Leebonium

If the creator of the idea didn't consider having to get approval from courses, then yes, it's a completely implausible idea. So implausible that I would give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't overlook that fact. Plus, I think anyone who would use this service is not going to be put off by prices... this isn't for most people, or most courses for that matter.

Careful scrutiny of "clutchness" in other sports, like baseball and basketball, has typically shown that it's confirmation bias. We remember the hits and forget the misses. When Derek Jeter hits the walk-off single we remember it, and if he hits into a double play we forget it. The key fact is that he was a really good player generally and played for a really successful team, so he was in those situations a lot. So I would be wary of declaring someone clutch without analyzing their numbers outside of the emotion of it. There's no denying that Tiger and Phil were just better than nearly everyone else in all situations, so clearly they are going to outperform most in pressure situations, and have many opportunities in those big situations.

It kind of goes without saying that any company providing this service would be letting the courses take a cut and only allowing caddies on courses that approve it. That's no reason to shoot down the whole concept. If a course is willing to allow it, and they get a little more money, why not?

I might not be the best example to analyze, because I didn't play much for a long time and then started playing a ton over the last few months to try to regain my old form, so there's a lot of rust in this chart. But this is a chart of my diffs since July. There's a lot of variance, but the general trend is good.

I also recently broke 80 for the first time in my recent push to get back into golf, but only after about 6 tries between 80 and 83, heh. It sounds like you just need to work on your mental game a bit.

I've played golf since I was little, and I was the captain my high school team, but when I started working full-time I stopped playing more than a handful of times per year. Fast forward 10 years, and I decided over the summer that I would get new clubs (had been using the same ones from high school for 10+ years) and start playing a lot. I re-established my handicap, and it's currently 12.8, but falling quickly as I shake the rust off. For instance, yesterday I shot a 76 on a 69.5/126 course, so I think I'm close to my high school form and headed for single digits. The first month or so was a complete horror show, because I can hit the ball pretty far but had extremely erratic control. I played in a few local amateur events, but that was before I really hit my stride. I'm joining this site so that I can stay motivated over the winter! Here's hoping!