Project Scratch...may battle commence!

Tiger

Tiger

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rub-of-the-green.blogspot.com
Hello one and all,

You may have noticed a post from Bogee about a week or so ago when he introduced himself to the forum and announced his intentions to try and get down to scratch in 5 years.

Well he was after some healthy competition and I was more than happy to pick up the gauntlet he threw down. We'll both be charting our successes and failures, lessons and rounds, and reviewing the impact of a variety of equipment on our mission to get our handicaps down.

If your interested in following our progress and posting the odd comment please feel click through. The competition begins in earnest in January...

www.projectscratch.co.uk
 
Thats one hell of a challenge - The very best of luck with it.
Have you read the book Dream On? Its about an Irish bloke who wants to play a par or better round within one year.
 
Hi,
Will be expecting huge cuts in April when the qualifying comps start up again with all the pratice you will get in between now and then would love to have enough time to try this myself I think its going to cost a lot in lessons and range balls I'd say both of you should be able to get to mid teens this year provided u have some natural talent.
Mike
 
Thanks guys. Will have a look for the dream on book to add to my reading selection. Having calculated how much I've already spent this year I'm dreading to think what this will cost me.

Bogee and I will post updates periodically bit I hope you follow the progress on the blog. There'll possibly be a tweet as well...
 
All the very best of luck, to be honest fellas, getting to scratch is a massive task. Even if/when you get down to low single figures (I played of high 5's low 6's for a few years before giving up and I ate slept and breathed golf to just get to that!) you need to remember that you need to be scoring no worse than +1 each week otherwise your handicap will be gaining .1 each game. If you are playing a couple of cards a week and you have a bad few games you could be up a shot before you know what has happened.

As I said though best of luck, I hope you manage it but the half empty cup of me can see a low double or high single figure at best.
Dont let anyone disrupt or dishearten you though and keep us posted.
 
This is going to be a hugely tough challenge - and of course there is a big possibility neither of us do it. But even if that is the case, at the end of it we're going to have two guys who will have improved massively at their game and charted that improvement all the way through. And who knows how useful that might be for other people learning?

I know that for me, the challenge will spur me on to keep practicing and playing to improve. And as I find things that help or hinder me do that, I'll post about them and let others know. At the very least it will cool to look back on my progress in 5 years time...

Hopefully some of you will keep an eye on our progress and weigh in with advice to keep us on track along the way.
 
Bogee & Tiger, good luck in your quest, I only have one piece of advice for you.....

Don't get bogged down in the all out quest to become a scratch player. It's a game that can be enjoyed at any level and has so much more about it than just the act of hitting a little white ball, so many good people to meet and so many interesting characters.

Whether you end up shooting 70 or 100, there are few better places to be when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. :D
 
Interesting mix of encouragement and scepticism, which all adds to the challenge. I fully understand where you're coming from Craw. Definitely not undertaking this lightly, I know far too many people who have been playing for years and are still struggling to hit single figures.

But that said I've always been a keen sportsman and taken an aim for the stars approach to everything I do.

Robo don't worry I'll also be enjoying the journey, just wish I'd started playing golf earlier. I'm definitely not a putter thrower or a driver snapper! But through this challenge I should get better at golf and as I get better the more I'll be able to enjoy playing.

Here's to the New Year, the end of the snow and the ultimate golfing quest...
 
Good Luck Guys

You're going to need it. I hope you at least get somewhere near your target but as has been said it will be a struggle to get there. Keep the faith and never surrender!!
 
I agree with the general consensus that it will be a lot harder in reality to achieve than it does when you sit with your mates in the 19th and plan how you're going to do it. Whether you get there or not is largely irrelevant as its more about the journey, especially the hard work away from the course. I'm guessing you'll have days when the game seems ridiculously easy and others where you'll struggle to make contact with the thing. Either way I'm backing both of you to reach a minimum of 12 and think single figures is a real possibility. After that it depends how much you want it and whether you really have any natural aptitude. Good luck though
 
Greg Norman took the game up at the age of 16 and was scratch within a year so it is possible but, as has been said before, it'll need a lot of talent and lots and lots of practice.

I wish you both well though.
 
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