Handicap: limits or justifies your score? Discuss.

[HomerJSimpson]

Tiger,

I presume you have made a par on every hole on your course at some point so you know you are capable of doing it. Using a bit of Rotella logic (as you started with it) he says the brain doesn't recognise "don't" and so if you stand there and say don't hit it in the water it is invariably where it heads. I think you're doing a similar thing. You are standing there thinking don't make worse than bogey and already imprinting on the brain the fact that bogey is the best result anyway.

Go out and like others have said look to make par on each hole. I think if you let the score take care of itself it will come down quicker than you think

 

[kid2]

Iv played our course from 4 different angles but on different occasions and most have nearly the same outcome..A blow up of some sort...
Iv tried playing safe laying up when i think i should..
Iv tried the aggressive approach...
Iv tried bogeying every hole and in contrast i try and par them...

To be honest i dont think that there is a right or wrong answer to what should be done...
Maybe playing for par is putting me under pressure too much to score well.
On the other hand like Region has said playing for bogey can make you lazy in a way and quitting on the shot..

The ironic thing for me is that the 2 PB's that i shot last year were a nett 64 and 65 and being honest they were probably 2 of the worst ball striking days i ever had..

What saved me was the my short on and around the greens would have made Seve smile...
Its a bit of an odd one to be honest...Your expecting to play and shoot a good score but when you do you'll always find a negative somewhere along the line.

 

[USER1999]

In my head, I'm always playing stroke play so I don't think about h/cap till the end.

That said, in a society day today, I had a 125 yard par three, hit pw, and then three stabbed it. Put four for one on the card, until someone pointed out it was four for two. I got a shot, on a 125 yard par 3. Off 9 I was staggered to find I got a shot there.

 

[SwingSlow]

I presume you have made a par on every hole on your course at some point so you know you are capable of doing it. Using a bit of Rotella logic (as you started with it) he says the brain doesn't recognise "don't" and so if you stand there and say don't hit it in the water it is invariably where it heads. I think you're doing a similar thing. You are standing there thinking don't make worse than bogey and already imprinting on the brain the fact that bogey is the best result anyway.

Go out and like others have said look to make par on each hole. I think if you let the score take care of itself it will come down quicker than you think

Useful reminder, Homer, thanks. Prompted me to go back and have a look at my stats. Taking the best scores in each hole off the whites for comps and the blues for general play, if I could string together all my best scores on each hole, I'd hit 76 (5 over). My best round to date is 88, so 12 shots to get rid of, but I should be able to do it; I need to keep working on consistency of play and concentration.

 

[Tiger]

Not checked my eclectic best score for a while but from memory I think it is level par or -1. Need to play the course, each hole and each shot on merit rather than making inaccurate presumptions on the tee. Luckily I have a Texas Scramble event tomorrow. Perfect tonic!