Anybody ever witnessed something like it?

[kafka01]

Today in a tournament a buddy of mine suddenly shoots a 77. Only problem is - he is a 19hcp - never even came close to 80 before - in the club championship over 3 rounds he scored on average 100. Also all the tournaments he played before he regularly shot over 90 the last weeks and he didnt practice or did anything in the meantime.

Now i remebered this probability table which was posted here a couple weeks ago of the USGA http://www.cmmc.us/usgascoreprob.htm of the likelyhood of exceptional tournament results - he isnt even on this chart anymore. I did the math for our course and he got a net differential of -15.1 and the likelyhood of such a round is probably >100000.

I´m pretty sure he didnt cheat in any way, so i can only guess that this was a one kind thing which he cant repeat for a long time (and guys already line up playing him for money with his new handicap) - so did any of you ever witnessed such an event - how did it work out for the guy who shot that expectional score?

[Fraser]

My brother and I used to be junior members at the same course and had been from 1998 until the 'incident' in 2002. As we were both at boarding school we hardly had any time to play during term time, as such our handicaps would only ever come down during the summer months.

We entered the junior section's premier event, the junior championship, and were hoping to do well although we'd never done that well before. It was held on a Friday, and two days previous my brother had won a competition at a golf course in Portugal, and on Thursday whilst he was flying home I won the nett competition at a competitor course's junior open. Surprising for us as this was early in the summer and we were very much out of practice with handicaps based on much better play the previous autumn.

Anyways, my brother was in one of the first groups in the championship and I was in one of the last and at the clubhouse after 18 he was in the lead having posted a nett 55 On the second 18 he shot nett 59 and won the event by quite a margin. (the course par is 69 and his handicap was 20)

All the other groups just presumed he'd cheated (despite the fact you play as threesomes!) or that he'd deliberately not entered any tournaments previously in order to deliberately keep our handicaps 'high' for the championship. It was a pretty sad state of affairs...

On the drive home I asked him how the day went and he said he just couldn't miss a putt and that everything came together like magic, his first round of the day was the best round he'd ever played. Our club managed and calculated handicaps and after those two rounds it dropped either six or eight strokes!

[ctmurrray]

Today in a tournament a buddy of mine suddenly shoots a 77. Only problem is - he is a 19hcp - never even came close to 80 before - in the club championship over 3 rounds he scored on average 100. Also all the tournaments he played before he regularly shot over 90 the last weeks and he didnt practice or did anything in the meantime.

I guess I would ask him what changed in this round vs a standard round. Certainly he should be able to indicate what went well and what flaws that normally appear in his game did not appear during this round. When he posts this round as a tournament the USGA will be lowering his handicap.

My lowest score was on a very short course with very tight fairways. My game is short but very straight. So I drove a par 4 (just over 200 yds) for a two putt birdie, I eagled a par 5. The longest par 3 was 110 yds. I also putted well that day. I shot about 15 shots better than my normal average at the time (based upon playing at a much longer course).

[Awsi Dooger]

My dad just turned 75, although he's certainly more limber than the typical 75-year-old and is a fairly big guy at 6-1, 185 pounds.

He's always struggled to break 100. In fact, that's his goal every round and has been for more than 30 years. He generally fails narrowly but once in a while he'll come in with 97 or so. He drives maybe 210 tops.

Anyway, 4 years ago in Palm Springs we played the same course every day for a week while he was out West on a time share exchange. It was a legit championship course, although not particularly tough. I was maybe 1 shot better on average than my typical 10 handicap.

My dad was typical, struggling to break 100 the first 3 or 4 days. At that point he was longer off the tee, maybe 225 max.

One day out of nowhere he starts playing brilliantly, no mistakes and every hole a chip and a putt for par. I couldn't believe it and neither could he. With 2 or 3 holes to go on the front nine he mentioned wouldn't it be wild if he shot even par for 9 holes. I fully expected a triple and a double but darn if he didn't pull it off, 9 consecutive pars. He called my mom on the cell phone and she started laughing. She still doesn't believe it.

The back nine was more normal but he still shot 46, well below typical. Otherwise I've never seen him break 90 but that day he managed 82. On the last hole he had a chance to tie or beat me for the first time since I was a kid, but I managed a par while he bogeyed, 81 to 82. I almost felt guilty.

And yeah, I've wondered about the odds. Just keep putting digits on the end of a 9 and you'll eventually approximate it.

[rjfan91]

Earlier this year, I shot a 78 as a 22 handicap a day after shooting 100. Same course, same tees, different day...

[michaeljames92]

The guy probably had a realy good round. Every putt sank and everything went his way. happens to me sometimes. Some days are sweet and others are days to forget

[RMD]

I played to an 18 handicap in our recent Club Championship. On the front 9 of the first round I three putt the 9th green for a 37 (par 36). I had only recently joined the club and was playing with 3 guys I'd never met. The further we went into the front 9, the more I sensed they felt I was a sandbagger. After a 48 on the back nine they were friendly again.

[JCDot33]

I have to believe that the "Golf God(s)" took pity on this poor soul and made him want to come back for his next round ...

See, sometimes, they will do this - every ball goes dead straight off the club face ... every putt that needs that extra rotation to fall into the cup gets it ... a ball fired into a water hazard skipps across the surface only to land dryly on the other side ...

Needless to say, the guy must have sacrificed a virgin the night before ...


Seriously though ... anyone can have one of those days, and it just happened to him on the right day ...

[SiamGolfer]

2 years ago I shot a 79 on a slope 125 course (I was a 20 handicap then). Needless to say I took all the money from the group of 20 in the competition and there were a few raised eyebrows (one guy did stick up for me though, and stated he done similar before).

>> I broke 80 only for the 2nd time on that course (got a 78) just 2 weeks ago!! (my handicap is currently 9), so yes it can happen