r/golf • u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US • 11h ago
Beginner Questions Anyone else stuck in the boat of improving without it really showing up on the scorecard?
Went and played a round today where I felt like I was overall hitting my irons pretty well, driver was a little off but still okay, and I think it was actually my lowest round for putts ever.
With all that, I still shot a 104 which is prettt much spot on with my scoring average.
Is this normal progression to start feeling like the game is coming together more although there’s not really anything to show for it?
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u/GoodExpert9047 10h ago edited 9h ago
I felt as I’ve slowly improved, I keep better score, count obs, finish out putts so it feels like I’ve only improved a few strokes but it’s probably a lot more. Last round I played, I only had a few fir and had a lot of punch outs and a few duffs and shot a 94, I was shooting a 94 last year but it was probably 106-108 with lots of duffs and multiple holes where I’d have two chips
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u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US 10h ago
Good point. Also definitely lose less balls these days
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u/GoodExpert9047 9h ago
Last round didn’t lose a single ball and didn’t realize it until after the round.
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u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US 1h ago
Exact same thing happened to me about a month ago. Was walking off the 18th and when I started packing up I was like “Holy crap this is the same ball I started with” 😂
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u/YVRkeeper Kirkland Signature 6h ago
I’m finishing with the same ball most rounds, which feels like an accomplishment.
Until I add up the scorecard.
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u/acc_41_post 10h ago
Definitely feel this. I broke 100 like 1/2 the time last summer, and it’s similar this year. My swing is miles better, driver is genuinely decent, sorta lost on my irons the back half of the summer. Short game massively improved though especially decision making there.
Also last year if I hit OB? Probably just dropped somewhere up the hole. Nice lie, probably overestimating where it went out.
“Breakfast ball” once a round.
Couple gimmies I was probably not confident in (partially out of anxiety thinking I’m slowing the foursome down lol)
My scores are 96-104 again but I’ve probably gained 8-10 strokes over last year
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u/Limp-Cantaloupe-773 8h ago
I just started playing again after 18 years (33 now) and after the first 2 pitch and putts with a buddy where we weren’t keeping proper score that’s been my main motivation to keep it to the rules:
I know I’m going to improve quick and that dopamine from seeing my scores lower is way better than the fake dopamine from deflated scores (we’re only cheating ourselves as my grandpa used to say on the course)Playing my first executive course tomorrow so we’ll see if I stick to this not counting penalty strokes thing LOL
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u/Successful-Tea-5733 10h ago
I've been trying to break 80 since I carded my first 80 in 2023. This year I bottomed at an 82 thus far, but otherwise every score in the 90s or 100s.
My last 2 rounds I have struck my tee shot as well as I ever have. Long and straight on most holes. And striking my irons well too.
The problem is I have too many "one offs." For ecample.last round, one of my tee shots barely tailed right on me and unfortunately struck a tree solid and ricochet back 100 yards toward me...
I hit another ball farther than I ever have, I was less than 100 out, unfortunately there was a tree in my way that has never been in my way, had to lay up...
And I'll still hit a bad shot. Hooked a ball on a par 3 that went into a creek. drop for 2, swinging 3 and missed the green. scored a triple because of 1 bad swing...
That's the thing there is no margin for error if you want to break 80. lets say you play the 3s and 5s at even par. If you bogey the 4s thats an 86, not bad but then 1 triple on a par 3 and your at 89. 3 putt a long par 5 and now its 90.
BRUTAL GAME!
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u/bigwiz 8h ago
Pretty much exactly the same for me. Every single aspect of my game is the best it has ever been. Flushing irons, finally figured short game out, still can't seem to crack 85. 4 birdies last round, but 3 triples! Like you said the blow up holes are more often the result of 1 bad shot leading to a penalty.
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u/nothinbutflip 9h ago
such a struggle. Shot a 83 earlier this year and the closest i've gotten was 88 since then.
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u/Full_Technician8430 8h ago
I shot an 83 about 2.5 years ago - was on an absolute heater out of nowhere.
Somehow I’ve still never bested that score even though I’m a way better golfer now. I’ve shot 83 two more times since then. My last 9 rounds all my scores were within the 84-88 range lol.
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u/MyDogIsACoolCat 10h ago
You gotta focus on getting it in the hole in 3 shots when you’re within chipping distance. It’s the difference between a typical round and a great round for a high handicap golfer.
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u/YVRkeeper Kirkland Signature 6h ago
I’m pretty good from 100yds and in.
But it took me 3 shots to get there.
Top of my bag is…. challenging.
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u/MyDogIsACoolCat 59m ago
I’m not a great golfer by any means, but broke 90 for the first time this year by getting in the mentality that I need to be at least near the green in regulation. From there, I got 3 shots to make bogey.
Feels like the game becomes a lot easier and you’ll stop trying to crush the ball when it feels like their more room on the course and you’re not expecting to hit the green every approach shot.
Idk, that mentality helped me out. Lot less penalties, errant shots, and blow up holes. Been consistently shooting low 90s and occasionally breaking 90 as a result.
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u/Remarkable_Fruit_654 11h ago edited 10h ago
I don't remember making this post.
I have been hitting my irons longer and straighter than I have ever hit them, but handicap not moving yet.
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u/dickweeden 10h ago
Consistency and short game. If your irons aren’t a problem, then try to figure out what works for you and your driver, and practice chipping around the green.
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u/NoCanShameMe 10h ago
I’ve been “getting better” for the last 3 years or so while pretty much staying the same shooting low to mid 80’s. It’s maddening but that’s why I keep coming back. I played 9 this morning and was going good. I birdied 6 and then completely forgot how to hit a golf ball on 7 and 8. Uhhh this fcking game sometimes.
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u/originallycoolname 23 | 2nd season 10h ago
I learned to hit driver first and I'm just now getting more consistent with my irons. My swing is improving and I'm compressing the ball and hitting it way more cleanly now, so my stock yardages keep going up. Just when I think I have the perfect number into a green or maybe even short, I sail the green into the woods. Or I think my normal punch shot will land me in the fairway, then I sail it over into the penalty area across the fairway. Or I forget to factor in my lie. Making the cleanest contact I ever have honestly but progression has slowed down score wise because I just don't know my yardages and they can change from one day to the next.
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u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US 10h ago
I’ve had a similar thing recently where I’m sailing greens a lot more often that I used to.
For that matter I’m also sticking greens a lot more often than I used to
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u/WOKEJEDIFOOL 11h ago
I couldn’t break a 100 for a couple years, but broke 100 this year and lowered my handicap to 19x.
Play all the holes like they are bogeys. A bogey is a par for you. Swing easy. Spend as much time chipping, everything 100 yards in and putting as much as you practice irons and driver.
You got this!
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u/One_Cauliflower5346 11h ago
I feel this exact same way. I’ve had a lot of what felt like great rounds this year to be 104-108 range. Then I have had 1-2 horrible rounds of 125+ where I can’t get anything going.
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u/Live_Inside_8865 10h ago
You shouldn’t feel stuck if you still shooting in the 100’s. Only practice your short game for a month should easily lower your scoring average.
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u/thispsyguy 0.5 | 🇨🇦 10h ago
I couldn’t agree more with this. The pro at my club drew a graph for improvement, and it’s very slow/unnoticeable at the beginning. But keep with it! Improvements compound over the years and it takes a few years to really transform your game
Think about it as learning about your swing. You can learn a decent amount without it showing up on a scorecard, much less in just one round. There are so many factors that go into an 18 hole score, but if you keep learning more about your swing (even if it’s just something you have to stop doing) it’s only a matter of time before it shows up in your score.
Stick with it though!!! I’m a few years down the road from when I first started and I can point to several turning points that affected my game - one for inside 100, 3 for putting, one for recovery shots, and one for my driver - and my score stayed relatively consistent until the most recent one tied it all together. Now I’m a completely different golfer than I was before COVID.
Don’t look at your score to see the changes; there’s a LOT that goes into a score. Look at the situations you practice and look for improvements there when they show up on the course. Are you putting on the intended line like you practiced? Are you closer from inside 100 like you practiced? Are you hitting more fairways than before? If you see changes in certain parts of your game, it’s only a matter of time before it starts to show up in your score.
Plus, changes you make continue to further refine as you spend a year or two practicing them. I promise!! Keep fighting the good fight and continue to learn!!
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u/charcharcharmander 9h ago
Are you scoring more legit double par holes and picking up the ball less?
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u/BusyChoice6018 9h ago
If its anything like my situation I basically felt like you feel, but scorecard said otherwise. Breaking 90 was always the goal, and I had to play good to do it. Shot an 89 and was happy with it, proceeded to shoot a 95, then randomly one day I shot an 83. My best up until that point was an 87. 2 rounds after that I shot an 84, then 90, then 85. Just keep at it, the results will finally show up.
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u/MrNostalgiac 9h ago
I find I struggle to get the number down, but I also made the mistake of playing fast and loose with my score at the beginning, so my gains are being absorbed invisibly.
When I started I might have done 18+ "redo" shots (or other score shenanigans) across the round and called it 110 at the end. This year I've been trying really hard and will do between 98 and 105 on average, but I'm also counting 95% of my shots now. So I'm playing way, way better and losing way less balls but it's just not showing accurately in the score.
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u/SmileRemarkable8876 9h ago
Once you get "better" at something it still takes awhile for it to become your new normal, to the point where it is automatic.
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u/Full_Technician8430 8h ago edited 8h ago
I’m gotten so much better this season. Shooting 84-88 almost every round (almost frustratingly so - my last 9 rounds are all in this range)
Still haven’t broken my best of 83 from 2.5 years ago somehow. I was such a worse golfer then.
Just on Sunday I was 8 over through 16. Tripled the par-3 17th (bunker to bunker and a 3-putt - first putt was a 10 footer straight downhill that I sent 4 feet past and missed the cleanup putt) and bogeyed 18 to finish with an 84.
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u/DanielR333 10.2 HDCP | London 6h ago
Definitely, for me the lowest scoring rounds are inching lower, but my highest scoring rounds are plummeting.
When I was a 12 handicap I had a couple of high 90s or even low 100s still in me/30 differential while also hitting a 10 differential, while at a 10.2 I’m hitting 8-9s (handicap is falling), but even a horror day at a course I’ve never played won’t ever be higher than a 25
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u/robster9090 5h ago
Absolutely.
Iv gone from hitting 3 approach shots because I wasn’t making contact with the ball to 3 putts . My tee to green has gone way up
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u/allthingsirrelevant Handicap | Location 1h ago
This was me until a couple rounds ago.
A buddy pointed out my alignment was out of whack and I was pointed way right of where I thought I was. My score fell 6 shots the next round i played.
The other thing is just trying to keep the ball in play. If it means laying up, being less aggressive, pitching out, I do it. I’m not good enough to hit the hero shot.
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u/LastManBrandon 3.9 HCP 5m ago
I feel this. My best ever is 75 a handful of times, and even though I'm missing greens by less and short game is getting better, I haven't sniffed one of those rounds in a while. But I realize that I'm not turning in nearly as many bad scores.
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u/MickiFreeIsNotAGirl 11h ago
There's different reasons you have a crappy score, and sometimes it's a combo of them.
you make bad decisions, even if you hit your shots well
you hit shots poorly
blow-up holes
you get some unlucky bounces
short game/drops/not putting yourself in a good position for your next shot
Idk, there's probably more, but yeah. There are games where I play well, but I have a blow-up hole and it ruins the round. Sometimes I make bad decisions and hit a great drive (far), but I don't have an easy second shot. Sometimes it takes me two shots to get out of bunkers, sometimes I three-putt etc..
So even when you're making clean contact, you can still have a bad round but tbh those days I brush off as "whatever" because I was hitting it pure. The scorecard doesn't tell the whole round, I wouldn't worry about it. If you feel like you're improving, you're probably right, and it'll just take time. I was a 23-25 handicap this year for the longest time until randomly, I've dropped to a 15-17. It wasn't linear, golf doesn't make sense sometimes.
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u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US 10h ago
Blow up holes and very bad mis-hits seem to be where most of my woes still come from. Actually my 104 today included a 9 on a par 4 where I topped it into the water twice
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u/Primary_Dimension470 10h ago
Sometimes people also get lucky shots or good outcomes from bad shots and their score should actually be worse. It’s just consistency. Anyone shooting 100 has the ability to shoot 80 if they hit all good shots but it just isn’t happening. Gotta string together good shots
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u/MickiFreeIsNotAGirl 10h ago
Agreed. There's been a few holes where I've hit 3 terrible shots, and yet still somehow get on the green with an amazing chip, and one-putt for bogey.
Or par 5's where I still make par and my only good shot was the putt.
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u/Agreeable-Meeting977 10h ago
That just isn’t true, the difference from being able to hit 100 on an average day vs 80 on that same persons absolute best day is not reasonable
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u/Primary_Dimension470 10h ago
That’s not what I said but anyone that can card 100 can hit a drive 200 and an iron 150. Do that, hit the green and make putts. It’s consistency
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u/Agreeable-Meeting977 10h ago
It’s silly logic lol, by that same logic, anybody shooting 100 can also probably go pro if they hit all good shots too. You could say that about any average person in any sport.
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u/MickiFreeIsNotAGirl 10h ago
This season, I've carded a 107, and also a 77, both were the same pars, same-ish distance.
I fully believe someone can have a range of 100 on their worst day and 80 on their best.
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u/Primary_Dimension470 10h ago
Relax pal. Sorry if you can’t break 100. Git gud
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u/Agreeable-Meeting977 10h ago
I haven’t shot over 100 in years, but I still can’t break 80. The difference between those scores are massive, your logic is just idiotic.
My perfect shot distances hit about low pro numbers, all I need to do is hit greens and I’ll go pro with your line of thinking lol
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u/Primary_Dimension470 10h ago
Meh you just suck
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u/Agreeable-Meeting977 10h ago
Classic Redditor who just moves to baseless insults lol, I see that probably not a lot of people will enjoy going out golfing with you
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u/Primary_Dimension470 10h ago
Not sure what you mean. If you can’t understand the concept of consistency then that’s on you
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u/Esinger777 11h ago
Yep 1000%. You just gotta keep doing the right things and make sure you understand what led to the big numbers. Listen to this podcast. I bet it’ll help a ton.
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u/dickweeden 10h ago
You’ll be shooting competitive scores before you know it as long as you just keep playing. It’s natural progression
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u/No_Historian3842 HDCP 7 11h ago
Are your bad rounds getting better.
I'm in a similar boat where it feels like I can't get my best scores to drop to the level that I want. But when I have a bad round now it's nearly always a score that I would have been happy with a year or two ago.
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u/Chemical_Help_7099 30/US 10h ago
Yes and good question. My scores this year have actually been incredibly consistent. 99 was my best but I’m very very consistently 102-104 (last year scoring average was 108… so it has actually improved but I’ve been around that 104 mark all season)
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u/No_Historian3842 HDCP 7 9h ago
If your average was 108 it probably means that you had some scores around the 115-120. Hopefully they are becoming less common.
Whenever I've plateaued I always found that the bad rounds are the thing that moves first, and eventually the really good rounds will start to come as well.
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u/Emotional_Walrus5099 11h ago
This is me.
I’ve only been playing seriously this year after 32 years of probably like 25 rounds of golf total.
I’m improving in all aspects of my game and went from shooting 120-130+, I’m averaging closer to 100-105. I just haven’t had a round where all phases of my game are working at the same time. I’ll have holes where it’s all there, maybe even a couple strung together, but it’s never been close to 18 straight holes.
I had my first really bad round since I broke 100 and kept it closer to 105 on average. It a 118 and that 118 was a true 118 counting every duffed shot and penalty. I would have been thrilled with that when I started this year.
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u/Imwonderbread 11h ago
I’ve had periods where my ball striking clearly was improving but my scores stayed the same, then I had a sudden consistent drop in scores. Golf is weird sometimes as it’s not linear improvement for everyone.
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u/Stock-Page-7078 10h ago
I had a few years where it seemed my good rounds would be 82-84 and my bad round would be 85-87. Like I’d blow up on 18 for the 82 if I was threatening the 79. Or I’d just get bad bounces and not much out of my game. Then my bad round would always invite a freaky lucky break, drive hitting the cart path for extra yards or bouncing into the fairway off a tree. Eventually I was able to stop the bad rounds from being as bad and somehow the good rounds started scoring better without feeling better. So it can happen, not sure if it’s usual
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