I like these types of conversations. From the perspective of an 11 index, he'd definitely have to get to at most 7. In my experience (personal and observational), the 9-11 range, probably down to 8, probably consistently shoot in the low 80s/upper 70s, but are more than capable of having a blow up round, even under normal conditions, and shooting upper 80s. The 8s and 9s simply aren't going to be shooting 72-74, so one blow up round, even an 85 or 86, is going to make that average damn hard to hit.

it was the blow up rounds that you committed to before the round started that had me questioning the bet.

i'm going to pull some stats from friends off the GHIN website to see what they've done in their last five rounds. conditions have been pristine for the past few months in Oregon, so this is likely the best the courses could play. most, if not all, of these guys are in their late 50s/early 60s and have been playing for decades. i've known all of them for at least 10 years and have a solid understanding of their games.

currently 7.4, low of 6.8
five round average at 78.2
typically finds the fairway with a few misses, solid irons, vvgood short game, vgood putter


currently 4.9, low of 4.9
five round average at 76.2
just solid all around. deep off the tee, isn't wild, plays irons up to a 2, great short, solid putting. his last score could have been two strokes better if he didn't bogey two of the last three and miss breaking 70 for the first time.


currently 9.1, low 6.4
five round average 88.2
his father passed recently and i'm guessing his mind has been elsewhere. i'm only including this one because it shows how mental distractions can take you off your game.
decent all-around game, sneaky long, nothing stands out as being exceptional but everything is solid.


currently 8.4, low 8.2
five round average 79.6 (a very close comparison)
very long hitter both tee and irons, above average short game, streaky putter but can make the challenging ones when he's on.


currently 8.9, low 8.6
five round average 79.4 (with a patched together two 9 hole rounds in the middle)
similar comments to the player above, but just a little bit less good at all aspects.


here's an interesting one
currently 10.3, low 10.1
five round average 80.8
he had knee surgery a month or so ago so i'm going to post the last five scores that counted to his HC from last fall.
straight but not super long, solid short game, decent putter. rare for him to have a score bigger than bogey.


and the final one.
currently 10.0, low 10.0
five round average 80
as long as anyone in our group with any club. 300 off the tee no problem, but can scatter it at times. decent irons, less than average short game and putting.

I brought my 2 handicap buddy down to the course I play in Florida over the winter. We had a bet that he wouldn't break 90 from the tips (7400 yards 75.8/150 or something), and he shot a 99. I gave him 2 drops hitting 6 in the fairway after a few lost balls. It was definitely a little windy but nothing crazy.

Depends so much on the golf course. I'm like a +4 and there are courses I wouldn't try this on once you throw nerves at it.

I see that it's like a 70/115 so there's probably not much to it.. but throw in making 2 footers you're maybe not used to putting and it changes a lot.

Very cool response Redeyes, appreciate it. I'm glad some of you found it to be a cool thought exercise.

Man that's wild. I get that a 150 slope course is well beyond anything I've ever seen, but a 2 shooting a 99 is still far above what I would have expected.

Reminder:115 slope

from the guys listed above who have listed scores from rounds close to a 115 slope.

currently 7.4, low of 6.8
typically finds the fairway with a few misses, solid irons, vvgood short game, vgood putter



currently 4.9, low of 4.9
just solid all around. deep off the tee, isn't wild, plays irons up to a 2, great short, solid putting. his last score could have been two strokes better if he didn't bogey two of the last three and miss breaking 70 for the first time.




currently 8.4, low 8.2
very long hitter both tee and irons, above average short game, streaky putter but can make the challenging ones when he's on.



currently 8.9, low 8.6
similar comments to the player above, but just a little bit less good at all aspects.


and the final one.
currently 10.0, low 10.0
as long as anyone in our group with any club. 300 off the tee no problem, but can scatter it at times. decent irons, less than average short game and putting.

Do any of you have tips for slowing down one's tempo? All I've ever heard is "wow, you're fast." I know it's my main issue and try to slow down but it's not easy. I typically am able to slow down by hole 10, but by that point my round is already ruined.

Just a duffer so take this for what it's worth, but I also used to have that same problem and one thing that helped is warming up with the Orange Whip (might be similar cheaper products too, I dunno). It's pretty much impossible to bring it back too quickly, so after I've taken a couple swings with that I have the muscle memory of a slow backswing drilled into me when I hit the 1st tee.

Watch Sungjae and Collin YouTube videos and then go to the range and take deliberately slower backswings and see how that works

What do your courses normally run on the stimpmeter?

If I were to guess anywhere from 9.5 to 11. Private course, really good (and fairly flat) greens.

Ours are typically in the 10.5-11 range. Top 100/Old Tilly course with immaculate green complexes.

In the fall they absolutely hum and can get considerably faster

Practice it on the range, Practice is permanent. Don’t just hit balls either go through your pre shot routine with every shot. This will help you in grain it in and when your in the course it will become automatic and you won’t think about it.

Ours is running at 8 and they were just cut today. It is pissing me off, prime golf season and slow ****ing greens. Yesterday they were at 7.25. It is tough to play there and go to a tournament and compete on 12+ greens.

and don't pull a club for a certain yardage based on the top 95th percentile of distance expectation you've ever hit it. use a longer club and smooth it in there with a 75% swing.

thanks for the advice guys.

follow up.....i played today and thought my tempo was ok. i topped one and immediately told my partner i was way too fast.

side note: i've been playing Srixon Z-forged irons this year. my brother basically gave them to me. today i did an experiment and put my TM rocketbladez 7 iron in the bag. the first time i hit it i felt like i was playing a hybrid. so much easier than the Srixons. i hit the 7 as a 2nd shot on a par 5 and it clocked in at 206 yards (i think it bounced off a mound, but still). The other times I hit it were in the 170-175 range. But the misses were even good.

Summary.....I'm playing member3X at my club this weekend and putting the old irons in the bag. We'll see how it goes.

pretty sure the z-forged irons are for low single digit caps or better. just one guy's opinion but someone with a HC as high as ours likely has no business playing them.

They definitely are for good players. I've had my brother chirping in my ear " oh you gotta play these" so I have been. But recently as I've been hitting 2 more clubs to a par 3 than last year I've been thinking "WTF am I doing?"

And then I played the old 7 iron today and it felt like cheating. So I'm excited to see how the weekend goes.

FYI the z-forged look sexy as hell.

sexy as hell is fine when the wear mark on the face is the size of a penny...not so fine when the wear mark is the size of a dollar.

Well Red I played my old TM rocketbladez yesterday and it was hilarious. It was like I was cheating. I'd say 1.5-2 club difference with carry. And I like to hit iron off tee on short par 4's or par 5's where I know I won't reach in two shots. Just smoking 5 irons off tee. Felt so good.

Shot a 92 because A) I putted awful and B) I had the usual stupid mistakes

Anyway, the old irons are staying in the bag.

played member3X this weekend. First round you play your own ball with 80% handicap allowance. Round 2 you play shamble with 50% allowance. A bunch of teams. The winners won for the 2nd straight year. How is that possible?

The handicap levels the playing field right? Like seriously, I know it's possible, but just seems VERY unlikely. Am I wrong?

The biggest sandbaggers are still going to have the advantage.

Also, you could construct a team that has a legitimate advantage in the shamble portion. For example, a long, straight driver with nothing else paired with a short hitter with impeccable skills inside 150.

i've found the optimum scramble/shamble partner is a lady who can find the fairway with decent distance from the forward tees.

Based on my member-guest experience, the same team has won ours i believe 3 of the last 5 years. I'm sure I have told the stories here in the past about him.

It's not VERY unlikely, they're just as likely to win the second year as they were the first. Throw in the fact that most people have vanity handicaps and you don't really even need to have sandbaggers for that to be fairly likely. Then throw in sandbagging and it becomes extremely likely.