Handicap indexes are funny old things...

I'm in the middle of a good run.  Index has dropped from 19.1 to 15.8 in about 4-5 months of active season golf. 

Here's the thing.  I'm still transitioning to a better swing from a not-so-better swing.  Sometimes the not-so-better swing jumps up and bites me.  This weekend I shot the worst score I've had in a couple of years.  It was 114 (109 ESC) with a 33.x differential.    Next week I'm liable to shoot 86 somewhere or even 41 over nine.  It's all mental (Sunday I wasn't remotely interested in my game) and easily fixed.  All my problems were with driver putting me in dreadful positions.  I hit 80 balls with that club on the range last night and within five strokes had a "DOH!!!" moment.  Fixed it instantly and had perhaps my best range session ever.

That round was an anomaly but generally I'm equally as likely to shoot high-90s as I am mid-80s.  Am I really a 15.8 index?  Of course I am according to the formula but it proves to me that a player's index is meant to reflect the potential and not the actual state of his game.

Question: Does this sort of thing happen, comparitively speaking, when you're a low single digit 'capper?  Or do these 'transition' periods not affect you so much when you reach that level of skill.  Anyone?

That's what I figured.  I wonder where the line is drawn.  My cousin / regular playing partner is at 8.1.  His bad days seem to be mid- to high-80s.  I don't think he's shot in the 90s in two years other than the first couple of rounds back from a wrist injury.  Given the rating/slope of the courses we play his high rounds are not proportional to my fiasco last weekend.  I wonder if I stablized at my current index or thereabouts for a while I'd completely take the +100 scores out of play.  As it stands, my last 20 rounds include about three of those.

I play regularly with a bunch of single digit handicappers, ranging from a 2 through an 8.  The 2 usually has a range from 68-78.  The others usually shoot mid 70's to mid 80's but I've seen a rare 90 every now and then.  Bottom line, they all seem to put up a number that rarely runs outside of a range of 10 strokes.  My handicap this year has ranged from 21, to the current low of 17.  My range is usually 83-99.  (Only one score over 100 all year.)  16 stroke range.  This has held true for close to 3 years for me.  I can go on a scoring streak at any point during a round, but have not been able to avoid the dreaded triple bogey(s)  .  If I can ever get past that, I might be able to go lower.

I haven't tracked my index in a couple of years.  My guess is it's going up.

Nice playing! I've had far to few of those this year, and by far too few I mean none.

My index hovers around 9-10, my average score hovers around 84-85, but I've bee way more consistent so far this year. 

My last 11 scores:

82 82 89 84 84 83 83 83 88 88 79

My index is 2.3.  The data shows that I shot 80 or greater in 3 of my last 14 rounds (11/14 rounds between 72-79).  So I guess there is some consistency there. 

I definitely feel I am scoring pretty *feces*ty on those days when I shoot an 80 or higher. 

But scoring well doesn't necessarily mean I'm playing well.

I can hit the ball pretty poorly and still put up pretty decent scores in the mid-70's.  I might not hit a single solid shot in a round like that, but I still get by. 

Going from a mid-teens to a mid-single digit handicap was pretty much learning how to hit the ball reasonably consistent.  Not perfect, just consistent---like getting rid of the topped, shanked, skanked, pullhook, slice, sod-layer and skull). 

Going from mid-single even lower was learning how to score, even on days when not striking the ball particularly well.

Learning how to score is much more cerebral than it is physical.  I haven't had a swing lesson, or thought much about my swing, in a couple of years.  I also don't really practice very much.  Yet I'm definitely getting better, or at least more consistent, in the scoring department. 

It's more about confidence, testicular surge, calmness, game management, making sure I sink the putt if the VBU is parked up on the hill watching...stuff like that.  I just know I'll break 80 each time out and am thoroughly disappointed when I don't.  My expectations are greater, and it seems that alone fuels the better, more consistent, scoring.

Crap golfer? debatable...but you also won't have the urge to invade third world countries in search of weapons of mass destruction and remove and eventually kill the president of said country 'cuz he made your daddy cry.

so, you got that going for ya'.