How to know if your game could be taken to the next level?

[Shorty]

9 hours ago, thelab said:

Any past experiences or feedback would be awesome.

It will be obvious. You'll be winning tournaments and people will be telling you you're good. You won't be asking.

[Buckeyebowman]

11 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

First and foremost, if you're scratch in your mid-20's, its extremely unlikely that you'll ever be able to make a living by playing golf.  The old line, don't quit your day job. So then what's your motivation?  If you love the challenge to improve, if you think you  want to compete on the amateur level, go for it.  Work hard, practice hard, enter local and regional tournaments, and see how you like it.   You'll find out soon enough whether you want to continue busitng your ass.

I have to agree with this. Playing golf to make a living is one of the tougher ways to go. Everybody concentrates on the guys who have "made it" and continue to do so. No one pays attentions the lower echelon where guys float in and out of the Tour on a regular basis.

[MuniGrit]

How many of you guys have a friend that is roughly a scratch golfer and is still chasing the dream? I got a friend who says he is plus 3, which is so false but all his Instagram followers think he is a pro, and still enters all sorts of tournaments. He gets creamed and always blows his money on US Open qual too and never comes close. I always tell him a man needs to know his limitations.

[freshmanUTA]

11 hours ago, thelab said:

 

Thanks for the great answer. I guess the struggle really is trying to be able to practice while I work 12 hrs per day during the week. I plan on entering a few local tournament and maybe try to qualify for the amateur or mid amateur and see what happens from there. Motivation is completely for the game and love competing and think with hard work could get much better.

Pretty much my exact thoughts. I am guessing you are no where close until you can consistently shoot -5/-6 on mid 7k tracks?

Here’s something that you could try to do:

Pick out a course near you that is extremely challenging. it’ll be easy to find if you think about courses you know, maybe you have a PGA course near you, you have a spot of an amateur qualifying tournament or something very high-level near you and you’re going to pick one of those courses and play it four times. 

The reason you’re going to play it four times is, well you probably could’ve guessed it: that’s the average length of a PGA tour tournament. if your schedule with work and what not allows you to I would say take up to a month in advance to really work and practice. create a game plan for how you’re going to go about playing the course and really dial in yardages. you’re going to need different shots, and to know when to hit them.

After that, play your four rounds in a row, preferably not on the same day and if the highest score on your scorecard at the end of four rounds isn’t lower than 67, assuming you’re on a par 72, you probably don’t have a chance.

Even on courses as challenging as PGA tour golfers play, they still manage to shoot rounds of five or 6 under at a time. not always, of course, but the average PGA tour golfer plays off around +4 and Tiger Woods(you can find it on this website) played up to a +7.7 and thats on courses extremely more challenging in the courses that you play. 

I hope that puts it in perspective.

[p1n9183]

As I always answer when someone ask me.. why don´t you just give it a try as a pro (after shooting a 67..68 at my home course)? I respond HELL NO!  

I´m at +1 handicap, but i average 75 strokes on 72 rating courses on tournament condition away from home, that´s an average of 3 over par. 
The average tour pro average 71,2 strokes on 76 rating courses. That´s almost 5 strokes under par.
Moreover, their PGA tournament conditions are far worst than mine, so they score 8 shots less than me in worst conditions. I repeat again, HELL NO! i have no chance at all. 

I´d better play national amateur tournaments just for fun and make money with my daily work.    

[thelab]

18 hours ago, MuniGrit said:

How many of you guys have a friend that is roughly a scratch golfer and is still chasing the dream? I got a friend who says he is plus 3, which is so false but all his Instagram followers think he is a pro, and still enters all sorts of tournaments. He gets creamed and always blows his money on US Open qual too and never comes close. I always tell him a man needs to know his limitations.

lol is he a legit plus 3 and not even coming remotely close in the qualifiers? that would be depressing from my point of view hah

[HJJ003]

19 hours ago, MuniGrit said:

How many of you guys have a friend that is roughly a scratch golfer and is still chasing the dream? I got a friend who says he is plus 3, which is so false but all his Instagram followers think he is a pro, and still enters all sorts of tournaments. He gets creamed and always blows his money on US Open qual too and never comes close. I always tell him a man needs to know his limitations.

Lol Nope, but I have a lot of friends that "shoot in the 80s" though I may have seen them break 100 once. Thats a topic for another day though

[MuniGrit]

15 minutes ago, thelab said:

lol is he a legit plus 3 and not even coming remotely close in the qualifiers? that would be depressing from my point of view hah

Yeah he shoots high 70s to 80 in the qualifiers. He is one of these Instagram pros that has his followers believing he is a mini tour guy. Disclaimer he moved a few years ago and I haven't played with him in a couple years bit I doubt he all of the sudden went from mid 70 shooter to a +3. 

[mdl]

4 minutes ago, MuniGrit said:

Yeah he shoots high 70s to 80 in the qualifiers. He is one of these Instagram pros that has his followers believing he is a mini tour guy. Disclaimer he moved a few years ago and I haven't played with him in a couple years bit I doubt he all of the sudden went from mid 70 shooter to a +3. 

I know this isn't really your point, but if he's playing tough courses, someone who averages in the mid 70s could well be +, if not realistically +3.  Like, if your typical course for a score submission is rated at like 73/140, a player who shoots non-competition scores averaging ~75 with always a handful of gross scores below par in the past 20 rounds, then that player could well carry a + handicap.  Though again, not a +3.

[MuniGrit]

6 minutes ago, mdl said:

I know this isn't really your point, but if he's playing tough courses, someone who averages in the mid 70s could well be +, if not realistically +3.  Like, if your typical course for a score submission is rated at like 73/140, a player who shoots non-competition scores averaging ~75 with always a handful of gross scores below par in the past 20 rounds, then that player could well carry a + handicap.  Though again, not a +3.

Yeah I think he is a 2 to 3 but not on the plus side. A plus 3 would go 4 rounds without a birdie. He is just a little delusional about his skill.

Edited April 10, 2018 by MuniGrit

[thelab]

8 minutes ago, mdl said:

I know this isn't really your point, but if he's playing tough courses, someone who averages in the mid 70s could well be +, if not realistically +3.  Like, if your typical course for a score submission is rated at like 73/140, a player who shoots non-competition scores averaging ~75 with always a handful of gross scores below par in the past 20 rounds, then that player could well carry a + handicap.  Though again, not a +3.

yeah fair point. Handicap can also be a lot better than you are if you go 69,80,69,82 and so on

[mdl]

More to the point, I have no real wisdom to add here.  But damn I'm jealous how good your are!  I've only ever played with one other "natural".  He was a small kid, maybe 5'8", skinny.  He'd just graduated from high school and had decided to turn down a DII baseball partial scholarship he'd been offered and wanted to take up a new sport now that he wouldn't be playing baseball.  He did that in May/June after high school baseball was over.  I played with him in September.  He out-drove me (I'm a big guy, not pro long but long enough to almost always the longest in a random muni foursome), played sweet golf, and carded maybe a 75 with a few strokes left on the course.

[paperclip]

It's a lot tougher than it looks.  A while ago, I used to volunteer for a few years at an event on the Canadian Tour and even caddied for some of the players for a few rounds.  These guys are good, real good, but basically, all of them have been to Q-School, didn't make it and ended up playing on the Canadian (don't know if they chose Canadian over the Web.com tour or if they didn't make that either).  Prize money isn't a heckuva lot and it's expensive living on the road and paying the entry fees, so most of them have sponsors.

Anyway, what I noticed was their superior (over us regular hackers) game management skills and missing in the right places.  But, I didn't think most of them had that "edge" or "it" factor, if you will, to be able to find that half shot or full shot or two to get them over the top.  That, I think, is where the tough part is.

Just my 2 cents.  But good luck in whichever way you want to go.

[Bucki1968]

There are so many guys in this area that are trying to make it on any tour that are much better players than me. Having played with some tour guys, I realized that I was a club pro at best. At that time I was playing to about scratch handicap. Even on my best day, I was not as good. It is nice, however, to go out and play the occasional armature tournament or the club championship. Maybe even try to play in some armature state tournaments. I can still get the rush of competition and it keeps me trying to improve.

[SG11118]

Question for the original poster - Is there a certain part of your game that is holding you back and consistently costing you strokes?  I could possibly see the argument of "if only I could fix _____, I could knock 3-4 strokes a round off my scores" that it would be worth working on fixing that aspect of your game and then trying to make a run at playing professionally.  If there really isn't a weakness to your game and you are solid everywhere, I agree with others that you are probably going to have a tough time making a go at playing professionally. 

Most hockey players I know can hit the ball a long ways.  I'd assume you are similar?  If so, that is one big thing you'd have going for you.

Probably 15 years ago, I played a round with a guy who was taking a year off everything to focus on golf and try to make a run at playing professionally.  He was attempting to qualify for the Canadian Tour.  He had just gotten married, and he had made an agreement with his wife that he could have one run at attempting to be a pro golfer before he gave up and went back to life.  That way he would have no regrets, and he wouldn't always have in the back of his mind that he might be good enough if only he had a chance.   

[b101]

The way I always end up thinking about this is:

- Would I like to be better? Sure
- Would I like to be able to spend all of my time practising, playing nice courses etc? Sure
- Would I like to know that whether I can support my family is based on whether one or two putts go in? Absolutely not.

Not the question asked, but I think 'making it' is glamourised massively and there's not enough said about those who don't have the success stories. I'm quite happy with golf as a hobby!

[thelab]

13 minutes ago, SG11118 said:

Question for the original poster - Is there a certain part of your game that is holding you back and consistently costing you strokes?  I could possibly see the argument of "if only I could fix _____, I could knock 3-4 strokes a round off my scores" that it would be worth working on fixing that aspect of your game and then trying to make a run at playing professionally.  If there really isn't a weakness to your game and you are solid everywhere, I agree with others that you are probably going to have a tough time making a go at playing professionally. 

Most hockey players I know can hit the ball a long ways.  I'd assume you are similar?  If so, that is one big thing you'd have going for you.

Probably 15 years ago, I played a round with a guy who was taking a year off everything to focus on golf and try to make a run at playing professionally.  He was attempting to qualify for the Canadian Tour.  He had just gotten married, and he had made an agreement with his wife that he could have one run at attempting to be a pro golfer before he gave up and went back to life.  That way he would have no regrets, and he wouldn't always have in the back of his mind that he might be good enough if only he had a chance.   

Thanks for the comments. Honestly, i'm hitting greens and driving the ball 300+ with ease but i just don't snipe the 15ft birdie putts - I have way too many pars. When i was playing a lot I was hitting 12-13 GIR but putting in the 30 range which obviously isn't good enough

[DaveP043]

1 minute ago, thelab said:

Thanks for the comments. Honestly, i'm hitting greens and driving the ball 300+ with ease but i just don't snipe the 15ft birdie putts - I have way too many pars. When i was playing a lot I was hitting 12-13 GIR but putting in the 30 range which obviously isn't good enough

From 15 feet, the PGA Tour averages just barely over one make per 5 attempts.  The reason they go so low so consistently is that they hit the ball closer.