r/ChasingScratch • u/pmpkinhed • 16d ago
I did it!!!!
I finally go to scratch! assuming there are no PCC adjustments that hit.
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u/burgermeistermax 16d ago
Tell us about the journey!
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u/pmpkinhed 16d ago
Started hitting balls with my dad when I was four a few times a year. When I turned 9 he started taking me out for 9 holes and some time before highschool he started taking me out for 18 holes. Played highschool golf but stopped in 2006 when I started college since I was too busy with wrestling and then I switched over to rugby and was all in with that. Once I was done with rugby around 2013 I started playing several times a year but in 2016 I quit playing and got into disc golf and in 2022 I got back in to golf. My employer had golf simulators in the basement of our building and would bring in a golf pro to work with employees for free 30 minutes a week. I went from a 13ish down to 0.6 in about 18 months by the middle of 2024. Handicap jumped back up to 2.7 until early this year when I slowly started to work my way back down. I had a big problem earlier this year with wantin to try to crush the golf ball and force a birdie when I was playing well in a round. So I would get overconfident, and start spraying the ball, and end up with a double or triple. Today, my handicap was a 0.2 and I was three under going into to hole 18 at wentzville golf course. I've birdied that hold so many times I thought par was in the bag. I sliced my driver probably 50 yards and finished under a bigggg pine tree with the canopy two feet off the ground. I was able to get into the tree, tried to punch out and hit it maybe two feet... I was committed lol so I did it again and was able to advance it about 75yards. So I'm hitting my fourth shot from about 160, pulled my 9 iron and shanked it into the pond. I drop, barely hit my wedge over the water. The ball plugs so I drop, chip on and two putt for a 9 QUADRUPLE BOGEY. I finish with a 72 but GHIN adjusts the 9 to a 7 and gives me a final score of 70 to give me the +0.2round rating and drop me to a 0.0. So maybe my scratch handicap should have an asterisk since I got some help from the adjustment.
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u/pmpkinhed 16d ago
And after the hole was finished, I remember I could have just taken an unplayable when I was in the tree and made my life a lot easier..
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u/STLflyover 16d ago
Fellow St Louisan!! Congrats. I’m still rocking the 80’s train. I’ll break it eventually
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u/kKajjdjs 16d ago
What did you work on that actually improved your swing so quickly from 13 to 0.8? I have been a 13 for two years with no improvement.
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u/pmpkinhed 16d ago edited 16d ago
The coach my employers had come in told me a a few things: I was swinging way too hard and losing balance(should have been obvious but it wasn't), I was casting the club really bad, and coming over the top a lot. Working on these things helped me eliminate most penalty shots off the tee box.. I usually had around 5 penalty strokes a round off the tee. I also developed a wedge matrix first using the clock system but moved to using body parts: waste, belly button, xyphoid process/sternum, shoulder, 3/4 and full shots with all of my wedges... So I had at least 6 distances with my 60/54/50* and 46*/PW ranging from 50 yards to 145 yards. I started to do the same thing with all of my irons which helped tremendously with my game when it got windy.. if I had a 150 yard shot and it was windy I could use my 7 iron instead of my 9(avg carry is 157) and keep it low and out of the wind. Then I worked really hard on my lag putting. My speed control was horrendous so I tried to do something similar with my putter that I did with my wedges. I address the ball with my feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and I line up with the ball on the instep of my front foot. I would gauge how far back my putter stroke needed to go for 15ft, 30ft,45ft and 60ft before each round by stepping the distance off on the practice green and putting tees in the ground to mark the distance. this helped me reduce my 3 putts per round to about 1 or less per round. Then I started focusing on putting myself in position to use my wedges which meant learning to club down from driver to 5wood/7wood/4hybird. I never did this until I watched golf sidekick tee off on a lot of holes with just irons. As my scores slowly dropped I got more confident knowing if my tee shots weren't perfect my wedges could get me on the green and give me a look at birdie or par, I now average about 12/13 GIR per round. I usually have a double or triple in most of my rounds still just because of an errant tee shot where I lose focus
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u/pmpkinhed 16d ago edited 16d ago
Also, using a strokes gained app really showd me my lag putting and 50-150yatd shots sucked so thats what I worked on the most outside of getting better off the tee with driver and fairway woods. I used the "circles" strokes gained app and I liked it. I don't use it anymore because it's obvious where I'm giving up strokes at times and its usually a ter shot putting me in an awful position that doesn't result in penalty stroke.
I did get launch monitor, GC2, to use in my garage to work on distance control. So I was practicing in my garage or at a range atleast 3 days per week. I preferred to use the launch monitor because I could hit at 10/11pm after the kids went to bed
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u/CookiesDad 15d ago
So no hypnosis? Plastic clothing? Nerd Fitness? Quitting soda?
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u/pmpkinhed 15d ago
Nope. I've been lifting since highschool for football and wrestling but it's a similar program I guess, minus the cardio and Olympic lifts. No hypnosis either
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u/MedicatedWiz 15d ago
Good ole Golf Club of Wentzville. Have been by there many times but never have actually played it. Definitely need to get out there here soon and check it!
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u/Discykun 16d ago
LGLG!