Maintaining a single figure handicap advice

[Hobbit]

If you try and protect your upper limit, i.e. you don't want to go back up, you will go back up. As FD says keep pushing to go further down.

Alternatively, once you get into single figures, seel your clubs.

 

[Biggleswade Blue]

Single figures is a lifetime away from me,but if you've got there now, do you not just keep on doing what you have been?

It's why I never understand why golfers and cricketers have success, then try and remodel what they've been doing that bought that success, often with disastrous consequences.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Congratulations. Hope you can stay there and it's a position I want to emulate. From my perspective I'd advise short game, bunkers and putting. These are where our better players at the club seem ahead of everyone else, and it's turning the three shots around the green into two as often as possible. They also hole out well from 2-3 feet

 

[MashieNiblick]

Having got down to s/f for the first time last year (12.3 - 8.5) and going back up to 9.5 this year I would agree with the post above that you have to change your mind set and aim to score much lower than previously; 12 over CSS goes from being a decent score and a possible cut to a possible +0.1, so you have to take much more care both in terms of course management and in areas such as chipping and putting. The margin for error becomes much smaller. I shot dead on CSS twice when a couple of holed putts would have seen me keep my h/cap easily. Don't necessarily change anything but think what got you to s/f in the first place and keep doing it.

Also if your handicap is 9.4 with only a couple of qualifiers to go be wary of playing a qualifier at an away course in the pouring rain. It can only end badly.

 

[srixon 1]

When you do practice your short game don't just do the easy stuff. Try chipping from sidehill lies, or lies from thick rough with no green to play with etc. When you do do this experiment with different shots and clubs.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

My daughter has played between +1 and 4 for 27 years.
She will only play a handful of games during the winter but has a weekly range session and a monthly coaching team session.
Start putting the extra work in late Feb to be ready for the new season.

 

[Joff]

Don't enter any competitions. You will maintain your handicap for at least 16 more months.

 

[KenL]

One thing really worth doing is to practice immediately before you go out. I try to do this before medal rounds. Even hitting a few wedge shots can make a difference, especially for the first 3 holes.

i usually don't practice my putting before a round but that is mainly because I find our putting green to be quite a bit quicker than the first green.

 

[mcbroon]

Don't enter any competitions. You will maintain your handicap for at least 16 more months.

That's my approach. Got to 7.6 two years ago and have played no more than 10 qualifiers since.

If not playing makes you feel like a cheat, have a couple of kids. They'll give you a reasonable excuse for staying off the course.

 

[KenL]

I enter every comp I can and also play several opens a year.

Every comp is a chance to get cut, forget the 0.1s ☺

 

[Crawfy]

Through the season I would not drop a round for the range unless it is practice that is focussed on either improving on your weaknesses. I hit single figures the season before last. I ask Santa for 6 sessions with my pro each Xmas. I use 4 of them in Jan/Feb to prep me for season. I alternate, one week lesson/one week on the range replicating the lesson whilst keeping 2 up my sleeve for mid season. Short game is where you will either save a score or make a score. Putting in the house is also invaluable. All of the above has helped me, but all depends on what your game is built on. Congrats on single figures mate!!

 

[AMcC]

Congratulations on getting to single figures.
Having read all the posts, most of the help and advice about staying in single figures would apply equally to getting to single figures in the first place.

My tuppence worth would be to work hardest on the weakest part of your game without neglecting the strongest bits.

 

[USER1999]

Golf is a hobby, it's meant to be fun, and your handicap is just a number, that means nothing to anyone but you. Why stop playing, assumably with your friends, to practice on your own. Ok, your handicap might come down, or may be not, but does it actually matter? Ok, we all want to be as good as we can be, but it's not like we are going to make any money out of it. It's a game. It just is.

Forget about the number, whack it round, have a laugh, and guess what, you'll probably shoot lower scores.

 

[Sybez]

Course management and nutrition during a round to help with concentration, plus all the short game practice you can get! Be deadly from 100yards and you'll continue to come down in HC...

 

[Snelly]

Playing to 6 means breaking the round down to an easier, more manageable target. I suggest having the mindset of being permitted to drop one shot every three holes. Doesn't sound hard does it?

Agree about mindset though. You are supposed to be getting par on every hole, that is why it is called the par score. Aim for this and treat birdies as bonuses and bogeys as setbacks that you need to avoid or claw back. Par golf is what you are supposed to shoot!


Nutrition is obviously absolutely vital too. It simply beggars belief that Bobby Jones could've become the best player in the history of the game without drinking litres of water mid-round and munching on specialist energy bars.

 

[jamielaing]

Golf is a hobby, it's meant to be fun, and your handicap is just a number, that means nothing to anyone but you. Why stop playing, assumably with your friends, to practice on your own. Ok, your handicap might come down, or may be not, but does it actually matter? Ok, we all want to be as good as we can be, but it's not like we are going to make any money out of it. It's a game. It just is.

Forget about the number, whack it round, have a laugh, and guess what, you'll probably shoot lower scores.

It is supposed to be fun you're right. Depends of how you consider it to be fun. For me it is getting the rewards of the work I put in to make me the best player I can be, whatever that level is. I want to be competitive, want to win things and want to realise whatever potential I have. Also, getting a lower handicap gets you eligible for certain events. For example I am playing in an open this season that I couldn't have entered last season.

Playing with my friends in a non competitive way isn't enjoyable for me. There needs to be competition for me to concentrate which leads to my enjoyment of the game.

 

[Curls]

It is supposed to be fun you're right. Depends of how you consider it to be fun. For me it is getting the rewards of the work I put in to make me the best player I can be, whatever that level is. I want to be competitive, want to win things and want to realise whatever potential I have. Also, getting a lower handicap gets you eligible for certain events. For example I am playing in an open this season that I couldn't have entered last season.

Playing with my friends in a non competitive way isn't enjoyable for me. There needs to be competition for me to concentrate which leads to my enjoyment of the game.

I think that's fair to say of one group of people, and I count myself as one of them. I play very little non-comp golf, the odd away course or practicing around my local, but in general if I'm going to commit much of a day to golf I'd prefer it to be in competition.

That said there is another group of people who place a lot of self-worth in their handicap, and it is a pretty large group, to the extent that if they're not playing well or their number is increasing it effects their mood in a real way. Whether one would consider it disproportionate to the cause is not for anyone to say. Yes there are more serious things in the world, but if it is getting you down then it's getting you down. I think what Murph is saying is that as long as you're enjoying it then fill your boots, but don't get too tied up in staying in single figures like your life/happiness depends on it, because as soon as you start being negatively affected by your game it ceases to be the recreational release it ought to be.

 

[pendodave]

It is supposed to be fun you're right. Depends of how you consider it to be fun. For me it is getting the rewards of the work I put in to make me the best player I can be, whatever that level is. I want to be competitive, want to win things and want to realise whatever potential I have. Also, getting a lower handicap gets you eligible for certain events. For example I am playing in an open this season that I couldn't have entered last season.

Playing with my friends in a non competitive way isn't enjoyable for me. There needs to be competition for me to concentrate which leads to my enjoyment of the game.

Bloomin 'eck. that sounds like hard work.

Put me in the Murph camp. It's a game to be enjoyed. Your friends, the landscape, the weather, the physical joy of striking the ball well, all of it to be savoured while you can.
Why let an arbitrary number, and its mindless pursuit, change anything...

 

[Deleted member 15344]

It is supposed to be fun you're right. Depends of how you consider it to be fun. For me it is getting the rewards of the work I put in to make me the best player I can be, whatever that level is. I want to be competitive, want to win things and want to realise whatever potential I have. Also, getting a lower handicap gets you eligible for certain events. For example I am playing in an open this season that I couldn't have entered last season.

Playing with my friends in a non competitive way isn't enjoyable for me. There needs to be competition for me to concentrate which leads to my enjoyment of the game.

You don't enjoy playing with your friends in bounce games ?

I'm fully in the Murph group

It's a hobby for us - we wake up on Monday and go to work , golf is not our job , it's not our living , nothing beats turning up with my mates and then going out and having a laugh and a game of golf - the score is irrelevant most of the time and the company is what counts.

Take the game too seriously and you won't enjoy it.

 

[pendodave]

Take the game too seriously and you won't enjoy it.

While I agree with your general point of view (which I share), I'm not sure that this part of your post is true.

YOU wouldn't enjoy it, I wouldn't enjoy it. But some people DO seem to feel the need. I know a guy who pretty much won't turn out unless there's a tenner on it. Sounds like he is in the JamieLaing camp. I can't get my head around it personally, but that doesn't make him a bad person, just different....