Types of Golf Games

Monday, November 4, 2013

Types of Golf Games. Once a golfer gets past the beginning stages of the game when he is learning to hit the ball off the tee and from the fairway and to putt, the competitive nature of any golfer takes over. If he is playing in a foursome he may want to: 

Once a golfer gets past the beginning stages of the game when he is learning to hit the ball off the tee and from the fairway and to putt, the competitive nature of any golfer takes over. If he is playing in a foursome he may want to compete against the other members of his group or play as a teammate with one member of the group against the other two. There is no shortage of competitive games available during an 18-hole round.

Match play

This is the oldest way of competing with other golfers. Each hole is a competition in and of itself. The golfer with the lowest score on the first hole gets the win and is considered "plus-1." If the golfers finish with the same score on the hole they are even. That score carries over to the next hole. If the golfer who wins the first hole also wins the second, he is now plus-2. It doesn't matter how many strokes by which he wins the hole. The winner gets a plus-1 on each hole he has the top score, or a minus-1 on holes where the other golfer has the final score.

Medal play with handicap

This is the most common way for golfers to play who are not of similar ability. If a golfer with a 15-handicap is playing against a competitor with a handicap of eight, the golfer with the higher handicap number will get to subtract seven shots (the difference between the two handicaps) from his final score. If the difference between the two final scores is 6 or less, the higher-handicapped golfer wins the match. If the lower-handicap golfer wins by seven or more, he wins the match. In most cases, the tie goes to the lower-handicap golfer since he is the one giving away strokes.

Scramble play

This is used in a team play match. Both partners hit tee shots at aparticular hole. If the first golfer's tee shot is in the fairway and 20 yards farther than the second golfer's shot, the first golfer's ball is considered in play. The second golfer will pick up his ball and hit the first golfer's ball toward the green. The first golfer will hit the third shot and they will alternate shots until the ball is in the hole. The lowest best-ball score wins the match. This can also be done in a tournament in which 18 or 36 foursomes compete.

Best ball play

In this type of play, the players in the foursome comprise a team. Each player plays each hole and compares scores. The player with the best score on a particular hole is the score used by that team. This type of golf leads to excellent an camaraderie, particularly if each member of the foursome take turns winning holes. When one player dominates and carries the team, it can result in more pressure and is less enjoyable.

Resources

• http://www.golf-information.info/types-of-competition.html — Types of Golf Competition

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How to Handicap in Golf

        A golf handicap is used to measure your golfing ability by a numeric value based on your recent golf scores and courses played. Your handicap index is then used to determine a course handicap for the location that you are playing. The greater a handicap is, the poorer a player is considered to be. Tournaments that make use of handicaps allow golfers of varied abilities to compete with each at the same or similar level.

InstructionsDifficulty: Moderately Easy

Step 1

Ensure you have an established handicap through your local golf club or course. A minimum of five complete scores for 18-hole rounds must be entered into the course handicapping computer along with the course rating and index of the course, if it is not a score for your local course.

Step 2

Check your course handicap for the location that you are going to play. If you have your GHIN (Golf Handicap and Index Number) available, the course pro can verify your handicap index and course index in his handicapping computer at the clubhouse.

Step 3

Use your course handicap to reduce your scores on the course as required. For example, if you have a handicap of nine, you will get a stroke reduced from your score on the nine most difficult rated holes of the course. This is annotated on the score card on the handicap index row of the card. If your handicap index is close to zero, you could find your course handicap is positive. For example, if you have a handicap of 1 and play an easier course, your course handicap may be plus 2. In this case you add strokes to the most difficult two holes on the course.

Step 4

Annotate handicap scores per the course rules for the event you are playing. Some courses will have you keep one score per golfer and just subtract the strokes on the holes that the golfer is entitled to them based on her handicap. Others will have you mark the true score on each hole or the net score and then the handicap score.

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How to Score a Golf Game

         Keeping score in golf is a big responsibility. Not only do you have to keep track of your own score for 18 holes, but you have to do it for your other playing partners as well. This can be tricky because you may not see every shot your playing partners take or you may think he took five shots on a hole, while he says he took five. You have to resolve all disputes in a gentlemanly fashion.

Instructions:Difficulty: Moderate

Step 1

Write down every player's name on your scorecard along with their handicap index. The handicap index is a number issued by the United State Golf Association (USGA) to every golfer who turns in 10 scores during a golf season. That handicap index will get deducted from the player's gross (final) score to determine their net score.

Step 2

Write down each player's score on a hole-by-hole basis. You should try to keep track of your playing partners' shots during a given hole. After the hole, check with them to make sure your total and their total agrees. If it does not, go over how you arrived at your total and let him show you where you are wrong. If you realize you are incorrect, go with the player's score. If not, go with your total.

Step 3

Let each player know where they stand as the round progresses. Add up each player's total at the end of nine holes, the halfway point in their round. There should not be any surprises because you have been apprising players of the score you have been writing down on each hole.

Step 4

Keep track of the number of putts each player takes on each hole. As you write down the score for each hole on the scorecard, write down the number of putts taken in the upper corner of the score box. This will let players know how they have performed hitting the ball tee to green and how they have putted. A player can look at these numbers after a round of golf and learn what they need to work on most in their game.

Step 5

Subtract the handicap index number from each player's score at the end of the round to determine a winner. If player A shot 92 for his 18-hole round of golf and his handicap is 14, his net score is 78. Player B shot an 88 and his handicap is 12 for a net of 76. Player C shot an 85 with a handicap of 6 for a 79. Player D shot a 94 with a handicap of 19 for a 75. Player D may have shot the highest gross score, but he won the round because his net score was the best of his foursome.

Tips and Warnings!

Keep a pleasant and friendly attitude when keeping score in golf but take the job seriously and keep an accurate scorecard.

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PGA Championship Cut Rules

        Making the cut at the PGA tournament is a huge step for any professional golfer. It is difficult enough to get an invitation to play in the tournament, but to play well enough through the first two rounds to earn a spot to finish the tournament in the third and fourth rounds is a major achievement. A golfer who makes the cut at any major tournament -- including the PGA tournament -- has taken a major step forward in his career.

The rules

      There are usually approximately 150 golfers who earn invitations to play in the PGA tournament every year. However, usually less than half of those players are likely to be around for the final two rounds. When golfers begin to play in the first round, they know that the golfers with the 70 lowest scores over the first two rounds make the cut and can play in the third and fourth rounds. However, if there is a tie for that 70th position, all the players who are tied get to finish the last two rounds of the tournament.

Drama

      There can be quite a bit of drama as the second round comes to a close. Let's say Player A is one of the early starters in the second round of the tournament and he finishes his second round even par. At the time the round closes, he is in 50th place, which would be good enough to allow him to make the cut. However, there are still 60 golfers left on the course who have to finish the round. As the hours go by, Player A has dropped to 69th place -- still good enough to make the cut. However, with one foursome left, he will not make the cut if two golfers beat his even par score. Player B birdies the 18th and goes to minus-1, dropping Player A to 70th. Player C has a short put for par, and that will keep him at minus-1. Player A is in the process of packing his bags and getting ready to leave, but player C misses the four-footer, falls to even par and both player A and C make the cut because the low 70 and all those tied make the cut.

Benefits of making the cut

     The pressure is off -- to a degree -- when you make the cut at a major tournament. It is a major feather in a golfer's cap and it also means he will get paid. A golfer who just makes the cut is not usually going to come back and win the tournament, but many golfers in that position come back and play much better in the third and fourth rounds to cash big checks and earn reputations that they can play in the clutch of important tournaments.

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How to Play Ladder Golf

         Ladder Golf is a game similar to horseshoes. It is also known as Ladder Ball, Ladder Toss and Bolo Ball. The basic premise of the game involves teams alternately tossing two golf balls that are connected via rope at the ladder runs of two ladders set up across from each other. Each respective rung on the ladder is worth a different number of points and points cancel each other when the bolos from the same team are thrown on the same rung of the ladder.

Step 1

Set up the two ladders in the standing position between 10 and 40 feet apart from each other. The distance between the ladders is based on the skill level of your players and the amount of area in which you have to play.

Step 2

Divide your players into two teams of two or one person against one person. One person from each team lines up behind the throw line beside each ladder. Play alternates between players with each player throwing all three bolos consecutively followed by the opponent lined up on the same side of the ladder.

Step 3

Throw or toss the bolos at the ladder attempting to wrap the bolo around one of the ladder rungs. If your team throws last, you can attempt to dislodge your opponents' bolos from the ladder.

Step 4

Calculate the ladder golf score after the players throw their bolos from one side of the ladder. Usually, you award three points for a bolo on the top rung of the ladder, two points for the middle rung and one point for the bottom rung.

Step 5

Alternate the team who throws first in each round by allowing the winner of the previous round to throw first on the subsequent round. The winner of the match is the first team to score exactly 21 points over the course of the game.

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Swing Sequence: Sang-Moon Bae

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Tech Marvel

 

       What happens when a player's only source of golf education is taking lessons from his 18-handicap mother and watching YouTube clips of Tiger Woods and Adam Scott? We give you Sang-Moon Bae, possessor of one of the handsomest swings on the PGA Tour and winner of the HP Byron Nelson Championship in May. Growing up in South Korea, Bae had no professional instruction and little competition until he turned pro at age 18. But "Moon," as he is called by his small clutch of friends in America, has proved that non-traditional routes to swing excellence still exist.

 

     After tearing up the Japan Golf Tour in 2011, Bae joined the PGA Tour last year. He has since won $2.9 million. Not bad for a guy who learned largely through his computer screen. "Moon is one of the few players who other players stop to watch," says Rick Smith, who began helping Bae with his swing at the Phoenix Open earlier this year. "When he's on, his ball-striking is spectacular. His balance, athleticism and hand-eye coordination are fantastic. And his swing has almost no compensations. It's the type of swing everyone's eyes are drawn to."

     Smith says that Bae tinkers with his setup and swing constantly, but in a curious way. "He experiments, but only to find ways to get back to being simple and correct," Smith says. "He's a disciplined guy and prefers a disciplined approach. He's a fanatic about his grip, posture, alignment and ball position. And we work on a lot of three-quarter swings to help develop his shotmaking and imagination."

   Bae says two thoughts rule his swing. "I try to have a wide arc swinging back and then make a full follow-through. When I do those two things, a lot of speed happens in between. I want a lot of speed and to be aggressive. I learned that watching Tiger."

   Smith says Bae's only poor tendencies are to swing excessively in to out and to push his pelvis toward the ball during the swing. "He's addressed those things well," Smith says. "Stabilizing his pelvis helps him keep his chest down through impact, which reduces some of that in-to-out shape."

   Bae's goal is to contend in more tournaments, and there's little to distract him. He has shared an apartment with a friend in Los Angeles since the beginning of 2012, and is only now looking into finding a permanent home, in Dallas. He's an obsessive player/practicer, to such an extent that he took three weeks off in July only at Smith's urging. "I eat, sleep and play golf," Bae says. "Sometimes some good Korean food at night, when I can find it."

—Ron Kaspriske

FACE-ON

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DOWN-THE-LINE

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UP-THE-LINE

 

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Why You Lose Your Grip

                           Written with Roger Schiffman                           

Illustrations by Jim McQueen

     By Jack Nicklaus        

November 2013                                                             

WHAT I WROTE IN 1973

      Loosening the hands at the top of the swing is a major fault of weekend golfers and a sure shot-wrecker. The answer lies not in putting a stranglehold on the club, but in maintaining a consistent firmness in the hands. If you haven't swung the club back adequately by turning your body, loosening your grip will be instinct's way of getting it there. 

TODAY

     It's never a good thing to let go at the top. If I do it a little today, it's because my body won't turn like it used to. But I never, ever tried to turn. Never consciously made a shoulder turn. I let the club turn me. I let my body coil through inertia, with the momentum of the club pulling me back.

     It should be a flow back, but only go as far back as your body will allow. If your swing is a little shorter as you grow older, that's fine. When you try to force a bigger turn, you move off your plane; you lift your hips, your shoulders, your head; and yes, you loosen your grip. When I was playing really well, I might have let go a little with my right hand, but never my left. Keep that left-hand pressure constant, and you'll be much more consistent.

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