Quote:
Originally Posted by BigSoonerFan
Hmm, that's a tough goal. I need to take 4.3 shots of my handicap. Everyone's needs a challenge! (to get to the top of the handicap list)


I don't want to discourage you at all, but to give you a point of reference:

When I arrived at college, I was probably about a 1 handicap.
I spent the next 4 years working extremely hard every day on my game.
I would guess I averaged 5 hours a day, every day, of practice.
I estimate I played at least 250 rounds of golf each of those years, almost all in some competive situation. If they weren't tournament rounds, they were either qualifying rounds, or (small stakes) gambling games with teammates.
I received lessons for the first time in my life. I had the opportunity to compete daily with players better than me that showed me my weaknesses and pushed me to improve. You get the picture!

At the end of my 4 year college career, I was probably a +2 handicap.

But I'm a slow learner!
Good luck in your goal But don't get too frustrated if it is tougher than you imagine.

Back in the mid-70’s, I asked occasional Kansan pro tourist and now long-time Las Vegas area teacher, Jimmy Bullard, how low myself, or any other reasonably coordinated human being, might work his handicap down to. (This was well before indexing and a comprehensive course rating system.)

I was probably around a 14-handicap at the time. Although I’d knocked the ball around as a youth and caddied as early as age 12, I had never had the time, or the opportunity, or the money to play on a regular basis. Although I had never had lessons as an adult, the man who first put a club in my hand was a celebrated old teaching professional so, thank God, I always had a proper grip. I also had the natural advantages of a multi-sport, skill position athlete; as a kid, I could hit it a very long way, indeed.

Jimmy said he believed the cut-off was seven. After that, he thought, lower took some talent.

After a very long illness and a death in the family, I took a time-out for about a year on the course. I played as often as four times a week, and practiced as often as three, with a purpose.

And the end of the year, at about age 50, I was down to an index of 7.1. Possibly more instructive, I was universally recognized as the best player at my very active club in that handicap range and certainly one of the best in town (I was a member of the second-place inaugural Kansas City Cup team.) I played in a regular group, for money that was meaningful to me, and my handicap was about the middle of the pack. I was always in the money; my scores did not vary much, and when they did, I went lower.

Here’s what I learned from that experience:

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.

How do you get it in the hole? Short game. Practice this, while the rest of the lads bang balls.

How do you get it to the hole? Course management. Most of your rounds are played on your home course. Plot a game plan with a goal to avoid disaster, not to go low. Establish a personal par. It is ten times easier to save a stroke than to get one back. And course management starts in the bag. With today’s technology, there is no excuse for carrying a stick you don’t hit great. Remember the Grampy Smith Rule (great amateur and patriot, lived to 100, born on the 4th of July): “Never give up more than a stroke. Take your medicine.”

Fundamentals: Grip, set-up, alignment. They’ve never changed. Never will. Even the best players screw up their alignment. There’s a reason those LPGA caddies stand behind their player – annoying as it looks.

When all else fails: tempo, tempo, tempo.

No secrets here. But here are two less-discussed items:

Start trying to make makeable puts. I was always a good lag putter, from any distance. I bought wholeheartedly into the theory that distance was more important than direction and I drew that imaginary bigger circle around the hole. I seldom three-putted. But I did not make putts. And the guys that made the money did make putts. So I refocused and started consciously trying to make putts. Technically, I had to put a better roll on the ball. Presto… (This is even more important in match play, where most of us spend our time.)

Compete. I had always been aggressively anti-competitive on the golf course. It was a walk in the park for me, relaxation; I was perfectly happy to play alone, often happiest alone. Or with my late wife, who was hopeless as a player, but a great companion, nevertheless. Then I started to compete, home and away. It is not the same game. The pressure is magnified exponentially. And, once you have conquered it, your game has arrived at a new level.

There is a corollary to all this. We tend to define ourselves as 100’s players, or 90’s players, or 80’s players, and refine this to a handicap range, and haul it around as a self-limiting, self-image. While I shot the occasional round in the 70’s, it was not until I thought of myself as a 70’s player that I began to shoot the majority of my rounds in the 70’s.

Well, if you did it in five years, one year should be a piece of cake for me!

14... i can't putt.

Probably a 19 now - was 16 - maybe 15 or so at my best.

im not sure what my index is...

but I'm a 12 handicap...
my course is a 134 slope...

How long ago did you play college golf? What were your thoughts on your time playing in school? I have mixed feelings on it, but definitely glad it's something I tried, and have some awesome memories/friends from it.

Just started keeping a handicap in early December, haven't posted a score in a month, pulled my back out this weekend so it'll be a while until I do again I guess.

+3.0 officially, but I'd say I'm closer to scratch.

I don't like the way the GHIN system is set up, I think it gives out artificially low numbers, sometimes by a lot. My dad, for instance has broken 80 once in his life, is probably a 13 or 14 handicap, but his GHIN cap is 8.x. Doesn't make sense to me.

I played college golf from 84-88. I enjoyed the experience very much.
I know about those back problems,
hope yours gets well soon

Where did you play? If you don't want to give exact details, how about generally? Mississippi college? Alabama college? (I got my butt kicked by a Huntingdon player back in college in the 80's)

I went to Ole Miss.
Huntingdon College had a very good program. Joe Durant among others.
We had one transfer to Ole Miss, Clayton Covey.

I believe Huntingdon had unlimited scholarships, and their own private plane.

We drove down to Florida to play in a tournament in Pensacola and I got paired the first round with a red-shirted NAIA All-American. He shot 72 and I shot in the 90s. The trip was a "gift" from our coach for doing so well the previous season. Unfortunately it was in February and none of us had played for months.....good times.

I guess you played about the same time Dave Peege was there?

Peege was a senior my freshman year. What a great player he was. 2 time first team all america. And Darren Cole was just as good. We finished 4th in the NCAA in '85.
Also on that team:
Glen Day
Vance Veazey (Nationwide winner)
Chip Sullivan (PGA Club Pro Champion in '07)

Then you were the fifth player on the team?

Darren and Dave were exempt. There were about 8 of us that competed for the other 3 spots. I played 5 of the 13 tournies. The worst thing in the world to me then was being at home when they were playing.

I estimate Darren and Dave would've each played to a +4 handicap.
The rest of us between +1 and 1.

2.8 - Shoot59
+2.4 - JTrout
+2.0 - K-Slay
+1.4 - LimitGod
+1.1 - westhoff
+0.9 - stadler
0.1 - black knight
1.0 - dzh90
1.5 - Butcho22
1.5 - bigsoonerfan
1.7 - tuq
1.7 - duvvard
1.9 - DrVanNostrin
2.1 - mediaslut
2.9 - dug
3.1 - ghostface
3.2 - sonartec23b
3.2 - fullstop
3.3 - Nick B.
3.7 - donkontilt
4.2 - Low_Card2
4.7 - Number7
6.0 - WLVRYN
6.2 - TripleH68
6.7 - BuckTeeth
7.0 - 41eater
7.8 - BigPig <--- me!
7.8 - bonds
8.0 - fatshaft
8.5 - brick
9.0 - Brocktoon
9.1 - Here2gamble
9.7 - ArcticKnight
9.8 - larrylegend
9.8 - dcasper70
10.6 - tdrot
12.5 - Hey_Porter
13.0 - RainbowWarrior
13.2 - roy_miami
14.9 - offTopic
15.0 - BrunoThePug
15.8 - brettbrettr
16.4 - mvoss
17.0 - Ballzack
17.1 - Cornboy
17.5 - Troll_Inc
18.0 - AndysDaddy
18.1 - john kane
18.2 - gharp
18.7 - dizong
20.0 - CalledDownLight
20.+ - JackInDaCrak
20.+ - 4Tay
21.9 - EDonk
22.8 - crosse91
25.0 - surfinillini
26.1 - yellowdoyle
29.1 - Wrym2
32.0 - Clarkmeister
33.0 - mad_hatter