handicaps are no better

[selwood90]

And the players that get to cat 1 or scratch or even + all practice (a lot) & all the others are just happy to bash a ball about holding up play & ruining the game.

It's people like yourself that make the sport an intimidating one to take up at first. But thankfully, people like you in the game are few and far between in my experience. I expect your first handicap was single figures and you've always been that good at the game. You lucky so and so... must be a right barrel of laughs going for a round with you pal.

 

[the_coach]

(trying to look at the OP's original point)

average handicap hasn't changed pretty much still around mid teens - my take, as it's a difficult counter-intuitive game

the 'sweet spot hitting area' isn't 'inline' with the bit you hold (it's inches removed and at different angles) - whereas it is in baseball, tennis etc, your cricket all 'inline' with the hands, and the ball is stationery until moved it's not a reaction to a moving object
(the not 'inline' point often times why our ice hockey players find the game a little ways easier to take too, just getting the club to the 'top' is their issue ,,,,,,, but they usually find reasonable contact little easier to achieve)

some folks objective to play in the first instance the main driver is social (nothing at all wrong with that either) it's not all about getting the 'index' down

hopefully the objective for anyone is too also enjoy the game and the company whatever level of the players they play with

think even for folks who do want to get as 'good' at the game as they can, that because too most folks can get to a reasonable standard in contacting a ball with the 'inline' sweet spot games they take up golf thinking along the same lines so often times don't first off get those all important fundamentals in reasonable shape through PGA instruction, as most times they didn't get professional instruction with the other games

not getting that instruction from the get-go can easily make stuff a good bunch harder to get to a playable standard with the game of golf, although golf conforms to physics it doesn't conform to most folks intuitive logic in the best ways to move a golf ball a good distance or short distance to target

the good thing for the most part is anyone of any 'standard' can play the game with any other, in both an enjoyable and competitive way and in a manner of true sports-'person'-ship......... hopefully

 

[user2010]

And the players that get to cat 1 or scratch or even + all practice (a lot) & all the others are just happy to bash a ball about holding up play & ruining the game.

Post of the year so far right there.:whoo:
Quality bait which a few of the usual suspects nibbled at. *doffs imaginary cap* Well played Sir.:rofl:

 

[Capella]

Are they really golfers or just people who like to take a stroll & hit a ball, don't think anyone can really truthfully call themselves a golfer till at least they get to a 5 maybe 6 handicap. I mean let's say your speaking to someone & they say they are a golfer you ask what do you play off & they reply 10 would you really class them as a golfer ? I wouldn't, okay yes I can accept that they might try to play the game but that doesn't make them a golfer.

Let me tell you about my mum. My mum started playing when she was already over 60. And she never did any sport before, competetive or otherwise. She struggled a lot. She started out with a few lessons, but after a while gave that up because she felt that it was putting too much pressure on her. Like myself, she is someone who needs a lot of practice time on her own to figure things out by herself. She plays regularily with the senior ladies at our club and with me and my dad on the weekend (he took up golf at the same time and his story is quite similar btw). After about seven years of playing, she managed to get her handicap from the beginning -54 to -37, and that was mostly due to one glorious round. She hits her driver consistently well, but her longest drives are about 130 yards. But she goes stirr crazy at the moment, because the course has been closed for two weekends in a row and she did not get out there. When I moved to another town a few years back and she planned her first visit, her first question was not "What is your house like?" or "What is the landscape like?" it was: "Where is the next golf course?" When I went to visit them over the Christmas holidays, she called me on Christmas Eve to ask me to bring the putting mat with me so that we could practice some putting. We also played four rounds of golf between Christmas and New Years. What I am getting at is this: to suggest that my mum is not a golfer just because of her lack of playing ability is just hilarious. The true golfer is not defined by his or her handicap but by the passion for the game.

That said, to come back to the original question of this thread, golfers like my parents (and like myself, to be honest) might well be the reason that we don't see the average handicap coming down.

 

[Del_Boy]

A golfer in my opinion is someone who plays golf. The number of shots he or she takes doesn't come into it

 

[ArnoldArmChewer]

A golfer in my opinion is someone who plays golf. The number of shots he or she takes doesn't come into it

Absolutely correct sir, if you are on a golf course with clubs you are playing golf, therefore you are a golfer, you might not be a 'good' golfer but if you are playing to enjoy yourself what does it matter, 99.9% of us do not earn our living from golf we should I hope play for fun and competition be it against ourselves or others. If we strive to become better then all power to us, if we play to get out in the countryside and enjoy the camaraderie then that's great too. Golf does not have to be about being the lowest h/c in your club/county/country it should be about enjoyment and fulfillment in the company of like minded people.

 

[Hacker Khan]

why is it with all of todays tech being put into golf club manufacture along with balls flying further that the average h/cap hasnt improved .
any thoughts on why this is so .I cant come up with any good reason other than maybe people dont practice as much these days as compared to yesteryear.but i cant really see that as an answer. what do you think.?

Because the game is hard! And there is a lot of people within the game who want to keep it that way.

 

[freddielong]

This is something that frustrates me since the 1980s, the ball goes further, the ball deviates less, the sweet spot on all clubs is larger, the balls stop quicker, the balls are rounder and roll truer, shafts twist less.

These are all true all scientific provable facts, the game is easier. Handicaps have come down by 2 Shots according to golf digest but now days there are a lot more purely social golfers with high handicaps that keep the average up.

 

[Slab]

...............not getting that instruction from the get-go can easily make stuff a good bunch harder to get to a playable standard with the game of golf, although golf conforms to physics it doesn't conform to most folks intuitive logic in the best ways to move a golf ball a good distance or short distance to target....................

What a quote... Golf conforms to physics not logic!

I kinda want to put that on the fridge :thup:

 

[patricks148]

I only started playing in 2006 and don't know much about golf history or what it was like back in the day but,

was not the max handicap 18 not long ago so the av handicap was 16 and equipment was harder to use, woods made of wood and blade irons.

now the max is 28 and equip is easier to use and the ave is still 16, does that not mean it has improved???

equipment is much easier to used i would imagine now, large headed forgiving drivers, forgiving cav back irons, lots of diff types of golf ball etc.

thats my take anyway.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Post of the year so far right there.:whoo:
Quality bait which a few of the usual suspects nibbled at. *doffs imaginary cap* Well played Sir.:rofl:

It's one thing to have such a sad life that you have to spend your time trolling people on internet forums to get your kicks. But surely it's another level of sadness to look up to someone that does that.....

 

[Capella]

This is something that frustrates me since the 1980s

Why would this frustrate you? I can see that it might be frustrating if your own handicap did not come down even though the game got easier (presuming that it even is ... I would debate that), why would you care about the average handicap?

 

[freddielong]

Why would this frustrate you? I can see that it might be frustrating if your own handicap did not come down even though the game got easier (presuming that it even is ... I would debate that), why would you care about the average handicap?

The thing that frustrates me are people who say the game hasn't been made easier when it so obviously has, one of the things they always bring up is average handicap.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

Some aspects of the the long game may be easier, but putting and chipping is still just as hard. Driving the ball straight is also pretty much as hard too, off centre hits may go further, but thats further into the clag.

Good golfers benefit from the equipment more than lesser golfers.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Good golfers benefit from the equipment more than lesser golfers.

That's interesting, why do you think that? I would have said the higher handicappers get more benefit.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

A golfer in my opinion is someone who plays golf. The number of shots he or she takes doesn't come into it

Ignoring the wind up merchant, but in relation to what is a golfer - by my way of thinking only those getting paid are 'golfers'. Whereas the rest of us play golf. I, for example, am an 'accountant', who happens to play golf as a hobby.

 

[Capella]

Ignoring the wind up merchant, but in relation to what is a golfer - by my way of thinking only those getting paid are 'golfers'. Whereas the rest of us play golf. I, for example, am an 'accountant', who happens to play golf as a hobby.

And only someone who gets paid for lovemaking is a lover? I'd say we are defined by more than just the way we earn a living.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

And only someone who gets paid for lovemaking is a lover? I'd say we are defined by more than just the way we earn a living.

No that has quite a different job title


I know what you mean, but I would never call myself a golfer, I just play golf!

 

[Hacker Khan]

That's interesting, why do you think that? I would have said the higher handicappers get more benefit.

I'd argue higher handicappers benefit more from forgiveness so their shots go a bit further and a bit higher if not hit sweetly. Where as the better golfers who were going to hit it far and relatively straight anyway will generally gain more maximum distance/control from the 5 piece balls that fly longer and stop quicker, lower spin drivers, thinner faces etc etc. So you need a good game to get the maximum potential benefit out of the technological increases, where as a higher handicapper will only get a certain amount out of them.

For example take the TM M1 driver. Now who will gain the most out of what that can do by reducing the spin rate by 300 rpm or moving the COG a couple of mm, Justin Rose or say me? Clue, it ain't me

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

I, for example, am a 'golfer', who happens to go to work during the day

My version