can u beat a scratch golfer?

[LucF]

To me, you are at a disadvantage because:

1. You must score much lower than what you normaly play, which is mentally difficult,
   
2. You are playing from an unfamiliar perspective (the reds).
   

On the other hand, in order to win, your opponent just has to score his normal game playing from where he normally plays.

 

I think the odds are against you, so good luck.

[Andariego]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

 

A fair match would him giving you about 6 strokes. He has a typical day....74. You have a typical day from the ladies tee, but have a few more shorter irons...80. I think you would be very lucky to win 1 out of 20 of these matches giving Scratch strokes. It makes absolutely no sense. YOU NEED STROKES...NOT YARDAGE!

 

Surely you must know a betting man who could straighten you up. As they say in poker...ur dead money.

[24/7GOLF]

Your dead meat........ I'd put $100 bucks on it.

 

 

Good Luck

[xiaoxiong]

spacedust,

 

result??? We all curious :good:

 

 

Jay

[spacedust]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

 

A fair match would him giving you about 6 strokes. He has a typical day....74. You have a typical day from the ladies tee, but have a few more shorter irons...80. I think you would be very lucky to win 1 out of 20 of these matches giving Scratch strokes. It makes absolutely no sense. YOU NEED STROKES...NOT YARDAGE!

 

Surely you must know a betting man who could straighten you up. As they say in poker...ur dead money.

 

 

i don't think i'm spotting him 6.6 strokes due to the rating. isn't the women's rating is different than the men's?

 

someone already did the math. earlier in this thread. and with the slope and yardage its about a 9 stroke difference. so he's spotting me about 9 strokes.

 

we are going to play this weekend. saturday 12.

 

just got my golf guru gps. can't wait to try it out. :good:

played with my friend today. i told him about the bet. he said i should have no problem winning. cause all i have to do is tap a driver 200 yards and all i have is a 9-iron on down to wedge on in to the green, i told him i know. he said he will take anyone's bet that is willing to bet against me.

 

a few other's said i could win. some say i have no chance.

 

i think i'm going to win. i can't wait!! :cheesy:

[Stallion89]

I am a scratch player and if I had to play a mid 80s player from the reds I would be a little worried. It really just depends. You know you will be hitting a lot of short irons into greens, and hopefully getting your GIR so work on your putting as well and I am sure you could beat him.

[spacedust]

 

 

i'll feel sick if i don't hit every fairway and every GIR. with my golfguru gps, and my yardage pro. and a some sense. i have a very good chance of winning.

 

i can either drive or almost come close to driving some of the par 4's. all the par 5's are reachable in 2. par 3's are very short irons. 8-9 irons and wedges.

 

but i will resisist driving the greens unless there's no trouble protecting it. (bunker,water, etc.)

 

i will drive or hit an iron to the 60-100 yard marker. then attack the pin with my wedges.

 

i like my chances. we'll see how it goes.

 

 

most people here think i'm a 20-1 dog, some 15-1 some think i have no chance.

 

if this was vegas, i'd take some of that action.

[oregongolf]

I don't think you have an even shot, but like I said before... I'd give you 4:1 odds.

 

For all I know, you could be a helluva sandbagger :good:

 

If it were me, I'd probably choke down a couple inches on a driver and tap it out there and take my chances with 60 yard shots all day. Then again, I'm a pretty strong wedge player...

 

So play to your strengths man. Here's to hoping you'll run up the birdies.

[rankoutsider]

thanks for posting the card. i love your determination, seriously, but if he is a scratch player you have no chance whatsoever. not 20-1, not 500-1, 0-1. I know, i know, if the gipper had talked like that, where would be now.

 

he sold you snake oil, since you have no advantage on the par 3s (to make matters worse, he probably gets to hit the same club on both of the par 3s on the front, while you have to hit different clubs. same on the back, although his club is going to be different). the par 5s are, similarly, his, except 15, which he might not be able to get to in 2. all the par 4s are so short already that the up tees are not really an advantage, unless you can drive the green.

 

hit the big dog all day.

 

rank

[mat562]

I hate to tell you this, but looking at the card alone (I'm not familiar with the course) a decent scratch player should absolutely clean up around there. A round in the 60s is a definite possibilty on the yardage alone. I'm seeing three par 5s that should be reachable with mid irons, a set of short par 3s, and numerous short par 4s. Unless the course has 10 yard fairways or greens the size of bedspreads I can see a really good player shooting a silly score round there.

 

Yes, the red tee yardage will be laughable, but I can see scratch man cleaning up from his own set of tees with about 16 GIRs and a 67.

[spacedust]

thanks for posting the card. i love your determination, seriously, but if he is a scratch player you have no chance whatsoever. not 20-1, not 500-1, 0-1. I know, i know, if the gipper had talked like that, where would be now.

 

he sold you snake oil, since you have no advantage on the par 3s (to make matters worse, he probably gets to hit the same club on both of the par 3s on the front, while you have to hit different clubs. same on the back, although his club is going to be different). the par 5s are, similarly, his, except 15, which he might not be able to get to in 2. all the par 4s are so short already that the up tees are not really an advantage, unless you can drive the green.

 

hit the big dog all day.

 

rank

 

 

 

he's playing from the gold tees not blue tees. which doesn't show distance on here. but its 6900 yards. i have about a 1700 yard advantage.

 

and i'm the one that proposed the bet. and its more of an exhibition for charity and pride. $100 bucks to charity, so nobody is going to get rich from this match.

 

i look forward to crushing a scratch!!! :good:

[ej002]

How can you say that without knowing the yardages on the GOLD tees? He said it plays to like 7000 yds. That is not laughable for all scratch players. That is a respectable yardage. It could be laughable if this guy is like bubba watson, but he is 40. He could be driving the ball 250. In that case, I dont see a silly score at all.

[rankoutsider]

hi again: i thought he was playing from the blues. still, the course seems very short. hopefully the golds are way the heck back.

[mat562]

I was going off the highlighted yardages from the blue tees on the card - of just under 6300 yards.

 

Show me a scratch golfer who wouldn't be licking his lips in anticipation of playing off that yardage.

 

7000 yards or so makes more sense, and is indeed a respectable (and more realistic) yardage.

[hoganfan924]

Space..

 

If this guy is shooting 73's & 74's on 7300 yd. courses he's never played before and he never shoots higher than 75, he's not "scratch," he's probably at least a +1 or +2.

 

For your sake, I hope he has a bad day and that the course has very few sharp doglegs, as they will take away the advantage to you. You'd have a better chance playing match play than stroke play IMO.

[TEConnor]

Space..

 

If this guy is shooting 73's & 74's on 7300 yd. courses he's never played before and he never shoots higher than 75, he's not "scratch," he's probably at least a +1 or +2.

 

For your sake, I hope he has a bad day and that the course has very few sharp doglegs, as they will take away the advantage to you. You'd have a better chance playing match play than stroke play IMO.

 

I'd go even further and say that if the numbers are true (never shoots over 75, shoots 73 at courses never seen playing 7300 yards), he is much closer to +4 than +2. I'm a +2 and I shoot above 75 for about half of my matches (consider that my home course is 74/140, so even par is +2)...especially ones at tougher courses in tournament conditions with ratings approaching 78. Hell, I'm happy to break 80 at some of the setups for the big tourneys.

 

Cheers,

Tim

[TEConnor]

It's not that you have no chance, just very little chance.

 

Switch the bet to a scratch game where you get 4 'Boo!'s.

 

That means at 4 times during the round you may come up behind the opponent and shout 'Boo!', even if he is in the middle of a swing. Usually you do one on the first tee, and then you stand behind your opponent for every shot and his nerves will crack eventually. I have heard of grown men reduced to sobbing shells in this format.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Just checked the score card. You have absolutely no chance. The scratch will kill you on those yardages. Even if he leaves his woods in the trunk of his car. If he used only a 5 iron and a wedge, he would still kill you.

 

That's the funniest bet I've ever heard of...hysterical!!

 

You could play that anyway...even if you never used a single "boo," the suspense alone would cost me about 6 shots.

 

I took a peek at the course via google maps. Water, water, everywhere! There are about 6 peninsula greens and at least half the holes have water along the edge of a fairway (mostly left). Hope your misses are playable Spacedust!.

 

Cheers,

Tim

[larrybud]

You know what, nerves are a factor... i know a couple times where I am under or even on a side, I am always just nervous on the other side. It is like you know you are playing well, and then the nerves kick in and screw everything up.

 

Course management = maybe you need a caddy?

 

caddie is a luxury i never experienced. my golf guru gps and my wits. hopefully will do the job.

Two words:

Jeff Gillooly

[larrybud]

i've played a lot but never had an official usga handicap. what i think of a handicap is probably wrong. i think its what you're average score is.

 

thats what i think a handicap is. but other's have said otherwise, its you're potential, etc. etc.

 

i've played a lot of people that were 12-15 handicaps, i think they suck.

 

i don't have time or want to play 10 rounds with them, waiting for them to hit a good round. if you tell me you're a 12, i expect you to hit low to mid 80's all the time, everytime.

 

am i wrong?

 

Yes, you are. Handicap in golf is your potential, not your average. That's why it's not called an average. It's also not based on par, it's based on the difficulty of the course. I can shoot 75 on a local muni, and that's a worse score than an 81 at my home course. You only shoot to your handicap 1 of every 4 rounds.

 

There are also different types of players that can have the same handicap, because everyone has their strength and weaknesses. I have a buddy who's a 10. One wide open courses he has a shot at beating me, but other tight courses with a lot of trouble, he has no chance.

[larrybud]

if you belong to the USGA handicap network, and post all your scores the system gives you a cap. No one who has one.....calls themselves anything. They are given the handicap by the USGA, and caps are more about how well you will play when you play well, and not an average score.

 

It is much easier for a 5 handicap to shoot and 89, and be a real 5, than it is for a 15 handicap to shoot 75, and be a real 15.

 

 

if you're a 5 and shoot 89. there is something definitely wrong with the handicap system. or you must be injured in some way. if any 5 hcp shoots 89. i'd be embarrased for them.

 

a 5 should never shoot over 80. even on the worst day. or the handicap system needs to be revamped.

 

That's just ridiculous. At my home course if you shot 80 every time out you'd be UNDER a 5 handicap. It all depends on the difficulty of the course. I think you're being hustled.

[larrybud]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

The 70.0 rating is for women. There's a different standard when the USGA figures ratings for men and women.

[ej002]

Actually, I think he may be able to drive past all the trouble and all the water may be an advantage. It looks like a 30-40 yard advantage on every hole.

[TEConnor]

Actually, I think he may be able to drive past all the trouble and all the water may be an advantage. It looks like a 30-40 yard advantage on every hole.

 

Considering there are at least 6 greens that are peninsulas, I'm not sure your statement is valid. In addition, on the majority of holes there is water lining the hole adjacent to the fairway (imagine TPC 18). I'm not seeing a lot of trouble on the overhead that is "carryable" from any of the tees. Most 10 handicaps that I know have a LOT of difficulty with long carries over water or with water down the entire side of a hole. Hope I'm wrong, but just wanted to help convince Spacedust to suggest the four free "boo's" as a different bet.

 

Cheers,

Tim

[spacedust]

thanks for everyone's comment.

 

we are playing straight up. no silly two off the tee or gimmies or boo's. just golf. he's playing 6900 yards and i'm playing a little over 5100.

 

on approach shots, i will have only wedges or short irons to the green playing from the red tees, which i'm confident in.

 

i played golf today on a different course, and some of the guys said I had an unfair advantage. they said i should play one tee in front of him. i said hell no!, i told them people on the golf forum don't think i have a chance.

 

 

i hope the fairway is soft and grassy so i can take a divot with my wedges and short irons. I really hate playing courses that have hard ground, tight lies and little grass.

 

 

even though most people here think i have no chance.

i have almost a 90 yard advantage per hole.

 

i still believe i'm going to beat him. :good:

[Logie]

Good luck, atleast you have confidence!

[rankoutsider]

eye of the tiger spacey

[mat562]

Survivor. 1982. :good:

[Andariego]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

The 70.0 rating is for women. There's a different standard when the USGA figures ratings for men and women.

I'm not sure. I thought the course ratings were the same for everyone, but a womens' actual individual handicap was calculated differently. I know we call them "ladies tees", but they're actually just the most forward? Check out the formula for players competing from different tees;

 

http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/unde...-5_Brochure.pdf

[hoganfan924]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

The 70.0 rating is for women. There's a different standard when the USGA figures ratings for men and women.

I'm not sure. I thought the course ratings were the same for everyone, but a womens' actual individual handicap was calculated differently. I know we call them "ladies tees", but they're actually just the most forward? Check out the formula for players competing from different tees;

 

http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/unde...-5_Brochure.pdf

 

Check the scorecard again. It has 2 sets of ratings, one for men and one for women. That's why they're shown in 2 different columns. The white tees have a rating for both. Larrybud is correct, the 70 rating for the reds is a women's rating.

[larrybud]

Am I misssing something? The tips are rated 73.4 and the reds 70.0. From the same tee, the average difference in your scores is gonna be about 10 strokes, so you are giving him 6.6 strokes. I'm sure he's very concerned..(not).

The 70.0 rating is for women. There's a different standard when the USGA figures ratings for men and women.

I'm not sure. I thought the course ratings were the same for everyone, but a womens' actual individual handicap was calculated differently. I know we call them "ladies tees", but they're actually just the most forward? Check out the formula for players competing from different tees;

 

http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/unde...-5_Brochure.pdf

The formula to determine the course rating for men and women is different, which is why you can often have a women's rating for a tee box that is higher than the men's rating for the next longer tee box. Here's straight out of the USGA handicap manual:

 

Yardage ratings are obtained by using the following formulas:

 

(i) Scratch Yardage Rating for Men

Scratch Yardage Rating: (Scratch Effective Playing Length of Course / 220) + 40.9

Example: If the effective playing length of the course is 6,419 yards, the scratch yardage rating for men is calculated as follows:

 

Playing Length / 220: 6419 / 220 = 29.18

Result + 40.9: 29.18 + 40.9 = 70.08

Scratch Yardage Rating (rounded): 70.1

 

 

(ii) Bogey Yardage Rating for Men

Bogey Yardage Rating: (Bogey Effective Playing Length of Course / 160) + 50.7

 

(iii) Scratch Yardage Rating for Women

Scratch Yardage Rating: (Scratch Effective Playing Length of Course / 180) + 40.1

 

(iv) Bogey Yardage Rating for Women

Bogey Yardage Rating: (Bogey Effective Playing Length of Course / 120) + 51.3

 

What this is saying is that the USGA considers a scratch man to drive the ball 220, while they consider a scratch woman to drive the ball 180. Totally different formula to determine course rating.

 

However, the actual handicap calculation for men and women is the same.