?

MustPuttBetter wrote:D4S - who is in for the North Weald thing?

Myself, LJ, Noshanking, Smithers, Navy and Oldshanker have all expressed an interest. I'm also trying to talk JAS into it. I think we have all put entries in now.

Do you fancy it as well?

Is everyone single figure handicappers??

I sort of fancy it but don't much fancy looking like a plum ha ha

I never said a low score meant I played well, of course we all know there are good 72's and bad 72's, but all in all at the end of the day all that goes down on the score card is a score.

Give me a scruffy 69 over an uncluck 70 everytime! WITHOUT QUESTION!

Doh, when I said I'd my club champs this Sunday, I meant Saturday, I have something MUCH more important Sunday

Still working on negotiating the 21st off. Should know by Monday.

MustPuttBetter wrote:Is everyone single figure handicappers??

I sort of fancy it but don't much fancy looking like a plum ha ha

I'm off 12. OldShanker is 16, I think, so no.

Obviously from a handicap reductionor a competition situation then the lower score is preferable. I'm just saying that shooting a low score doesn't mean you played better than a higher score, and going out with the expectation of a score isn't the best way to achieve it.

If you go out and just try and play well, then hopefully the score will take care of itself and if you've played well but just not scored well there is no point in worrying about it, likewise if you've played poorly but scored well, lap it up but try and improve how you played next time.

SmithersJones wrote:

MustPuttBetter wrote:Is everyone single figure handicappers??

I sort of fancy it but don't much fancy looking like a plum ha ha

I'm off 12. OldShanker is 16, I think, so no.

Handicap limit is 18, there are both scratch and nett prizes. Get your entry in, it'll be a good day out

D4S, I know that, was just wondering about the standard of everyone else

Cheers SJ

This is kind the question the pros are asked "do you look at the leaderboard or not?"

Everyone has different view, but I'm concious of my score to par all the time, I don't need to check my card. I don't understand why you wouldn't as, if you are +1 to handicap but not taking any notice of your score, you could change your shot thought and try and get that shot back. I don't see the point in playing the same all the way round, finding out you finsihed nett +1 and thinking, oh I should have gone for it on 16!

The lower your handicap is the more difficult it is to forget or ignore what you are scoring. I admit that I usually know what I am scoring, but my choice of shot I am about to play is not dependent on what my score is or what has gone before but a combination of the shot coming off against the dangers of it going wrong.
As an example, I pulled a shot into the bunker on 18 in a comp, I could have gone for the green with a longer iron but the potential of hitting the lip was greater than the chance of it coming off, I played it into the middle of the fairway to my perfect wedge distance and got up and down. Instead of chasing a score and potentially making it worse, I played it conservatively which gave the option of an up and down or at worse one over for the hole.

Yeah that is obviously a high risk shot. I suppose what I mean is that I'm only interested in my handicap rather than winning comps (unless it's a scratcg comp), so unless I'm on course to be level or better to (what I project to be) CSS, then I'll play more aggressive. May as well be +5 trying than +1 and settling for it.

What is up with people, you should always want to win!

I don't get much pleasure from taking part in a handicap competitions, as being beaten by a 28 handicapper who has scraped two pars means nothing to me. It doesn't reflect if I played good or bad.

I play off 6 and I try to focus on three objectives when I go out to play. Firstly not to have any penalty shots and secondly not to have any three putts. If I achieve these two aims I will invariably play to handicap.

The third goal is to try to avoid going in a bunker and if my course management has been good on the day and I have achieved all three aims then I will generally always be under handicap.

Not bad thinking Blue, but are you standing over a six foot second putt hoping not to miss? I anticipate I'm going to hole everything and if I miss I'll make the next one.

Cheers SR...No I'm still thinking positively when I have left myself a six foot second putt. No place for negative thoughts in this game is there!

I think if you go out with specific objectives, like not three putting, as SR says, that can have a negative effect, I always find that just going out and trying to shoot the lowest score possible (realisticly) is the best way forward

You may be right JD...I find specific objectives leads to better course management which usually leads to better scoring

Being as how I have just been pulled by 2 shots to 16.3, I had no real expectations of playing to my handicap. However, the first time out, I managed it no problems..........that'll change though I'm sure.

I do also have a slightly different attitude to the game than others on this board as I have said before. To me, the game is not just about scoring well unless I am in a competition and I will be in more competitions this year than ever before. But still the majority of my golf will be with mates, and then the enjoyment of the company, the fresh air, the mild exercise (sorry SR) and the drink and chat afterwards is much more important than screwing down every single shot!

It's a game. :run1: