Another best 9 holes

[Bullitt5339]

Well, this morning before work, I went out and shot 9 holes, and hit the most drives in the fairway and GIRs I ever had, but my putting was horrible and I shot a 45.

This evening, I went back out for some redemption to make sure that this morning wasn't a fluke, and played another 9. I showed up to the course an hour before closing, and the girl working asked if I thought I could get through 9 in an hour. I laughed jokingly, and said "I can play 9 in 45 minutes if there's noone on the course and I'm in a cart". She bet me my cart cost that I couldn't do it, so I took her up on it, and figured I'd just have some fun and see how fast I could play 9, and wasn't worried about the score so much after that, just playing extremely fast.

I think I found the secret to my game. Don't think about shots, don't worry about them, don't overanalyze them, just step up and hit the ball. I did it this afternoon, and ended up with my best 9 holes EVER.

Here's the stats:

Score: 40
Bogeys: 5
Pars: 3
Birdies: 1
Fairways: 6 of 7
GIRs: 4 of 9
Up and Down attempts: 0 of 5
Putts: 17

All in all, a very good round for me. I cut 3 putts off of this morning's round just by not thinking about them so much, and concentrating on "just get it close". I'm playing 18 after work tomorrow with a couple guys from work, I hope I can carry the past few rounds momentum over to tomorrow and shoot a great full round of golf.

[NI4NI]

Nice score for 9. Did you get your cart fee back?

[Bullitt5339]

She didn't charge me, she said if I didn't make it back in 45 minutes, I would have to pay it. I finished in 43 minutes.

[alomar123]

Thats better than my best score on 9, and my handi is lower. So good job your handi should be way lower. Keep up the good work. Seems you shoot lower with pro style putting and fairways.

[Bullitt5339]

My typical round up until 2 weeks ago was between a 92 and a 96, hence the high handicap. I haven't put any of the 9 holes towards my handicap, because honestly, I'm not sure how to figure 9's in there. I have put some work in the past 2 weeks towards improving my iron play and wedge shots. While it may not seem like the wedge play is getting better because of the up and downs not being there, but on the course, compared to how I was playing, it's a huge improvement. I recently switched from Cleveland CG Red Tours to the Mizuno MX-23's, and my iron play has improved dramatically due to the swap. The Clevelands were just too much club for my crappy swing. There was immediate huge improvements in my iron play, none of those rounds have been figured into my handicap yet either. There's 3 9's, a 40, 43 and a 45 to put in, plus 2 rounds of 87 and 88, along with a bad round, a 94 to put into my handicap, so I'm sure it'll drop quite a bit, especially if I keep playing like I am now.

It's amazing what 2 weeks worth of focused driver and wedge practice, coupled with a set of irons you have confidence in, and can hit fairly well will do for you. I look forward to playing tomorrow.

[Rugger]

I haven't put any of the 9 holes towards my handicap, because honestly, I'm not sure how to figure 9's in there.

Is it possible to enter 9 holes toward a handicap? If that's the case my handicap is about to make a big drop. I play way better through 9 than 18.

[Bullitt5339]

I found this, which says you can, but I think I'd rather figure on full 18's, so that my handicap is as accurate as possible. I would say I'm playing to around a 15-16 handicap on full 18 hole rounds right now, but won't know for sure until my rounds kind of even off and a few bad 100's come off of my handicap. I would rather err towards the high side, so that when I'm playing flighted tournaments I can actually shoot 18 at around my handicap.

http://golf.about.com/cs/handicapping/a/incomplete.htm

[NI4NI]

I play my 9-hole rounds during the week at my secondary course, and then my full 18-hole rounds during the weekend at my primary course (two different memberships). I use the 9-hole rounds as practice (augments any practice facility use), so I do not post any of these scores - all my 18-hole rounds get posted to GHIN. My HC would definitely drop quite a bit if I added in the half-rounds since I have been averaging 44 through over twenty rounds (the two courses are fairly close in terms of rating and slope stats).

I also really like my MX-23's - nice balance between forgiveness and feel.

[Bullitt5339]

I posted my 18 hole scores to my handicap today from the past 2 weeks, plus the crappy round I had today on a crappy course, and my handicap dropped nicely. I actually had 4 rounds to post, 88, 87, 92 and today's 94. I was debating on whether to post today's score, since I felt the score was skewed by how crappy the course was, but I posted it anyway. It did kick out my last 100 score that I shot, so there's no more horrible horrible rounds being factored in anymore. I'm hoping that this weekend, back on a good course, I can post a couple more scores in the 80's. Not so much for my handicap, but more that I've been playing such good golf (for me) lately and want to keep it going.