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**BILBONDER** · 10-02-2012, 09:01 AM

Has anyone else ever felt like they have hit 'the wall' ?
I have been playing golf since I was a little kid, going to the driving range with my dad and eventually joining my current club and getting a handicap in 2006. Since around mid 2007, I have struggled to get my handicap lower than 5, with my best ever being 4.8 and my current handicap being 5.0. I am aware that the fact that I have put my exams during school, college and now university before golf is a reason for this sticking but I now have some time to take off of work and no exams to worry about I am going to put some serious effort in!

I am determined to break my handicap wall this season and get to a 4, does anyone who has managed to get to the 0-4 range have any advice for going
lower?

handicap.PNG

Attached is a graph to illustrate my handicap progression over the past 7 years

Based on my experience the difference between a 5 and a 0 is proximity to the hole with irons and wedges. The 0s I have played with in the past have been able to drop shots consistently very close with anything smaller than about a 7 iron and within makeable birdie distance (inside 10 feet) with longer clubs. They make more birdies than I do because they have shorter birdie putts, fewer up and downs to contend with, and they are hitting 5 irons closer to the hole than I will hit an 8 or a 9 iron on an average day. On my best days from the fairway I will have maybe 7 or 8 makeable birdie putts but then I am missing the putts all day or I make only 1 or 2 of them. It is hard to get both going together in the same round and it is hard to go really low without making enough red numbers to counter the bogeys that most everybody will make during a round. I have been stuck at about 4-4.5 for a couple of years now myself. Iron play and putting are the real keys to scoring better once your ball is in play most of the time and I am working on both right now.

10-02-2012, 09:01 AM	#5
BILBONDER Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 382 Senior Member	Has anyone else ever felt like they have hit 'the wall' ? I have been playing golf since I was a little kid, going to the driving range with my dad and eventually joining my current club and getting a handicap in 2006. Since around mid 2007, I have struggled to get my handicap lower than 5, with my best ever being 4.8 and my current handicap being 5.0. I am aware that the fact that I have put my exams during school, college and now university before golf is a reason for this sticking but I now have some time to take off of work and no exams to worry about I am going to put some serious effort in! I am determined to break my handicap wall this season and get to a 4, does anyone who has managed to get to the 0-4 range have any advice for going lower? handicap.PNG Attached is a graph to illustrate my handicap progression over the past 7 years Based on my experience the difference between a 5 and a 0 is proximity to the hole with irons and wedges. The 0s I have played with in the past have been able to drop shots consistently very close with anything smaller than about a 7 iron and within makeable birdie distance (inside 10 feet) with longer clubs. They make more birdies than I do because they have shorter birdie putts, fewer up and downs to contend with, and they are hitting 5 irons closer to the hole than I will hit an 8 or a 9 iron on an average day. On my best days from the fairway I will have maybe 7 or 8 makeable birdie putts but then I am missing the putts all day or I make only 1 or 2 of them. It is hard to get both going together in the same round and it is hard to go really low without making enough red numbers to counter the bogeys that most everybody will make during a round. I have been stuck at about 4-4.5 for a couple of years now myself. Iron play and putting are the real keys to scoring better once your ball is in play most of the time and I am working on both right now.
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