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How do YOU class your real best score?

granters

Q-School Graduate
Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
952
www.theirvinegolfclub.co.uk
I ask having read a few posts regarding great scores, but they seldom seem to be in competitions. I don't mean to decry anyone, but i would only ever class my best round as my lowest in official competitive play. It's a whole different ball game when the pressure is on.

I've shot loads of rounds in bounce matches well under my best medal rounds but i don't count them. The reason being in a medal i play far more conservatively, as there's something to lose. It's that pressure that makes it a better round, even if it's 3 or 4 shots worse than my best bounce round. There's more course management involved, more concentration required, pressure on every swing and putt. and medal tees, plus weather.

If anyone asks me my best round i immediately say "75", my best last year. I shot better than that a few times but i don't count them.

Thoughts?
 
I think you are right but I would still big it up to my mates if in a bounce, just not to everyone else in the club, in a medal however everyone knows what you scored so it stands in higher esteem.

a 75.... I would love a 95 tomorrow :)
 
Yeah, totally agree. It's when the card's in the hand that matters.
I don't know about other folks on here but 99% of my social golf i.e. bounce games are matchplay so can't really count with gimmes.
 
Have more than one PB :cool:

I know my best score in a comp off whites
Best comp off yellows
Best bounce game score
Best 'playing on my own so no-one will believe me' score :D

At least you have more targets to break then.
 
I'm not sure I buy this "more pressure with a competition card in your hand" stuff.
I play each shot as it comes, I always try to score as low as possible on a given day. I don't particularly play any differently in comps compared to the weekly battle with Fragger.
It's no wonder people struggle in comps, if they're going into the round thinking " this is going to be harder than normal" just because its a comp.
It's just another game, another round. YOU put the extra pressure on yourself.
This of course is tempered a bit if your comp tees are 1/2 a mile further back than the daily ones. Not an issue at mine, but I can see how that can add to the pressure.
 
The reason i thought of it is i play with a guy who mysteriously shoots 68's all the time when he plays on his own and i've never seen him shoot less than 75 in a medal.

I knew a Welshman like that once.
I learnt very quickly not to play him for money.
:D
 
Never count my bounce game scores, even my round of 71 last sunday in an open comp I dont count as there's no pressure. This sundays second Q for the club championships at the Royal is more of a challenge. I'm in the top 16 and I need to stay there for the knock out stages.

Three rounds of note this year, two medal rounds of 75 around Dunbar and one medal round of 74 at Royal Musselburgh.
 
Never thought about it this way before but i've done the same score in comp and friendly so it doesnt matter. 67 (5 under). I only count off the white tees though , yellows is pointless and no-one cares what you shoot off those tees.
 
My best score of 72 is actually off the Whites in a comp as opposed to my best of 74 off the yellows, so if asked I can proudly say 72 :D
 
My PB was in a bounce game but off the white tees and no friendly ball cleaning or anything like that, there was no pressure at all but at the end of the day PB is not about handicap or winning its about your best ever within a set of boundaries you set yourself. Its a story to tell, there is no written record or proof, its a pub story or a forum post. It means nothing to anyone but you.

Also alot of people don't play comps and still need to have PBs.
 
As much as it pains me, I have to agree.

My best score this year is 76, and NO, that wasn't in a comp at my course. My best score in "pressured" play is also tantalisingly close (a 78) also but NOT done at my home course. I'm off to play this afternoon at a nearby club and expect to come in around 8-10 over, unless my "good feeling" is wrong.

I had a 9 over at Hawkstone Park (on the proper old course), again under pressure for a real comp.

So, w.t.h. is going on that I can't do it at mine? It's not pressure, I'm quite good at that, it's something else.

I reckon I know the answer and it is so simple, like being hit by an apple falling from a tree. It's in the course, mine simply does not allow conservative play on 3 or 4 holes, it's all or nothing. I play 3/4 of the course to 5 or 6 and see my card wrecked by badly designed and/or frankly overly-complicated holes. Sounds unlikely? Maybe, but until you've played it an understand what's going on, it makes no sense and sounds like pathetic moaning.
 
I don't think it matters whether it's a comp or not. You still have to put the ball in the hole.

Also when you know your scoring well you put pressure on yourself to make sure you finish strongly.

Comp or not, a good score is a good score.

Also someone's best score should be from a 'x' over par or 'y' under par rather than a gross score. Not every course is a par 72 so when someone says 75 is my best, it sounds good on a par 72 but not quite as good if it was on a par 66.

So for me my best is a 6 over par. 2 years ago I was 2 under thru 12 then finished 8 over thru 18... So frustrating that day was :mad:
 
Only count a pb if it is a medal competition off the whites. Just so happens that all pbs at the clubs I have been a member of have come this way. ;)
 
I'd say your best score is your best score off each tee. Even if you are playing on your own, if you get in a position to make 4 pars to break your PB then that is plenty of pressure and I don't think a card in your hand adds much. As it happens my only two sub par rounds were both in comps off the whites anyway. I find I concentrate much more in comps and most knock-abouts we are more bothered about the matchplay and winning the fiver or whatever anyway.
 
I only remember best rounds in competitions as we do not putt out in bounce games and rarely count strokes (normally a matchplay or stapleford).
 
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