The difference between you and a scratch golfer

How do the rest of us compare to scratch golfers?

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[Thefairwaymagnet]

I'm scratch, and have been as low as +1. Here's what I practice:

1. Shaping shots. I fade, draw, high and low. Push yourself to learn every shot.

2. Distance control. Hit your 9 iron your full shot length, then decrease in 10 yard increments. Over time, you'll be able to hit your 9 iron 150, 140, 130, 120, etc. If you have 143 yards, you have to know how to hit anything from PW to 8 iron from there, and hit that number within 2 or 3 yards.

3. Short game creativity. Get used to experimentation, hitting high stopping chips and low running pitches. Everything.

4. Two-putting. Yes, you have to make your short ones, but try to limit your three-putts to one per two or three rounds.

5. Course management. If in doubt, play more conservative.

Get to work! Lol good luck on your journey man.

[Kendall-]

13.1 currently on the road to single figures. From your videos I’m now actively practicing 3 times a week (hour ish increments) on putting/green side chipping, 50-100 yard pitching, irons/woods. And if that doesn’t help I’m going to try taking 2 inches off my clubs so they fit better in the bin.

[dbo]

The main difference between me and a scratch golfer is our scores.

[musicmunky]

Rob this is one of your best videos - love this breakdown, and love the positive attitude you've got lately. This is why I really enjoy your channel!

[marilynhays]

I’m a 6 handicap woman. Thanks so much for this video. It clearly highlighted why I’ve not “improved”, despite playing far more regularly over the last year. I need to practice getting up and down, and not 3 putting!

[Will_Hall]

I'm older now, but in my youth I played scratch golf for about 10 years. I found the way to do this is brutal honesty. I constantly analyzed my game and focused my practice on my weaknesses. And no, distance isn't your weakness. Mostly it's practicing short game and putting. Greater than half of my practice during that time was from less than 100 yards. And most of that was less than 25 yards. I'd see other golfers on the range for hours pounding drivers and call it "practice". That isn't practice. It's a waste of time. In fact, it's worse. It's spending time you could have used to actually improve your game. If you're a single digit trying to be scratch, you hit your driver well enough already. You wouldn't be single digit if you didn't. The available improvements are in making your weakness into a strength.

Jack Nicklaus said "I never hit a practice shot without a purpose". Neither should you.

1. Be honest, identify your weakness and make a plan to fix them.
2. Don't go to the range without a plan, and stick to it.
3. Constantly evaluate and adapt your plan as things change.
4. Good instruction is always a good idea too.

Just my $0.02

[motodiaries]

Hi Rob! Been a long time since I saw one of your videos and I just watched an old one and was reminded of your quest. I've had an interesting experience this last year trying to get better at golf that's taught me some things and I thought I'd share. After twenty years away from golf, I started playing again last year. I managed to get from a 16 or 18 handicap early in the year down to 10, which I was pleased with.

In the fall, I bought an inexpensive simulator (Skytrak) and set up a net and mat in my garage. I hit what I estimate to be 20-30, 000 shots over the winter. It's easy when you can go out and swing a club a few times a day (I"m 68 years old and retired). By spring I had developed a solid swing, making really nice contact and hitting the ball more consistently than I ever had. The daily easy access to practice made a monumental difference to my swing and my ball striking. It is the best money I've ever spent on golf. I was really optimistic and excited to begin playing.

And then I went out and played. I was a disaster! I was especially hopeless with my irons after all that practice. I could barely hit the ball at all. I was uncomfortable on grass and the reality of hitting one shot at a time with real consequences made me really awkward. I couldn't begin to produce a swing anything like what I had in practice. I figured I would just keep playing and practicing and my nerves would settle down and I'd start striking the ball properly pretty quickly, but it took months and is still a work in progress. Finally, in July I began to strike my irons well occasionally and by August I began playing the best golf of my life. I got back down to 10 and then quickly down to 7 or so with days around 5. I've been using strokes gained to compare myself to different handicaps using my Shotscope watch data. I don't have an actual handicap.

Weirdly, I don't feel like I'm playing my best by a long shot yet and my scores just seem to stay reasonable (in the low 80s with an occasional day in the high 70s). What I can feel now is that most of my success or failure on the course is entirely mental (Surprise!). I will have long stretches of golf where I shoot par hole after hold, but my mind still doesn't believe I can be that good. I can feel the pressure build as I anticipate falling apart. I apologize to my playing partners, saying that I'm not really as good as I'm playing at the moment. Eventually I get to the point where I freeze mid-backswing and top a horrible iron shot 50 yards. I usually follow this up with a poor wedge shot and a three putt for good measure.

So, what I'm getting at is that I think getting to scratch is mainly a mental exercise once your skills reach a certain point. I throw away easily 6 or 8 shots every round and I know I have the skill to shoot mid to low 70s if I can just relax, enjoy the day and anticipate nice swings and good results. That will prevent the mid back swing freezing and the tentative putts that cost me so many strokes a round.

I don't have the goal of getting to scratch. I think that's more pressure than I want to put on what should be an enjoyable game. But I know that if I can relax and start to own that I am a good golfer I will play comfortably in the low single digit handicap range and that's more than I would have dreamed of a year ago. I think scratch is a very hard goal. It requires largely very few mistakes. You can mis hit a shot here and there but you need to get up and down as often as possible. You can't miss short putts and you need to make a few longer ones. It's mostly about consistency and I think that comes only when you relax and hit the shots you are perfectly capable of hitting.

As you know, golfers only play to their handicap one out of three or four rounds. You don't have to shoot par very often to be a scratch golfer. You have more than enough skill. Just believe in yourself and try to find the way to play relaxed and confident. Hit each putt as if you're knocking in a three footer on the practice green. Swing as if you have complete faith in your skill and are about to strike the ball as pure as you know how.

That's not an easy thing but it has more to do with mental and emotional skills than swing mechanics. I've begun experimenting with meditation and visualizing relaxed and confident golf. I want to approach each shot with complete comfort because when I play that way I play very well. I've got a way to go. I probably won't get there this year, but I can get close and I'll make it my goal for next year for sure.

Good luck with your quest Rob, I know you can get there. You hit the ball a mile. You can hit any club in the bag with skill. Just play your best golf and enjoy yourself!

[ChosenPlaysYT]

Best I ever officially got to in a league was +2, slightly better than scratch. My strength is developing a soft easy “in play” driver swing that I can manipulate between 250-275 yards and always in play.

Then working on chipping to the point where I can reliably be inside of 6 ft on any green side chip. I’m not a great putter or a great approacher. But always staying out of trouble and having great short game means I can sneak in 2-4 birdies a round, while only getting 2-4 bogeys.

[hothamandfauri]

I started golfing last summer and the best golf advice I was ever given came to me from a friend who has golfed over 50 years.

He told me, "Stop keeping score, and just play for fun".

[kian]

I became a +0.6 handicap golfer in just over a year. (I’m 15 and started when I was 14) My low was a +1.6 a couple weeks ago. Looking back at my “journey to scratch” all i remember is spending a TON of time on the range and chipping and putting green. And here are my biggest tips.

1.) The golf swing | Since I started I have worked on building the most fundamentally correct swing. As well as learning about the golf swing and what’s right and what’s wrong so I can correct myself down the line and improve as fast as possible. Obviously if you don’t have a good golf swing, It is going to be hard to make the jump to a better golfer. I would spend so much time watching videos about the golf swing and now I understand what’s correct and what isn’t in almost every aspect of the swing.

2.) Shots | In order to make the jump in skill level you need to be able to have almost every shot ready to go when going out on the course. Like High, low, fades, draws, slices hooks, Low draws, low cuts, high draws, high cuts, punches, knockdowns, etc. And understanding everything about the shot you are going to hit and what it will do on the green and in the wind. Example: a draw will typically rollout farther on a green than a fade. And that is because of the way the ball is spinning.

3.) Practicing | At the range you should be practicing with a purpose. Going out on the range hitting ball after ball with no real goal in mind with every shot won’t get u anywhere except being loose lol. Lots of people overlook what is needed when practicing. You will get better hitting 20 balls with your full preshot routine and having a target in mind and a shot shape in mind and every element in mind rather than going out with 50 balls nonstop with no real goal in every shot.

4.) Mental game | Golf is 90% mental. Lots of people don’t have confidence and let one shot ruin their whole round. Trust yourself. Don’t let one bad hole ruin ur mindset and round. For Example I once had a competition round where i was even going into the 3rd hole and after that hole i was +6 (10) I did not let that get in the way of my goal of placing top 5 or better. I finished that front 9 +8 and decided to completely turn it around on the back 9 and finished with an even par 36 and finished the round with a 79. I ended up taking 4th place with a 10 on a par 4. If you don’t have confidence over the ball on any shots on the course don’t expect a low score.

[nicholastugwell]

Currently at 3.7, went up to 4.0 two weeks ago. Aiming to stay fairly steady tbh. Family life & work are more important now than golf. On thr flip side, I'd love to get to scratch, but once I got there, I don't know what I'd do with it? I'd still have to go to work on Monday I guess.

Another great & informative video mate. Keep up the great work... & see you in the future 😉

[jeffreypih]

Hello, I am currently a +1.1 and range between +1.5 and 1.0 in the past 2 years or so.

The biggest thing I did to reach scratch after being a 4-7 for 3 straight years was to only hit the ball one direction. I setup for, and only hit draws and baby draws with short irons/wedges and eliminate the right miss. I am below average in distance compared to other scratch players, slightly below average at approaching the green, and above average around the greens and putting.

Here are my stats over my last 20.

Driving Distance 248-269 yards
7i 159 yards in the air
58.9% GIR
63.3% FWY
66.9% Saves
27.8 Putts Per Round (Putting from fringe = chip)

[patb]

I’ve been playing about 6- 7 years. I got to scratch about a year and a half ago. My lowest was a plus 2 in July. The only thing that will get you better is practice. I’m hitting balls everyday and playing 4-5 times a week. Basically I committed my whole life to this game the last 4 years or so when I started to take it real serious. It’s a great journey and was definitely worth all the rough days and swing changes when you start to shoot some low rounds. Just have to stay positive 👍

[daniel-sczk]

29.9, Started 11ish months ago. Driver has always been my weakest point to my golf game and normally see myself sometimes taking 3 off the tee. Wanting to bring it down over next few months. Brilliant video.

[flaup]

4, 3 here, "plateauing" for a few years, but always playing somewhere else in tournament conditions. Best was 1, 3 when playing home course.

Hectic shots and lack of confidence overall usually ruined my round (often a double or more sometimes). I've been working my short game and putting from the basics since april, can't stress enough how a solid basic chip and putting technique is essential to make sure contact/stroke is decent enough to control the ball. I've been consistently playing in the 75-76 recently (no comp played since then), I feel i can reproduce this more often whereas before it was magical rounds here and there that gave me the handicap. Getting a solid contact regularly just gave me the confidence boost i needed over the ball I guess.

And I have to keep practicing it. Also playing/practicing a bit less often (say once a week on average), but with more dedication and motivation.

My key points are:
- KEEP the ball in PLAY at all cost, but play confidently with a club that is rewarding enough. A go-to shot is essential especially under pressure (amen corner holes, last holes, tricky holes etc). My go-to really changes from one round to another, sometimes i feel confident hitting a fade, sometimes a draw but it's always kind of a gripped down, smooth shot to ensure a solid contact and shape.
- CONTACT is essential for direction AND distance control for every shot (from a chip and run, to a drive), better make sure your technique is decent enough whereas it's putting, chipping, pitching and long game.

Otherwise, as always a very enjoyable video ! Keep up the good content Rob, cheers from France :)

[Guythatsometimescomments]

I'm scratch and due to the covid boom I have been teaching a lot of people how to play golf the past couple years. I think the biggest difference between a scratch player and a bogey golfers are two categories: Driving and chipping/pitching.

Most people can learn to hit pretty good full shots with 7-wedge. Most can learn to stop 3 putting often.

Learning to drive the ball with length and accuracy takes a ton of practice. The same goes for chipping/pitching. The scratch player will still miss 8-10 greens in regulation, but will usually be able to chip it close enough to give a great chance at saving par.

[AsadKhan-lmyr]

What a fantastic video Rob!

Keep it simple. Be happy with the pars and don’t put too much pressure on yourself because there is always time to recover!

[dougm]

16.6 down from 21.6 in February. That is really encouraging Rob, my putting used to be shocking but after spending hours on the practice green, my technique and confidence are hugely improved which is making a big difference, so onwards and downwards with the scores!

[stephenblack]

5.5 Game completely revolves around driver. Game seemed so easy first half of the season when I was always in play. Off the boil with the big stick recently and it just seems soooo difficult to shoot handicap.

[percyhallam]

Quality Rob. Refreshing to see no bashing of brands and someone relatable!