There was a report recently released explaining how better golfers see the hole as bigger than others.  The theory was tested by surveying golfers after a round and having them draw the size of the hole.  Those that played well on average drew a bigger hole than those that didn’t do as well.

So, I guess instead of seeing the hole as the size of my ball marker I need to see it as big as a bucket; but it might be because I’m consistently putting from 40 feet away!

I wonder if it would work with greens and fairways.  I’m going to try a mental exercise the next time I play and just imagine everything as HUGE except for the rough, the traps, the boundaries, and of course the water; those will have to shrink to dime size barriers.

With four wedges in his bag, Phil comes up victorious!  I had mentioned in an earlier post I’d like to see Phil step it up and play some good golf.  He played well but his competition really wasn’t all that impressive.  The players within 6 shots of the lead had 7 wins in over 900 career starts.  Not exactly the All Star club up near the top. 

The one stat that was impressive for Phil was 11 one putts in one round; now that’s a good putter!  I’m guessing he didn’t fudge his game to limit his number of putts.  We sometimes play a game where the player with the least number of putts wins a certain amount of money.  In order to be good at this game is not necessarily to be a good putter but to know how to lay up to the fringe.  In this game you never try to land on the green unless you’re on the fringe.  If you can hit a good pitch shot in this game — you’re golden.

My buddy had this idea a few years ago.  He could hit his short irons pretty well but his long iron play was not good at all.  His idea: make all the shafts the length of his 9-iron.  “I hit my 9-iron great, so I’m making them all the same length”.  So he goes out and buys a brand new set of Cleveland Tour Action irons and has them all shaved to a 9-iron size.  We call them “stubbies”.  He was laughed at by the “pros” we play with but was commended by everyone else for the results he was getting.  The result was about 8 shots off his handicap!

So my dilemna now is he’s offered me a bunch of old golf clubs he doesn’t use and I’m always looking for a cheap way to improve my stash of golf stuff.  Part of his offer is his first set of stubbies.  I’ve always been a “traditional” kind of guy but I’m thinking about breaking my ways and trying out the short irons and see what happens.  They’re in my garage now and I just need to find some time to get to the range and give it a whirl.  I’ll let you know!

I’ve really concentrated on the tempo of my swing lately and it really has helped a lot with control and impact.  I’m hitting the ball more solidly and straight as a laser (mostly).  I’ve taken the time as part of my pre shot routine to think “relax” and swing easy.  By swinging easy I don’t mean slow but with a good tempo and rhythm.  I’ve found that the speed of my backswing should equate to the speed of my forward swing.  I’ve tried to make a slow backswing and then try to kill it and that doesn’t work out.  Obviously a decelerating weak forward swing is not good.  I think “t-e-m-p-o”, not “t-e-m-PO”.  It helps from “getting quick” at the top of the swing and keeps everything on the same plane.  You should try it if you’re having trouble controlling your ball.  Good Luck!

Accelerate through the ball.  I always understood what that meant.  I was watching a program the other night hosted by a respected golf professional whose definition of acceleration was wrong.  Well, that’s fine, we’re not all engineers but it brought to my attention that “accelerate through the ball” might be misinterpreted by some. 

Acceleration is the positive change in velocity with respect to time.  Who cares?  What that means is your club should be picking up speed when hitting the ball.  It doesn’t mean you have to swing rapidly on the down stroke it just means the club head should be picking up speed; even if it’s just a little bit.  The last thing you want is for the club head to be slowing down (decelerating) when trying to hit the ball.

The pro I mentioned defined acceleration as a rapid movement.  Wrong.  But the explanation that made sense to him was to say the momentum of the club should increase when hitting the ball.  The term “momentum” to him related to a smooth swing.  He’s correct about that, the momentum should increase when hitting the ball.  How do you increase momentum with a golf club?  Accelerate!

Well, I should know better.  I’ve been trying to play about 3 times a month and I shoot about the same thing every time and I got lazy about posting my score.  No big deal, I thought, I’m comfortable with my handicap and I’m not getting any better or worse so why bother?  I was unaware of the up coming member-member tournament at my home course and it wasn’t until my buddy called looking for a partner that I realized there was a tournament coming up.  I gladly signed up to play but got a call from the head pro the day before the event.  He explains that since I hadn’t posted 3 scores within the last month I could only be given 50% of my last handicap!  Yikes.  “I’m not trying to get away with anything, I swear”, I tell him.  “The competition committee, blah, blah, yadda, yadda” he says.  Okay fine, we’ll just kick butt on the gross!

This article will explain the terms and process necessary to understand your golf handicap.  Hopefully this will be the most accurate and succinct information you’ll find on handicap.  Let’s start with terms to get familiar even though their definitions will also be explained later.

Handicap – A numerical representation of a golfers playing potential.  This is not an average but relates to the golfers ability.

Handicap Index – An official handicap established through a USGA sanctioned golf club.  It represents how many shots over par the player has the potential to shoot. 

Course Handicap – This is the number of strokes a player can “take” on a given course.

Course Rating – This is the average score that 50 percent of the scratch golfers will make on the particular course.

Slope Rating – This number represents the relative difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer.  This number ranges from 55 to 155.

Equitable Stroke Control – Method used to determine how many strokes played on a hole based on your course handicap will count towards your adjusted gross score.

Adjusted Gross Score – This score is the total number of strokes played after allowing for equitable stroke control.

Net Score – This is your adjusted gross score minus your course handicap.

Sandbagger – A player who doesn’t post all of his best scores thus is creating a greater handicap for himself than he should have.

The purpose of this whole handicap mess is so you can go play with your buddy and compete fairly at the same level even though you and your buddy have different abilities.  Essentially a better player will “give” strokes to a worse player.  This means at the end of the round you can compare your net score to see who’s walking away with the cash.  It gets tricky because courses are, of course, not the same and this must be taken into account. 

After playing at least 5 rounds at a sanctioned USGA course, you will have established your handicap.  It’s best to get at least 20 scores for your handicap but 5 is the minimum required.  While establishing this handicap you have to follow the equitable stroke control rules and not post a score greater than a 10 on any hole.  Once your handicap is established then use the following equitable stroke control chart to determine the maximum number of strokes you can use toward your handicap on each hole.

Equitable Stroke Control Chart

Okay, so you go out on your 6^th round with your newly established handicap index from your home course.  Based on the course slope and course rating, the pro shop can now figure out your course handicap.  Some pro shops have charts for this or worst case this is how you do it:
Course Handicap = Handicap Index multiplied by (Slope Rating/113).  Therefore, if your Handicap Index is 15.7, then your Course Handicap would be 15.7 x (120/113), or 17 (16.7 rounded up).

So, you go out on your 6^th round with a course handicap of 17 which means you can’t post a score higher than a 7 and if your buddy is a scratch golfer then he has to “give” you 17 strokes.  Or put another way, after the round you subtract 17 from your adjusted gross score to get your net score which you compare with the net score of the people you played with. 

So that’s it, that’s the bottom line on golf handicaps.  Keep reading if you want more than just the bottom line.  Please leave comments if you have any questions.  See the rest of the article under “Instruction” on www.golf.sc.

I’ve told you about Gene the sandbagger, now let me tell you about Gary.  Gary is not only one of the best sandbagger’s he’s also hyper-competitive and loves to gamble.  He’s a force to reckon with on the golf course.  Now don’t get me wrong, Gary would give you the shirt off his  back and is truly a great guy but he won’t give you a stroke for anything.  If he played his grandma he wouldn’t give her any strokes.  Gary is a great golfer, he’s the reigning match play champion at a prestigious Charleston club, and is about a 4 handicap but is always bucking to say he’s a 10!   If you get him to come off of his “10″ handicap any, there’s some angle he’s working.  He’ll make up teams that are to his advantage.  If you only allow him to be a 6 he’ll come up with a gambling scheme to compensate.  Or he’ll just heckle you the entire day so you end up giving him 4 shots back for lousy play on your part.  It’s a great time but you have to take the heat and give it back.  He can be two holes ahead of you and you hear him; he’ll play mental games.  He’ll scream “BOO YA” after a bogey putt just to keep you guessing.  The mid round scores are all lies.  You’ll be 6 under as a team but say your 12 under just to put pressure on.  He’ll just say “oh, yeah, we’re 14 under!”

Watch out for Gary at your course; his name is different but you know he’s there.  Good luck!

Our first sandbagger is Gene.  He lives in Pennsylvania but is down here in South Carolina playing golf quite a bit since his sister-in law lives here.  Gene always “hasn’t played in a while”.  He’s a good golfer and is truly about an 8 handicapper.  But he’s always looking for more and talking you into a 10 or 11 for his cap because he hasn’t played in while.  Don’t even try it, Gene!  If you’ve been playing golf for a while and post all of your scores, this type of absence is accounted for in your index.  The handicap system doesn’t care how long it’s been since you played and it really doesn’t matter unless maybe it’s been years since you’ve played.  Gene, you’re an 8, now get in the cart.

I was talking with someone today about golf and this individual is not an golfer but he said one of the funniest things about golf.  He said, “You know golfers are a pretty honest bunch; at least they don’t lie about their handicaps”.  I about fell out of my chair!

For all you sandbaggers out there, you have the general populace on your side.  But we know better!  We know who you are and where you hide.  You’re the Leisure Suit Larry of the day, the guy who’s always surprised; “I can’t believe I shot 10 shots better than my cap!”  You hide at the weekend golf blitzes, the charity golf tournaments, slithering around the club house forgetting to put in your best round and always somehow winning.

I’ve seen the opposite side of that too.  The guy who’s too proud to post a bad score and only posts his best.  That’s great…for him.  He’s the one that will play great golf most of the time but plays lousy golf when I’m his partner!