My journey to scratch!!

[slowhand]

The site I looked at only goes to the top 300 and these are 296-300. Anyone heard of them?

Jaekyeong Lee
Bo Hoag
Ben Kohles
Phachara Khongwatmai
Ollie Schniederjans

I’ve heard of Schniederjans. Played Walker Cup before turning pro in the same team as DeChambeau and Maverik McNielly

 

[Canary_Yellow]

With regards to my League 2 reference, I didn't actually sit and make a carefully measured opinion on what level a scratch golfer is compared to a footballer, although I appreciate it might look like I did, it was just an example.

The main point is the list of requirements, e.g. lots and lots of hard work, coaching, ability, dedication etc etc that are required to hugely improve performance in a measurable manner.

I completely agree with that

There are plenty of people that “could have....” done lots of things. It applies to everything, doesn’t it? I guess it makes people feel better about themselves.

I think I could have been good at golf had I not dedicated my youth to cricket! The reality is probably that I might have got down to mid single figures as I’ve got good hand eye coordination, doubt I’d have got any further though, don’t think I’d have enough talent to defeat my mental weakness ?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Out of interest given the top 1000 golfers etc discussion I just checked the world amateur ranking of our +5.4 lass - she's already racking up county titles and in England Girls squad... She's 828. That's a lot of really good amateur girls out there - never mind the professionals.

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I’ve heard of Schniederjans. Played Walker Cup before turning pro in the same team as DeChambeau and Maverik McNielly

I’ve heard of him too - top 100 player at some point I thought, or around that mark

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I've said it before, but as its a similar thread, I'll air it out again. Most who take up golf later in life don't really want to be that good. Sounds silly, and people might say they want to be good, but based on their actions they don't, being good at something is a lot of effort, most people want to have fun. Same applies to most footballers since this thread has gone in that direction too, most Sunday league players fancy a kickabout then some beers with their mates, they might like the idea of a premiership salary but don't make any serious effort to move even a millimetre closer to one.

Yes golf has a talent ceiling, which will limit how good you can get, but very few are stopped because they have hit it, most plateau way before that level for many other reasons, including how much work they want to put in. Obviously higher level of talent can help in that you can get the same result for less work. If you really want it you'll put the right level of effort in, if you won't you might talk a good game, but that's all it will ever be.

My view on it is that a good golf swing for the vast majority of people is not an instinctive motion. There are a lucky few that have sufficient natural talent that they just pick up a golf club and do something more or less along the right lines and they will have a chance of going low whenever they take up the sport.

For most that take up golf later on in life, what they do naturally when they first swing a club isn’t great and a lot of work and good coaching is required to get them to a decent level.

Taking up golf as a kid makes it easier to learn for even those that aren’t naturals.

I agree with you Dibby, very few people fulfil their potential as they don’t really apply themselves or they do but don’t get the right coaching etc..

With regard to the OP, if he has a lot of natural talent he might get down to scratch - his scores suggest he has a chance. But who knows until he tries?

As Traminator says, lots of hard work and coaching is required, probably a bit of luck too, and to hit the level of a scratch player there has to be significant natural ability too.

 

[SteveW86]

Well I don’t think sailing has helped my golf. Multiple European and National champion in sailing, but a pretty average golfer

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Well I don’t think sailing has helped my golf. Multiple European and National champion in sailing, but a pretty average golfer

Never knew that. Much kudos

 

[Dibby]

My view on it is that a good golf swing for the vast majority of people is not an instinctive motion. There are a lucky few that have sufficient natural talent that they just pick up a golf club and do something more or less along the right lines and they will have a chance of going low whenever they take up the sport.

For most that take up golf later on in life, what they do naturally when they first swing a club isn’t great and a lot of work and good coaching is required to get them to a decent level.

Taking up golf as a kid makes it easier to learn for even those that aren’t naturals.

I agree with you Dibby, very few people fulfil their potential as they don’t really apply themselves or they do but don’t get the right coaching etc..

With regard to the OP, if he has a lot of natural talent he might get down to scratch - his scores suggest he has a chance. But who knows until he tries?

As Traminator says, lots of hard work and coaching is required, probably a bit of luck too, and to hit the level of a scratch player there has to be significant natural ability too.

I disagree with the part about golf not being an instinctive motion. I don't know why, but for some reason golfers like to overcomplicate the teaching of the swing and make it unnatural, where nearly every other sport avoids this, at least in the initial learning phases.

Give a kid a golf club, no coaching and over time you will see a respectable swing evolve in most cases. Whereas most adults not only overcomplicate the learning process, but they don't stick with something to refine it and ingrain it, if results are not immediate.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

The site I looked at only goes to the top 300 and these are 296-300. Anyone heard of them?

Jaekyeong Lee
Bo Hoag
Ben Kohles
Phachara Khongwatmai
Ollie Schniederjans

I do

 

[Deleted member 1147]

The main thing I think people forget is that jumping from one handicap level to another is a lot more than just dropping a shot or so.

When I was off 10 I was a lot worse than 5 shots worse than when I got down to 5. And the 2 shots from 5 to 3 was an even bigger improvement.

Certainly under the old handicap system any handicap drop was a magnitudinal change.
Hence why so many got stuck at 5/6. That 0.1 & 1 shot buffer made it much harder to come down.

 

[sunshine]

Literally.......

Do you not know what this word means?

 

[hovis]

Well I don’t think sailing has helped my golf. Multiple European and National champion in sailing, but a pretty average golfer

Shameless way to crowbar that into a thread. ?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

If the OP wants some motivation and some of the ptifalls I suggest he reads a book called Dream On by John Richardson. Not quite the same as he only wanted to go round in par but it is an interesting story on how much hard work was involved just to do that

 

[Ridgeman]

If the OP wants some motivation and some of the ptifalls I suggest he reads a book called Dream On by John Richardson. Not quite the same as he only wanted to go round in par but it is an interesting story on how much hard work was involved just to do that

Thanks for the reminder. Have just pruchased it. Its on Amazon kindle at £1.89 so good buy at the moment

 

[sunshine]

Well I don’t think sailing has helped my golf. Multiple European and National champion in sailing, but a pretty average golfer

Same here. I’m double European subbuteo champion but I don’t think it’s made a difference to my golf. It’s not helped my knitting proficiency either.

 

[harpo_72]

If the OP wants some motivation and some of the ptifalls I suggest he reads a book called Dream On by John Richardson. Not quite the same as he only wanted to go round in par but it is an interesting story on how much hard work was involved just to do that

Do you know what he did after that?

 

[sweaty sock]

This is a golden oldie subject, and it used to be a mammoth task that few ever even understood fully just the number of good rounds you needed to get from 5 to 0. Especially when most weeks it was impossible to play more than 2 qualifiers! So much so that I reckon a legitimate, proven, scratch player would fail to get to 0 from 10 in 2 years under the old regime. In WHS, they'd do it in 3 months

I unfortunately get the feeling, depending on how diligent the handicap committee are on registering supplementary scores, and with loopholes like predicted scores for incomplete rounds, it's going to be a relative piece of cake.

Assuming WHS shenanigans are ignored, and Ive every reason to believe the OP is genuine, its still much less daunting now.

And I'd ignore any advice like 'work on your 100 yards and in', or 'get good at driving'. To go from 10 to 0 it was a quantum leap in every aspect for me. There's just a colossal section of 'unknown unknowns' stuff you dont even know you dont know... how much of that you'll need depends 100% on your natural talent.

Totally do-able, best of luck!

 

[sunshine]

This is a golden oldie subject, and it used to be a mammoth task that few ever even understood fully just the number of good rounds you needed to get from 5 to 0. Especially when most weeks it was impossible to play more than 2 qualifiers! So much so that I reckon a legitimate, proven, scratch player would fail to get to 0 from 10 in 2 years under the old regime. In WHS, they'd do it in 3 months

I unfortunately get the feeling, depending on how diligent the handicap committee are on registering supplementary scores, and with loopholes like predicted scores for incomplete rounds, it's going to be a relative piece of cake.

Assuming WHS shenanigans are ignored, and Ive every reason to believe the OP is genuine, its still much less daunting now.

And I'd ignore any advice like 'work on your 100 yards and in', or 'get good at driving'. To go from 10 to 0 it was a quantum leap in every aspect for me. There's just a colossal section of 'unknown unknowns' stuff you dont even know you dont know... how much of that you'll need depends 100% on your natural talent.

Totally do-able, best of luck!

Interesting points.

There was a bunch of Cat 1 young lads who spent pretty much every day at my golf club last year. Due to COVID they were on furlough / college courses ended.

I noticed they often did very well in the mid-week medal, and then not quite so well in the weekend comps. Overall they all came down a bit (e.g. from 4 to 3), but not huge steps.

If a similar thing happens this summer, they will smash their handicaps. Under WHS, it only needs a fortnight purple patch and if you're playing every day you can register 8 great scores playing with your mates. Also, in most cases, a handicap index of 0 is easier to achieve than a course handicap of 0.

Having said that, I still think that the easiest way to get to scratch is to play all your golf at a mickey mouse easy golf course.

 

[sweaty sock]

I doubt course makes that much difference, if you can get round regularly in par, you're forced to be pretty capable in all departments. And SSS or CR takes care of the rest. I'd say down to 3 or 4 you get a few golfers whos game doesnt travel, but by 0 everyone can (could?) travel pretty well...

Unfortunately the easiest way to get to 0, as you alluded to, is to game the system / cheat...

 

[sweaty sock]

Just continuing to come down once you got into cat 1 was tough and I found it required a different mindset.

I've basically been stuck at 2 for a few years. Plenty of good scores (par, sub-par) during that time but too many 0.1s - effectively cancelling each other out.

With Covid and stuff (excuses, excuses) the balance shifted so I drifted up to 3.

WHS came in and I'm now 1. In fact, when I first calculated my WHS handicap early last year I would have been scratch by now if I just hadn't played any comps last year.

So, yes I agree, getting to scratch looks like it's going to be easier than it was. Not sure that necessarily means I'll get there though....

I think it'll be telling what achievements accompany the new journey to scratch. It used to be that it took such consistent decent standard that youd be in your club team for a few years, maybe have a few decent runs at club champs, have decent finishes in county stuff, were just 'on the radar'.

Might not happen so much now, which would be a pity, it's almost a right of passage.