Familiarity with the course and scores

Of course being familiar with a course which you regularly play is naturally going to give you better scores. I know quite a few people that play only one golf course simply because they have a paid membership and don't play on any unfamiliar courses. Then these golfers tell you about how well they scored and about how their handicaps are getting lower. It makes me wonder how much their handicap and scores would go up if they were to go play on unfamiliar courses once in a while. Maybe my own scores aren't as low as I would like. But then again I don't have a membership to any one golf course and I end up playing at five or six different courses. Every now and then I will even go play a round at some course I have never been to before. I don't like getting into the one golf course rut, and I do like new challenges.

Any thoughts?

I played 4 rounds at three different courses last week. My two best scores were at the course I play the most often. The other two courses  that I am not not familiar with were 5, and 6 strokes higher. The major issue was not being use to the greens on the unfamiliar courses. The rest of my game was pretty much the same at all the courses.

I think its a definite advantage when you play a course regularly.  But for myself once I play a course a couple of times I am in pretty good shape usually.

Every course I go to I buy a course book.  Almost every course I have been to have pretty good course books.  I can usually plot my way around the course with a good book.  Then I make notes as I go.  The rough on this side of fairway is fine to miss into, over hear is dead, this bunker is pretty easy to get out of...this one is dead in the water...etc etc....

The biggest difference to me is usually the green speeds.  It can take me 4-5 holes before I start feeling comfortable with the green speeds.

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For the most part I agree with 9wood. Familiarity with the breaks on the greens, having a general idea about what club to hit on approach shots, and knowing where to miss your shots for easier up-and-downs is a great advantage that lead to lower scores. There is one exception that I can think of......

I have a number of friends who are members at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh. They all tell me that they score better when playing other courses. This makes sense, because when playing a track as difficult as OCC, you are going to have a tough time, no matter how well you know the course. Then when going to a different course you usually have wider fairways, fewer sand traps, slower greens, and lower rough.

I almost always score better on my home course (on which I've played hundreds of rounds) than on courses I'm not as familiar with.  I enjoy playing new courses, but I usually go into it expecting not to score as well as I do at 'home'.

no comparison, playing on a regularly played course is going to be easier for you. my dad was a 5 HC, on his course, he slaughtered me everytime, if i took him to a course he didnt know, id beat him the majority of the time. I think it has to do with comfort and lack of stress.

Depends upon the skill level of the player. When I was roughly a 28 HC using my best 10 score average, playing new courses was extremely challenging. Nowadays, I can play courses halfway around the world jet lagged and still score okay. Scratch golfers use the CR to determine the difficulty of the course because they hit more solidly than us. They're not as likely to skull or shank a shot, so the only difficulty is knowing how far to hit any shot. Bogey golfers depend upon the CR and slope and lots of inside information from local golfers to avoid junk if/when they mess up a shot.

I personally believe that a golfer will inevitably score better on his home course than on a course foreign to him.

Not necessarily, it probably depends upon the course rating of their home course.

If the person doesn't know Aimpoint then I'd say they could save a few strokes each round just from getting familiar with the greens.

Also blind tee shots can become an issue. If I played this Donald Ross course in Pinehurst again I would not take driver out on a Par 5 because if you clear the hill the fairway slopes severely towards a pond. I hit my driver with a slight draw on the right half of the fairway and it ran through to the pond located at the bottom of the hill on the left side of the fairway.

I think there is a comfortable feel after playing a course a few times. Certain holes might not look right, but after a few plays you might get use to it. Of course there are golf holes you never like.

Of course this doesn't mean every time you tee it up on a new course you will shoot higher.

I think it's a safe generalization, but not an absolute.  If somebody's home track is tight with lots of OB, forced carries and tricky, undulating greens, they may consistently score better on more open, forgiving courses.

I can agree with that

Like most, I play better at a home course. When I belonged to a spendy club, I played there 90+% of the time. It was close to home, no wait for a tee time and hey, no green fees (other than the monthly bleeding). My only thought is that someone in a similar situation, playing at a home club most of the time, will probably not realize a handicap change shooting a higher than normal score at a different course once or twice a month. Since your handicap is calculated on the 10 or 12 best scores of the last 20 or more, those few high scores will never make it into the equation.

Of course you'll do better on a course you play all the time. If I play a Beethoven Sonata 80 times I'll play it very well. If someone puts a piece of music I've never played before in front of me, while I can play through it fairly well, I will not play it any where close to as well as a piece that I've played 80 times. It just makes sense that you'll play a familiar golf course better than an unfamiliar golf course. You know where to land the ball and where not to land the ball. You know which greens are tricky and which greens aren't.

I may be an odd ball here.  I play 95% of the time at my home course and by all accounts including mine, the course rating is underrated by 2+ strokes.   My 16 - 18 HI went up to 20 soon after joining the club.   Once in a while, I play other courses and I fare well (they often end up in top 10 of my 20 HI scores in the system).