DaveP043

I agree with @klineka, playing in accordance with the rules, and expecting your opponent to do the same, is playing fair.

This is completely wrong. Your average day will beat a 6-handicap's average day. Your reasonably poor day will beat his reasonably poor day. His GREAT day will probably beat your great day. The problem is when you're playing a bunch of 6 and 12 and 20 handicaps, the odds become much greater that at least one of them will have a good day. Because the variance is greater as the handicap increases (generally speaking of course) a 20 shooting within 10% of his best will beat you shooting within 10% of your best. Still, I play in handicap events at my club. If I play well, I have a pretty good chance of being in the money. I may not win, but I'll add to my shop credit.

Here's the meat of most of the advice. Improve your full swing game. This will help you to: 1. Keep your tee shots in play, not in the trees or desert or the bunkers or OB or lost. 2. Get near or on the green in regulation Beyond that, learn to chip and putt competently. You don't need "great", you need decent. The concept is simple, really. Avoid penalties, avoid needing to go sideways, keep going closer to the hole. Execution isn't always so simple. Good luck

Just don't bet against him.

No. His ball is in the hazard, he takes the penalty for the ball in the hazard, and may play any conforming ball in his possession. And has been said earlier in this thread, the penalty for playing a wrong ball in match play is loss of the hole, not two strokes.

Australia has its own handicap system. Its similar, but not identical, to the USGA system. Unlike the USGA, there's a DAILY scratch score, which may differ from the USGA Course Rating. I believe the Slope calculation works the same. They use the best 8 scores of the last 20, and the average of those scores is multiplied by 0.93. I think the most difficult thing to obtain for home calculations would be the Daily Scratch score, as that number is based on the scores of the competitors playing the course on each specific day, using a rather arcane calculation. You can find out more about the Australian handicap system here: http://www.golf.org.au/newgahandicapsystem You could certainly do something along the lines of what @saevel25 has laid out, correcting for the differences in the Australian system. You wouldn't have access to the Daily Scratch Score, but it might be good enough for your own use. The spreadsheet that @opie found relates to the CONGU system used in Great Britain and (I think) some parts of Europe. My quick search didn't come up with any available spreadsheets using the Australian system.

Both. Lag closer, and make more shorter ones, but lagging closer might be more important. 3-putts from 30 feet should be reasonably rare, from 20 feet should be really rare. If you're trying to hit a putt 3 feet past the hole, and you hit it 3 feet longer than you intend, you have a tough second. If you're trying to die the ball into the hole, and you're 3 feet long, you have a very makeable 3-footer. Once you get past a certain distance, maybe 12 to 15 feet, your speed goal should be at the hole, not past it.

Mind games are for losers. You're a winner!

Like @iacas, I don't care either, and I dont think anyone else does. But why would you do that?

I'm going to pile on with the rest. Avoiding penalties is 100% full swing stuff, and most doubles come from full-swing problems too. I have very very seldom 4-putted for a double, and have NEVER hit a ball into a hazard while putting. OK, once I hit a putt into a bunker, so ALMOST never. If avoiding penalties and doubles is your strength, full-swing shots are your strength too.

To be honest, I'm a little surprised I didn't get a PM from our team leader hassling me for giving you the right answer the first time. But I'm sure you've played enough golf to know that what you did was fine, and I've played enough to know never to get upset with an opponent.

I often do this when hosting someone who hasn't played my home club. We have a significant number of blind shots, or places where you don't see the trouble from the tee. I often follow my tee shot with the words "don't go there".

I completely rescind my answer. You were obviously wrong and rude to do what you did. For the rest of the year (or at least until October 22) you should always allow your opponents to attempt meaningless putts that could help a partner to make a putt to win a hole from you. And in much the same way my parents taught me, I feel completely free to disregard my own guidance.

This is completely appropriate in a 4 ball match. I do the same thing routinely, and I expect my opponents to do the same thing. I'm surprised if I'm allowed to hit a meaningless putt that could help my partner.

A couple of really good scores dropped off, replaced by not-quite-as-good scores, so I'm up another 0.3 to 2.4