What Was Your Handicap After 1 Year of Playing?

[ZANDER1994]

I joined the golf team in high school (I had like one or two lessons as a kid but that was it). In two summers I probably broke 100 once or twice. Handicap hovered around 30. But note I never practiced, and literally had never heard of “course management”. I was just there to hang out with my friends. 
 

I picked the sport up again in my early twenties and it took me about 2 years of consistent play (once or twice a week) to start consistently shooting 90. Got stuck there for a couple years until I started focusing on short game. Now I’d consider an average round to be mid 80s. 

[Adam12]

I’m on exactly 12 months of playing golf. I am 35 years old and I live in Wisconsin so I can only play outdoors 5 months out of the year but I did go to indoor golf. I just joined a league and my handicap is 16. I usually shoot in the low 100’s. Broke a hundred a few times. I exercise and I am in good shape. Played baseball and other sports in highschool. Golf is hard. 

[NZ Golfer]

On 2/24/2017 at 7:38 AM, Lihu said:

If you break 90 after 1 year, that is pretty good and I certainly didn't do it when I started playing in my 40s.

Breaking 85 after 1 year is pretty common among coordinated athletic individuals. It's pretty common with male high school players. They have flexibility and distance.

Breaking 80 after 1 year is very good, but I wouldn't quit your day job. Most D1 school scholarship prospects are scratch or better breaking 70, and the pros are just that much better.

I think not so much time but amount of Games played ...aka .. If you start playing Golf as a fit athlete and play 3 times per week + practice 2hrs+ a week + coaching 1x month .... I'm sure breaking 80 on an sub 120 slope course is very within reach ...

I started playing more regular in my late 20s (use to play less than 3x per year) and within 15 rounds I scored an 89 on a harder 133 slope course ..no way I thought I could be a great golfer etc ...

15yrs later I've been down to 8 HC .... Goal is to get into the low Single HC ... I'm now playing 2-3 times per week + practice ..

I've been blessed with great upper body power(was top in my college age for Javelin) ..and have been told my distances are up with PGA levels ... If only my direction and short game with better!!

[phan52]

I messed around with the game as a teenager, mostly playing with the other caddies on Mondays. I hadn't picked up a golf club for ten years when I started playing again when I was 28. I knew enough about the game that I could at least keep the ball in play but I couldn't score at all and my first established handicap was 27. I decided to take some lessons because I started playing customer golf and some of my guests were decent players. My pro told me that I needed a complete do-over and I wasn't up for that at the time, I just wanted some rudimentary stuff. So he told me he would teach me to play from 100 yards and in. We worked on that and I had nine hole playing lessons about a dozen times that first year. My handicap to open the next season was 17, ten strokes better. My driving and long to mid iron game was no different but I was proficient with wedges and the putter and my scores dropped a lot. Once I started to score better I got hooked.