Handicap Drop in 1year ?

[golfsaint]

Just having a cup of tea at work, and looking at ,my handicap over the last year ? what would be expect to drop/gain in a calender year with there handicap?

I have managed to go from 16.7 to 10.9 , i am happy with that and hopefully get better over the summer.

How has your handicap been over the last calender year?

 

[patricks148]

Just having a cup of tea at work, and looking at ,my handicap over the last year ? what would be expect to drop/gain in a calender year with there handicap?

I have managed to go from 16.7 to 10.9 , i am happy with that and hopefully get better over the summer.

How has your handicap been over the last calender year?

not much only a shot 7.4 to 5.7. its harder the lower you get and once you get to Cat you only reduce 0.1 per shot, so i imag thats really hard.
when you start out though i found it easy enough dropping from 24 to 12 in just a few months, its taken another 5 years to drop those 6 shots

 

[Birchy]

I found it a smooth transition from 19 to 12.5 last season. Although I don't think theres much between 13-18 handicaps ability wise.

The drop from 12 down will take more skill and time I would imagine but we will see :thup:

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Big drops from Cat 4\3 to Cat 3\2 aren't uncommon. Sundance went from 26 to 13 a couple of years ago (He's a bit stuck now though). In 2011 I went from 11.6 to 9.3 and last year from 10.0 to 7.5 (2012 was a blip )

Generally the lower you get the harder it becomes to drop but if you play\practice enough it's doable. Jimbob.Someroo went from something like 9.3 to 5.3 last year which is exceptional.

 

[One Planer]

Just having a cup of tea at work, and looking at ,my handicap over the last year ? what would be expect to drop/gain in a calender year with there handicap?

I have managed to go from 16.7 to 10.9 , i am happy with that and hopefully get better over the summer.

How has your handicap been over the last calender year?

Started lessons at the start of last year, playing of 16 (15.4). I was however undergoing a massive change in swing primerily due to taking lessons for the first time.

My goal for that year was to say as close to 16 as I could.

Finished the season on 13.8.

I've put an awful lot of work, through both lessons and range time, into my short game over the winter which has started to show some fruits already. I had a PB of 71 about 3 weeks ago and had a 75 last Saturday.

Now that those changes have bedded in and are working well, I'm moving back to my main, full swing for the remainder of the winter thn kick into qualifiers in April and hopefully get to around 11 or 12 this year.

I'm not setting an official target for myself. I'm just going to focus on playing one shot at a time, enjoying my golf and letting the score take care of itself.

 

[Deleted member 17920]

This time last year I was 9.8 and today I am still 9.8 and since then I have played in 42 qualifiers. I cant stay down at single figures long enough. Frustrating game isn't it

 

[Pistol Peter]

I dropped down to 12 this year and still think I can improve on this once the season starts.

I have decided to try a laser this year and see if it helps me reach my target of 6.

 

[bladeplayer]

Started last year on 7.1 finished on 6.8 a small drop played alot of away scratch cups on new to me courses tho so even tho i wanted to get lower im not too overly disappointed ..


ok then if im honest i am a bit ha ..

Think i played up around the 40 odd qualifiers aswell so maybe not so bad


Who am i kidding ? Still disappointed

 

[louise_a]

I went from 19.4 to 15.4, a reasonable drop but ultimately a bit disappointing as I did get to 14.6 but had an terrible second half of the season.

 

[standrew]

Started playing 16 months ago, and went to 12 hcp. I just realised ive developed the yips so im probably pretty buggered for getting much better but i do enjoy it regardless. Would recommend the Somax Swing method for anyone wanting to get decent consistency and distance.

I read some stat that said most golfers drop or maintain their approximate handicap within the first 3 years. Could be a load of rubbish though.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I think the best way to compare drops is in percentage terms rather than absolute numbers. A 4 shot drop from 20 to 16 is the same percentage wise as 5 - 4, for example. I'm not saying that's a comparable level of achievement, just a better way of comparing.

I am aiming for about 25% a year, I haven't got close to that so far, but I'm feeling positive about the coming season!

If I could pull it off I'd hope to go: 19 > 15 > 11 ... and from there it's a whole different kettle of fish....

 

[Spear-Chucker]

Lost 0.4 over the year with entering around 15 qualifiers which has made naff all difference to anything. I'm always well happy to see any progress however and think this is a reasonable return all things considered (work, family, health, life in general blah blah blah). Do think progress shouldn't be limited to a hcp value however but i guess ultimately its a reasonable enough measure.

Tip my hat to many of the performances on here, some of the hcp drops are quite astonishing considering we are amateur golfers and have to deal with all sorts of life constraints.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Lost 0.4 over the year with entering around 15 qualifiers which has made naff all difference to anything. I'm always well happy to see any progress however and think this is a reasonable return all things considered (work, family, health, life in general blah blah blah). Do think progress shouldn't be limited to a hcp value however but i guess ultimately its a reasonable enough measure.

Tip my hat to many of the performances on here, some of the hcp drops are quite astonishing considering we are amateur golfers and have to deal with all sorts of life constraints.

A 0.4 drop when playing off of 2 is a great result if you ask me. At that level just staying at the same handicap over a year is good golf.

 

[Spear-Chucker]

Thanks, Hawkeye. I'd be happy to be anywhere around cat 1 tbh but we always want more right??!! As long as there's more to learn then there's always the opportunity to improve i figure..

 

[jimbob.someroo]

what would be expect to drop/gain in a calender year with there handicap?

As mentioned, I managed to drop quite a lot last year - but I also expected to. I'd played previously as a kid to around 6 and playing at least twice a week through the season with nicely custom fit clubs courtesy of GM and no kids etc to worry about, I had everything on my side for dropping down.

This year I'd love to get into 3.? however, being realistic, think a target of 4 is more achievable. There's still a few things I can tighten up and have just started having lessons for the first time but as others have said, dropping down 0.1 at a time is going to be a killer. Three level par rounds would just about see me break in to the 3.somethings but each time I shoot 77/78 (previously good scores for me) I'm giving the same amount back.

Overall though, 16.7-10.9 is a great drop. Solidifying into single figures is the next step!

 

[bladeplayer]

Lost 0.4 over the year with entering around 15 qualifiers which has made naff all difference to anything. I'm always well happy to see any progress however and think this is a reasonable return all things considered (work, family, health, life in general blah blah blah). Do think progress shouldn't be limited to a hcp value however but i guess ultimately its a reasonable enough measure.

Tip my hat to many of the performances on here, some of the hcp drops are quite astonishing considering we are amateur golfers and have to deal with all sorts of life constraints.

Off 2 tho man ? come on, i could only dream of 2 never mind getting cut off it .. cat 1 is the dream even for a short visit , not sure its there tho ..



im currently residing at Jealous.com

 

[pokerjoke]

Thanks, Hawkeye. I'd be happy to be anywhere around cat 1 tbh but we always want more right??!! As long as there's more to learn then there's always the opportunity to improve i figure..

Went from 8.4 to 5.6.
Purely down to two things,chipping and putting.
Worked hard on them both,especially chipping,trying to chip at the flag instead of
somewhere near.
Also worked on the clockface drill and that has helped.
Hoping to get cat1 next year 4.4 being my goal.

 

[Spear-Chucker]

Off 2 tho man ? come on, i could only dream of 2 never mind getting cut off it .. cat 1 is the dream even for a short visit , not sure its there tho ..



im currently residing at Jealous.com

Lol!!! I've spent many hours at Jealous.com when my buddies got to scratch . Voodoo didn't help any either. Not going to moan at all though about my game as i feel so lucky to be where i am. Just enjoying being able to play, forgetting the crap days and trying to get a bit better. Gonna be a focus on the wedges year i reckon

 

[Spear-Chucker]

Went from 8.4 to 5.6.
Purely down to two things,chipping and putting.
Worked hard on them both,especially chipping,trying to chip at the flag instead of
somewhere near.
Also worked on the clockface drill and that has helped.
Hoping to get cat1 next year 4.4 being my goal.

By the fact that you've made such great progress you should be confident that you can go lots further - the potential is massive right? That short game knowledge will pay dividends (i've seen it so many times it hurts) and with a steady long game you should get practicing victory speeches

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Went from 8.4 to 5.6.
Purely down to two things,chipping and putting.
Worked hard on them both,especially chipping,trying to chip at the flag instead of
somewhere near.
Also worked on the clockface drill and that has helped.
Hoping to get cat1 next year 4.4 being my goal.

That's the key for me. If I can improve my chipping I think I can get somewhere near Cat 1. It's a miracle I am at single figures with the state of it last year when it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for me to take 4 to get down from around the green. I've been working on my technique in the garage just trying to get a consistent strike but I'm at the point now where I need to be on the course putting it under pressure which is why all this rain is so depressing. I've set myself a target of 6 this year but it won't happen without a decent short game.