Should I be Happy with Today`s Round?

[MEfree]

83 from the 6507 yard blue tees at Keystone River.  Lots of good and lots of bad.

Positives Today, in very windy conditions and coolish temps-

hit a lot of very good shots including all my 4i-6i.

hit the first 5 GIR with 2 inside 10', all world par on #6, made a 9' birdie putt on 9 and hit 5 of the last 6 GIR with a birdie on 18.

No OBs or Lost Balls.

Won the front and 18 with a tie on the back.

Always more fun to play golf when the weather is nice than to work!

Negatives Today-

35 putts including two 3 putts and a 4 putt (on fast, mostly smooth greens with some very tough hole locations)

tempo quickened when we played through a group on 5 and then had trouble finding our drives on 6.

very fat 7i into the river on the par 3 7th- instead of backing off when the wind changed, I tried to change my shot while I was over the ball- double bogey

taking 5 (but only 1 putt) to get down from 50 yards on 11- triple bogey

taking 4 (but only 1 putt) to get down from 40 yards on 17- bogey

Course closes Sunday

Would you be satisfied?

[BuckeyeNut]

A 9HC should be satisfied with an 83.   Why wouldn't you be satisfied?   This is a solid round for a 9'capper. At worst...it's average depending on the course difficulty.

[MEfree]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeNut

A 9HC should be satisfied with an 83.   Why wouldn't you be satisfied?   This is a solid round for a 9'capper. At worst...it's average depending on the course difficulty.

Yes, it is an average round (and maybe a bit better considering the wind and some of the pins), but should I be content with average play that keeps my handicap where it is?

My low handicap was around a 4 when I was a teenager, but this is the first season since 2005 that I have played regularly and I have been improving with a low round of 73 (gold tees), two 74s (white tees), a 76 (blue tees at a course with a higher rating) and a couple of 78s from these same blue tees (as well as a number of high 70s/low 80s at some other courses).  I had 3 lost balls with the 73 and a quad on one of the 74s and a triple on the other.

I drove the ball decently, hit my long irons great and only had 1 full swing that I would call bad.  Would you be happy hitting 11 GIR with a number of looks inside 10 feet and shooting 83?  I know you have a lower cap than I do, but does that mean that I have to be content with average when I have shown signs of some really good play?

Maybe I should have taken a different approach with this post as my goal was really to get some feedback on how others keep expectations reasonable so that you have a chance to exceed them and be happy while not keeping expectations too low so that they never improve.

[David in FL]

A 9HC should be satisfied with an 83.   Why wouldn't you be satisfied?   This is a solid round for a 9'capper. At worst...it's average depending on the course difficulty.

This. Plus a tough weather day. The real downside.....a 4-jack?! Ugh....... But that's it.....yes, that's a round you can be pleased with.

[MEfree]

My 75 yesterday at the same course, but shorter tees (white = 6003) was much more satisfying in that I didn`t make worse than a bogey and only did one stupid thing- was rushing a bit on first green after noticing that we had a single sitting in the fairway and accidently hit my ball about 3 inches with the back/toe of my putter as I moved from my practice stroke to my set up turning a 7 foot birdie putt into a par putt that I missed.

The longest first putt I made was 3 feet, but I felt my stroke was decent, so it was a satisfying round in terms of the consistency of my play and generally good ball striking.  This was closing day and temps started in the 30s with the range and greens frozen below the first 1/4 inch, so I was happy to play a good round.

[David in FL]

My 75 yesterday at the same course, but shorter tees (white = 6003) was much more satisfying in that I didn`t make worse than a bogey and only did one stupid thing- was rushing a bit on first green after noticing that we had a single sitting in the fairway and accidently hit my ball about 3 inches with the back/toe of my putter as I moved from my practice stroke to my set up turning a 7 foot birdie putt into a par putt that I missed.   The longest first putt I made was 3 feet, but I felt my stroke was decent, so it was a satisfying round in terms of the consistency of my play and generally good ball striking.  This was closing day and temps started in the 30s with the range and greens frozen below the first 1/4 inch, so I was happy to play a good round.

Now THAT'S a round to end the year on!