What do you consider scratch?

This is why I stopped posting anything but my tournament rounds. I was getting close last summer but I realized ask my scores were from one course and it didn't feel legitimate. These are some different perspectives I hadn't considered before, which is nice.

In my opinion, a scratch golfer can go to any course, of any rating/slope and play it at +2, or under the course's rated par. A true scratch player to me, has a great, all around  game. They have natural ability, and the knowledge to pull of par saving shots 90% of the time.  They probably average under 2 putts per green.

The pros are scratch, or better golfers, and a scratch amateur golfer could play on some pro circuit some where if they wanted to. Probably not on the PGA, but some mini tour some where.

At what I consider my current home course, I am averaging right at 78 (+6)  a round. I play it so much, (4-5 times a week) that it's just easy for me. I know the greens. When I get to a course I am unfamiliar with, I can play as high a an 85 and still be happy with my game. I play at quite a few different courses during the year, and what ever score I card, I am quite pleased with it.

@mvmac would you add a minimum course length to that?

Just to check, but on a course that has a rating of 74 that means a scratch player is expected to shoot 74, or a rating of 69 expected to shoot 69, correct? I realize this is sort of splitting hairs with @mvmac saying "around par" but it's a pretty important distinction over those saying that they should shoot even par.

If this is correct, I would say a scratch player is someone who can shoot the course rating consistently regardless of the course they are playing.

I think my question might have been misunderstood. Maybe not. Allow me - e.g. Should a player be able to shoot par on several courses as you mentioned from at least (minimum) 6,500 yards? Maybe I should asked if you meant net par.

Exactly. I think this is what I meant to ask and should have asked but Jeremie obviously can think his question through a little more clearly than I can.

"I usually shoot par",

"Really? from what tees"?

"Black tees"  -Dayyum son.

"Blue tees" - Respect.

"White tees" - "Hmm. So what do you shoot from blue or black tees?"

Maybe we are both getting ultra super duper mega technical. Dunno.

Is be happy to shoot par from the reds.

Only our competition scores count towards our handicap which makes it a bit easier but here it's basically someone who plays to a handicap of 0.4 or lower ie they play off scratch in competition. All competition rounds tend to be played from the tips - we often call them the competition tees.

Does mean you have 2 types of scratch player though - a player who plays local comps mainly at his own club who plays off 0.4 or lower and those that play the amateur circuit either in the UK or around the world. With our handicap system all your scores are counted, not the best 10 of 20 and for every round more than a shot over your handicap your handicap automatically goes up, you can't leave out a poor round from the handicap calculation. As a result of all of the above a scratch player here will have a lower stroke average than a scratch player over there  - somewhere around 1.5 shots a round lower when compared to the course rating.

Doesn't matter what tees or the par, a scratch will shoot the CR on average for 10 out of 20 rounds of any course. Not that technical.

Maybe, @Pretzel is getting a little technical by only posting rounds that he thinks have legitimate CR? He might already be scratch.

Scratch is really good.

I kind of agree with this. That's what a CR is for after all. If you say he's only scratch if his handicap is on a course of over 7000 yards or some such you're kind of saying you don't trust the CR system. I do get the 'only in competition' bit though.

Anybody who has a handicap under 1.

Seems like your standards are pretty high- most of the people you describe would have solid + handicaps. Not all courses allow everyone to play the back tees. I played Torrey Pines South recently with 3 Canada//E Tour pros. The score card shows the back tees with a 78+ rating and says "by permission only." They had gotten permission but on the 18th tee someone still came up and told them they were not allowed to play from back there. He said "only PGA Tour" pros were allowed to play there and that the starter was not authorized to give them permission. One of the guys was a Collegiate All-American and Mountain West player of the year and the guy finally relented and let them hit their final tee shot of the day, but it seemed pretty clear that they were not in the habit of letting just anyone play the tips (which did not have any tee markers set up on them).