Tom Brady's 8 handicap

[capking]

I’m sure wherever he plays he pays his caddie and he lets him know. I hate the patriots but c’mon people, this is ridiculous.

[BigBlue7]

Thanks man! Baby boy #2 arriving for us in less than 2 weeks!

Hope all is well with you, too

[capking]

Manning also sprayed like 4-5 balls OB

[lefty1978]

I'm a 9 handicap. About 3 weeks ago I shot a 95 on a 6500 yrd course in good weather, completely fell apart on the back 9. It happens. Add heavy rain, television and wearing wired microphones, I can totally see his struggles. 8 handicaps are not great golfers. We are inconsistent at time.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

91, 86 last couple rounds... but mostly short game for me. Too many Covid-19 chip and 3 putts. Drives were okay with only a couple short spinners, and I rarely shoot 8 on a hole. Though it can easily happen.

[Under2hours]

He has a good golf swing, but boy did he look bad out there. Warming up & practicing, there really should be no reason at all for someone used to playing in front of 80,000 fans struggle like he did. To have one shot through 9 holes is pretty sad.

[cliche]

question here for the americans.

how does your hcp system work? i've heard that you just register your good rounds and sign the card yourself. would be no wonder everyone is really good at golf.

 

[Kyle M]

There’s a huge difference between being good at your home course and being able to travel and play to your index.

[hanginnwangin]

Well, it’s a game of honor. Do you want a tv crew or ref to follow every amateur around to make sure they’re counting every stroke? lol

personally, I want to see if I’m getting better. Cheating my handicap doesn’t do that.

[Yardnal]

I’d say he is at best a 12.

Given he didn’t seem to have a clue where to drop when he went into the hazard, I’m not sure I would give him ever having a single digit handicap — at least not a legit one.

This round wasn’t the first round for him with those guys at that course either. Didn’t they play the day before and didn’t he play 18 that morning supposedly?

He’s also getting a lot of credit for a putt that his caddie (Phil Mickelson no less) basically diagrammed for him and a hole out from 150 (as if it were on purpose). So the ball spun back into the hole — I know 20 handicap players that have aces.

[Cwing]

Let’s see:

Very difficult course. In the rain. Playing in front of a world wide Television audience. Playing with two of the greatest ever and one of which is arguably the GOAT all the while you are mic’d up with yapping in your ear the whole time.

[gioguy21]

God bless man !!! congratulations! now you have a full 4some!

[driveandputtmachine]

I would equate playing this round was much like playing in a high level amateur event for your scratch home course players that shoot 82.

I have played in the NC AM, NC Mid AM, GA AM, GA Pub Links, GA Mid AM and watched guys that are scratch at my club, and I have seen them play, shoot 82 or higher.

Whether he played professional football or not, golf is not his comfort zone, and therefore just like many other golfers will shoot much higher than their handicap especially given the situation. Also, keep in mind that most golfers, if they aren't a sandbagger, aren't shooting their handicap more than 50% of the time.

Also, if truly handicapping Tom and Peyton both should not have only gotten the three or four strokes they received. Tiger and Phil are both probably +6 or higher, so if you play off of the lowest cap they should have had strokes added to their score on the front, or Tom and Phil should have gotten more strokes. However the goal was not to make everyone equal in this match, they wanted Tiger and Phil winning most of the holes and hitting most of the good and great shots and hoped Peyton and Tom would bring fringe golfers in to watch and maybe they would hit a few good shots.

If you are a 15 and think you are going to play an 8 handicap at an extremely difficult golf course that neither of you know and you are going to wager 1 million based on the fact that, you watched a round were a player just moved somewhere they can play, but is spending more time prepping for football, and judging their golf off of one round where there are cameras everywhere for National TV and it is raining like crazy and super wet, you have lost your mind.

[DLev45]

I’m not saying that Brady is actually an 8, but I know from an experience an 8 can play like that when things go wrong.

I’m currently a 7.3 and had the same thing happen to me simultaneously with the match this past Sunday. Playing a new course for the first time (73.1/134/6,700) with new people. My home course is 69.9/128/6,300. Driving range was closed for renovations so no warm up with anything other than wedges. Fought a toe-shank with driver all day and embarrassed myself. Hit 6/14 fairways, 3 greens, and shot 93 (49/44).

My tee shot misses weren't the kind that were just "sort of ok" and in the rough. I am talking about "200 yard low right bullets into the trees or next fairway over, punching out just to get back into the fairway with no shot at GIR" misses. I didn't make par until the 12th hole.

Went to my home course 24 hours later to get the crappy taste out of my mouth and figure out what the heck I was doing to toe-shank my driver. Hit on the range for 30 mins and then played 9 and shot even par with 9 straight pars. 6/7 FIR, 6/9 GIR, and 3/3 scrambling.

That's 24 hours apart. I know that pain.

[LeoLeo99]

Meh, I can do that 2 hours apart. One the same course.

Tom, Peyton, and Phil had a lot of nerves on the front 9 that caused a lot of errant shots. Can't blame them for being nervous playing with Tiger.

[Fuscinator]

There's a big difference between doing something you're arguably the best ever at and having something like an 'old school' prostate exam, let's say, in front of 80,000+ people.

Note: I used to think Grady was the GOAT, but now I realize it was Steve Grogan all along.

[aspglf24]

He’s a member at Seminole. Wide fairways so driving is a bit easier. Not sure how he keeps an 8 unless he plays from the the regular tees and hits a lot of short irons. His club set up was also unusual for his swing. Titleist muscle back X shafts, same with the driver and 3 wood. No hybrids. He probably doesn’t gamble for much either. Easy to play better. Yeah he’s an 8 but not a good one!

[kcowgolf]

Swing looked pretty good mechanically, nerves can do crazy things so I can see him being an 8 in casual rounds etc... I wonder how many here in WRX in the same conditions handling TV pressure, rain etc... would play exceptional? I give him a pass, seems like a quality guy and it was a good cause.

[SNIPERBBB]

I only watched the first few holes before having to leave but Brady didn't look comfortable to me.

Remember that unless you play low 60s rated courses, most mid/high single cappers aren't breaking 80 more than a couple times in a 20 round cycle.

[VNutz]

I'm a lower cap than he and have had similar if not worse days. It happens.

[Pomps]

Even all the situation variables aside like weather, tv, Medalist/pressure of phil/Tiger, limited practice during covid, there are some days that are terrible and some others. I personally have played 36 in the same day and shot 86 in the morning and 71 in the afternoon, essentially playing like a 15 cap in the morning and scratch in the afternoon. Even within the same round, I've even had a round where I shot 53/36. Rory at the 2010 British shot 63 then 80. If the only round you were able to witness was Rory's 80, would you ever believe he was Rory? Point is, golf performance can fluctuate greatly from day to day. Besides, remembering the cap formula, it's not a reflection of your average play, it's your average play on your best 8 of 20 rounds, so everyone's cap indicates a better average than their actual average score.

[as42324]

No driver...because Johnny Drama broke it (search Johnny Drama Tom Brady on YouTube)

[Hutstar]

I'd love to know how he felt, I promise he was way more nervous than playing in a Superbowl. He was rubbish but that happens under pressure. You don't see many double digit guys sucking it back 20 feet into the hole.

[dgarland]

If you can't suck it back on those greens after all the rain then you are hitting absolute knuckleballs. Is there anyone here that wouldn't play him for money if he's getting 8?

[tsecor]

why does everyone care so much what his HDCP is? He just helped raise 20 million dollars and didnt take a penny to play in a monsoon with charles barkley heckling him and Phil boring him with 20 minute speeches......

seems like a good dude to me...and his game looks pretty good when you factor in all the variables

[Under2hours]

The issue was he just couldn't put a single hole together and hit maybe half a dozen passable shots all day. An 8 should at least be sniffing the greens on par 3's and having par putts along the way. Oh and a decent tee shot on the front 9.

[anythingfinite]

I haven't seen anyone mention that he played 18 in the morning before the round and then was working out in the parking lot. He had that nervous exhaustion that you can when waiting on a big event. Plus I'm sure he never golfs in that weather.

 

His bad performance and being an 8 HDCP aren't mutually exclusive.

[Ben Berube]

Well said. He isn’t an 8 folks. He gets lots of gimmies because he is the hreatest all time. But with how uncomfortable he was with his clubs, chunking it and this weird putting thing it shows he isn’t an 8.

Yeah, his shafts where X 75+ grams and KBS 130x inhis irons. I mean sure the dude is awesome but those are shafts Phil doesn’t even play.

But like most athletes you saw him shine at times and even dunked it.

NHPatsFan!

[4x4GGG]

Three pages of replies and no one has looked at his actual handicap? https://golf.com/news/tom-brady-handicap-tiger-phil-match-medalist/ <---- It's in this article.

Last reported round, April he shot an 86. Prior to that looks like he got some early rounds in last spring and summer, last round was July with an 85. Before all of that his last round was in April of 15. Looking at the trend he seems to start his seasons pretty high (right after football) and finish pretty strong. That 8.1 is legit 4 years old. If I were to quit golf today and 4 years from now strap on the spikes and play a wet round in front of the world, would I shoot to my handicap?

Now, lets look at how the athletes brain works. He played 18 in the morning. Did some excersizes before the round. I've seen people say it's a nervous energy, but I think it's 100% opposite of that. He gets a practice round or 2 in and he's not hitting well. He's a pro, he's an athlete. What does he do? He's goes after it. Plays 18 in the morning to "figure it out". Is it the course? Is it the game plan? Is it in the swing? He may not know but 18 holes and some good cardio can't hurt? Why no driver? Because he had the "rights". Obviously. Anyone here not have them from time to time? Just not coming thru the ball and no quick fix. I'd be willing to bet that $20M that was the base of his problem. He was having a hard time with his driver and it was bleeding into the rest of his game. The pre match round was his attempt to bash that driver straight and stop the bleeding. He failed.

I can't stand the Patriots and naturally have nothing but discontent for their star pretty boy QB. But by about hole 5 I felt so terrible for him I wanted to crawl under my couch. I've been there. I actually am there, right now. Bad tee shots lead to bad placement lead to bad lies lead to bad chunks... it snow balls. I cheered when he sank that shot and split his pants. I was team Brady after that.

 

As far as the rules question, I do the same thing. I play casual golf once a week with casual friends who drop balls where it looks about right and even though there's money on it we're not wasting time pulling out a golf tee and a driver and walking off and measuring and pretty much just trying to keep the game moving. And I know that's not the GWRX way, but it's a fact of the game. When I'm playing in a pro am and one of PGA instructor buddies is with me, yeah... I'll take the time and ask "Hey bob... red stake, just to make sure I need to..." . I've been playing golf for almost 30 years and I remember at the end of last season asking my coworker if I was repairing ,my ball mark correctly. He did point out a common mistake I was making but also was impressed with my putter tap and press method. I don't think this was too extreme of a scenario.

And finally, for the record, I shot a 108 yesterday as a valid 14 HCP. My partners were all either scratch or low single digits so I just played the back tees with them. I'm fighting the shanks right now. The rough was nasty and I over all just played bad. My wedge and putter were my only friends. Bad rounds happen.

[Sean2]

ALL golfers are inconsistent at times...it's the nature of the game. The only consistency in this game is the inconsistency.