Reached my handicap goal. Feeling a bit lost.

dufferman

dufferman

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Apologies in advance for what sounds like a very stuck up post.

I had a particularly brilliant round in the weekends medal - 6 over par. My handicap was 15. I am now a 12 handicapper. And rightly so!

The issue is, when I used to hack it round in 110, I made a promise to myself that the day I can play 18 over par, I'll be happy. I had lessons with a local pro probably 2 years ago now who said I can get down to a 12 handicap quite easily with my swing, which had always been in the back of my mind. Now I'm there, I feel a bit lost. I used to go into comps thinking about shooting a few under handicap to get a small cut. Now I'm scared to tee it up since 12 shots isn't a lot.

Any ideas how to get out of my own head?
 
Tee it up, relax and enjoy your golf. Its only a game . Don't over analyse and just keep doing what you are doing.
 
Nothing wrong with getting better.

Go out and enjoy it, the ball and course don't know your handicap, they are the only things that matter.
 
I would love to have this problem. Create a new target to work towards. Whether it be single figures, scratch etc. You've obviously worked hard to get to where you are now, so keep going to get somewhere new.
 
You have obviously done well to reach your target. So you know you can play to that level, how about setting the next goal to play a few rounds to your new handicap, once you have achieved that then look to get lower? If you are not interested in getting lower then just enjoy the game and try and play as best as you can with your new handicap. I wouldn't let your new handicap ruin the game for you. You can obviously play to that level.
 
Do you need targets to get the enjoyment, if so then set the next one, probably singles figures or break 75

If not pat yourself on the back and just go out and enjoy the game, the company, the courses you play etc
 
dufferman said:
Apologies in advance for what sounds like a very stuck up post.

I had a particularly brilliant round in the weekends medal - 6 over par. My handicap was 15. I am now a 12 handicapper. And rightly so!

The issue is, when I used to hack it round in 110, I made a promise to myself that the day I can play 18 over par, I'll be happy. I had lessons with a local pro probably 2 years ago now who said I can get down to a 12 handicap quite easily with my swing, which had always been in the back of my mind. Now I'm there, I feel a bit lost. I used to go into comps thinking about shooting a few under handicap to get a small cut. Now I'm scared to tee it up since 12 shots isn't a lot.

Any ideas how to get out of my own head?
Click to expand...

Well done - I understand where you are coming from.

I went from 20 to 12 in 6 months, I found stableford particularly difficult to get my head round; "good" scores on a hole yielding only one point. E.g. two par 5s on the back 9 used to be my chance to rack up 3 points per hole, but without a shot, I found myself struggling to get 2 points.

My change in mentality was to get away from stableford points scoring and thinking only about gross score per hole and whether I was happy with that.

Your change is a bit less dramatic, but still, I would say cut out of your mind which holes you get shots on and which you do not; it's irrelevant. Play the course, add up your score, knock off 12.
 
Thank you all. I think I've worked to a 12 handicap (albeit subconsciously) for so long, actually achieving it is more scary than fulfilling.

I think I need to enjoy the 12 handicap for a while before attempting to beat it again, get used to the idea of actually shooting 12 "regularly".
 
Canary_Yellow said:
Well done - I understand where you are coming from.

I went from 20 to 12 in 6 months, I found stableford particularly difficult to get my head round; "good" scores on a hole yielding only one point. E.g. two par 5s on the back 9 used to be my chance to rack up 3 points per hole, but without a shot, I found myself struggling to get 2 points.

My change in mentality was to get away from stableford points scoring and thinking only about gross score per hole and whether I was happy with that.

Your change is a bit less dramatic, but still, I would say cut out of your mind which holes you get shots on and which you do not; it's irrelevant. Play the course, add up your score, knock off 12.
Click to expand...

My next comp is our monthly stableford, I think I now have a couple of par 4's I don't get a shot on is the scariest thought...
 
You have your target. You shot +6 in a comp. You now know you can do it. Aim should be for that to be your handicap.

Alternatively, now aim for 11, then 10, 9, 8, 7 etc.
 
If you can par the hardest hole on the course, you can par them all. Yes you'll drop the odd shot but you'll balance it out with the odd birdie. Par golf is the target!
 
If you've played in comp to 12 before then you've no problem, if not then you still have a goal and thats to remain a 12 hc. Having a 2 shot buffer and losing 3 shots on your course can be tough mentally. Overcome this and you'll be fine, if you can't you'll be back to 13 in a heartbeat which is what happened to me. It took me ages to get my head into the buffer of 2 shots which effectively meant I had to shoot 13 over to remain in buffer due to course CSS.

Best of luck, reset your goal to remain at 12 or better and get back into it.
 
Every time you get cut it seems daunting playing to the new handicap, but you will soon get used to it. It just takes a few rounds to adjust your thinking.

From what you've posted it sounds like there's more room for improvement, and when you get cut again you'll have the same thoughts only now you'll be thinking 12 was easy.

I'm sure mental game coaches would say you shouldn't have these feelings but you can't help it, or at least I couldn't, but it doesn't take long to get used to the idea of the new hc.

If you can eliminate double bogeys you've only got to par 1 in 3 holes. :)
 
dufferman said:
I think I need to enjoy the 12 handicap for a while before attempting to beat it again, get used to the idea of actually shooting 12 "regularly".
Click to expand...

Well done :thup:

Although, from experience, if you have the mindset above you'll head straight back up. I got cut to 4 for the first time last year and bricked it really, thought I wasn't really good enough, bit embarrassed almost that I was off that and I would just try to hang on to it by my fingernails. Cue 0.1's until I was back at 5 pronto :rofl:

Reality was that I had already played a number of rounds better than CSS/SSS +4 to get there in the first place so was a bit of a daft way of thinking about it, and probably over-thinking it tbh.

Tip above about keeping gross score in your head rather than points (we don't do stablefords which helps) is good, I just try to keep the "+" number as low as possible for as long as possible!!
 
whats left to say ,its all been said ,just enjoy yourself ,but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you have reached your target ,so now you can give up golf and take up bowls.:whistle:








as for setting another target ,dont get ahead of yourself ,just finnish the season no higher than you are now,that will be a decent seasons work.
 
time was, i'd have been happy hitting under 100. then i got better quite quickly and hit 15 over. since then i've put myself under immense pressure to re-hit it. only getting within 2 shots. i've been playing less time than it takes to have a baby. the bloke who took up the game, thankful for the odd great shot and fully enjoying every round has been replaced by a guy who often takes it too seriously, is incredibly hard on himself and has lost sight of why he picked up a club. don't be that guy. that guy is a right nób. just enjoy where you are. you've done so well.
 
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