Often people find golf a pretty complex and complicated sport due to so many reasons. This might include anything from Golf Clubs, handicap systems, scores, strategies, and techniques that all depend on every individual’s own case. If you have been into the game of golf, you would disagree as you have already developed a taste for it. But, the newcomers and beginners will surely relate.
Now, there are a lot of things that you need to focus on, but we would first suggest you develop an understanding of Golf Terminologies. Once you get to know about this, you can apply several rules in mastering by breaking them down. Out of these terminologies, you must have heard of a scratch golfer and you might be wondering What is a Scratch Golfer in Golf?
Isn’t it? Of course, we got you!
So, let’s take a closer look at it!
What is a Scratch Golfer?
So, there have been several definitions developed with a couple of variations with time. But, according to the USGA, The scratch golfer is a player who plays with a handicap of zero or even better at any sort of golf course. Throughout your golf course, you will see several groups of players competing with each other.
Now, you must be thinking; how better a scratch golfer is in reality? That’s truly a great question but let us put you in the scratch golfer’s shoes. Let’s assume, you being a mid handicapper owns a handicap of 15. So, a scratch golfer with 0 handicaps would be 15 times better than you in terms of performance. Simple math! However, not every scratch golfer has the same handicap or caliber.
This could be anything and the 0 handicaps, in this case, were just for elaboration. Usually, USGA nominates a scratch golfer if he has a handicap of at least 4.4 and 6.4 for female golfers. Now, that’s not gender discrimination but there is always a difference between men and women golf players.
Some golfers may confuse between a Scratch and a Pro golfer. They take both these designations as the same one. In reality, if you want to be a PGA, you don’t necessarily need to be a Scratch golfer. A scratch golfer is really good at consistency and sometimes in putting too.
How to be a Scratch golfer?
Now, you all know these standards are set by the USGA and that’s a pretty fair procedure. As per their scores, if a men golfer can hit 470 Yards in two shots and a tee shot of 250 yards, he would be designated as a Scratch golfer. For women golfers, they should be able to play at least 210 yards of a tee shot and 400 yards in a set of two shots.
Resuming the 15 handicap example; if you want to be a scratch golfer and currently you own a 15 handicap. You would need to be 15 times more productive. However, this isn’t as simple as it may sound. There’s hell a lot of other things as well that you need to take care of.
Taking things deeper, you need to be practical and disciplined in order to become one. Statistically speaking, there are millions of regular golfers in the United States alone. More than half of this strength is in the Mid handicap zone. For the scratch golfers, the ratio hardly hits 2% to fall under this range. Taking this into consideration, there’s very little chance to be part of that 2% from the crowd.
However, we aren’t here to discourage but to motivate you so you can stand out from the crowd. To be a scratch golfer, you need to be well-disciplined and strategic in your games. The very first thing that you should focus on is your speed. The faster the ball goes, the easier it would become to be a scratch golfer.
Alongside, you need a better swing, decent consistency, and optimal distance coverage. All these things are also very important and decisive to upscale your caliber. Keep tracking the distance of every shot you play so you can do better than before. For putting, make sure you are doing it in alignment and precision.
Last but not the least, make sure you are doing everything right and investing your time on a regular basis. Of course, it is not an easy thing, but it is not even going to happen without these things. So, work on these and also make sure to get ideally the best clubs for your taste. Without a perfect club, it would remain inescapable. Nothing is going to happen overnight, make sure to have a routine.