I'd be interested in hearing from the scratch/plus golfers on the board about their path from a 4-5 handicap and what were the breakthroughs (mental, technique, practice, etc) that got you to scratch. I'm currently a 4 hoping to get there.

Currently a +0.3

Course management is important off the tee especially.

Short game is usually an important factor but for me my iron play was always (and still is) the weakest part of my game, so during the pandemic I made it a point to improve there. I'd say that was the area I've improved the most as I went from 5 > scratch.

Distance off the tee could lead to better (shorter) iron play

I'm at a 4 now

Mine is a combo of putts inside 6 feet and better mid irons

Join Escondido

Do you track your stats? If you don't, I would suggest doing that.

Where are you losing strokes? Too many putts, missing fairways, blowing balls OB, not hitting greens and can't get up and down? Figure out where you're losing strokes first so you know where you can improve. You have to get into the weeds to drop those last few shots.

Then you need to be pretty automatic in hitting greens with wedges/short irons and have a solid short game when you don't.

Thanks fta. I do track putting and lose a stroke on average to putts gained. Club head speed is around 113 which is pga average. I think the first two responses are spot on for me. I am not having many reasonable birdie chances given how I'm driving.

How many fairways are you hitting? Greens? What percentage are you getting up and down when you miss?

75% fairway, 41% greens, 26% scramble, 26% sand save

Your GIR and scramble percentages are where you need to improve. For comparison, I am +2 and my stats are:

FIR: 75%
GIR: 70%
Scrambling: 60%
Sam saves: 31%

Those are good numbers so why is my scoring average 72.9? Feels like it should be lower with those.

Answer: iron play. GIR is great, but proximity to hole suffers with averaging 31 putts per round. Trust me this is frustrating.

Iron play has always held me back. I got a coach who is rebuilding my swing right now, and I have shot some of the best golf of my life this year. I'm a 1.8 right now, and I feel like I'm going to get even better because I haven't been giving my normal practice time to short game/putting while grinding in new full swing mechanics.


My best rounds lately have been a lot like the comments above.

1 or less penalties/lost balls
70+% fairways
60%+ GIRs
back to back rounds where I went 6/7 from the sand
good putting (I'm one of those jerks who likes new things, who built a pseudo Rickie putter with some components I had around the house, and have loved it.)

What I'm looking forward to is
1. More mechanically sound iron play to make the good shots better, and the bad shots less bad
2. My driver has gotten straighter and longer with some of the mechanics from my iron changes. I'm not a longer player off the tee, but 15+ extra yards has been a game changer
3. Getting back to consistently spending 3-5 hours a week on short game once I'm done grinding full swing changes

I'm having a ton of fun at the moment, which is scary, but if I can stay on a marginal improvement path, I'll be quite happy.


PS I do play ~5 holes by walking out my front door almost every day in the summer, so that helps keep things on the top of mind from the sim to course pipeline.

I was never able to get it that low and was always a slight dream but never chased it. Consistanly float about a 3-7 HCP.

For me when iron play is good thats when I score best, but I've always been a poor putter because I struggle to read greens.

I feel like it's hard to say what the fix is but tracking strokes and penalties and attacking those would be a solid go.

4.1 right now. Have shot 72 in June and 74 (+2) on Friday. Both rounds were extremely "boring". Fairways, greens, 2 putt par then move on. Made a couple of long birdie putts but that was it. Then yesterday go out and shoot 83. All the sudden those 5-6' par saves weren't dropping. For me at least it's GIR and making putts. Of course no blow ups but that goes without saying when trying to score low.

Interesting feedback from everyone ... thanks.

DD, when you play three balls in, do you play 3 approaches from the same spot? Or do you drop the extras at different distances and angles to the green?

On the initial approach, I'll play the other two from the same spot to really try to get it dialed in. But then I'll play them out separately from where they end up. I'll hole out the first one before finishing the other two so that I still have a "real" score. But that said, there are practice rounds where I'll just mix things up and hit all sorts of shots inside 125

And I say 125, but honestly, it's probably more like inside <150.

About to start another thread for Sub 1 to + journey. I am a 0.6 right now, but was a +4 ten years ago when I was playing competitively. My goal mentioned in '23 goals thread was to start playing competitive again and + hcp would be icing on the cake for '23.

It has all been mentioned:

• Proximity to pin will give you better % to make putts. You will make more putts from 15 feet than 20, so on and so on. Improve proximity from all distances, you will start making more putts.
• Cut down big scores. Take your bogey and stop trying to save par and ending up with double or triple. (Course management)
• Short game - learn the bump and run. (PW, 9 iron, 8 iron). Stop using your lob wedge around the green.
• Make more putts. Save more up and downs and make more birdie putts.
• Mental side of things is more important than anything above. At the end of the day, none of it matters so stop stressing over shots. Just play.

Nothing cute about any of this (more practice/more play = more experience).

Well, scratch is a long way ahead of me, but I have just gone through a phase change where 9 months of hard work seemed to pay off overnight, and I dropped from 12-13 to just below 9. If I can keep my current level of play for another 2-3 rounds, I'll be a 7.

On stats, I would strongly suggest subscribing to Golfmetrics and keeping all of your shots and scores via that app. It was designed by Mark Brodie, the guy that invented Strokes Gained. It is cruel in that it won't let you escape acknowledging your weak spots...but then you know what you need to work on!

For example, I am about scratch-level with my driver, but get steadily worse the closer I get to the hole, until I'm about a 12 putting (which is still a lot better than I was this time last year).

Yesterday said:

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2017 I decided I wanted to qualify for a mid am. I was a 4 at the time. Need to be sub 5 to play in a qualifier but probably a +2 to make it unless you have a great round.

Qualifier was a long 7200 course. Par 4's were all 450+ and par 3's we're 200+ save one at 160.

I did the "ultimate practice routine" quite a bit. I was probably the best putter at our club and still am pretty good at a 5.7 because of this routine. Because of my strong putting I began to relax on chips and then wedges and even off the tee. I strongly believe that being a good putter helps you be confident in everything else mainly because you know you can make 5 footers.

I got down below a 1 but never a zero. Best round was a 74 on a 77 rated course. Lowest was 69 on a 70 rated course.

My tips: practice a ton of 5 footers and put pressure on yourself. Have to make 25 in a row or start over. Then play a lot. I played 3x a week and a lot of times I would play worst ball. Play two balls and pick the worst shot from the two and continue on.

Next thing will sound weird but it helped grow my confidence. Play from the reds once or twice a month. Start to understand what it feels like to go low. When you can constantly make 2-3 birdies a round you won't care if you make a bogey because you know you can make it up later.

Good luck! It's a fun ride!

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Wasn't it Nicklaus who said until his kids could break par from the reds, they shouldn't move to the white tees? Memory could be off, but it's an interesting concept.

Club championship is next month and I'm in the semi-final for the match play as the defending champ. 4 bogeys yesterday were all missed up and down simple chips.

Going out to practice with my shag bag and also taking the skytrak to see what's going on with my driver spin. Either it's rained a lot here and the fairways are soft or my drives have spin over 3500.

The practice I loathe the most is bunker shots. I try to spend an hour in the bunker when I do but I hate it. Really hate it to a point I wish golf would do away with sand bunkers and replace it with grass bunkers.

scratch is probably an eternal pipedream for me, but I'd like to get down to a 7 or so if possible. I can practice to an extent, but for me, a real challenge is the value of time. Also, as someone who treats golf as a top hobby, but far from my only one and far from the only physically demanding one, I struggle to pour so much into golf that it hurts my ability to play other sports. I try to play 1-2x a week and that alone is so taxing on my back. A couple of back injuries have really made it a challenge to get consistent play as it all depends on the day and how loose my back and hips are after a string of injuries I'm still building back from.

So, all that to say....it's tough for me to want to put in that much more time and physical energy to just get to a consistent single digit HC. But, unlike a lot of you, I don't play in a lot of tourneys or scrambles and certainly not any qualifiers. I just have a group of dudes that I consistently play with and bragging rights is only worth so much to me. I'd love to get to a point where shooting sub 80 rounds is not a super rare outing though.

Learn to score, play from the reds every so often, doesnt work for me but i drink when i play

booradley said:

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Join Escondido

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Are you suggesting that the course is not as hard as it's rated?

He's suggesting the fairways are so perfect that you'll gain 2-3 shots with your approach shots. I did when I played there. It's damn near near like hitting off a mat.

Ag4life80 said:

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He's suggesting the fairways are so perfect that you'll gain 2-3 shots with your approach shots. I did when I played there. It's damn near near like hitting off a mat.

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This is true. The ball sits up nice on the zoysia fairways, but it's really difficult to putt through when you're off the green. It's very grabby, like going into the grain on Bermuda, then 12+ once you're on the putting surface. I am a big fan of the Texas wedge but it's mostly useless there.

Quote:

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my drives have spin over 3500.

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this is a distance killer

CapCity12thMan said:

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Quote:

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my drives have spin over 3500.

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this is a distance killer

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Took the simulator out on the range and checked. 2,100 to 2500 rpm.

Fairways are just really wet. And I'm sticking to it!

Listen to the Chasing Scratch podcast.... & then accept you will never get there.



Just kidding, good luck!

My "MISIG" got me over the hump.....no lie.

DGrimesAg92 said:

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My "MISIG" got me over the hump.....no lie.

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MISIG...just when we start to forget about it...it ineradicably reappears...

True TexAgs Golf legend that will never die.