# Target Scores



## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

I was looking at my index yesterday as kept by the course people. We enter our each of rounds as we leave, and the results are used to place us in any tournaments we might enter. I play in the men's club tournaments sometimes, but I am not a member due to the sandbagging among some of the members that goes on. I am well past 20 rounds for the year so I am using my 10 lowest rounds to figure my index. Among those 10 lowest rounds are a couple of 83s. I have made that number (83) my playing target number until they are replaced with a lower number. Just wondering if anyone else tries to play to a specific target number when they play?


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## Cajun (Jan 17, 2010)

Sort of, I more shoot for a range, anything around 90 right now I'm pretty happy with.


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## stevel1017 (Apr 30, 2007)

The men's association I play on awards points based on your net finish during tournaments. At the end of the year they hold a ryder cup tournament, the top 20 point getters on the teams (10 on each team). The winners have their names engraved on a trophy that sits in the club house. Competition is fierce, both to get on the team and then to win.
Usually a net around par will get points
My handicap in the association is 12 (par is 71), so my target is 83.
The best so far this year for me is 81


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## Surtees (Sep 11, 2007)

yes I my last target was under 100 consistantly now its 95 I sort of just move it like that.


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

Nope. I feel that for some, setting a target may work, but for most of us it just creates unnecessary pressure. I play best when I'm relaxed and don't even total my scores until the round is over. I can tell if I'm playing well or not, and that's enough until the round is over. It's enough for me to think about each shot as it comes, and can only hurt to have extraneous thoughts about whether or not I'm approaching some target. :dunno:

That's me anyway.


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## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

When I go out to play, my initial thought is to shoot 82 or better for the round. This is my thought before I even get on the first tee, and probably while I am still in the parking lot. My wife sometimes ask me what I am going to shoot as I am heading out the door. I tell an "82". Since I play golf in groups of 3 holes at a time, I pretty much know in the first 3-6 holes if I am going to achieve that 82 or not. If the 82 looks good, it keeps me focused for the rest of the round. If in the first 3-6 holes, 82 or better looks to be a challenge, the focus is still there to play as well as I can for the remainder of the round. Since it is paramount to me to just have fun while out there, I am pretty much relaxed during most of my rounds. Now, sometimes in a competitive round, a stronger focus will replace fun, and relaxation to a point. I will have fun if I shoot a 92, but it is much more enjoyable to shoot an 82. For me it is possible to play relaxed while staying focused on playing well. Even with our group just out screwing around, the idea is still to focus on the shot at hand, so as to limit the chances of letting some negative swing issue enter into our respective games. Once I replace both of these 83s with say 82s, then my target number will be 81...to replace the 82s....


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

I have no problem staying focused on my game, but I see it as a game of one shot at a time. I will have trouble making par on this hole if I don't get off the tee as planned, so that is my focus. I'm not looking at what I have to score 2 holes ahead, nor at what I did on the previous hole, only on the shot I'm facing right now. When I accomplish that, then I can relax until I get to the ball for my next shot... and then that shot is the only thing in the game that is important at that time. This is how I try to approach each round. Anything else would just be too much work.

I focus on my game for about 5 minutes out of each 15 when I'm on the course (the time it takes to get ready for each shot is no more than a minute, max). The rest of the time I'm just enjoying being out there.


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

Fourputt said:


> I have no problem staying focused on my game, but I see it as a game of one shot at a time.


That pretty much says it all for me too, or at least it used to. I think my perspective on concentration, at least on the golf course, is changing with old age.

While I look at my capabilities as being able to break 80, (that being my goal every round), it seems with age and summer heat, I do so less and less. My game is obviously better in the winter, spring and fall when my physical being isn't so hammered with the heat.

My effort during those seasons reflects it too. In the summer, I tend to concentrate on enjoying myself, hitting good shots, but being much less worried about score even to the point that sometimes I don't even write it down. I can figure it out when I get home if I feel I played particularly well. If I played badly, I can forget it equally well.

In cooler months, when there is a joy and almost a spiritual feeling to being on the course, I tend to think about score a bit more because my physical being isn't beaten down by the heat. There's many a time in the summer when I've found myself very happy to reach the 18th tee.

Maybe that joy and spirituality sounds a little overly poetic coming from me, but it seems like in the past two summers the heat is almost discouraged me to play. I wasn't particularly excited to play yesterday at all.

So, I do or don't try to focus, depending how comfortable I may be. The next question is, how successfully do I focus when I try and even at the best of times, that varies.

I'm afraid at 61, I've just reached a point where I really just play for fun, not in tournaments, don't keep a active handicap, I don't belong to a club and if I'm lucky, I tend to come home and remember specific good shots, less so than my score.

Yesterday, I missed almost every fairway, only hit one par 3, only hit about 6 greens, shot 82 only because my chipping was way better than I usually am, but I hit the most incredible 220 yard 3 wood against the wind to the green on a 450 yard par 4 18th hole. I proceeded to 3 putt, but that one shot made my day.

That's me...


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

BTW - When Froghair mentioned sandbagging, the men's association at the public course where I played yesterday has a rule they made a long, long time ago.

If you play a tournament round more than 4 shots below your index, they cut your allowed tournament handicap regardless of your posted scores. They will do it on the spot and keep you from winning a tournament if they see your posted scores never reflect a wide enough span for the low score to have been possible. 

It keeps most people honest, but a buddy of mine who plays regularly in their association has told me stories every year of someone who thinks they can beat the system by inflating their scores, then going out in a tournament and shooting some low number.

It's a bit subjective, probably not totally fair, but it seems to work fairly well for them.

I've heard other places where tournament rounds below your index count for 3-4 entries in your list of scores. In other words, carry a 10 index and break 80 in a tournament, and 3 or 4 of that score are going in against your last number of scores to drag your index down.


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

I still play in the Men's club... don't know why I would ever stop that until I no longer play golf at all. I love tournament golf,and I love match play, and the only way I get to do either is in the club.

As far as sandbagging goes, my club is quick to adjust a sandbagger, but he has to show at least something of a trend before it happens. I would never accuse anyone after a single anomalous score or tournament, because I've been there myself. My lifetime best score of 73 was posted the first time I ever broke 80.... 21 years ago and I've never ever tied it since. At the time I carried a legitimate 16 handicap. Miracles do happen on the golf course. After that tournament, my handicap continued to drop because I continued to play better golf, but the handicap committee never had to adjust me... the system worked as it's supposed to.

The lowest score on my current handicap is 79... posted after a casual round, not in a tournament.


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## FrogsHair (Mar 4, 2010)

When I talk about sand baggers, I am not just talking about those people who shoot inordinate low scores. I also include those players who improve their lies to help shoot said low scores, or just flat out cheat in other ways. Sand baggers and cheaters are one in the same. I play in these tournaments just because it provides a chance to play on various high dollar courses for a cheap green free. Paying $85 to play on a course that would normally cost me $300 is kind of cool in my book.


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## Spike (Apr 4, 2014)

My target score for 9 holes these days is 40. Anything lower is just bonus. I figure two 40s will get you an 80. That's a good score in my book. :-D


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

The question I hear people ask the teaching pros a lot is, "How quickly will I improve?" I think it's an unfair question for a new player to ask. Once we have played a while and IF, and it's a big if, we can be honest with ourselves, we can assign a target score like your 40 for 9 holes.

I tend to play more at Killian Greens, a pretty easy golf course. Any time I don't break 40 or 80, I don't feel like I've played as well as I could have. On the odd occasion when I play somewhere else, it's hard for my expectations to lower, even though I know I'm playing a harder golf course. 

An interesting conversation started in the pro shop yesterday. I may be moving to another course, Miccosukee Country Club, a course owned by the indian tribe and where the Nationwide Tour used to play their final event of the year. Some of the pros at KG are moving on to work there and they want me to come with them as part of a management team. It might be more hours a week than I want to work at this stage of life, but the free golf privileges at a beautiful facility like that would make it a lot easier to practice every day. They have 27 holes, so having become sort of a 9 hole player most days, it would offer a little more variety to me. It's only 4 miles from my house, so there's no down side in terms of travel time or anything like that.

Maybe, just maybe... But then the question comes up, what should my scoring goals be if I go to a course with real rough, 400 yards longer than I currently play, better greens and real sand in the bunkers?


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

DennisM said:


> The question I hear people ask the teaching pros a lot is, "How quickly will I improve?" I think it's an unfair question for a new player to ask. Once we have played a while and IF, and it's a big if, we can be honest with ourselves, we can assign a target score like your 40 for 9 holes.
> 
> I tend to play more at Killian Greens, a pretty easy golf course. Any time I don't break 40 or 80, I don't feel like I've played as well as I could have. On the odd occasion when I play somewhere else, it's hard for my expectations to lower, even though I know I'm playing a harder golf course.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a tempting offer, but like you I'm not sure that I'd take it if it asked me to work more than 15-20 hours per week. I'd also end up with other issues, such as my wife and I deciding at the drop of a hat to take off for a week or two week road trip, and I'd need that sort of flexibility in any job I took. 

I had that freedom when I worked at Foothills before we moved here. Now we are moving back to Colorado, but to a town 2½ hours from there. I don't really know if there is going to be any such option available anywhere near our new home, as the nearest 18 hole course is 20 miles away (we are way out on the prairie in a town of 450 souls).


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## 373 (Jun 9, 2006)

Hi Rick - Long time, no talk...

That flexibility to leave work for a while and vacation with the kids is definitely something to consider. Another is, I've started getting Social Security and I need to manage how much I'm paid by any job so I don't sacrifice that. I'd have to go back to work full time to make it worth giving it up for now and I'm not sure it would be worth it in other ways.

The Assistant Pro took a job at Deering Bay, a private club designed by Arnold Palmer. The management team idea to go to Miccosukee was based on him, so what Sean Kicker and I will do at this point is up fro grabs. 

I may talk to them anyway. I'd just like to work a couple days a week in the pro shop if possible. One way or the other, I'm growing more and more upset with my current situation and I need to do something, even if it means working out of the golf business.


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