How do YOU class your real best score?

[granters]

A good example of what i mean is the 3rd at my ex course. It's a short par 5, very reachable in 2 BUT there's a bunker right in the middle of the fairway at driving distance, and the fairway narrows significantly at this point.

In a bounce match, i stood up and belted a drive right at it in the hope it'd bounce over. It did and i had a 3 iron left, which i knocked to 3 feet and eagled.

There is absolutely no way i'd try that in a comp. In the bunker and i'm looking at dropped shots, same with in the rough/gorse to either side.

So it's an iron or 3 wood off the tee, another lay up then pitch and putt hoping for a birdie in a medal. That's 2 completely different holes in my opinion, depending on whether it's "official" or bounce

 

[Piece]

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 can definitely see your point, but this is a bit unfair to those social, but serious golfers (i.e. me!), who have never played a competition and/or medal in 25 years of teeing it up, but do take all rounds of golf seriously. I would like to think that if I ever played a medal, my competition game would be exactly the same as how I play now.

Just for interest my best score is not my lowest score. My best score was a 78 (+6) round St. Andrews Old Course. And yes, no gimmies...

 

[granters]

Blimey 78 round St Andrews- that would be high on the list competition or not!

 

[rickg]

Should be in a comp off the back tees......mines a level par 71 in a medal.

Nice to have a good score in bounce games, but I tend to take on shots I might not normally in a medal round.

 

[Mongoose]

Your best score is your best score, regardless of the type of occassion it occured. Of course if its at a 4000yd public course its something of a different achievement to one playing off the back tees at the Duchess course at Woburn. But a score is a score.

 

[pokerjoke]

My best score ever is 3 shots better than any comp score ive shot,says it all to me.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

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.

Rumour has it HTL is getting the golf bug again. Lock up your wallet

Is there really that much pressure on say a monthly stableford. Its a competition and so if I shoot my best score does it not really count because it wasn't a medal round? I think at the end of the day for most of us on here we'll take a good score in whatever way we can and if it corresponds with a comp round then double happy days

 

[granters]

Homer- maybe pressure is too strong a word but there's a definite different feel about an official game. For me it's a chance to break handicap, and let the boys in work know about it on a Monday, or if i don't it's a week spent trying to work out what went wrong. I'm not saying i obsess about it or anything but it's a good feeling having a good one when it matters.

If i shoot a good score in a bounce game i'm as pleased as anyone, but for me it doesn't have the same value. That's all i'm trying to get at

 

[BogeyHole]

As a junior my best score was 82 in a comp.

My best bounce score round Coulsdon was a 78 - par 70.

My best medal at Park Wood was 81 off a par 72.




Well, I'm impressed, even if no one else is

 

[FourPutt]

I have two pb's. One in competition and one not. My pb in a medal from the blue championship tees was 87 (+15) but outside competition, off the whites, I have shot 80 once. It may not have been in competition, but it's still the card that is sat on the shelf in my living room signed by all present. At 15 under my handicap at the time, it was a massive personal achievement and as for no pressure? I think by the time I was 2 over after 10 holes there was massive (albeit self-induced) pressure not to blow up.

It was a one off round and I haven't even come close since. Until I do, it will still be the one I remember and the one that keeps my pecker up on the days when I'm playing like a plonker!

 

[MashieNiblick]

Shot my best gross score (76) in a comp off the whites and it won me a nice old trophy and my name on one of the honours boards.

It is good to feel that I did it when it mattered and I won something as a result. If I shot 75 in a friendly I'd definitely feel pretty pleased with that too but maybe not quite the same. I don't even know what my best score off the yellows is.