Mid-Handicapper Getting A Runs Of Pars

A while ago there was a little debate on whether it's possible for a mid handicapper to get runs of pars for say 5 holes.  Whether if it happens it means the player is a cheat or a bandit, and whether it just isn't possible.I argued it is possible and again today I proved it.I played 10 holes at Lee Park and made 6 pars.  And a par with my second ball on another hole (first out of bounds!)-so kid of 7!  I shot 5 over for 10 holes. This included the out of bounds, a par putt on another hole that lipped out and a thinned bunker shot on another hole that cost a double.  I very easily could of and should of been 2 over for 10 holes.I just played well.  Only 3 of the pars were consecutive.And I am a genuine 16.8 handicapper at present.  Ok Id like to think I am maybe 13-14 handicap when I get some cards in, but definitely not up to single figures yet.So it clearly shows that it is possible.  I didn't hole any putts outside 5 foot!  SO if that happens anything is possible.  I shot 40 for the front nine.The other day I shot 48 and yesterday I shot 43-it just proves mid handicappers are up and down.  It does not mean you are a bandit!!!That's for you Martin!!! 

Congrats on a great score.

I often have a run of say four or five holes where I get par or better.

Russ

My target is to par 6 on the bounce at my club.

I have managed 4 so far.

Certainly can be done, I've recently been hitting a bit of form, I say form as it could easily go as quickly as it's come! Last week on my home course I hit 6 pars in a row, shooting my best score there overall with a 71 (it's a short par 60, SSS 57) so definitely below my handicap. Then on Saturday in our league match I did hit 3 birdies on the front 9 (not in a row) but did mean I achieved the front 9 in only one over par. Now I must admit that is more in line for a shout of "bandit", however had a couple of scrappy holes on back 9 and we lost our match on the last hole (so the opposition could be seen wearing sombrero's as well!)

Basically what I'm saying is the last couple of weeks I have hit hot streaks a couple of times which is very pleasing, the practice is paying off. However back on subject once anyone has developed a certain level of coordination in this game then a string of pars is definitely achievable, it's trying not to let your mind then wander and let the game bite you in the behind straight away to frustrate you once more!!

Just grab joy from the successful holes you have and feed off that for future improvement!

Matt it most definitely is possible - it has to be in order to balance out the bogeys and doubles or we'd all be off much higher handicaps. Keep it up and if your game stays togther for more of the round the handicap will start to come down. It's finally started happening for me (probably jinxed it now!), but it does take a while especially as cuts are so small.

me and my m8 both made par on 6 holes on the bounce it was great si it is very possible to get a good run together ,golf is a very frustrating game u can be goin really well then have a disaster hole and ya head goes and ya end up with bad score lol

Yeah Marc, ya kinda feed off each other. If one's scoring well it makes the other play better. Find it helps me to play with people of a lower handicap than myself as my game seems to step up a gear to try and beat them, but you also learn alot by watching how a low handicapper approaches each hole. Might only be a slight difference but it could be 2 or 3 shots difference by the end of the hole. 

Six pars on the bounce is nigh on impossible at my course, even for the better players.

I think that it just goes to show why golf is played (and you are handicaped) over 18 holes.  Also proves that golf is played 90% in the head.

 A while ago playing off an 8 in the monthly medal I was having a blinder and 3 under after the first 9 holes (still the best 9 of my life).  The bloke marking my card (nice young lad from the junior section of the club)said "Wow, you could shoot 11 over on the back nine and still play to your handicap!!". 

 Sure enough the mind went and I shot 9 over round the back....

lol, could do but as it was back in NZ it's a bit far to go! Besides it was about 12 years ago so he won't be such a young lad now and might end up throwing me in the river....

Worst thing is I make a point of not counting my score until the finish so I don't trip myself up.  The lesson I learnt from that experiences that I tell my playing partners I don't want to know my score until the end. 

Still I imagine if I am ever 3 under for 9 again I would know how good I was going anyway.

It's easy Stuart - just concentrate on thinking of NOTHING else apart from your next shot..... so in your case just picture yourself in deep rough or surrounded by trees!!!

I think of anything aside from golf, up until I start my pre shot routine and then I am only thinking about that shot.  Speak to playing partners, look at the scenery, anything to distract your mind.

 That is the theory anyway, and when I am playing well seems to work.  I find it is much harder to put into practice if I have had a bad hole or bad bit of luck then the demons take over! 

Happened on a recent round at Birchwood Park, was about 2 over after 8, hitting it really well, especially off the tee. Got to the 9th hit driver just left of the flag, both myself and playing partner thought it would be on the green, got down there and could not find it.  Had not hit a provisional as there was no way it could be lost (so I thought) so had to blob the hole.  The next 5 or so holes were a write off.

 If someone can tell me how to stop that I would be most grateful!

Seeing as I mark my score down on a scorecard it is impossible not to know how I am doing and as the score is the most important part I am pleased to know. When I could play the game better than I do now I always kept the score in my head by relating everything to 4's, This is easy to keep in ones head, although now it is easier for me to relate to 5's and hope that I am under level 5's.

Remember a shot, once played, is history and you are only as good as your next shot.

I only bother with my score after the first 9 holes. I know if I'm playing good or bad so it's just a check to see how good or how bad. I use this as an incentive for the back 9.

For instance on Saturday we had a medal qualifier & after 9 holes I was 6 over. I just thought about having a decent back 9. I then went Par, double bogey, par, bogey, bogey, bogey, 8, bogey, bogey.

I got the 8 on the 16th where after 2 shots I was 60yrds short of the green & managed to shank it into a bunker & the rest is history . My mistake was checking my score on the 16th tee!!

Instead of playing the agressive golf I had been doing I thought "ooh if I get a 5 here & then par, par I'm in with a chance of winning" & decided to play safe!!.

We live & learn.

When playing in a comp where the score is really the only ones worth counting I just stick my number down in the markers column and never total my front or back nine scores till the very end.

 I allway do my partners as we go along incase they ever want to know but I just leave mine. I know if I drop a shot over 5's say I then try to hard to make it up and on the other hand if I'm way under play to conservativly and end up makng slack lazy swings.

You know when you are playing well or just hacking it up looking at a score card just puts extra pressure on what you should alrady know from the way you are swinging the club and how willing the ball is to go in the hole.

 I think that a lot of 'mid handicappers' put themselves under immense pressure when they talk about pars on the trot and I bet they're thinking whether they'll beat their personal best after two consecutive pars have been safely puy away. My advice, and I know it's difficult at first, is to have an entirely different mindset. DON'T PROJECT OR PLAN SHOTS UNTIL YOU'RE ABOUT TO TAKE THE SHOT.

 I was in the fortunate position last Friday of being one under par after four holes with the fifth a reachable in two par 5. I like to think I had the above in mind but if I'm honest I was really thinking this is a birdie ...ended up with a bogey.

 Trust your swing and if you must at least wait 'til the 9th to tot up as Chris Perry mentions.

 The game can be sressful enough without any further self imposed strain.

I'm a mid handicapper and I managed a few runs of pars at Gorsty Hill on Saturday

As you can see I had my thought of, this could be an amazing card around the 15th and then shot a bogey, double, bogey on the next 3 holes.  Missed a birdie chance on the last for a 79!

It can be done!

 Chris, I can't be sure, but if you enlarge your picture will we see a sombrero?s

A good way to keep score in your head and gain confidence is touched on by John P.

Work out your score in your head against all 4's, 5's or 6's. "Level" is then 72, 90 or 108. So a 15 Hcp'er on a Par 72 SSS 72 should use 5's and end up 3under. Just think how you would feel stood on the 15th Tee 5under, rather than 9 over Par(?) and knowing 4 x 5's is your target and not what the course Par is.

TheLyth

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Played in the Algarve last week and had a pretty good score.  Started on 10 and as you can see the end of the round was a case of holding on for dear life!  I knew I was having a good round but managed to keep it out of my head for the most part, but got a bit tentative with the putter on the front (my back) 9 and left a few short.

 I am pretty sure if I was keeping count I would have got tense and my swing would have suffered.  For me there is a big difference in that when I count my score as I go along I think about it more than hitting the shots.  

I guess it is similar to the pros where some look at the leaderboard and some don't.

String of pars? for me most unlikely. I have enough trouble stringing bogeys together.

My personal view is that low handicappers can quite easily string pars together on a regular basis where as mid-high handicappers (including myself) can only do this very rarely.

Disappointingly, I have just spent a chunk of my Sunday lunchtime deleting posts from this thread.  A few of them were fine by themselves, but I felt it best to delete all that were related; an example of this is a post mde by Russ M telling people to behave like adults.  I apologise if you have had a post deleted on which you had done nothing wrong but was related to the content I had to delete.   

I refer EVERYONE to the AUP for use of the forum.  I don't enjoy reading the stuff that has been posted and do not want to waste my time deleting it.  I will let Darren decide on what action should be taken on those which have broken the AUP. 

I started with 3 pars yesterday, my best start to a game, but I don't think I've had 3 in a row before.  As John F said above, I think the lower your handicap, the more chance there is but with one exception.  If you are a higher handicap due to inconsistency (my problem) then you have more chance of stringing a run of pars together. 

Agree Chris.

I played West Mids last week & hit almost every fairway, when I hit the green in regulation I made par. Where I struggled was from about 110yrds where I either tried to hit a full wedge or take a bit off a 9 iron which resulted in missing the green!

Can't moan though I shot a gross 83 & got 38 points, only to find out I'd been beaten by 1 point by someone who was in front of us & didn't hardly hit a fairway & had some 'dubious' drops. For example on the 3rd they hit their tee shot way over to the right over the trees only for him to say "I think I'll find that"!! & his mates going "well if you don't just drop one down there"

I didn't say anything at the time as in previous outings this 24 handicapper has never broken 30 points so when he came in with 39 points pipping me by one I thought if I said anything it would have sounded like sour grapes. What can you do?

John.

Speak to the Comp SecCommittee,

Tell them what you heard ( "If you can't find it drop another" ). It maybe the guys scored 0 points on that hole, a couple of 4 pointers would soon equal that out.

Let them sort it out, don't get involved further. You are passing on facts then, not accusing anyone.

TheLyth

Well,Matt, handicaps used to be based on your best performance under summer conditions, but now that seems to have gone out of the window and that is why we have players with excellent striking abilities masquerading off of handicaps that are way to high for their ability.

May I suggest you try playing Chris Perry matchplay off his handicap.

I have not been on golfshake for a month and you are still talking about this subject.

Sorry Matt the argument was -1 through a five hole stretch, not heard anyone say that

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ive recently played with a guy that only putts out if hes a chance of a par because hes totally obsessed with the game ,its pathetic in my opinion you play till the balls goes in the hole otherwise you will never ever improve and your only kidding ya self ,so what if ya get a double bogey or a treble its golf and if it was that easy we would all be pros ),your handicap should reflect your consistancy if you dont put all ya scores in ya just fooling ya self that ya better than what you actually are,and yes russ i agree with ya unless ya playing in comps whats it matter if ya of 7 or 17 we should all have targets and surely playing in comps is half the fun in my opinion,would be awesome to play of 7 tho ,im not kidding myself i dont think ill ever get there maybe about 10 that would be great.

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Marc,

don't waste any of your energy any of the above replies. I unfortunatley got caught up in a 'slanging match' over the weekend which I won't be repeating.

John.

Matt,

if you felt so strongly about the cheating why did you not say anything at the time?

You can't compare a 7 handicap casual golfer to a 7 handicap comp player.

The 2 scenario's are completely different. In most cases a 7 handicap comp player will more than likely play lower than that in casual golf.

I'm not sure how you can get your handicap down anyway without entering any comps? (OK there are cuts on general play but they don't happen as often as if you enter a comp)

Why have I just had to waste even more time editing/removing posts? 

I haven't deleted the whole thread because it has, in general, been a fair and reasoned debate.  I won't waste my time if it happens again, the whole thread goes.  You ALL know better.  This is an open forum who can be read by anyone.  Posting inflamatory, inciting or abusive comments will not be tolerated.  If you aren't sure of what is or isn't allowable, read the AUP at the link below ->

http://www.golfshake.com/forums/forumHelp.php

Matt,

I didn't realise Santo had sold the putter on!

John.

he never said anything because its a load of rubbish ,hes obviously having problems at home i guess.

Thank for the PM Marc, much appreciated.