"good scratch" and "bad scratch"

[cody west]

so if anybody reads golf digest you probably know what I'm talking about.

the article talks about how their is a difference between every golfer whether your an 8, a 0, or a 20 theirs a good  and a bad of each. they say that a good 8 should be beating their handicap at their home course and playing to it at away courses. Now after reading this I have been trying to travel more and get around to different courses and break par away from home and I'm not gonna lie i have trouble...it seems like I'm shooting my handicap but I'm not breaking it away from home.

I cant find the link but some of you probably know the article i mean so here's what I wanted to talk about -is there validity to it? how well do hcp indexes account for home courses, and what do you think causes the discrepancy in scores

[Stretch]

Originally Posted by cody west

they say that a good 8 should be beating their handicap at their home course and playing to it at away courses.

Well, then he's not an 8, he's a 5 or so. And if he somehow stays an 8 while doing this, he's a sandbagger. The handicap system is designed to reflect potential ability rather than average score. The USGA calculates that an average golfer should play to his course handicap (or better) only about 25 percent of the time (ie. 1 in 4 rounds), should average around three stokes above his handicap and should have a best score in his last 20 rounds that is only two strokes better than his handicap.

Dean Knuth has lots of data on this at his site: http://www.popeofslope.com/

[TourSpoon]

The article made reference to an instructor who was talking about Junior talent and that there is a difference between Johnny who is scratch and only plays home versus a scratch traveling and playing tournaments with few home scores. Local knowledge, home court, etc goes into the single course handicap while the kid that goes around the country and plays to scratch is going to have more potential. To piggy back on Stretch's post, the second kid probably plays to a +2 or better at home.

[Paradox]

Yes, the article was just saying that "being scratch" doesn't mean much unless you're scratch while traveling and playing tournaments.  Harmon was the one who was quoted as saying that if you weren't shooting 4 or 5 under on your home course where you know everything about it, you've basically got no shot at becoming a pro.

It also said that by the end of a PGA event the winner has played to about +10 or so.  Its a perfect article for all the "can I make it if I do xxx" threads because it says its very hard but gives many examples of guys who've gone from pluses to scratch to pro.