how long to get to scratch?

[Shindig]

what would you say the minimum handicap would be for you to have a chance at making it on tour and what are the chances of getting to that if you were young and had lots of time (im 26 and have 12 hours practice during winter every week and every day for 8 hours during summer)

You've got a handicap that matches mine and you want to play on TOUR. I love it! And if you make it, I may have to find out what you did to get there

I'm curious what other claims on your time exist if you have that much free time. I think someone once estimated that the average touring pro would have a handicap of at least +5. That having been said, I do wish you the best. I wish I could tell you what to do to get there, but if I knew, I'd be doing that too

[tiger_who]

i wanna play 2.4 or less by the time i finish school im in year 11 now jus finished

[golfnut_rlv]

It took me from the time I started playing 5 years old, until my third year in college to hit scratch. I have pretty much stayed there since then.

As for interesting goals, I have a friend who plays at my home club, Spokane Country Club. His goal is to eagle every hole on the course by the time he is 40 years old. He is 35 right now, and he has eagled 1, 3, 10, 16, and 18.

Check out the link below to see which holes I mean.

http://www.spokanecountryclub.com

Ambitious

[reid]

Donkba asks:

Re: how long to get to scratch? - 6 Hours Ago

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what would you say the minimum handicap would be for you to have a chance at making it on tour and what are the chances of getting to that if you were young and had lots of time (im 26 and have 12 hours practice during winter every week and every day for 8 hours during summer)

Donkba:
I'm so glad you asked this. I answered it in extensive detail in my book "Striking It Rich" . Please take a look at it. You will enjoy the discussion. To summarize 5 chapters in a few sentences... I calculated my handicap using only scores I shot in tournaments (since that's what we're talking about here.) and I had a +2.2 after one season of Monday Qualifying. I got in a lot of tournaments but didn't make any cuts. Then I went to Q school and got my card by finishing 33rd (they give out 40 cards) on a 2ndary tour in Asia out of about 400 contestants. The US pga pros play (in tournaments, remember) to +8 or +9. Tiger Woods plays to a +10. Before I started the year, Mark McCumber told me I would have to average 70 from the back tees on a 7200 yard course with 4" rough and firm fast greens. He turned out to be right. Please get my book from Amazon if you want to read all about it. Also you should read Paper Tiger and The Fine Green Line. Both of these are stories about very low handicap players (2.7 and +.4) who had trouble staying out of the "basement" at Q school. The touring pros are much better than anyone thinks!

[907golfer12]

what would you say the minimum handicap would be for you to have a chance at making it on tour and what are the chances of getting to that if you were young and had lots of time (im 26 and have 12 hours practice during winter every week and every day for 8 hours during summer)

Well you probably want to be

at least a 0.0, but more then likely you want to be at a + handicap. And by the way, the majority of tour players don't keep a handicap, just because they don't need it to play on tour, so it's pointless.

[reid]

907 golfer 12 and others

No. you guys are missing it! PLEASE SEE MY POST A FEW ABOVE and READ THE BOOK!. A 0.0 or scratch golfer couldn't break 80 on a tour course in a PGA Tournament. I know you don't believe it but its true. READ THE BOOK and read Paper Tiger and The Fine Green Line!

[FIJIGolf23]

907 golfer 12 and others

Very true. I've heard this numerous times from numerous people. I go to school with guys and know others through them that play to +3.x to +4.x and haven't done much other than maybe the Tarheel Tour and/or Hooters Tour. They give it a run, but it's a whole new ballgame going from local muni's and country clubs to Tour set-ups.

[907golfer12]

907 golfer 12 and others

Well, thank you for that information, to tell the truth the Slope and Rating system doesn't make sense to me, but I thought a 0.0 was a 0.0 no matter what, boy was I wrong. And by the way, where can I buy your book, I have seen a post or two about it here and the people have said it is good, so now I am interested.

[Shindig]

907 golfer 12 and others

THis is so amazingly true. Kenny G has won the club championship at Sherwood C.C. a great many times and take a look at how he did at the events he played. He didn't even have to deal with the stress and fatigue of Monday qualifying or a pro-am.

[reid]

Shindig:
Please tell us how he did (KennyG, that is). What is Kenny G's handicap. I saw him play in a celeebrity pro am (like the Hope or Pebble) once and he looked very good- maybe a scratch golfer at his country club. He would shoot around 81 - 85 in a pro tournament on the PGA tour I would predict.

Honestly Guys, this is one of the most interesting questions IN ALL OF SPORT. The reason is because amateurs play against the course as do pros., and comparing scores is possible. (You can't tell how you would stack up against Brett Favre, for example, because you can't get the chance to play against the Dallas Cowboys, and you don't get to pitch against the Yankees, etc. ) Now I have made the point in the book about the difficulty of the courses and how different a tour set up is, but bearing that in mind the comparisons are irresistable. PLEASE look at my book and post comments here after you read it. We have an opportunity in our sport to have this discussion. Other athletes cannot have it because of the reasons I listed above.
So much skill is required to play par golf on a course that is 7300 yards long and has 4" rough and forced carries on 15 of the holes to firm greens that run 11 on the stimpmeter (with a TV camera in your face ). It is WAY harder than you think

[Shindig]

Shindig:

Very good. He is either a scratch of very low positives. And you're exactly right: low 80s. (Your book is on my list of those to get, by the way)

[donkba]

i heard this year, whilst watching the masters at augusta that a scratch golfer would struggle to break 100 on that course and man, was it tough! not one person finished under par and i think some of the pros were shooting 80+

[crazy_horst]

I think someone once estimated that the average touring pro would have a handicap of at least +5.

They range from +4 and up (Tiger is estimated at a

+8 ...)

[crazy_horst]

The US pga pros play (in tournaments, remember) to +8 or +9. Tiger Woods plays to a +10.

Negatory. Tiger has 3.33 strokes in scoring average on the guy who finished 125 on the money list this past year (Tiger at an absolutely ludicrous 67.79, Mathias Gronberg at 71.13). Golf Magazine estimated Tiger at +8 in its November issue, and Parker McLachlin, in the same article, said he would be +4 "if I were to have one".

Parker was 154 on the Money list this year.

The touring pros are much better than anyone thinks!

Now THAT is an affirmatory!!!

[reid]

Crazy_horst:
Tiger's average is 67.79. Handicap is calculated using the ten best out of your last 20 scores. That will drop his average to 65 (because the computer will throw out the times he played bad and shot 71). Remember he is playing on courses rated in the 75 range from the back tees. The tournament tees and conditions are much more severe. His ten best of his last 20 are 10 strokes below the course ratings. Thus he has a +10 handicap. The other pros are in the +7 range. A +4 golfer can't make a living on the Nationwide Tour. (Nor could I, I am eager to point out. I'm barely making enough to survive on the Asian Senior Masters Tour (the Asian Tour's version of the Champion's Tour))

Golf Magazine underestimated Tiger's handicap by 2 strokes .

[reid]

Donkba:
I think a scratch golfer would shoot in the 90's at Augusta (when it is set up for the Masters). It is a very long course but there isn't much rough. The problem is the severity of the green complexes. One of my friends who has played there 8 times told me that before you learn the greens , you might 3-putt more than half the holes because it is hard to get your first putt inside of 5 or 6 feet.

After he has played there long enough to know his way around the greens, he would shoot in the mid 80's

[crazy_horst]

Crazy_horst:

Pelz says in the same issue of Golf Magazine that Tour players are in the +5 to +8 range. Tiger is the +8. I've heard it and read it several times that Tiger is estimated at a +8.

But that didn't satisfy me... So, I went to PGATour.com and got his last 20 competitive rounds, from the Tour Championship, the BMW, Deutsche Bank, PGA Championship and the Bridgestone, got all of the ratings and slopes for the courses, entered it all into a handicap calculator ( http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l...dicapincal.htm ) and pressed the magic button and......... Tiger Woods = +8.3

[shredfit]

Pelz says in the same issue of Golf Magazine that Tour players are in the +5 to +8 range. Tiger is the +8. I've heard it and read it several times that Tiger is estimated at a +8.

Yeah, but you might also have to factor in Tiger's(no pressure) practice rounds where he shot a 61, 62, 64, 61, 62 on the courses in question... this is what would lower his cap by 2 or perhaps even more strokes