Posts tagged handicap drop

Handicap Drop – Now 8.6

Oct 14th

Once again my handicap index has dropped. I think all of the things I’ve been working on are having a major impact on my game and how I play it.

This is the lowest my handicap has ever been and I’m pretty excited about that. I am also very excited because I know I still have much I can improve on. I think to move to scratch I will really need to improve my short game. I think the strategy for this will be as follows:

Putting. Must become a better putter. You can always save strokes putting well. Putting practice will continue while I work on the other short game areas.
Bunker game. I am finding myself in more fairway bunkers and bunkers by the green. When I miss from long range I don’t miss by as much, but the misses are just enough that they put me in the bunker. I will need to improve my sand save percentage as well as my ball striking from fairway bunkers.
Pitching and chipping from 60, 30 and 15 yards. Getting up and down from these ranges is essential.

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Course Management, handicap drop, Practice, Putting, Swing Theory

Use a “Personal Par” to play better golf

Oct 12th

Posted by Zen Chili in Getting better

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Personal Par

I don’t worry about the par on the scorecard anymore. The truth is that it’s not really relevant. When I got back into golf 3 years ago, I was about a 26 handicap. Back then it was really not relevant.

As I get closer and closer to becoming a scratch golfer it will become more relevant but for now not worrying about it has been tremendously helpful in lowering my handicap from 26 to my current index of 9.3.

What I do care about is my personal par. The course I play has rating of 71.7 and a slope of 129. In my book that makes it a nice test. It’s not the most challenging course I play, but it’s not the easiest either. My course handicap based on the above numbers is 11. Therefore my personal par is 83. However my goal is to shoot my index or 2 strokes less. Meaning I’m satisfied with an 81 (-2) , but I want a 79 (-4).