2025 End of term report

[hairball_89]

Rounds played: 17
Courses played: 13, of which 7 were new to me
Lowest gross: 89
Index movement: 20.6 to 19.2
Highlight: Royal St. George's, closely followed by Sunningdale, small nod to zero scores in 3 figures in my last 20.
Lowlight: 4 putt from 12 feet at Foxhills, only getting to play RSG and Sunningdale once?!

 

[Lucifer MorningStar]

Back playing after a few years off.
No official handicap.
Hopefully get that sorted this year.
I realise now I am lucky just to be able to play.

Don’t worry about the handicap, it’s just a number, go out with like minded people in the fresh air and enjoy a few selfish hours to yourself.
It’s amazing how much it helps with your mental state which in turn transfers to other areas of your life.

This has been it for me this year returning to playing has been a revelation for my mindset and well being. Scores are as good as before but that’s because I haven’t pressured myself and my whole focus is on enjoying golf and trying to play with a lot of different people and enjoying their company. Bad shots and scores no longer bother me like they used to as the score isn’t the goal anymore enjoyment is and playing with Mrs M has been the absolute best rounds seeing her have fun and just being out together.

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Rounds Played: 18
Courses Played: 10; Hindhead, Blackmoor, Puttenham, Guildford, West Surrey, Royal West Norfolk, Hunstanton, Goodwood, Addington, Hayling
Index: 4.6 -> 3.1
Lowest Gross: 72
Highlight: Fantastic couple of days in Norfolk to play RWN and Hunstanton.
Lowlight: 75 on first day of club championships being voided due to rain/incomplete rounds. Then turning +1 through 7 holes of the second round into an +15.

 

[clubchamp98]

One of the chaps who used to be in our group changed his grips to those pimple style grips that are supposed to help that. He said they defionately helped, as did going up a grip size.
He still plays, but now only 5 days.

Tried every size even the Bryson ones.
I’m on jumbo now,

 

[clubchamp98]

If you weren’t golfing what would you do?
It’s better than being sat at home.

Tesco or M&S it’s a bad choice so prob keep playing.

 

[IanM]

Played 39 different courses this year, 27 for the first time. Getting near 500 courses now too. Not sure how many rounds I played in total.

Best gross 75 at Bamburgh Castle. Highlights were trips to Northumberland Coast and The Machrie /Macrihanish areas.

Handicap slightly down, but to be honest not enough cards to majorly impact it. New year resolution is to play more singles comps or enter GP scores.

Had rotator cuff issues for last two years, hope that's starting to improve now. Then we'll see where it goes from there.

But, had lots of fun and drove lots of miles.

 

[Junior]

2nd year at my new club and loving everything about it. Course, people, social scene, especially in the peak of summer on the terrace with a beer or two !!!

Generally playing 3 sometimes 4 times a week. Not always 18 holes.
20 qualifying scores registered and my handicap has gone from 3.5 to 4.7 as I find the course tough from the tips. The midweek, yellow tee, comps have been my friend !

Highlights are going unbeaten in our first team games and playing a few great courses on our reciprocal list…Enville, S&A, Beau Desert and Lindrick.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Started 2025 with 4.6 and finished with 5.0

Had a low point of 3.9 and a high point of, well, what it is now 5.0

39 handicap qualifiers and gawd knows how many other games. Three new courses - Fleetwood, Heysham and Kenilworth.

Hoping for good things this coming year with recently updating my driver by 20 years from Cobra F Speed to Ping G440 LST and my irons by 18 years from Ping i10 to Ping i530.
Got my pro-shop credit down to £0.05 so it should be easy to keep track and measure "success" this year.

 

[louise_a]

Louise, you've played 200+ rounds, 42 different courses, 9 new ones. That alone suggests a pretty darned good year

(I know it's about perspective and expectations are different but looks at those numbers. Must have been lots of fun in there?)

I thought highlights were for performance which generally been poor except in a couple of pairs competitions

Louise, you've played 200+ rounds, 42 different courses, 9 new ones. That alone suggests a pretty darned good year

(I know it's about perspective and expectations are different but looks at those numbers. Must have been lots of fun in there?)

I know what you mean, I took highlight to be performance based, but yes I have played a lot and enjoyed many rounds and courses, my first visit to Seaton Carew was certainly a highlight as were 2 trips to Silloth.

 

[chrisd]

I played a fair number of main club comps as well as a few vets ones and also played in the Supervets team in home and away league matches.

Main highlight was finishing second in a main club competition with 110 entrants, and winning a golf week better ball comp with a ( quite a lot younger) mate, we scored 49 points which could have been 50 had I not missed a short putt. I also finished 3rd on count back at the Help for Heroes game at the wonderful Blackmoor Golf Club. Now turned 73, so it'll be interesting whether I'm still competitive in the main comps or whether I should play more in the Vets comps.

Handicap now 18 but still practicing hard to get a reduction.

 

[SE Bad Boy]

Rounds played: 1 (30-Dec…)
Highlight: Returning to the game after 10 years away with a few lessons, some hours on the range and finally managed to get out there.

Already matched the # rounds played in 2026 with a New Year’s Day outing.

 

[D-S]

No idea how many rounds played but somewhere north of 100.

Handicap has ranged from 5.8 to 6.2 now at 6.0 but not many cards put in.

14 new courses played in 5 different countries - oddly none in the UK, must do better on that front this year.

One new country (Oman) brings total of countries played in to 25, no idea how many courses but certainly north of 500.

Will try to play in more comps this year and already planned to add a couple of new countries.

 

[srixon 1]

Started the year off 2.2 and finished at 2.6. Helped the scratch team to an inter club trophy but only managed one individual win. However, this was my biggest ever win seeing as it was the county seniors scratch trophy. Season highlight for me though was shooting a 7 over total for the two champion of champions rounds at Woodhall Spa and therefore not making an ass of myself. The 1.3 score differential from the second round at Woodhall is currently the lowest of my 8 counters in WHS.

 

[kp17]

Between work and kids I think if I remember right I played a full round five times in the year, one being a charity day at another course.
There would only be a handful of weeks in the year where I never got a hit in some capacity, most of the time 10-12 holes in the evening, or an hour or two on the range, range more so last few months with weather. Always aim for one time at least a week to justify the £££ for membership. Even if that’s just an hour putting.

Handicap lapsed about 10 years ago which was 6 back then.
Can’t see me getting one back anytime soon but definitely feel like I’m hitting it better than I did back then. Would love to one day be able to play enough to get down around low single digits.

This year just want similar again and would be great to play some new places even if it’s just a few, playing the new trump in Aberdeen at the end of the month which will be a good start.

 

[Crazyface]

Conkers, utter conkers.

 

[Orikoru]

Rounds played: 85 according to Hole19, but does include 9 hole solo practices throughout the summer.

Courses played: 19. Only 7 were first timers.

Lowest gross: 73

Index movement: Briefly went up to 16.9 before getting down to 11.3.

Highlight: Five over 77 at Stockley Park was probably my best ever round in terms of how I played and the fact it was on a par 72 course. Also getting a lower handicap than my mate for only the second time in nine years - usually in that time he's been between 2 and 4 shots lower than me.

Lowlight: Matchplay comps at my club, did very poorly - both solo matches in particular I played well and was leading against better players before bottling the last hole and losing via play-offs in both. I was really gutted about them and had to seriously question my mindset.

Just to add to the above.. here was my post prior to the year with my targets:

​

Hole19 says my 2025 driving accuracy was 55.4% and GIR was 31.8%, so I beat both my targets on those. And I was only aiming for 13 handicap and got to 11, so smashed that one as well.

Target for 2026 is just to maintain the 11 at the moment I think. It's funny how things come in circles, as I used to think my chipping and putting were pretty good for a 15 handicapper, but now I'd say they are probably the weaknesses - chipping definitely, although I've hopefully found something in that area on my last couple of rounds. With putting I always excuse myself with the fact our greens are all on hellish slopes, but it's about time I stopped using that excuse and just got really good at putting I think. My stroke is good, but my green-reading and judgement is poor. Improving these are probably my best chance of single figures. I'm still trying to swing faster with driver at the range to gradually add a bit of distance, but it's a long process.

 

[Klimski]

Highlights: playing much more than in 2024, and our tour of the Cotswolds (Minch Old, Cleeve Hill and Stinchcomb Hill).
Lowlights: handicap goal was 17, but stuck on 17.9.

 

[AussieKB]

Played to my age (72)
Broke my age a few times
Played 5 new courses
1 club champs
1 overseas trophy (best 5 scores out of 6 on different courses)
1 major trophy at an away course (gross)