I am pretty good at math. Unfortunately, that isn’t a positive for me on the golf course. Even without a score card in hand, I usually know where my score stands. Doing too much math is the kiss of death on the golf course. One should look only as far as the next shot, and no further.
Whether it is just me against the golf course, or me and my playing partner vs. our opponents, I have a hard time not letting the numbers get in my head. Stroke play events terrify me. I have a fear of many things, but posting a 13 on any given hole (yup, I’ve actually been there) is something that lingers in the back of my mind like a horror movie watched late at night and alone.
Match play, on the other hand, offers a golfer a chance to play his or her game, one hole at a time – the way we always should play, in any format. The best golfers already know this, and know that staying strong mentally, even in the face of poor play, is the only way to regain some composure and to pull a bad round out of the crapper.
In match play, even a numbers obsessed golfer has the opportunity to leave the bad shots behind, scattered through the green and gone. Sure, eventually the strokes have to be tallied and the score entered in order to maintain an equitable handicap, but amazing things can happen in a match play event. Tripled a hole? For-getta-bout-it! That triple represents only one hole, and there are seventeen others to win.
Of course, the math crazed golfer can still become fixated on numbers, counting down the remaining holes in a match, watching the sand run through the hour glass, wondering if he or she can keep a lead or make up enough holes before the match ends. Somehow, match play can make you believe in your game. If you choose to let go of desperation, it can take but a single shot to bring back hope to your round. Pull out a win on a hole that you surely thought was lost, and you really can begin to believe, in a warm and wonderful way - as in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Great Pumpkin - an anything can happen kind of way.
The USGA Handicap System is based upon the potential ability of a player rather than the average of every score. According to the USGA’s Handicap Research Team, the average player is expected to play to or better than his or her Course Handicap only about 25 percent of the time and will actually average three strokes higher than his Course Handicap.
Match play is the great equalizer among golfers. Match play with strokes should be every true handicappers dream. Can’t please ‘em all, though. There will always be golfers who say they can’t possibly win because they’re playing against better golfers with lower handicaps. Low handicappers whine because they have to give too many strokes to the high handicappers.
Fooey on all that, I say, having just given away as much as five and six shots per side in a team match play event – and managing, by some miracle, to come out on top despite the bevy of dots that populated our opponents’ card. It isn’t the dots – it is the dottee. It’s about who comes with what game to each match.
Stop and think that a golfer is destined to play to his or her handicap only twenty five percent of the time. OK, I admit: destined by the USGA and the GHIN system - not exactly God, but pretty close. That means seventy five percent of the time you can stomp around the course and be miserable, or you can choose to enjoy the opportunity to play this most enjoyable, fascinating, frustrating game. We’re far from perfect players. Heck, even the pros have bad days. What’s so amazing about a round of golf is that you never know, if you hang in there, just when you’re going to hit the shot of your life.
On any given day, with fair and honest handicaps in place, anyone - high handicapper or low - can enjoy a round of competitive golf. Isn’t that what it’s all really supposed to add up to?
I have to totally agree with your opinions. I find it distracting to count strokes to find where you stand. It generally only adds to the pressure of your game. Also the people whom exercise this action are generally the type whom will flaunt their score needlessly. Match play though is a different story. When I am playing I tend to gamble and being extremely frugal and competitive, i feel it best to know how much harder I need to compete to either break even or raise my profit line.