Pete

No 12 in world rankings isn't exactly 'fairly unknown'! He's known on European tour just not so much on pga tour. Must be similar to Keegan Bradley or Dufner winning USPGA. To us they are just USPGA players making up the numbers, but in USA I guess they were considered potential major champs when they won.

DW for the win!!!!! England finally has a masters champ who's not Nick Faldo!

We play scrambles at our club. The handicaps (being CONGU ones) are reliable. Great fun and no one is suspected of cheating at all. I wouldn't play in a scramble where entrants declare their own handicaps, especially if 'bumping up a couple of strokes' is considered honest!

I think you meant to say "although I was dishonest about my handicap, some other entrants were more dishonest than me". I feel sorry for the people you beat that gave their actual handicap.

It will be boring after today if Speith is 5 shots ahead.

10 - Never liked the idea of mulligans. Golf is not meant to be easy, or fun!

I'm guessing some of it has to do with weather @paininthenuts. We're often playing in low temperatures, wet fairways and therefore don't get the carry or roll that we would in certain parts of the US. I'm not ruling out the existence of guys who can bomb it 300 in sub zero temperatures but I've just never seen one in real life. @Lugowskins how can you hit it that far (assuming you don't hit OB every other drive) and be 18ish handicap? Just read your other reply. Yeah 275 every now and then is totally normal.

It's their responsibility as an affiliated club to deal with supplementary rounds. You can play off shorter tees if you choose but you're handicap adjustment will be calculated based on the SSS of the shorter tees, which I suspect is a couple of shots less than the White tees. i wouldn't ask them, I would tell them you are doing a supplementary round and hand them the card at the end marked and signed by another member. They have to adjust your handicap accordingly. They cannot refuse to do it. Basically, the U.K. Handicap is a reliable representation of your competition ability and not necessarily reflective of your general playing ability. the US handicap system is a much more accurate reflection of your all around playing ability, but less reliable than the UK system.

Firstly, I commend you for wanting to play off of a lower handicap when you are winning competitions with your current hcp. As you probably know, in the UK it is more common to hear people celebrate that their handicap has increased, giving them more chance of winning, which really winds me up. If 32 points is winning a club competition, unfortunately it looks like your home course has a SSS that is too low. I used to be a member of a club like that and scoring over 30 points often got you into the top 10, but also got you +0.1 added to your handicap. All else being equal, this should not be the case. The best thing you can do is submit supplementary rounds to your handicap secretary. You can play up to 10 supplementary rounds per year. Arrange some rounds with other members and declare the round as supplementary (in the pro shop probably) before you play. The card counts for handicap purposes (SSS is used instead of a calculated CSS). This is not something your club can choose to do or not, anyone can do it at any affiliated club. The latest rules on when and how you can submit them are here: http://www.englandgolf.org/library-media%5Cdocuments%5CChanges%20To%20CONGU%202014(2).pdf

I think you should post a Member Swing thread as the guys suggest as there will no doubt be improvements to be made that will reduce the likelihood of you getting the 'yip'. If you are like me (sounds likely) you are focused more on hitting the shot you want to when playing with strangers, compared to focusing on results when playing with regular playing partners. I think it is an ego thing where. You want to impress the new players and you think only of hitting a great shot rather then worrying about hitting bad shots or the OB right, water left etc when you really want to win. I am very nervous teeing off in the club championship because the result is so important to me. But if there were 100 people watching that first tee shot, I would be very confident that I would stripe it down the middle. Does that sound familiar?

I have sympathy for you @MrQster. I have similar extremes sometimes which as you say, feels very strange considering the length of time you have been playing. If you are like me, it is probably because you desperately want to score low, every time you play, and you don't have the concentration levels to be able to overcome this with a process based approach. Quick question: Do you play better or worse when you are in a group of people you don't know, or there are people watching you?

Thanks Dave. I was not aware of this at all. They must use these adjustments for mixed tournament over here. I have never been aware of a single gender tournament where different tees are used, but now I can see how it would be possible. If two players have the same handicap, even if one can hit it 50 yards further from the tee than the other, they will always play the same tees. I guess sometimes, a course (and in some cases a particular set of tees), will suit one player more than another, even when they have the same handicap. I like it when our club competitions are of the back tees and they are pushed right back, as that suits me more than some of the other players of the same handicap. When we use the short tees in winter, I have a disadvantage over another 5 hcp who is short off the tee but has a better wedge game than me. I just see this as what golf is all about. Also, we have 2 'divisions' (flights) max in our 150+ entry competitions, but the winner of the competition comes from either division. I like the sound of the US way of competing against players in the same flight with no shots given/taken.

You're blowing my mind here @Golfingdad In UK the only times people would be competing against each other off different tees is when it is a mixed (male/female) tournament.

What? Is this normal?

If they are competing against each other then they should play from the same tees. Otherwise the higher handicapper has an unfair advantage. Their lack of distance and ability is balanced out already by their higher handicap. I think I'm missing something here...

Maybe it's all the rain we get. I'm sure we could wear trainers sometimes in the summer (I have some FJ spikeless that I wear when it's been dry for a while) but through winter and a lot of the rest of the year, I wouldn't be confident without spikes due to grip.

I've always thought it was to do with protecting the greens or to avoid slipping and injury when wet. I'm not really sure. Put it this way, I can count the number of times I've seen trainers (sneakers) on a golf course on one hand, out of hundreds of rounds over 10 years. It's just understood that it's the done thing.

Proper golf shoes are mandatory on virtually all courses in UK...

Jeans, t shirt, whatever. I never wear golf shoes when at the range. Always trainers. I wonder if there is a benefit to practising wearing golf shoes?

Never happened to me. That's weird. I guess he didn't want to get stuck buying the drinks and didn't want to make up a reason why he couldn't stay for beer?

I would say if you averaged 3 birdies a round over a year, you would shoot 71 or better quite often. A lot of those rounds will have 4 or 5 birdies and a few with 6.

29 birdies in 23 rounds (1.26 per round). Average score over those rounds is 77.93. That seems about right, maybe slightly lower than average birdies for the average total score. If you are including non-competition rounds then my average is almost exactly 2 birdies per round.

Really good read. This is something I will really try to do. I am definitely very focused on results rather than process. Not that I don't follow a process, but it is secondary to the outcome. I get very frustrated when I don't score as well as I 'should' and nervous when I am scoring well. I've read Bob Rotella's 'Putting out of your mind' and it advocates a similar approach. But I like that the reason for your approach is to make it more enjoyable.

Nice! I've never played with a tour pro. I'd love to see how good they really are up close. I imagine he'll give you some stick considering where Arsenal are in the table compared to Man U (assuming you're a Man U fan based on user name). Which course are you playing?

Congratulations. That's really cool. I hope it leads to a long and enjoyable golfing career. And if it doesn't, well you'll have a head start on most of us hobby players who start playing later on in life