Golf: End Of Handicap Season Wrap Up

Needless to say, the golf diary ended about 2 months ago, and even though hell did not freeze over, I continued to play. I am at 132 rounds and counting. The season has a ways to go, but the handicap season is coming to a close. I stopped the diary format because as much as a stats geek guy I am, when it comes to baseball, I’m about as much of a non-stats guy when it comes to golf. Unlike a lot of people who put a lot of emphasis on greens in regulation, I’m all about the putts. Putting is the most important part of the game. This is a very hard thing for most golfers to accept. With all the tinkering and swing changes we go through to try and hit the ball better, it is not a surprise that many golfers feel the most important thing in golf is to hit the green. I have had many a good round in my life where I have hit less than 6 greens in the round. I consider a good round 3 over par or better. I have never had a good round where my putting total is 34 or over. It is a simple equation. If you make putts, you score and if you don’t you don’t. Ball striking is a very complex process. Putting is a very simple process. It takes a man to hook and fade a golf ball at will. Anybody can putt. This is the ball striker’s mantra. Unfortunately, it is not true. Putting is what separates the men from the boys, so get over it. Putting is the most important part of golf and I do not need any stat analyses to tell me that.

The good news this year is that I shot my age 73 seven times this year, after failing to do it at all last year. I had four 71’s, two 72’s and one 73. In all 7 rounds I had 28 putts or less. Since the last golf diary on July 31st I have been the model of inconsistency. I have shot two of the 71’s but also shot 90. I am on a bit of a run now with 7 straight rounds in 70’s. I almost got my 6th hole in one when I left a 7 iron on the 15th hole at South Park 1.5 inches short of the pin. I got a new set of irons and ditched the graphite shafted Titleist AP 3’s. That has improved my iron play from horrible to mediocre. I have been driving the ball well. The short game is mediocre, and the putting is really up and down. The yips have been bad to ok. The one thing that has plagued me in my so-called senior years is the horrible shot. I am the perfect example of it is not where your good shots go as much as where your bad shots go. They are definitely round killers. I am working on a new iron philosophy that started on shots from 50 to 100 yards. Once I got inside 90 yards, I would start to use my 60 degree wedge and make the adjustment when I got closer to the hole. In the last 2 weeks, I have started hitting my gap wedge (48 degree) or my pitching wedge (44 degree) when I have a shot of less than 100 yards, depending on how much green I have to work with. The results have been good so far, which is a big reason why I am on this little 70 run. I have begun to apply this to some longer shots depending on the situation. I will hit my 6 iron 160 yards instead of the normal 170 to 175. I have just started doing this, so it is hard to tell what the effect will be on my scoring abilities. Will update when appropriate.

I will end the year with a handicap index of 5.8. During the year I got it down to as low as 4.0 and it reached a high of 6.2. Most of the increase was due to the bad shots mentioned previously and to some horrible putting. I really had some great putting rounds through about the middle of June. Since then, I have struggled on the greens with just a few good putting rounds sprinkled in. The Handicap season is over but playing golf will continue as long as the weather holds up. I played 7 rounds beyond this date last year. Hopefully, I may be able to get more in this year. No matter how many rounds I play I am going to start a little series about the mysteries of golf of which there are many. The articles may be endless. Let’s hope not.