Do you keep score everytime you play?

[Irishman1979]

My uncle who was a great golfer and taught me the game, believed that its better sometimes to not keep score unless you are playing a match with someone else or are entered in a tournament.

 

Sometimes he would just go out and if he hit a bad shot , he would just hit another from the same spot until he got it right. Drop a couple of balls around the green and hit lobs and chips along with throwing a couple balls on the green then putting from different areas visualizing the cup being in a different place.

 

Do you feel that caring too much about score all the time can be detrimental to your golf game? I feel that happens to me way too often, caring about the score instead of just going out and enjoying being on the golf course and becoming better at course management and local knowledge.

[BKN1964]

On practice rounds I'll only keep score if I'm wanting to get a gauge of how something new/different is really working, or if I'm feeling like I can take it low (relatively speaking for me lol). Otherwise, I get enough scored rounds in with tournaments and other "formal" rounds.

[TMoakley1547]

Yes, unless I start with a few 7's or 8's, then im just out for the fresh air.

[MountainGoat]

No.

[Mcgeeno]

Nope.

 

I'll have a day, usually a Monday where my home course is dead and I can work on weaknesses from the tournaments or rounds the week before.

 

I'll play a bunch of balls and get a practice day in on the course hitting wedges, chips, drives or working on lag putting without even thinking of my score.

 

Also we usually have one round a month where me and my 3 buddies do a fun cash game. Tomorrow for instance is a partners 6-6-6 match for cash. 6 holes best ball, 6 holes alternate shot and 6 holes scramble format.

 

I find a lot of my good buddies are just obsessed and sometimes stressed with 'posting a score'. Ive played rounds with one club, I've played rounds where I just had fun and told them not to worry. Or the other games I mentioned earlier. You can get something out of doing it a little different now and again.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

If I'm not playing in competition or playing a vacation course, I'm practing so thus not keeping score(and playing solo so doesn't count for handicap anyways).

 

I do think there is a difference between keeping score and caring/not caring about the score and you can do both at the same time.

[Ghostwedge]

They make scorecards for a reason...

I’ve tee’d it up and wrote down my score on every single hole for 3,000 + rds of golf.

I throw the cards in a box in my den when i get home. Sometime during a rainy gray January day i’ll crunch the numbers for the previous year. Score, fairways, GIR, saves and putts, etc.

Never worry about what i shoot, i’ve started off double bogey and parred the next 17 holes. I’ve needed to par 18 for a 65 and rinsed it twice for 70. Just trying to drop that handicap a bit every year.

So far i’m still treading water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hawkeye77]

Nope

[garyt]

I typically do. Even if I'm all alone and practicing, hitting extra balls I'll play one for score just as a gauge.

[bogeypro]

i don't keep score most rounds. I only keep score if I'm playing by the rules and posting the score for handicap or tournament purposes.

[farmer]

I don't write it down, but I always know.

[Pepperturbo]

I keep score all the time. However, I've encountered many people that don't. If they did, they'd probably feel lousy, maybe not keep an accurate score, and or wouldn't post it.

[strength115]

Most of the time I keep score. Some days I just don’t care.

[madchens]

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

 

I went through a stretch of keeping score every single round, analyzing all of it, thinking about good/bad holes, etc. I found that golf became less fun.

 

Sometimes, like yesterday, I go out with a half bag and just try to play golf. It is very freeing.

[jholz]

I used to go out and knock the ball around without keeping score all the time. Then, I noticed that the rounds where I was keeping score, I became a total headcase.

 

So, I started keeping score all the time just to become more comfortable with it. Now, if I'm on the course, I'm playing the ROG and keeping score all the time. I leave practice for the practice areas.

[rwc356]

I keep score and track stats from every round (I'm a numbers nerd) over the past 20+ years. If I'm out alone, I might hit a second shot for practice but still play the first shot and count it.

[juststeve]

Every time I play, yes, but that's not every time I go onto the course.

 

Steve

[over_roast]

I don't always keep score. Even if I don't keep a full score though I'll take some notes and usually record my putting strokes on each hole. Kinda depends on the day I guess.

[Nickc]

Sometimes written down / sometimes not keep some sort of score (or a + / - par for handicap). But often concentrate on some practice element e. g shots to green or number of up and downs etc.

[vgidda]

Only when i play with other people. If I'm alone I don't keep score and play two balls.

[krb]

No. When I’m playing a practice round by myself I’m usually working on something and not keeping score. My last round like this I hit long irons off tees and worked on mid to long irons into greens. On approach shots, I’d move the ball to a yardage sensible for the club I wanted to hit. Around the greens I’d chip or put a bit before moving on. For me this is an effective way to practice.

 

One of the great benefits of a private club membership is opportunities to play on a relatively empty course and practice like this.

[Hawkeye77]

> @Pepperturbo said:

> I keep score all the time. However, I've encountered many people that don't. If they did, they'd probably feel lousy, maybe not keep an accurate score, and or wouldn't post it.

 

Or just not feel like keeping score.

[bladehunter]

I keep score all the time. But. At times when out for 9 and just simply stinking it up , I’ll stop keeping score and just start practicing whatever is ailing me. If I’m out for 18 and the wheels fall off I’ll finish. But admittedly I may hit driver more often and just wave at putts. Grinding to only shoot 75-76 isn’t my idea of fun. Some days you just can tell putts aren’t going to drop and every bounce is going behind a tree.

[Mcgeeno]

 

 

> @bladehunter said:

> I keep score all the time. But. At times when out for 9 and just simply stinking it up , I’ll stop keeping score and just start practicing whatever is ailing me. If I’m out for 18 and the wheels fall off I’ll finish. But admittedly I may hit driver more often and just wave at putts. Grinding to only shoot 75-76 isn’t my idea of fun. Some days you just can tell putts aren’t going to drop and every bounce is going behind a tree.

 

Nice post. My original answer came out like I'm only keeping score once a week haha. I'm in Canada and actually post 100+ rounds a year. Maybe once a week I'll go for on the course practice, work on stuff that has been an issue the last round or week etc. Sometimes I'll hit five balls from a problem yardage or a tricky hole or to a pin that wrecked me a round before.

 

I can't post those rounds. I might know what I shot in a general sense but its literally the definition of a practice round. And I think they help a ton.

 

 

[MikeyLokahi]

Yes, and I use an app to keep track of score, FW hit, GIR, putts, sandshots, club used on tee shots. Need the data to show what I need to work on.

[Sean2]

For the most part. Sometimes I find myself alone on a deserted course and I will play two balls, practice around the greens, etc.

[Divot License]

For most of my rounds I keep score as my group are usually playing beers. (loser buys)

However I do occasionally just go out and play golf, no scorecard and not scoring. Hit balls and have fun is the objective.

[andrue]

I usually record it on my GPS if I'm playing 18 holes (except practice sessions) but I don't submit a card except in competitions. I haven't bothered keeping a score for the last couple of months because course conditions have been so poor but I've kept rough track of bogey v par v double.

But outside of competitions I don't really pay much attention to the score. My mates and I use the score to comment on how our day went but we don't compare scores or declare a winner.

[bortass]

I always start out my rounds keeping score but I know there are a handful of times I stopped. The singles not being able to post change happened after I stopped playing. So every round i played was post-able and as such I played one ball and posted away. I didn't get in the habit of playing a practice round. Now that I'm starting to play again, I can't post any of my rounds. So I am more willing to drop a ball and re-hit a shot to try to get a better outcome. Though I have to say most of my extra shots are still provisionals or penalty shots.

 

Regarding the second part about caring about score being detrimental, I find that can be true but may not always be a bad thing. For me score has almost always mattered. I liked the game enough that I decided I wanted to get better. My score, and eventually handicap index, were the gauges I used to track my progress. All is well and good but I also set scoring goals for myself like break 100 or 90. I would get quite frustrated when I'd card an 8 and start telling myself I screwed up and now the round is shot, blah, blah, blah. I eventually learned, and I assume you are well past this point since you are by far a better golfer then I will ever dream of being based on your posts that I've read, that you can play through a bad hole and still play well, with regard to your personal game. So this was an important lesson for me, learning how to let go of a bad hole when I actually care about the overall round and still trying to play my best.

I later found that caring about score made me quit playing. Things changed and I didn't play as much and my game fell apart. I went from my best, 19.X index, up to a 30.2 in the span of 18 months. I was so mad because I knew I could shoot a score in the high 80s- low 90s and was posting a 102... This is when I started walking off the course, one time after 3 holes. I played even less, which aggravated things more, and eventually just quit.

I'd play maybe 9 holes a year after that and I had fun. I kept my score out of habit but in the end it didn't matter. I wasn't posting it. I had no goals. There was never money on the line. There was also a period of time between my goal of breaking 100 and 90, when I didn't have the goal to break 90 and I played carefree golf. I didn't care about my score or how I did and I actually shot a 92 during this period.

At the end of the day all that matters is what lets you have fun and enjoy yourself on the course. So don't keep score every time you play if you think it'll make things more fun or do what your uncle did and hit some extra shots. You can't post those for HDCP purposes anyways, so score shouldn't matter. It's up to you to determine how much you care about possible HDCP impacts and perception with other golfers.

Have fun out there.

[GLF4EVR]

If I am alone the majority of the time I do not. By myself I like to work on things like using different clubs to hit the ball to achieve the same distance as I would normally use if keeping score. Now on a casual round I keep score most of the time, but if the game disappears I will state I am not playing for a score anymore. Need to work on whatever the current problem is. Usually a couple of holes & can get back to some semblance of what I should be doing.....but not always. Biggest thing is to just relax & only focus on the shot you have in front of you.