The Journey To Scratch: Am I Already A Scratch Golfer?

I had a funny conversation this week about my desire to play down to a zero handicap. I was up hitting balls at the range when a gentleman approached me and began a conversation. Eventually, he turned the conversation to my handicap, So when I told him I was a 4, he replied with, so you’re scratch from the men’s tee? That statement confused me, which got me thinking… Is that right? Could I already be a scratch golfer from the white tees? That made me do a bit of looking at what tees I’ve played from and what my scores were from those tees. The results were quite humorous, but very strange to boot.

First off, from those pesky back tees, you know, the ones most people laugh at. I have played 5 rounds this year from them. A low of 74 at Gearhart Golf Links and a high of 81 at Snohomish. If I based my handicap off the two best rounds I’ve had, it would be a 3.4. Or right where I’m sitting currently.The average rating from those black tee courses was right around 72 to 72.5. In a nutshell, that means a 76 to 77 score nets me that 4 handicap. From the blues, my better scores come in right around 71-75. With a rating of 70, this pins that handicap once again at 4. But moving up to the white tees, all the way up to that shorter course drops the rating to a 67 to 68 at most courses. From there, my average is, get this, 73 – or a 5-6 handicap.

How on earth is that possible? How did my handicap go up as the course got shorter? There are a couple of good reasons for this, but most importantly, you drive for show and putt for dough. If I pull up to a par 4 that measures 350 yards, and I hit a 280 yard drive, I have a three quarters lob wedge into that green. If I stick it at 15 feet and two putt, it’s a par. If I play the same hole from the forward tees and take off 20 yards, I only have a half lob wedge into the green, which I still stick at 15 feet and two putt. That 20 yards further up the hole that I start out does have some punishments though. From bringing bunkers into play and maybe that water hazard that the 250 yard driver can’t reach, to the long rough where the fairway narrows right in front of the green, sometimes, playing a course short gets longer hitters into more trouble. This is what I’ve found with my scores, the shorter holes don’t necessarily score better than the longer ones. Even though Golf Digest ran an article about driving it as close as you can, I’m still a firm believe in the old, “Find your approach club and land the ball at that distance,” school of thought. It just makes playing easier.

So, to this nice gentleman that talked with me at the range, thanks for thought about being a scratch golfer from the forward tees, but I’m sorry to tell you that I am not. In fact, I think I’m a bit worse from the front tees. My next round at Snohomish will be played from the gold tees, not those huge differences that the blacks make. I’ll also be sticking to the blue tees at Riverbend (if not a round or two from the white tees this winter) and probably the same at Echo Falls. I think I need to tune up that wedge game and get my driving a bit more under control before I do too much more thinking about where my game is at. It’s only a matter of time before I get everything on track for next spring and some actual tournament golf.