yeah, play with what you brought! That’s a great mantra. If that driver isn’t working at all, there’s nothing wrong with 220 in the middle

Thank you for the comment,

Dan

I agree with that. Tournament handicap is the way to go. I’d love to only score rounds where that is the case and that was my goal, but seeing as they are few and far between right now, I will post a round or so a week and keep both my tourney and my non-tourney handicaps.

Dan

I think you, and everyone, have good points. After that post, and thinking about it for a while, I’ve decided the best thing to do is to play at least one round per week where score is the focus. I will determine before heading off on the first tee whether that round is a “practice” round or a “scoring round” and if it’s a scoring round I will post my score regardless of the results. That way I can focus on course work sometimes and the added pressure of having to post to a handicap on other rounds. Play will be different, but good both ways.

Thank you and everyone for the comments and thoughts,

Dan

As mentioned by a previous poster, handicap is simply a measure of potential. Focus on process is great, but golf is still a game in which a score is kept. If bombing it off the tee results in your best score, bomb away. If it doesn’t, you are – in my opinion – not playing the game. The range (and sometimes the course) is for practice.

Three weeks ago, I played for the first time in over six years (back issues). I shot 97 (70.2/129). Afterwards, I hit balls on four different occasions and played again this past Tuesday. After going out in 44, I was determined to break 40 coming in. As usual, being results oriented screwed me: I doubled 10, bogeyed 11, and figured my goal was history. With my results-oriented mindset gone, I came in at three over and shot 83 on a course I’ve never played (71.6/118). Not spectacular by any means, but after a huge layoff, I’ll take it.

I didn’t start playing until I was 35 (I’m 51 now), but I used to put A LOT of time into my game, getting my GHIN to 1.8 at my peak. I’ve calculated that I have about 3000 hours of total time in my game. I’ve taken about 20 lessons in my life, but I’ve always achieved my best results ‘digging it out of the dirt’ and playing with whatever I brought to the course on any given day. I hit driver four times on Tuesday, as I was hitting a sweeping hook that I couldn’t get under control on the course. Dropped down to four wood (I hit it about 220, but I can keep it in play) and relied on my short game to score (as usual).

Fairways and greens, as ‘they’ say.

Best of luck!

I hope you keep recording your “normal” handicap but why not do it as Matt suggests, whit designated scoring practice rounds. All the points he makes sound valid in my opinion! Then, you can keep a tournament HCP on the side to be able to compare how you do when the pressure is on or off.

One other thing. I think Dan has earned the license to try what he thinks works best. Certainly, the one thing we cannot reasonably accuse Dan of throughout this project is not taking it seriously, or not being able to face hard facts about what stands in the way of his progress. So it’s just a mistake to couch this discussion in terms of “hiding” or some other notion of evasion.