Theory Queries

UK Handicap; 3.4 USGA Handicap; 4.0


I had my coaching today, and it was a bit of an eye-opener regarding how little I know about the theory of short game. I have never had any lessons or coaching in hitting the ball from 100 yards in, so I now have lots of things to work on.

I’m determined that this blog isn’t going to contain technical instruction of the mechanics of a golf shot, but there are many things that I need to consider now. Up until about 10 hours ago, I hit every pitch the same way, with my normal stance and swing as a full iron shot, without much thought to anything else. I now have to consider all of the following depending on the lie and conditions; 1) my stance width, 2) my stance direction, 3) the angle of the backswing, 4) the position of my hands at address, 5) the angle I hit the ball at, 6) what club to use, 7) how the ball will react when it lands, 8) what hand controls the golf shot. A lot of these things are common sense now that I know them, it’s just a case that if I’ve never been told what to do so have just made it up as I go along.

Another couple of subjects to wrap up the week;

My UK handicap has gone up to 3.4. Although the competition results haven’t been published my handicap has been adjusted upwards for a competition a couple of weeks ago. This means I’m one bad round away from going back up to a handicap of 4. This doesn’t faze me, as I know it will only be a temporary blip, but I’ve been playing off of 3 since 13^th June last year, it would be a shame to spoil that run with a short sabbatical to 4.

Secondly, I’ve seen a few other blogs about people trying to become a scratch golfer (most started after this one I would hasten to add). It goes without saying that I will compare the other efforts to mine, and there is one thing that stands out a mile.

I am trying to take 3 shots off of my handicap over a period of 2 years, whereas some of these people are trying to achieve ridiculous goals, like getting down to scratch from double figures in the space of a year. In the US handicapping system, this is theoretically possible if you go and do nothing else other than hit golf balls for a year and have at least $40,000 spare. In the UK handicapping system (as most of these other blogs are) this is virtually impossible. If a player scored 5 under their handicap, or level par if playing off less than 5, in every round (which is a near impossible target anyway), then it would take the following number of rounds to get down to scratch; A 9 handicapper would need 26 consecutive rounds, a 14 handicapper would need 30 consecutive rounds, and an 18 handicapper would need 33 consecutive rounds.

Maybe I’m being far too conservative, and getting down to scratch really is as easy as some people are making out, but I genuinely think some of these people have bitten off more than they can chew. A more realistic target would be to halve their handicap in a year, that takes 6 or 7 consecutive rounds in the scenario detailed above, regardless of handicap, in order to achieve that goal. There is a big difference between ‘going round a golf course in level par’ and ‘being a scratch golfer’.