Trending 1.2 Handicap - Still Haven't Broken Par

[Celebros]

Anyone else been as low without ever breaking par? lol

Shot an even par 71 today and after making the turn at even par after a birdie on 9, parred all nine holes on the back and had 15-30 foot birdie putts on all of them (8 GIR and one on the fringe about 20 feet from the hole which I putted).

 

I've shot even par three times in my last 20 rounds, but have yet to break par on 18 holes. I've gone from a 3.5 at the beginning of last year to currently trending 1.2. Has to happen soon!

[jjmurry]

I'm about the same myself - I've not even shot even par before. Thankfully my home course allows me to shoot 1-2 over and still be considered a 1ish handicap. I know it's all in my short game, but if I hit even one tee shot out of bounds my game goes to the garbage. I just accept that I am a mental basket case and that I'll never actually break par lol. If you find out the secret, let me know please! :)

[Celebros]

I don't think its a mental thing for me at this point. I almost always play better on the back nine, so I'm usually making up shots coming in rather than blowing a chance to shoot under part with a big number.

 

I think I just need to get my approach shots closer to the hole and give myself better looks at birdie.

[llewol007]

As silly as it sounds, you need to get into the 10 foot circle more often during your round. 15-30 footers significantly drops your chances of making anything of them. Not to say you cant but I am surprised that you dont have many chances at birdie from closer in. That is the game though and that is what we all try to achieve. At a lower handicap, I would suggest working on your game from 100 yards in and really get that radius closer to the hole. Im betting you will break par because your game is good enough to do it. Just keep plugging away and it will pay off for you and you will know what it took to get there.

[jjmurry]

Totally in the same boat - doesn't help that traditionally my home course is 500 yards longer on the front than the back and therefore plays a few shots more difficult. I have to play the first 4 or 5 holes at -1 in order to give myself a chance going into a very difficult 3 hole stretch. It's become all psychological for me though, unfortunately. I'll shoot under par the day I stop trying to force shots and when I take my medicine.

[Celebros]

Having exclusively 15-30 footers was somewhat unusual - I usually have a couple of relatively easy birdies each round.

I certainly need to get more of my approaches closer though - I'm long enough that I rarely have more than an 8-9 iron into most Par 4's and on Par 5's I'm typically near the green in two.

[MtlJeff]

depending on courses you play it's not that uncommon. If you play like a 74/135 course or something it's perfectly reasonable you could play 2-3 years there without breaking par and keep an index of 1-3 . I have done this for stretches of my golf career though i had broken par earlier in my playing days

My previous home course, i never broke par on and played there for 2 years, at one point in that stretch i actually got down to like +0.2 because i shot something like 72-72-73-72-74 in a 5 game stretch. Didn't break par

Currently i play at a 75/140 ~ course so breaking par is not common even amongst the low indexes. I have broken par there only twice in the last 4 years and have not been above 2 in that time frame. I have been as low as +0.6. I have probably shot 72 or 73 like 50 times. Just not a lot of 71's

Early in my playing career i used to play easier courses, like 71/124 type courses. And i would shoot under par more regularly. Including 69's etc

[Stinger83]

Yep. I blew so many under par rounds. I was -4 thru 12 last week and finished even. You have to pay attention to your mentality when you start to "want a new low score". You go from having fun to pressing. You have to realize when that happens and reverse that mentality. Be confident but smart and focus on positive targets the last 3-4 holes.

Don't say " I just gotta par my way in and I'll do it". Say "Ok I still have two good birdie opportunities left". Those are two completely different mindsets

[llewol007]

For players who are that close to par, it is so easy to lose strokes on small mistakes. Even on the higher level players it happens. Like the previous posts says, you have to stay level headed. When I have had my better rounds that ends up with me shooting below par, I dont get too far ahead of myself, usually I break up my round into 3 holes and either focus to get par or open up a little bit and be more aggressive on what I consider scoring holes for me.

[cardoustie]

Hit fairways, hit greens, birdie the par 5’s ... I know common sense .. but you need birds to offset mistakes

And .... get WAY better around the greens

like JEFF I am at a harder track but when I do break par it’s usually a perfect driving day with lots of wedges in ...

I think I broke par 4 or 5 times last year ... including some 4 under 68’s ... and have been under once already this year

[bazinky]

This may sound weird, but you might need to try playing easier courses, or play from a different set of tees.

I was buddies with a lot of the guys on my college golf team (I played a different sport), and their coach would sometimes have them play rounds from the ladies tees to try and get them more comfortable with shooting low scores.

[SNIPERBBB]

What's your course rating? I shot par or better three times last year and still at 2.6 with nothing over 75 in my best 8.

 

My course is rated 69-71 depending on tees so I have to shoot under par just to get to where you are.

[Celebros]

70.7 from the Men's tee and 72.6 from the Tips, Par 71.

[Jc0]

Switch up you tees and try to do it. My coach when I was a junior would have us play the up tees every once in a while so that we would shoot under. Once I got a few rounds under from shorter tees it wasn't that much more difficult to keep it up once I moved back to my normal tee.

[MtlJeff]

this is advice that's been given a lot in the past and it's pretty good IMO. Play a short course and you get a lot of birdie putts, so you get used to seeing some go in

Every year we do a few skins games from the ladies tees. Obviously i've broken par in those but i don't count them

But it's a good feeling to have a makeable birdie putt on most holes, so it helps you develop confidence in making them

[Celebros]

Thanks for the advice all.

I think I might take your advice and tee it up from from the White tees on my course next (68.5 rating). I could use the practice from that tee anyway, as I'll be subbing in a golf league that plays from the Whites later this year.

[SNIPERBBB]

Our money games, usually, 12-20 guys, are being played at the senior tees and LCP everywhere right now until the things warm up a bit more and conditions are better. Shot 73 Sunday and was a bit annoyed. Played like garbage but i got away with some stuff with driver that a normal day would of been problematic. First round of the year though.

 

 

[Socrates]

I’ve broken Par a few times. The closest in the last few years was my last round of 2019 in Palm Desert. Bogey on the last hole to go back to even. So many things have to go right to break par on any course. Putting really well is likely the most important thing to happen. You HAVE to make every par putt that’s outside of that “gimme” range.

I have sometimes really struggled on teeing it up from really forward tees. Especially on courses I know well. The change in mindset and club selection often gets in the way of scoring as you start hitting it into places you normally don’t even think about.

[Obee]

How many birdies do you AVERAGE in a round? What is the MOST you've ever made?

 

[Celebros]

Across my last 20 rounds, I'm averaging 1.7 birdies per round.

Most birdies in a round is 4.

[MtlJeff]

your course plays 2 shots above par in terms of rating. I would bet there are not a ton of under-par rounds there by many of the guys in the 1-5 range over the course of the year

I mentioned my course, which is a combination of 27 holes, but basically is 74-75 rating with ~140 slope. We usually have about 40 guys with indexes between 0 and 5 and i would guess at least 35 of them don't break par in a given year.

I broke par once last year and and for most of the summer had the lowest amateur index in my club. Though admittedly it was a weak year for our course

If it's really a mental block where you can't do it you can work on the mental side, but just don't think that every 1 index is breaking par 15 times a year because they are not.

[Obee]

This is going to sound obvious, but it needs to be said (and has already been said?): If you want to get to scratch/below, you almost very like must make more birdies. The only way you can get away with being a scratch/below player without making a really solid amount of birdies, on average (especially at moderately difficult courses) is to be a short/straight hitter with a great short game and a deadly putting eye (think an old guy who used to be a +2 or +3 and now just doesn't hit it long enough to take advantage of the par 5's and so only makes 1.5 to 2 birdies a round.

How old are you? How far do you carry driver? 7-iron?

How far we hit the ball (combined with skill level, of course) has a direct impact on how many birdies we can expect to make, on average.

[cardoustie]

Agree, more birdies needed. When I go low I get hot with the short irons

what club are you normally hitting into the par 4’s? Can you reach the par 5’s in two?

[MtlJeff]

his question though, was really about being a 1.2 and not breaking par a lot and if that was normal

If he starts making more birdies and the rest of his game stays the same, he will cease to be a 1.2 and will be lower than that :)

[cardoustie]

I get it but if I played a course where i was always hitting in 7 iron or more .. I would not break par EVER

there’s different 1.2’s as you know

Straight par guy and streaky guy

[MtlJeff]

For sure, i guess what i mean is how does he start making more birdies. If he becomes a better putter , or starts hitting the ball further, with no detriment to his game....he may end up breaking par a lot more and being like a +1 instead of a 1.2.

To stay a 1.2 while breaking par more, would imply he's gotten worse at some other things.

I'm just answering his question in the OP very literally i guess. I don't disagree with what you're saying.

[nsxguy]

@Celebros A little surprised you didn't mention slope rating when you gave your course rating. Par and handicap don't have a direct correlation.
At a 1.2 handicap and a CR of 70.7 on a par 71 I'm guessing your slope rating is in the mid 120s or so. So not ever breaking par seems a little unusual but certainly not impossible. As Jeff mentioned you could play a Par 72, CR74/135 for years, be a 1.2 and never sniff an even par round.
As mentioned by another poster, a little mistake here or there can certainly be the difference. The average player has between 2 & 5 rounds included in their handicap that are below their index. Only 1 stroke difference between your bettering your index and NOT breaking par. LOL So obviously those 3 rounds you mention that are even par are the only 3 under your index.
But without seeing your game and assuming you're a decent putter for your 'cap it sounds like your proximity to the hole is an/the issue. Possibly your irons weren't fit to you ? Or you're just not quite as sharp with them as you should(?) be ?
Personally I get the shudders when I see an entire bag of one brand,,,,,,,,,, but maybe that's just me. LOL

[phil75070]

I think it is one thing to shoot better than par, and quite another to shoot below the course rating. A 1.2 who has never broken par is probably playing some difficult courses or just tees rated fairly high. Personally, I'e probably broken par close to 100 times in all the years I've been playing but probably only a handful or two of the times have I shot below the course rating. I am proudest of two rounds where I shot -2 relative to par but the course was rated 74.8/140 at the time. The vast majority of my below par scores have been on courses rated below the stated par.

 

[provx]

I don’t see how its possible to be a 1.2 and never break par

[Socrates]

Very easy. You play courses where the rating and slope are higher than the par. Play hard courses and tee it up from the tips (or slightly harder tees than you should) and you can score very close to par and have a very low hcp. A lot of people can play really well, but don't go really low very often. Not everyone who is scratch or close shots in the 60's.