Guess the Handicap

[Dr. Slice]

im gunna say a 7 HDCP

even though he has a major chicken wings and not a lor of hip movement like people have said before me hes pretty old and looks like hes been playing for awhile, from the looks of it he made pretty good contact with the ball. Im guessing he has a good shortgame

[Keep It Simple]

His golf swing is actually decent. When I see a unique move like this at the top I think natural instinct thus repeatability. I wouldn't change much but his right elbow is unfolding too soon and his upper/lower body timing is off. He needs to keep his right elbow folded, drive it down towards his right hip and then push his right hip through impact as he posts up on the left leg (which he does nicely). This will help retain his lag and hit down on the ball more.

Because he is a bigger guy, his hands are in front of the ball at impact and I think he has repeatability, he can afford to lose some distance through loss of lag. I am going to say he is an 8.2 handicap.

[SpringBokVol]

0.5 Handicap

Things to work on:
Nothing he is almost a scratch.

But, if I must:
1: More flex in the right knee - don't lock.
2: Shorten swing, get rid of flying elbow.
3:Transfer weight from back to front and get a hip push.

[BallStriker]

Very hard to say....if the guy plays from 6000 yards and has a nifty short game, I would say he could be scratch......at 7000 without a short game, he could be a 20....anyway, enough of my "the handicap system does not give enough weight to differences in distance" beliefs....

Official guess......Handicap 3.5

Three items to work on......(1) Right hand grip -- he needs to get the middle and ring finger underneath and on the club....too much pressure with his right index and thumb is getting that club pointed way right of the target at the top; (2) try to shorten up the backswing as a whole; and (3) work on keeping that right elbow tucked a bit more.

As odd as the mechanics look, he actually gets into a decent position attacking the ball

[NZGolfer]

I think its somewhere near to 18.8

[Titleist Gibson20]

he has a + 1 handicap if im right please pm me or let me know some how. i dont have that scorecard thing and would love to have it!!! hope im right!!!

[billysandy]

he has a + 1 handicap if im right please pm me or let me know some how. i dont have that scorecard thing and would love to have it!!! hope im right!!!

You must be joking. I cease to understand how you arrive at that after watching his backswing.

[NZGolfer]

Ok so I guessed but now i did the math and its either 1 or under, around 6 or 14 or my guess near 19

[GolferDot]

I would guess a 5 handicap, Elements of S & T I am sure, older guy, swing was fairly consistant in both swings, would have a tidy short game

[iacas]

His handicap index, according to GHIN, is 12.9. Since I expanded it to anyone within 1.0, these are your winners:

12.5

Winner #1.

He seems to get back to the ball just fine in these videos, but surely consistency is going to be a problem? Love to see him hit a driver. Wild guess, 12 handicap.

Winner #2.

I'm going to say 13. Just 'cus.

Winner #3 (the closest guesser).

If the three winners would each pass along their information (name, email) to me in a PM I'll send the licenses out. Probably on Tuesday. The distribution of guesses, btw, was: +1, +0.5, 0, 0.5, 0.5, 0.9, 1, 1.5, 1.8, 2, 2.0, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.7, 3, 3, 3.5, 3.7, 4, 4, 4, 4.3, 4.5, 4.7, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7.9, 8.2, 8.5, 8.7, 8.9, 9, 9.8, 10.1, 10.5, 11.4, 11.5, 12, 12.5, 13, 14, 15.3, 15.8, 16, 16.8, 18, 18.8, 19.0, 19.1 That 52 guesses with a low of +1 and a high of 19.1. The mean is 7.2. The median is 5.5. The mode is 4.

Now, he's definintely a student of stack and tilt. How recent, I'm not sure. Since I've watched a lot of swings on this site, I know now that the way a person's swing looks and his handicap don't always make sense. There are some funky swings on these boards (and the world at large), but you guys make them work and work well for you. This guy could be a scratch golfer for all I know, even with his chicken wing thing that he does.

Holy crap JetFan, what do you think S&T; is? He displays almost none of the principles. Weight forward - nope. His hips slide well back in the takeaway. Deep hands that stay on their inclined plane, nah... stacked? Not really.

The guy isn't a student (though he should be, heh). His shots on the range were thin or heavy. They had very little power for being a bigger (taller) guy. They were typically weak slappy fades. He swings his hands on a plane pretty well, but that plane measures roughly 74 degrees... with his 5- or 6-iron. Steeper than virtually everyone's putters.

[jamo]

Holy crap JetFan, what do you think S&T; is? He displays almost none of the principles. Weight forward - nope. His hips slide well back in the takeaway. Deep hands that stay on their inclined plane, nah... stacked? Not really.

I was thinking sort of the same thing as JetFan, but only because you had the videos.I figured these were some "before" videos, and you were going to wow us with the "after"s tomorrow.....

Either way, this is the guy you should be explaining to :

I would guess a 5 handicap, Elements of S & T I am sure, older guy, swing was fairly consistant in both swings, would have a tidy short game

[michaeljames92]

Golf is funny because if you saw the lowest handicap player at our club (+2) you would think he was a 15 handicapper with his over the top pull fade/slice(at times). Truth is, he hits a fade every shot and is a great putter. Just proves that the look of your swing doesn't always decide your handicap...

[ks8829]

19 handicap golfer. I like to see him chip and putt.

[JetFan1983]

Holy crap JetFan, what do you think S&T; is? He displays almost none of the principles. Weight forward - nope. His hips slide well back in the takeaway. Deep hands that stay on their inclined plane, nah... stacked? Not really.

I know Stack and Tilt is an awesome way to swing the club. You'd have to be crazy to think that I think this guy has a "good display" of a stack and tilt swing. Seriously?

I wrote this follow up post 90 seconds after my first one (that you quoted):

My cousin just guessed a 12. I think that sounds right. Too late to change my choice though. This guy could easily have gotten serious about golf for the first time like a month or two ago for all I know.

I've been reading about stack and tilt for months now, and its the swing I've been working on in the very few range sessions I've had this year. The guy looked to me like he was really trying to stay on his left side. But I misinterpreted the guy's situation - I thought he was new to the game- the reality is, if he was new to the game, you, his family, his friends, and any golf instructor who watched him swing, would have stopped him from doing that chicken wing. But as it turns out, he's been playing for a long time, and he's too old/stubborn to change it. I should have figured that out, but my cousin beat me to the punch 90 seconds after I made my first post.

[nevets88]

I was going to say 15, but was inkling towards something lower based on everything but the swing.

Going by the clothing and the empty range perhaps, an avid golfer. If you freeze the video at the top, and image his head looking at the target, looks like a baseball swing so maybe he plays other sports and is athletic. Plus I assume that he gave permission to be shown, so he's not self conscious. His impact position doesn't look ideal, but it doesn't have the lean backward shaft flippy broken left wrist as much as others I've seen.

As opposed to seeing him hit the driver, I wonder how he looks chipping and pitching. I'm guessing most of the time you wouldn't see the flying elbow.

Edit - whoops, I skipped the posts that mentioned the short game.

And guessing to the tenths? Wow, that's accurate. 10, 12, 14, 16, I can see. 10.6, 12.8? Well, I guess if someone guessed 12.5 and I wanted to beat him, I'd guess 12.4. At least no one guessed 12.25.

[iacas]

And guessing to the tenths? Wow, that's accurate.

That's how handicap indeces are calculated... yes. Plus if you wanted to say 13 or 14 you could say "13.5" and give yourself some wiggle room with the margin of error I provided.

[sean_miller]

Well, I guess if someone guessed 12.5 and I wanted to beat him, I'd guess 12.4. At least no one guessed 12.25.

If by "beat" you mean "slightly farther away from the correct answer", then yes, 12.4 would have been an excellent guess. LOL

There were all guesses (some pretty bad ones - whatever) and btw 13 even was the closest guess.

[Hollister]

Ah, nice. Now I know that my handicap is way too high.

So, Erik, tomorrow I am going to forget that Stack & Tilt nonsense and swing like, um, like a man toward 12.9. Let's all be proud and hit it fat!