To become an 8 handicap golfer . . .

This was sent to me by a mate the other day:

To become an 8 handicap golfer look how simple it can be

Drive the ball on average 220 yards

Hit 50% of your Fairways

Hit 33% of your Greens In Regulation

Get up and down from around the green (scrambling) 50%

Have 32 putts per round

and your mates handicap is......

Shoot around 8 over par as an average for your golf...

Also, driving the ball an average of 220 yards and hitting 50% of fairways is irrelevant to these stats. The rest is just simple maths that can be tweaked to suit any handicap and any style of play...

LondonJonnyO wrote:and your mates handicap is......

He got it from here:

http://everyshotsanopportunity.co.uk/default.aspx

sharrison01 wrote:Shoot around 8 over par as an average for your golf...

Do you do stand-up?

Merc it sounds like such a simple thing... but then you look at this.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/stats/genworthfs/season=2011/categoryid=8/index.html

And then you realise that there are a shedload of tour players who don't get up and down that often!

Also. Is it me or does that bloke look like he's swallowed a horses teeth?

Mercurio wrote:

sharrison01 wrote:Shoot around 8 over par as an average for your golf...

Do you do stand-up?

Merc

sharrison's comment might have been a bit tongue in cheek but you can't argue against his logic

My comment was more to do with this being such a ridiculous piece from your mate.

There are a hundreds of thousands if not millions of people that have been or are an 8 handicapped golfer and the only thing that they have in common is that they all shot/shoot around 8 over par on average...

Ha, when you add those shots up you get 32 putts, 18 tee shots, say 16 shots 'fairway shots' (2nd shots on par 4s and 3rds on par 5s), and 12 chip/pitches. That's 78 shots. With no room for any errors aside from missing the fairway/green

So basically what that guy is saying is -

"To become an 8 handicapper...........never 3 putt, never duff a chip and never hit your drive out of bounds"

No! You don't say..............i should try that!!

sharrison01 wrote:My comment was more to do with this being such a ridiculous piece from your mate.

There are a hundreds of thousands if not millions of people that have been or are an 8 handicapped golfer and the only thing that they have in common is that they all shot/shoot around 8 over par on average...

MustPuttBetter wrote:Ha, when you add those shots up you get 32 putts, 18 tee shots, say 16 shots 'fairway shots' (2nd shots on par 4s and 3rds on par 5s), and 12 chip/pitches. That's 78 shots. With no room for any errors aside from missing the fairway/green.

Assuming a par 72, would you not have room for 2 shots?

Marc - assuming par 72 yes. I play as many, if not more, pars 69 and 70 than 72 though

Either way, the advice is still basically don't hit anything OB, don't duff/top anything and don't 3 putt.
Not exactly hugely insightful is it!

33% of greens hit means 12 missed greens

50% up and down means 6 one putts and 6 two putts, so 6 dropped shots.

Take these 18 putts from the recommended 32 putts and you are left with 14 putts on the remaining 6 (33%) greens that you have hit in regulation.

This means that there are two three putts on the greens hit in regulation and adding this to the 6 dropped shots on the missed greens leaves you 8 over par...

Assuming par 72 yes, the two 3 putts being the 2 spare shots Merc refers too

Still, not exactly advice i would pay for!

It can just be tweaked for any handicap in any way but still does not have any use. It's not as if someone is going to read that and suddenly find a way of getting to an 8 handicap!?!

To me, its sounds like something that would read really well in The Daily Mail. Golf gives you cancer anyone?

100% agreed

You don't exactly go out, duff a few chips, hit some drives OB and take a few 3 putts and are then surprised at scoring higher than 80!

Advice in the loosest terms i would say!

Some people have gone a bit too OTT on this.

It's not meant as advice, but to put different areas of your game into perspective.

Scottrf wrote:It's not meant as advice, but to put different areas of your game into perspective.

Hallelujah - someone with an idea of context.

I still think that pro has funny looking choppers.

Even still, they are massively incorrect.

I would suggest that the average 8 handicapper hits the ball well enough with their irons and woods but will find that their short game is not good enough to get lower. This article suggests that an 8 handicapper should have a short game to the equivalent of a tour pro but can only hit it 220yds off the tee and their putting could be better. A short game stat like that is more representative of a low handicapper/pro ...

It doesn't really put any areas of your game into perspective, as without meeting all of them you're not anywhere near.
You can't take those points in isolation so it's either 'advice' in it's entirety or it's useless.
There's no point in saying 'i hit 50% of fairways' if you take 45 putts and hit no greens