Sandbagger or vanity cap or random chance...

[Nels55]

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

[DoughBack18]

Was talking to an acquaintance the the other day about this and he said about how all over the place his scores were this season. Low round on the year was 71, high round was 108! So you are certainly not alone. 

[EdY]

I’ll have 10 point swings on any given day over the course of a year or even a month. Not 20 though. I tinker with my swing and grip all the time. Some days it works. Some days not. I play about 70 rounds a year with a mid 4 index. I would hazard lower indexes have less variability but don’t have the stats to back that postulate up. 

[Socrates]

I was kind of like that about 8 yrs ago.  I was relying on my talent and timing to compensate for a lot of bad things.  When the timing was good, I was good.  When the timing was off, I was terrible.  It got to a point where I got tired of the bi-polar golf games and took some serious lessons to fix a host of fatal flaws. Been there.

[bcjim]

My CH is ~9 at home.  I've not come anywhere near 71. 

[MelloYello]

It's golf, LOL. 

 

I had a crazy stretch earlier this year where I posted 71 - 87 - 83 - 81 - 70 in rapid succession. 

 

I also posted 80 - 73 - 80 - 72 - 69 - 73 - 82 - 73 at point as well. 

 

Last four rounds have been 69 - 73 - 80 - 76.

 

Scores just fluctuate. 

 

Congrats on that 71 though! Must've been an awesome round. I once knew a guy probably around your general index who shot a 69 one day out of the blue. It was awesome. When the putts are dropping anything's possible, LOL! 🙂

[OnTheBag]

It's not just you, every honest golfer goes through those swings.  When I was caddying full time, I frequently saw tour pros have 10 shot swings on consecutive days, so if they can do it, we will too.

 

Personally, I had stretches in the late 70's when I was chasing mini-tours and qualifiers where I could shoot in the high 60's with very little effort for months on end, then out of the blue, shoot a 78 or 79.  Golf is hard.  Something as simple as two hairs crossed in your moustache can throw a round completely off the rails.  Haha.

 

Just remember to have fun, regardless of what the ball is doing that day.  Age will come like a thief in the night and then you will miss those days in the sun.

[slprince67]

played 36 one day.... shot 88 in the morning and 72 in the afternoon....

 

[Boricua Golf]

I guess it happens to all of us, I normally score 75-76, but lately I have been all over the place (winter game excuse...lol), my last 6 scores are 72, 79, 81, 79, 71, 74, sounds good, but in all rounds the putter was the hero, scored better than what all shots looked like, again, the putter helped big time in all the rounds, it could've easily been way worse...

[pseudoswede]

I have no problems shooting 36 on the front and 50 on the back...or vice-versa. I can also shoot 36-38 one weekend, and 46-44 the following weekend. I never practice and barely warm-up before rounds, so I accept it.

 

My handicap fluctuates between 8-12.

Edited January 3 by pseudoswede

[jholz]

If I'm keeping the higher end of my scores within 10 strokes of my average over an extended period of time, I count that as a victory. 

 

We all have days where both ability and fate work against us. When I look back on a year of scores at various courses and the worst I see is a 93...

 

well, I'm having a couple of extra beers. Hooray! 

[MtlJeff]

15 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

 

If your handicap is 8 as your profile says, it's not surprising to me.....i would guess people in this range tend to fluctuate the most of anyone. I could certainly see that spread

 

I have a lot of friends in this range. One of them i've seen do exactly what you describe, except he shot the 70's in a tournament where he was getting shots, and got called a sandbagger by everyone at the club LOL.

 

Couple of weeks later he shot 100 playing with me and broke a club haha

[Nels55]

13 minutes ago, MtlJeff said:

 

If your handicap is 8 as your profile says, it's not surprising to me.....i would guess people in this range tend to fluctuate the most of anyone. I could certainly see that spread

 

I have a lot of friends in this range. One of them i've seen do exactly what you describe, except he shot the 70's in a tournament where he was getting shots, and got called a sandbagger by everyone at the club LOL.

 

Couple of weeks later he shot 100 playing with me and broke a club haha

Yep, I've been called a sandbagger many times in tournaments.  I can make a big number or a few in a row at any time during a round and also make birdies and pars and I don't seem to have much control over when the good or bad streaks happen.  For that reason I am good team partner for best ball or scramble or whatever format.  I also tend to do fairly well at match play where blow up holes don't matter much.

[BIG STU]

16 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

Yes honestly me---- I can have sometimes 10 shot swings or more. I can do some crazy crap during a round too like 5 birdies and still shoot like an 85 off of a 12 handicap----- It is not only in my old age either. Back when I was playing the Mini Tours some at a course just up the road from me I had 9 birdies in 18 holes and still shot a 82. But I did win the skins and birdie pool that day. I think I only had one par that day.  Yeah this is a crazy game and at this age and stage of life I do not let it worry me I just play on

[BIG STU]

2 hours ago, OnTheBag said:

It's not just you, every honest golfer goes through those swings.  When I was caddying full time, I frequently saw tour pros have 10 shot swings on consecutive days, so if they can do it, we will too.

 

Personally, I had stretches in the late 70's when I was chasing mini-tours and qualifiers where I could shoot in the high 60's with very little effort for months on end, then out of the blue, shoot a 78 or 79.  Golf is hard.  Something as simple as two hairs crossed in your moustache can throw a round completely off the rails.  Haha.

 

Just remember to have fun, regardless of what the ball is doing that day.  Age will come like a thief in the night and then you will miss those days in the sun.

Yep that last paragraph says it all---- I have learned to accept that fact and after what happened to me to be able to play at all period is a blessing. 

[Nels55]

8 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Yep that last paragraph says it all---- I have learned to accept that fact and after what happened to me to be able to play at all period is a blessing. 

100%.  I did need to remind myself to enjoy the day a couple of time on the front while shooting a 54 but I managed fairly well.  Just happy to be out there and really lucky to be playing golf on a beautiful Nor Cal day in January...

[J_Tizzle]

Mine maybe aren't that wild of a swing as a 0.2 handicap.  On my 7,000 yard par 72, my scores last season ranged from 69 to 83.  I think the 69 (from what I remember) I hit 12 fairways and 17 greens and it was just easy as could be, the 83 I lost almost 2 sleeves of balls, lol.  Golf is funny.

[grm24]

Arguably the worst golfer on the current exhibition tour (based on 2023 results) in a 2022 event shot 87-63-76. Any player here at WRX has nothing to question about round differentials regardless of their index.

[angler99]

I fluctuate between 7.5 - 9.0. Currently 8.6. For the last 20 rounds:

 

Average 84.9

Low Round 74

High Round 97

 

 

[vandyfan]

I'm currently a 2 hdcp (feels a bit fake low but I putt everything out). I shot 87 this past weekend at my home course with no penalty strokes. Pretty unbelievable. Golf is hard. 

[Nels55]

Thanks for all of the kind replies!  I will go blow by blow on a couple of holes that illustrate the difference between the round two weeks ago and yesterday LOL.

 

I was even par on the 18th tee two weeks ago.  18 is a drivable downhill par four with water in front of the green.  I hit a terrible 6 iron tee shot pulled into the trees and it took a minute to find the ball.  I was left of the cart path in some tallish grass behind the water tank.  I did notice that I had a window right of the tank up in a clearing in the tree in front of  me so what the heck I was 135 out so easy wedge shot.  I did a pretty good job of blocking everything out and hit the ball right through the window!  Only problem was I hit about a foot behind it and chunked it about 60 yards.  Luckily it stayed short of the pond in front of the green so I was just hoping to get one on the green and at least have a putt for par.  Skulled it over the green and it would have normally rolled out to the first fairway but it was so wet that the ball hit a little mound behind the green and stopped about 30 feet from the hole.  I had maybe 10 feet of green to work with and it is fairly flat along with being wet so no problem stopping the ball.  Setting the shot up I was thinking how lately I have been stringing bad shots together once I hit one bad one on a hole and I was thinking I would probably screw this shot up also.  I popped the ball up in the air and it hit the green and rolled into the hole for a par.  LOL 3 terrible shots that all could have had much worse outcomes and one good shot that got lucky and found the hole.  That round was my second time in my life shooting at least par for 18 holes so a little luck can go a long ways.

 

Yesterday on the first hole I pulled my drive a bit on the sharp dogleg right first hole.  I hit a pretty good 7 iron a bit right of the green and it missed the trees and caught the hillside rolling down to about 5 feet off the green maybe 12 feet from the hole.  Good chance for an up and down.  I shanked my pitch shot and was left with a bit longer of a shot LOL shanks happen so I thought no big deal just hit the ball solidly.  I did but hit the shot too hard about 15 feet past the hole.  Still I had a good look for bogey and hit a really nice putt that unfortunately got deflected by foot prints and ended up a foot from the hole.  Oh well, double bogey except that my one foot put hit the pin and rolled all the way around the edge of the cup and came back at me.  Nice 7!  I will spare you the details on the 9 I made on the second hole and the 8 that I made on number 3.  

 

I can say that on the bad round the pins were difficult and we were playing after a SIRs tournament on really wet soft greens that were just a bit bumpy.  Anyway lady luck plays a huge part in how I score on any given hole or given day.

[Pepperturbo]

18 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

It's for those reasons, I don't typically bother to use those labels.  ALL golfers experience swing scores, some more radically than others.  Some are trending downward, others in the opposite direction.  For that reason, those labels are not indicative of most golfers. 

 

Yes, some probably qualify for them, but it's NOT something I bother with because as observations go, it's difficult to tell.  My scoring tends to be consistent, 1–3 strokes in either direction, but recently carded a 75, then a week later 81, my highest in too many years to recall.

 

I am not sure why anyone would go from 71 to 93.

[grochol17]

3 hours ago, pseudoswede said:

I have no problems shooting 36 on the front and 50 on the back...or vice-versa. I can also shoot 36-38 one weekend, and 46-44 the following weekend. I never practice and barely warm-up before rounds, so I accept it.

 

My handicap fluctuates between 8-12.

 

I know the feeling of playing very opposite beginning and ends of a round.  A few examples from tournaments the past couple of seasons...

 

+10 through 13, played the last five in -2.

 

+10 through 10, last eight in -1.

 

+1 through 14, played the last four in +5.

 

+5 on the front 9, -2 through six on the back before lightning cancelled the rest of the tournament.

[radiman]

18 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

Ha, those terms only apply if you didn't post the 71 or the 86 to your GHIN lol.  That 71 probably dropped your handicap pretty sharply.  

I hear you though.  I am the most inconsistent 2.5 handicap I know.  My scores can fluctuate anywhere between a couple under all the way up to the high 80's depending on who shows up to the course that day.  

[Maine Golfer]

I play bogey golf when Im feeling it, I can shoot over 100. I enjoy the good times and dont fret the bad scores. Nobody died or went to jail and I dont magically forget how to play when I score bad.   

[Roody]

The one time that sticks out the most to me was many years ago when I shot even par 72 for the first time. I was so excited. I felt like I couldn't miss. The swing was smooth, the putts dropping, it's what the cloud nine of golfing should feel like. 

Went out the very next day and shot 90. Different course, but still. Couldn't keep the ball on the same planet. 

The most recent scoring swing was at the end of this season in early October - shot a 76, and had a very nice money game going. My partner and I cleaned up. 

Then took a month off, went to Florida and played all the Doral courses. 92 right out of the gate. 

[Port and Starboard]

2 hours ago, BIG STU said:

Yes honestly me---- I can have sometimes 10 shot swings or more. I can do some crazy crap during a round too like 5 birdies and still shoot like an 85 off of a 12 handicap----- It is not only in my old age either. Back when I was playing the Mini Tours some at a course just up the road from me I had 9 birdies in 18 holes and still shot a 82. But I did win the skins and birdie pool that day. I think I only had one par that day.  Yeah this is a crazy game and at this age and stage of life I do not let it worry me I just play on

 

Welcome to my world Stu.

 

84 one day and 74 the next.

[Nels55]

9 minutes ago, radiman said:

Ha, those terms only apply if you didn't post the 71 or the 86 to your GHIN lol.  That 71 probably dropped your handicap pretty sharply.  

I hear you though.  I am the most inconsistent 2.5 handicap I know.  My scores can fluctuate anywhere between a couple under all the way up to the high 80's depending on who shows up to the course that day.  

The 71 took my index from 9.9 to 7.5.  The next round I shot a 76 which knocked my index down to 6.8.  On the next round I played better for 13 holes and was one under thinking about shooting my age.  I lost it on 14 and have not found it since LOL.

 

One thing about who shows up any given day is that I remember pitching the ball on the day that I shot 71 and feeling like it was easy to hit the right distance, I felt like I was young again or something.  Some days I feel sort of dizzy and have a hard time hitting the ball well.

[betarhoalphadelta]

3 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Yep, I've been called a sandbagger many times in tournaments.  I can make a big number or a few in a row at any time during a round and also make birdies and pars and I don't seem to have much control over when the good or bad streaks happen.  For that reason I am good team partner for best ball or scramble or whatever format.  I also tend to do fairly well at match play where blow up holes don't matter much.

 

I'm a 22 cap currently (lowest I think has been just under 19), but it's more caused by inconsistency than a lack of being capable of playing well. I have "decent" distance (250+ off the tee when I hit one out of the center) and have decent mechanics such that I compress the ball and hit my irons with good high trajectory (again when I hit them out of the center). 

 

At a par-60 course I play often I have one round where I shot even par on the front (1 bogey, 1 birdie) and then proceeded to shoot +14 on the back. I have another round there where I ended up shooting +9 over all 18 holes, with a 12-hole stretch in the middle of even par (+4 in 3 holes before that stretch, +5 in 3 holes after that stretch). 

 

My score is determined primarily by how many (and how bad) the blow up holes are. I can usually make enough pars to cancel out some doubles, but I can't make enough pars to cancel several triples or worse. 

 

Best I've ever shot on a par-72 course is an 85, primarily because I only had one triple and two doubles... No birdies that round. 

[ColinKelvin]

19 hours ago, Nels55 said:

Two weeks ago today I shot an even par 71.  My course handicap was 9 at that time so I had a net 62.  I hit the ball well and was extremely lucky.  Today I shot a 54 on the front nine and finished with a 93 on a 7 handicap for a net 86.  Sandbagger to vanity cap real quick.  Actually I shot an 88 two rounds after the 71.  Consistency is not my strong suit. 

 

Several years ago I wrote a program that would select random scores on holes from my excel sheet where I log all of my rounds and create 18 hole rounds.  The program predicted scores from my high to low in a distribution that matched my actual scores fairly closely.  So golf for me and probably for everyone else is simply a matter of random chance.  Some days I accidently hit the ball well and other days I don't while most are in between somewhere.

 

Have you had similar scoring swings?  Maybe you are a very consistent golfer with scores that are fairly close to average most of the time?  Anybody do anything like 71 to 93 within two weeks?

All the time on the big scoring swings but I can't get as low as 71!  I'm usually between 77 and 90 (sometimes even worse!) playing at around 10. Always wanted to be one of those steady guys with a narrow scoring range but have come to accept that I never will be! It's mostly driving dependent for me. That big right miss *shakes fist*

Edited January 3 by ColinKelvin