Most statistically unlikely round you have seen from someone you knew

OK, today i was reminiscing with a friend about a round he had last year, when as a ~ 3 index he went an entire round without hitting a green, on a course that was rated around 72/130 or so. I told him it was probably the most unlikely round , good or bad, i had ever witnessed in all my years playing golf.

I've seen a lot of threads where we talk about sandbaggers or vanity caps doing weird things in money or tournament games....but those things aren't really weird....those guys are just cheaters

What is the most bizarre round you have seen , good OR bad, from a player you knew well enough to know that it was just a crazy fluke.

So i'll start with my story of the 3 index going an entire round without hitting a green

I have a friend that was once as low as a 1 cap. Played 36 holes one day. First 18 he hit every fairway and every green two putted each for a tidy even par round. Second 18 all over the place maybe 4 fairways 7-8 greens but did chip in a couple of times and would up shooting 4 under. I’ve always considered that one of the strangest days of golf that could possibly happen.

Par 71 course, 19 handicap, and, he shot a 78. I don't think he has every broken 80, every again.

I once saw a 8-9 Handicap start his round eagle, birdie, hole in one on the first three holes. He held on to shoot his best round ever, 1 over par.

a legit 18 handicapper that I have known for years and played many rounds with shot 1 under from the middle tees at The Rim Club in a somewhat substantial wolf game a few years ago. He doesn’t hit ground balls and his 18 is mostly due to unrelenting aggressiveness combined with no idea where the ball is going to go. He absolutely cleaned us all out that day. Every time he went alone we all figured this would be where he imploded. It just never happened.

I’ve seen crazy 2 man net better balls and reams of 11 cappers shooting 36 in 9 hole member guest matches

I was playing in a 6-6-6 match with my foursome at a 6 hcp. I shot 98 but cleaned up in the match as I partnered with each guy during their best stretch. I won $300 and didn’t contribute a single hole, lol.

A couple of years ago a guy at our track won the club championship going 3 over gross total for two days. The A flight was played from the black tees par 70 @ 6700/72.4/144. His index was 6. Only time I've ever seen someone flagged in GHIN.

At age 16 (18 years ago) I shot a gross 69 on a par 72 (72.4/135) with a 10 hcp for a nett 59. Included 4 birdies and finished with an eagle.

This occurred within one week of each other just this past month:

Guy that's probably a 17-20 handicap had a round with THREE birdies, including two consecutive holes with birdies. He somehow still finished the round with a 93 or 94 due to blow ups on other holes. Different guy that's probably a high single digit handicap had THREE chip in birdies in one round. None of them easy chips, either.The first one blew me away. I'm playing to an 11 right now and have had one birdie all year in six or seven rounds. I feel fortunate to have witnessed both, and even better because both of the golfers are really good guys. It was a joy to watch.

A good buddy of mine is a 3 cap. I’ve played with him maybe 20 times. 19 of those times he’s shot in the low to mid 70s.

We had a group we played with occasionally where if this one guy patted you on the shoulder pre-round it was supposed to give you the plague or something. He did it to me once and I shot 99 that day, so the legend continued.

Then, he does it to my 3 cap buddy and everybody starts warning him. He laughs it off and is like “no way”.

It started on the first hole when his approach shot plugged into the lip of a bunker and he didn’t recover until late in the back 9. He ended up with an 89 but his only goal as we rounded the turn was to break 90. He somehow believed that the curse didn’t actually get him if he broke 90. It was just one bad break after another, combined with poor play from this guy I had never seen before. It was actually quite fun, just because there was a story behind it too. Seeing this guy struggle for once was mildly enjoyable ? He’s a good dude...just fun to mess with sometimes because it is annoying how consistent he is usually.

I've broken 80 one time in my career and it was a 75. 72.2/127.

My dad once shot a 72 with 40 putts. He hit every green in regulation on the par 3 and 4s and two putted. He hit all four par 5s in two and three putted each of them.

I'm the opposite. I once shot a 51 for 9 holes in a high school match. I chipped in twice and had 8 putts.

A friend shot 7 under on the front and failed to shoot par.

Did something comparable last Sunday. We had a competitive game of Wolf going and I was not in the lead after 15. Finished with two birdies in a row and a par on 18 to win with 2 Up, with a 92 and 35 putts. One birdie per round is usually great for me and happens every five rounds or so. I’m a 19 index.

Look at my scorecard and you get my game in a nutshell. Started on the back 9.

Edit: added the deep stats and can’t delete the first picture.

Two putting ones from me. The first was a friend of mine in the late 90s. Playing one January and the ground was frosty, the greens were not too bad, but a ball that landed on them would bounce like it was concrete and the surrounds were relatively soft, so the ball would stop. Just impossible to play half way decent. Except for my friend, who managed to go the first 9 holes with 7 putts. He chipped in twice and holed every putt he looked at. None of them was inside of about 12 feet. Three of them were outside 30 feet. Insane.

The other was playing in round 2 of the English Amateur around the same time, but in the summer this time. I was 1 down after 7, then parred the next 6 holes. My opponent didn't have a birdie putt from inside 25 feet. I shook hands having lost 7&5. He holed 6 putts in a row from outside 25 feet. I was laughing at the end of it. He holed a 40 footer on 13 to win. Ridiculous.

A guy at my club and I won a 2 man net event against a whack of other clubs and we were the lowest score by 8 or 9 shots

We shot -15 on a very difficult golf course ... and I missed a 7 foot eagle and 3 foot birdie. We had a bogey on our opening hole which made it even crazier.

I think I was a 3 cap at the time and he was a 17. 80% caps. I made 6 birdies and shot 71, and I think he made 4 natural birds shooting 87 or so , a couple of his were for net eagle. All his birdie putts were from outside 30 feet and our score was so low the guys we were playing with were just laughing by the end of the round at how low we were going

I can recall one hole where my partner was 160 in and hit a fairway bunker shot to 50 feet and poured in the putt from the fringe. Now to be fair my partner is a deadly two man guy, makes 4 to 6 X's a round but also has some birdies and pars a lot. He is 65, a great putter and can still move it 275 off the tee. Strong as a horse and can beat anyone in an arm wrestle

Wow 3 birdies is kind of crazy haha

Kinda similar story, i have a friend who at the time was a 15.5 index, and shot a 35 on the back 9 of his second round of the club championship (putting it out, witnesses etc....so def not a BS round). He went into the Monday with something like a 20 shot lead LOL.

I can't imagine anyone in the BB flight has ever had a subpar 9 before that

As a low single digit cap last year I shot a 90, with an ace on the card.

Was the eagle on a par five or did your friend hole it on a par four.

I remember Annika Sornestam tells a story where she played in a pro-am with a guy who holed his second shot on a par five then made a hole in one on the next hole, so he was -5 after 2 holes.

Played many years ago with a gentleman who at is best was an 18 capper. He had never shot less than 83. We were playing at about 6700 yards which was long for him. He was having a great day, a few lucky bounces and bomb putts and we found ourselves on 17 tee. Someone brought up that if the gentleman could finish bogie bogie, he would break 80. The trouble was 17 was a par 3, 200 yards over water. 18 was a 420 yard, monster. (Persimmon & Balata days). Our 18 capper, looked nervous and struck a 5 wood that never left the pin. He made the short tap in for bird. On 18 he killed his drive, leaving him a three wood in. Again, he laced it, made the green in two. He sunk a 15 footer for another bird. So after getting jinxed on 17 tee, he finished birdie, birdie for a 3 over 75. That was the only time even 30 years later he ever broke 83. And it was a difficult, 130 + slope track. He probably won $15 that day.

Myself (+3) and my buddy (2) were preparing for our fourball qualifier with a match against friends. We shot a 48 better ball on the first 9 holes and quit because I threw a club and it got stuck in a tree.

Came back a week later for a better ball tourney at the same course and shot 68 71 to finish 3rd.

I can see a lot of these stories happening. Especially the team event stories.

Being a guy who is consistently inconsistent it is easy to have a really great hole or string of holes where you accidentally have things click followed closely by disaster. I have found it actually quite difficult to be consistently all bad or all good. Most golfers who are high caps are just inconsistent so a good shot is only very marginally less likely to occur than bad. But as you need to string several "not bad" shot together to score well, that is where there is a struggle. I can luck up and hit a long putt or chip in.

The best news about my story is that it was me!

TL;DR - I shot 73(+1) in Day 2 of my first ever Club Championship as a 10-index to win the 5-10 HC flight by 6 strokes with a 151(+7) when my all-time low going in was a 77(+5).

As of our Club Championship last August, I had been playing 3 years and managed to get myself down to a 10 index. Lowest round I had ever shot prior was a 77. Our Club Championship doesn't do net, but they do flight the tournament for pay-out purposes. I was in the Second Flight (5-10 index group). This was my first time participating in the Club Championship.

Course is 71.8/131/6550.

I shot 78(+6) on Day 1 with a double bogey. Had 3 birdies, tying the most I had ever had in a round up to that point. I finished the day in 2nd place of my flight. Leader shot 74 (+2), so I was 4 back and in the final pairing for our flight on Day 2, teeing off next to last, just in front of the final group of the Championship Flight.

Day 2, I open up birdie/par/birdie to the leader's bogey/par/bogey. His 4 shot lead was gone walking off #3 green. I end up shooting 73(+1) with 4 birdies, 3 bogeys, and 1 double. He shot 83 and still finished 2nd in the flight. I won it by 6 strokes with a 2-day 151(+7).

It's been almost a year since then and my handicap is now down to 7.3, but I haven't sniffed 73 again. The closest I have come is 76. But WHAT A TIME TO DO IT! Best round I’ve ever played came in my first individual competition.

So who’s doubting Tom Brady‘s handicap again?

waaaaaiiiiit a minute here....A +3 and a 2 index shot a 48 for 9 holes in best ball? If that is true (like just pure off the stick with no weird handicap stuff) than that takes the cake. No one is beating that. That is insane....how did that happen? Did you both play terribly plus both make a 9 on the same hole?

I shot a 79 in best ball with a friend once (i was a 2 or so at the time and he was a 4) and we almost murdered each other. We actually both tripled the same hole in that round. I can't fathom a 48

Lol at the „almost murdered each other“ bit. Golf is cruel. I can totally picture that round. My gosh, what a stupid game hahaha

It was a par 5 and he drove it OB, i hit mine perfect down the middle. I went to lay up and sh*nked my iron also OB.....he looked at me like i was Hitler. I was like "You're already OB!"

20 minutes of bloodshed later, we both decided to call a truce, and i removed my pocketknife from his abdomen

We lost a lot of balls that day. Windy, couldn’t make a putt, etc. I think we made 1 par. And there wasn’t a single hole both of us finished. Luckily our friend we were playing against left so the match ended around the 7th hole and we kind of stopped caring on the 8th hole after we both hit it in the water and then my club got stuck in the tree.

Ate lunch, laughed about it, left the course and came back next week to finish 3rd. Will never happen again.