does this player have any hope of being able to play this course (at that rating/slope) "in regulation"?

i.e. does he have a good chance of putting it on the green in regulation (in one for a par 3, in two for a par 4) on many greens?.. i'm talking 10-20% chance.

otherwise, it is very very tough to break 100, unless you have a decent short game and very few blowups.

we had one of those 10 to 12 year-old qualifiers for women's canadian open... girl shot 84 or something like that round 1. very very upset. one of her playing partners (meaning to be helpful) said, "how can she reasonably expect better when she can't make most holes in regulation?"............ i can't exactly figure out how an 11 year old qualifies for the US Open, beating elite college players.

if he's playing from the 'tournament tees' listed on that scorecard he is rowing uphill. if he makes bogey on the four par 3s at that distance he's way ahead of the game.
without knowing anything else about his game or the course, i think his most likely hope is to find some iron or hybrid between 8-4 that is his favorite and hit it with a stock shot every single time he can...off the tee, from the fairway, etc. just to bunt it around the course and find something that isn't a penalty. along with that he should work on his short game and putting to save strokes around the green.

Jedi, we all know this is you on the short end of the bet and you're just here looking for advice.

Lol. Definitely not me trying to break 100. Came on here looking for advice on the price to lay but I guess it’s almost impossible because of the variables. Next game in October set!

as per a couple of comments ago,

i am starting to think that if i actually want to shoot good scores, i should put the driver away and hit 2-hybrid or 2-driving iron off the tee alot. i have both. i hit low bullets with 2 hybrid. slight-moderate low fade. with 2 driving iron, not that different than drive. probably 10 yards shot of my better drives. caddied with a guy who only hit driving iron. had no problem with distance.

not sure i hit drive much further than those clubs (counting a much bigger roll in 2 hybrids case) with my driver, and much more accurate.

when we look at swing speed vs. distance charts, i think one thing that is really understated is the roll you can get these days, at least in the summertime. i think alot of courses don't water the grass as much as they did 20 years ago.

that sets up some interesting holes where you can get a really nice longroll, but ONLY IF you avoid running into the rough. so real accuracy required on tee shot.

the reason i made my previous post is because i play with a guy that will bag his driver after a couple of bad shots and just use his stock 150-160 club off the tee for the rest of the round to find the short grass and patch together a score. three strokes from the tee to find the green on longer holes, two putt bogey is typically the worst, one putt par happens quite a bit.

Yeah he’ll be much better doing that. I play with a guy who hits driver off basically every Par 4, He has to take so many penalty shots or he leaves himself in **** spots. It’s what helped me cut my scores by a ton tbh. Stop taking penalty shots, stop the extreme miss hits (top/shanks/fats). Just get the ball advancing down the hole helps massive. I went from a 28HC to like a 14HC within like 4-5 months. I’ve also had a semi decent short game to go with this so that helps.

I wonder if the player is using 1 club to almost always use around the greens. I pretty much do this now with my 48 degree, I will obviously change if I need it to stop quicker or play higher shot but my 48 degree is my go to club.

I love these kinds of bets.

I saw some big numbers growing up playing high school golf. The smaller high schools in WV are not known for their golfing depth and we'd have the regional championship on a course playing at 134/72.5 when we usually played 115/68 type joints. The worst was 192. You'd see a lot of 150+ scores so it wasn't like it stood out too much.

The weird thing is the biggest number I saw was in college back in the 90s when we had an informal conference tournament at our home course. One school (this was the lower end of D2) only had three guys available and went looking for a fourth and found a guy that said he played golf and was pretty good, usually shot in the 80s, but needed to borrow some clubs. So they brought him without asking too many questions. We were playing the tips which was 7100+ yds (135/73.9).

I recall his posting 235 the first day. To his credit he did play pretty fast. Everyone was taking like six hours anyway and we were in the last group and he lost a surprisingly small number of balls. He figured out a few things on day 2 (like not bothering with the worst forced carries and use the cart path instead) and smoked it for 198. High drama on the last. He's the only person I've ever finished ahead of in a college tournament, but I can say I beat a guy by 260+ shots...

I figure if he were playing the 107/64.1 track I sometimes play these days and taken a handful of mulligans and other liberties he could have maybe broken 90. He could hit it reasonably hard just not in the air all that much and was a mess around those tough greens.

Which is why I chuckle whenever someone tells me they usually shoot in the 80s.... and then offer a small wager.

Great advice. With only a 7i, wedge and putter, a pro is likely breaking 80 on most courses as often as not. So playing every hole similar to how good players approach a par 5 they can't reach in 2 is his best shot at winning the bet. As you said, find something he can "bunt" around to a layup zone and wedge shot he owns. He'll end up with a lot more looks at par putts with that approach, which is really what he's after. With an emphasis on wedge and lag putting practice for 4 months, it seems doable.

LOL.

Well，after three months, he negotiated a buy out last week. We all agreed to keep this friendly.

Nice. Details?

LOL... your comments are brilliant and they are real world......

on a very tough, long setup, it is very hard to shoot even a respectable number (90-95) unless you 1) hit your drives a long way (and fairly straight) OR 2) you have a good short game (zero screwed up pitches etc..... I'm always negatively biased on this matter as I play where it is wet ground much of the year).

basically, if you can't make many holes easily in regulation then your par is actually bogey... so now you are looking at 82-85 with ZERO MISTAKES. add in lots of mistakes (most of use) and 93-94 looks pretty goo

also, keeping "actual score" is a big deal.. the only tournament I ever played in, I missed a 4 inch putt. maybe it was 6-8 inch putt but it required zero aiming (reasonable definition). but I stubbed the putter head in the grass.

I think I mentioned this before but I course-marshalled a crappy (but BCGA-sanctioned) senior mens and senior women tournament.. most of the women would still be on the course if they'd applied the actual golf rules (i.e. no drop zone on forced carries..... and there were non set up)... and I've seen black tees in arizona/cali where you need to hit your drive 265+ to make it onto short grass. I'd say even 280 to make short grass at one course in Palm Springs. I would have to find my drives in heavy brush (I think)

He bought out for 5k instead of7k. And a nice bottle of Macallan

But how was he progressing, if at all?

Just played a round with him. Nothing has changed. Would stilll make the same bet but he declined.

Literally lunatic behavior for someone shooting 150 to be playing from 6900 yards and 73/140 rating/slope JFC.

Only somewhat related, but I played a match against a guy who hadn't picked up a golf club until 1.5 years ago. Started shooting in the 100s, as expected, and is now a 6.0. He's young and athletic, though.