Fairly new to the site and was curious, everyone online seems to be a single digit hcp and with swing ss ranging from 90ss to 120ss everyone carries the ball atleast 270yds and backs the ball up 20 ft. I dont get why people insist of these stats or claims. But i play twice a week at a nice course whihc gets alot of play. Im normally a single so play in with alot of people year round. I am a legit 14 hcp with a ss around 93-96, used to be higher had injury and actually become alittle better. But i carry the ball 225-240 yds thats with alittle roll and very consistent.

Now with those stats and my hcp i am most of the time one of the better players in my group and one of the longer ones off the tee and i dont hit it far. So was curious where do all you guys play or do other people see this false claims. Im sure there are a good amount of people here who are very good but this many. The pros dont even have stats like most of the people on here claim. Guess there is really no point to this post, just curious and venting abit.

i don't know why people always call into question the integrity of the people on this site. First off, there are tons of people who are not scratch on this site, i read about them all the time in different forums. Second, the reason there are so many good players is because to be the kind of person who frequents golf forums you have to have a passion for the game, and that passion often leads to lots of playing and practicing. I doubt there are a whole lot of people on this site who aren't playing as often as they can.

Personally, i haven't had a handicap since i was in high school. I would assume i'm somewhere around a 5, i'm 20 years old and a Professional Golf Management student at Methodist University. I would say i carry the ball 250-260 and it rolls out to 270. I play at the course we have on campus, The Members Club at Methodist University, as well as local courses like Pinehurst and Pine Needles when time allows.

Hehe this is funny.

I'm guessing on a forum, about golf, you get people that are more fired up about the game than the norm.

Maybe they learn, practice and play more than the average joe...? Maybe they just have more time. Hard sayin not knowin. But I think you have a funny and good point.

Turns out Im a 2, lol. Seriously.

Haha i not trying to be mean or offend anyone, but i think everyone knows what im talking about. Think it will be a good little post with some funny replies

I can back the ball up 20 feet with my SPIN DOCTOR! hehe

I have a high swing speed (~125 mph), I can hit the ball very far, sometimes very far in the wrong direction. I am nowhere near scratch as I am very inconsistent and struggle to hit my irons. I carry a double digit handicap. So, swingspeed and distance does not always equal good scores. My friends dad whoops me at the course and he drives the ball 225 at most.

4 time defending club champ myself real tough layout still manage a +1 index
see attached picture of my home course

I play collegiate golf and let me tell you there are very very very few guys that can actually carry a ball 280 on AVERAGE. They might drive it 280 once a round with roll but very few guys are consistently hitting it 280. Thats how far I hit it and I barely ever get out driven. Especially at the muni with random pairings

I am 48 years old, my handicap is -1.3. The lowest score I have shot all year is 70. I can carry the ball in the air about 250 to 255. I hit the ball low and play a bridgestone J33 420cc. It will roll about 15 to 20 yards. I can chip an putt pretty good. I am retired and I play about 5 days out of the week. I wish I was scratch and could fire a 68 or 69 everytime I tried really hard. I am addicted to golf, and it ruined a marriage and ended up in divorce.

NOT what you want to do. trust me on this one.

Welcome to the MATRIX.
The #1 rule in here is that "Do not believe anyone until you see for yourself".

hahaha your 14 handicap matches your 14 posts!
I'm guessing you don't spend much time if any on your short game?

The older I get, the better I used to be!

Ugliness rears it's UGLY head........ BOY you're UGLY!

Not everyone is a scratch player and/or inflates their playing ability. This is a solid board, mixed with several levels of play and integrity.

You probably don't belong....!

Some people are just different than others. I've been playing golf for 16. And I am now 27. I only find time to play once a week these days, but I am still maintaining a scratch handicap that I've had for probably 10 years now. Last weekend was my first weekend playing both Saturday and Sunday that I can remember. That was only because of a tournament I decided to play. Incidentally, I won that tournament with a pair of 70's and finished at -4 with the next closest competitor coming in at +4.

Personally, I have never been one to practice much, I rarely chip or putt unless I'm warming up before a tee time(which is unusual as well). My driver swing speed is around 110 and I carry my drives in the 260-265 range with about 20 yards of roll out on average. I have a very good iron game and can basically get up and down from anywhere.

I don't get bogged down with the technical details of the golf swing and never have. I have only had two lessons in my life both coming within the first year of playing. I honestly don't know much about the swing and can't tell anyone how to do it or what they may be doing wrong. Its always just came really easy for me.

I've played a few tournaments on the Hooters tour a few years ago with not much success. I mainly play for fun and side game bets these days. I play the occasional local tournament and normally do well.

As for the members here, I think GolfWRX just happens to attract the serious golfers that are out there. I have played with quite a few of the members here at different times and courses over the last couple of years and have yet to see a player that misrepresented their ability, that includes scoring and distances they hit the ball.

Hi

I think the 2nd post says it all, we are all different on here

I'm a little obsessive about the game and thats why i'm here. I play off 12 can hit the ball 250+ with the driver. But my dad only hits the same distance as my 4 iron yet beats me all the time. My short game isn't as good as it should be for my ball striking ability and thats why I play off 12 and not 6 I suppose. I would love to be a single hadicap player but i'm destined to keep in double figures like most. But a person hitting a good distance isn't aways scratch...

A classic example of my ok swing, but with a bad short game

Are you in the US?

Then join this thing:

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/GALeagueTour...hedules.asp?ID=


it's for Amateurs. In other words, no Prize Money. You are put into the Flight according to your handicap, and play against people of your skill level = but, you get to act as if you're on a Pro Tour someplace, in that sort of atmosphere - and there, you will get to see some good players who are single handicaps. But the Tour plays with proper USGA rules, and in the group you're all repsonsible for keeping track = and if you hand in the wrong scorecard, you are DQed.

Try it.

Reading about all the single digit guys gives me something to shoot for. I'm shooting mid-high 80s (on an easy home course) and broke 40 (39) on nine holes for the first time on Saturday (darn 49 on the front though). As far as distance goes, i could care less. Some guys just smoke the ball, some may feel the need to lie. If they play with me, I'll make fun of them or feel like a girl depending on which is true. Since I don't, I have no choice but to believe them or not read the threads about distance. When you think of the stats, I believe they say the avg handicap is 15 (since only better players tend to keep them), only 15% of golfers regularly break 100, 5% less than 90, and less than 1% are scratch or better. Those stats are just things I've heard over the years. By that account, with the number of people on this site, there could indeed be a few hundred scratch or better (i'm member number 52319 on the site and joined several months ago) as well as a lot of single digits.

As others have stated, sites like this one tend to attract a greater proportion of solid players than a random sample of the golfing public might yield.

That aside, I see lots of players on here who claim relatively modest handicaps and playing abilities and many more who quite happily claim high or mid-range handicaps. Yes, there are a few who swing a driver at 120mph and hit it 300, but there are more than a few of those out there anyway if you get out and play with some better players - or at least people who aren't your regular fourball. Forums like this one are a natural habitat for people who are keen or serious players and to see a lot of low-handicappers isn't all that unbelievable.

For me, my numbers are fairly modest for my level of play: I swing, as far as I know, at around 110-112mph with a driver, carry my driver about 260 yards and hit a 7 iron about 165. Nothing earth shattering and usually enough to see me being outdriven probably half the time when I play with players of a similar standard. I currently play to a 1 handicap in the UK and have played scratch or thereabouts golf since 1989 when I was 15. At my best I played off +1.4; at my worst I went up to 3 when I came back from a layoff from the game through health issues. I've always been a solid ballstriker and have a decent tee to green game based on hitting a lot of fairways and GIRs. My short game is solid, and I am a notoriously streaky putter who generally makes very little but occasionally makes everything I look at. In my time I've had at least a share of four amateur course records when I got a warm putter.

I toyed with the idea of turning pro in my late teens but settled on remaining an amateur and have played amateur golf at various levels from club up to national level albeit without winning anything really big in the amateur game. I struggle to find much time to play these days owing to work and family commitments, but for many years played at least some golf almost every day and played consistently to a decent standard. Nowadays I play mainly casual golf and struggle to practice as much as I'd like to in order to remain consistent. My scores this year have ranged between high 60s through to a couple around the 80 mark and, if I'm honest, I've got little interest in playing competitively again on any sort of regular basis. These days, I'm happy to just be 'one of the decent players' at my home club, without ambitions of anything much more, and to tinker with clubs in the garage. If you're looking for other-worldly clubhead speeds or carry distances, you'd better look elsewhere.

No offence, but these 'I call BS' type threads come up on a regular basis and tend to be written by someone of a modest (albeit, playing off 14, you're better than average) standard with limited experience of playing with anyone other than a regular group of mid-handicappers. Get out and play with different people a bit more and you'll see there really are some decent players out there - a lot of whom are attracted by sites like this one. No doubt there are some internet pros on here, but there are also a lot of genuinely decent players who don't see a need to exaggerate their ability or driving distances.

Regardless of real or imagined ability, there are dozens of members on here who provide informative and entertaining opinions on a variety of subjects.

I guess I'd be one of those guys you were talking about if I had ever posted about how far I hit the ball. I haven't to this point, but for the sake of the argument, I will now. I can hit my driver 320-330 on a great day, 290-300 on a decent day, and worse than that on a bad day. I can hit a 7 iron about 175-180 yards. I hit a PW about 140. In Ohio, where I just moved from, I could get another 10 yards on the irons...I guess because of the lack of humidity compared to NC. Having said all that, I just figured out my index yesterday because I've just started playing "regularly" again this summer (Once every week or so), and its 8.4. I can shoot in the high 70's one day, high 80's the next. The reason the driver distances change so much is that my swing isn't consistent. I'm one of those guys that DOES get better when he practices, and i don't get the opportunity to do that as much as I'd like, so I'm still up there at 8 or 9. The last time I had my swing speed checked was in April at a Bridgestone truck outside a tournament and it was like 123.

All of that to say this. i think I suck at golf. i hit some of the worst shots the world has ever seen. Its hard to imagine bragging about being able to hit the ball that far and still shooting in the 80s, but I'm sure there are people that do that. My point is, the same as many people have already posted, there are plenty of people on this forum I'm sure that are just like me. We are on a golf forum because we are a bit fanatical about it. I would expect us to be, on average, better than average

Spot on as usual. My regular group features guys that all have swingspeeds in excess of 110, the highest being me at about 120. I also have the highest handicap (read worst), a 3.4 at last check. I've been down to scratch before, for about a year when I was playing several times a week and practicing as much. Now I play about once a week and hit balls once a week typically. I'm capable right now of anything from a 70 to an 85, typically high 70's low 80's depending on how many putts I hole. No need to exaggerate...geez why on earth would I. If you're ever in Hickory NC, I'm the lefty flying it out of the back of the driving range, with the red and blue rocket tour driver headcover. Stop in and say hi. If you've got any tips for better iron shots, I'll be happy to listen...hahhaa.

I caught a fish this big!http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/pju/lowres/pjun60l.jpg

Oh wait wrong forum.

No offense either, but how could you possibly know whether a poster plays in a regular group or not. In this case he stated that he plays as a single a lot of the time and gets matched up with other players.

In any case, I think it's a legitimate question. The OP isn't calling anyone a liar, he's just wondering where they play. I've often wondered the same thing. I've been playing for 20 years and get paired up with others almost every time I play on weekends and in various leagues. In all that time I can remember playing with one person who legitimately hit the ball 300 yards. I can't remember ever playing with anyone who shot par or better. Obviously these players do exist, that's not in question, maybe they all belong to private clubs?

suprising...

i am an 11 and i do hit the ball 275yds most of the time with a ss of 100-105 yrd... only back it up 5-6 ft

low score is 76, i have 2 hole-in-ones, and i play at paradise valley in fayetteville, ar...

I've only ever been randomly paired up with a truly good player (this guy was scratch for sure) golfer one time. I've played probably more than half of my total rounds as a single. The answer to the question of where they play... typically with or against (depending on perspective) other players of their ability. Better players gravitate toward other players of their caliber in general. Same is true for higher handicaps as well imo.

They are impressive stats Mat, especially as you seem to have kept it consistant for sooo long

I'm a 0.5, I'm a member at Flat Creek in Atlanta, and play in a weekend golf group of 48 players each Saturday and Sunday. Every round is posted by the pro, not the players.

Money is changing hands, so rest assured, if I could have more strokes, I would.

I've played several stroke play tournaments this summer, including my state senior championship, and rest assured, there are players everywhere who drive it long, hit irons, chip and putt.

Play more events - even if it's just a scramble - and you'll quickly see how many hundreds of very good players there are in your area.

krustyburger is correct. im not saying everyone is a liar but i play as a single 90 percent of the time between nj and md and have never played with someone who has shot par or under. I have played with single digit hcp before but they werent 300yds or 330 yd out. was just curious for the ones that are what courses or country club do you call home.

Greenville Country Club(SC)-We have two really good courses: Chanticleer and Riverside.
Hdcp-2.0
Driver ss-110-112
Carry-265-275
Does it always go straight? Hell no.

No where near a scratch player. I just play for fun(yeah right!). Play in Scotland at a course called Auchterarder and when I can I get out on Gleneagles also.

There is no doubt that there is some bull-s*** floating about, it happens with any sport. Make no mistake though, there are people out there that can flat-out play, or put a level of hurt on the ball that you cannot comprehend.

I have the experience of playing with alot of the better players my age at my club, and building clubs for them. A number of them are turning pro, and are great fun to play with and help where possible.

I may not be awesome at golf, but I enjoy playing(i wouldn't say I'm bad, and I can poke it out to 270-280). My passion is building and tweaking clubs, experimenting and using my experience with clubs to help other players set up their clubs. At a small price

Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex

Ackerman Hills - 6433 yards - 71.1/126
Kampen Course - 7465 yards - 76.5/143

Handicap: +1.7

I like to play Kampen the most and that is where ours tournaments are held, but it's kind of nice to play Ackerman Hills walking in the same place as Jack Nicklaus when he won an NCAA Champtionship.

wow I would say that was acquisitory! I would say the opposite. I play at a club in Chicago and have been a member of a club in Pittsburgh and cleveland. I would say the opposite. As far as length sure I have played with plenty of guys that hit it far but who cares how far you hit it. I play to a 5 and by far the worse player in my some what normal rowtating weekend group! Their are ton of guys that are scratch or better. Scratch players cant cut it on any level of any tour! (what I am trying to say is that they are not rare). If you want to play with good players ask around I can bet you that in any city in the US you can find a scratch money game!

Don't come on to a board and insult a entire group!

This board is like real life. Some people are genuine and some are delusional.

I've played with both kinds.

Some people accept their ability and don't reason away half of their strokes b/c they don't
"usually play like this."

Some people are actually very good.

are you considered long when you drive it longer with your 3 iron then the guys claiming to drive it long with their drivers???

I completely agree with the OP. I read on here how guys are so good and long and I am sure there are. Yet when I go play I rarely see it. I think there are more concetrated good players here because if you are a member here you are more die hard then most. I play on Saturday mornings in a stableford format (2 pts for par, 4 for birdie, 1 for bogey, 0 for double). I like playing this format because your points adjust every week and its harder to sandbag. We also play for skins. I only like playing for money, or if money is involved. (Otherwise I am starting to play every other Sunday with my 14 year old son who is beginning to play more seriously.) I have to pull 43 points to break even on one course and 38 on a harder course. Low rounds this year have been a 64 on the easier course and 65 on the harder course (this was the qualifiing score for the local PGA event when held at this course). I have got to the point in life where I care less about how far I hit the ball compared to how accurate. That is more important, just after your short game, My driving is by far the worst part of my game. The problem with guys that hit the ball 280-300 is if you are 5 yards off you are 20 yards in the woods. Compared to someone that hits it 230 five yards off line, they are still in play. I had that discussion with another player who actually drove past me 10-20 yards and he completely agreed, and hit 5 wood most of the round. So being long is good, yet brings in much more trouble. I actually love when guys tell me they can do this and that, drive the ball 300, That is when the wallet comes out.....



actually I take that all back, if you or a golfing friend are ever in the Tampa Florida area, I am a 12 hcp and would like to play for some cash... Haha

Some one once told me that he was just your average scratch gofler. There are tons fo good players out there that blend in to the golfing world.

I don't keep a handicap, but I do swing at about 112 mph and I don't hit it all that far because of a wicked "fade" (slice) that has been plagging me.

Got paired up with a guy today that was blowing it by me by atleast 30-35 yards on some holes and I hit it atleast 250. He was all carry, I had some roll.

I surmise the better players are playing the better public courses in the area and working/ playing at private courses.

Great line, that.

I just finished my senior year of college golf and I'm now playing mostly NCGA events. I've seen plenty of people with a 120 mph ss who fly it 270+ and can back the ball up a ton, which is usually an undesired result of a fast swing and clean contact. At my last tournament there were a few guys with a +4 index & one of them shot a 58 and blew away the field. I'm sure there are plenty of guys here with a vanity handicap, but there are also a lot of guys here who have legitimate plus handicaps. If you're ever in the SF bay area send me a pm, I'll take you to a skins game with some of the sites longer members.

58???

I think its great how people find it that hard to believe that people who arnt pro can hit a golf ball 280 yards... I was on the launch monitor the other day with a friend and had someone walk past and stop, my friend who to be fair is a pro was averaging a 284 carry and 302 total with a 120 ss... This guy walking passed was just in shock that someone who isnt Tiger could do that... Then my friend really went after one and got a 308 carry and the guy nearly fainted... I stood there and wasnt really phased, all i saw was my mate hitting a golf ball...

When you look at the people on here and their WITB sigs and handicaps and whatever, sure you dont really see them down your local club every week but you do come across the odd one or two, but then think of how big this planet is, were pretty spread out...

Ive played with people literatly playing their first round of golf, to mid handicappers, low handicappers, club pros, tour pros and at the end of the day the level of play is part of the game for sure, but were all the same, were just people going out and hitting a ball and enjoying the social side of it... Its no different playing with some one fantastic to someone who chops it round, you still probably talk about money, fast cars, girls, clubs, TV, music, whatever, just that the good player hits the ball a little better and gets it in the hole quicker...

For my real answer I currently have a 7.0 handicap and feel that I am a fairly decent ball stricker my swingspeed is mediocre at 103-105 mph normal drive 240-250 carry I play as a single alot and every now and then I get paired up with someone who just smokes my score, but more frequently I play with people who bomb it past me but cant score for cr*p these would be the same guys on the range that only hit driver.

I also fill in with a group of outstanding golfers and even if I was to fire off a 75-77 I am still getting smoked but they all belong to the same private club and that is where they play 90% of thier rounds.

Is there bs out there sure there is. The male ego can be a fragile thing. I would venture out and say the majority on what the members post in regards to their handicap is legit (I cant speak for the whats your 200yard club thread though ) You wanna see some guys fudge on their handicap go back and watch playing lessons with the pros when Samuel 6.5 handicap Jackson was on it.

Maybe its just me that thinks like this, but I think alot of people may end up feeling mediocre about their long game when they read about these guys b*tching about a 280 yard mishit. If you spend all your time worrying about what other people are doing how is your game going to improve??????????????

One other thing to consider is this excerpt from golf digest's "what is a 10 handicap" article around the time of the us open


thats all gotta go back to work on the putt putt game new club championship coming up

Hmm.....maybe you are looking at a different site then golfwrx.com? For real, I would have to say that if you get enough people that are sitting around on their computers reading about golf, that should tell you how devoted to golf they really are! Your post seems disrepectful at best. Golf for probably everyone on this board is not just a sport or a hobbie to fill the year - its a lifestyle. We love golf, we love writing about it, watching it and reading about it. I'm sure there are grown men who have stood on the first tee of a great course (St. Andrews, Pebble,Bandon) and have been choked up because its the realization of a dream to play there. Those are the same grown men I've seen bomb it down the fairway 275 yards or back it up on the green like a PGA pro. Its because golf, at least for some, is taken seriously and shown the respect it deserves. There is no other game like it.

Are you using the putter in the avatar to get that low? Yes I remember where you got that too!

that thing can light up the putt putt course like no other, but the best benefit of the center shaft is the new laser sight alignment aide that I made for it.

Not everyone is posting WHERE they play....

I'm a single capper that hits long, I outdrive most ppl with a 3W...I play at Schenectady Muni, Capital Hills (Albany, Duramed Futures Tour's 2nd to last stop), Orchard Creek Golf Course, Stadium Golf Club, Mohawk River Golf Club, Western Turnpike Golf Course, Saratoga Spa Golf Course...

If you or anyone else is in the Capital District (Albany/Schenectady NY) and wanna play, PM me.

AMEN! +1

I play 108 holes a week, plus time at the range/practice greens. 5.8 an falling, but have been as low as 3.1 at one point and time.

To answer the OP, (original poster for newbies...,) I am a 3.5 handicap and I play mostly courses in the greater Los Angeles region. PM me if you ever want to meet up to play.

Home Course: Kane Country Club
Kane, PA

Plus pretty much anywhere and everywhere in Western PA... PM me if you'd like to get a round in before the snow I'd be happy to SHOW you where I play...

I'm playing next to geneva/Switzerland.
I've been playing golf since i turned 8 and was a scratch player at 17. Even got in the top 100 French amateurs at some point in time and that was my level of incompetence.
Now i'm between 1 and 2 depending how much time i can put into the game. I can still drive long enough to reach some par 5 in 2 and i can spin the ball enough to stop it on the greens. The rest is just an ego boost (which is good sometimes )
The only thing that matters is the number I will sign on my scorecard at the end of the day.

See I think this is a great idea! As you WRX'er travel meet and play with fellow WRX'er use your skycaddie and you can remove all doubt of how far you hit it and what you score, or you could just keep a handicap and not worry about distance, you will see on my index scores anything from a 71 to an 85, crap happens, right? I'm 56 y/o and adverage 265 on drives, stop by we will play and use a gps and you can post it here, any takers? I just love this game! & WRX

We get one of these posts here about once a month. The essential formula boils down to this:

Someone (usually someone new) asserts that some (maybe a lot) of the people on the board inflate their stats, claiming longer drives, and lower handicaps than they really have. They generally back this up with two distinct pieces of evidence: First, the average handicap in the US is around 15, and second, that the people they usually see on their local course hardly ever break par, or drive it 280.

The question - in essence - is whether this group is an unusual sample set ... whether it is simply the norm (and just lying online), or whether it really is far outside the norm.

Personally, I believe that while there probably are a few folks that exagerate (there's probably no discussion board on any topic anywhere on the internet where the truth doesn't get fudged a bit) ... on the whole, there's also plenty of evidence to suggest that this is, indeed, a unique group that is considerably outside of the norm. Based on the same anecdotal evidence the OP uses to assert his claim.

You can look at only the opinion threads here ... however look at the whole board. You say you are usually the best in your group, usually drive in the 230's, and have a 14 handicap. So you consider your personal experience to be an adequate description of what the "norm" is. I do know what that norm is ... I travel a lot, and quite often walk on as a single. You have described (largely) the norm of public courses.

So to believe this board is really unusual needs a bit of support ... so tell me ... have you been to the Equipment threads here? Or the WRX Shop threads? All those people you play with ... how many of them have long, detailed discussions about the difference between DSG 300's and Project X flighted shafts? (How many of them would even know what a flighted shaft is?) How many commonly talk about the differences between the feel of irons forged in Japan vs. cast in China? How many would know where the kick-point in their driver is ... or what the effects of a mid-kick shaft would be on ball flight? How many of them have changed shafts in the driver - even once? How many of them not only have new clubs every year ... but sometime even several sets in a year? How many of them get deeply excited about new OEM clubs, pre-order them? How many of them have even bothered to get their loft/lies checked and adjusted? (How many even know why they should?) How many vigorous arguments have you heard - in those average foursomes - about the relative merits of one plane vs. two plane vs. stack and tilt? (How many of them would even know that stack and tilt doesn't refer to something that goes on in a golf store warehouse?) I could go on and on ... but you get the point.

What I'm saying is that I do know the average golfer you speak of ... they play maybe once or twice a month. Often more to relax with friends and get away from the kids than anything else. That average golfer would likely not only not have discussions that resemble what goes on here, they wouldn't even find it them particularly interesting. Golf is something they do now and then, but is not a big part of their lives.

If you look at the whole board, the discussions here resemble discussions that go on amongst the pros far more than they resemble those that go on while walking the local muni. So (to me) it is not only not suprising that the average drives here are longer, and handicaps considerably lower than the foursomes you play with ... it would be suprising if they weren't.

Are their a few that lie? Yeppers ... but possibly far fewer than you seem to think.