Whos the best golfer on this forum ?

I think i can rule myself out of the running.

36 Handicap. I'm good at driving the ball but as for the rest of my game, absolutely hopeless !!

You will have broken 100 though ?

Only on a few occasions when i was a lot younger.

broke 80 twice in one week

then never again

Lowest ever h'cap was 1  not played now for app 5 years.

There was a Swedish guy posted on here, justsomeone, he was
very obviously a good golfer.

He talked about when betfair was allowed in usa and
some of the pros that used the forum.

Was some top caddies too...

There is/was a guy whose son in law played on the tour, surname I believe was Dixon..

my lowest was 4 for a couple of years (3.9 lowest). I was a solid 5 for 20 years.Most guys off similar handicap would out drive me by 30 yards, but Id beat more than half of them. Gary Player said if an 18 handicapper played the first 2 shots on a hole, then he took over, the 18 handicapper would be off 4. But if Player hit the tee shot, then the 18 handicapper took over, the 18 would still be off 18. Shows the importance of the short game.

My ex winter league partner at my club when he was a young lad  went on to finish second in a major. Who'd have thought it ?

Played British Boys @ Royal Liverpool  in 1974 off 4 Handicap.. One of the semi-finals that year included a certain Mr Faldo and Mr Lyle (Lyle won but got beat in the final)

I turned Pro later that year as an assistant at a golf club...Lasted 2 years then returned to being an amateur.

Played for many years off 3/4/5 handicap up until 2017.
Only played twice in last 7 years, last time at Birkdale and played awful. (66 years young now)

exacta

you should join seniors local club

when you saw the pros close up - what's the diff in talent

TameTheTiger
Was that David Lynn?

Used to be a Postie, feet aren't in good shape so makes walking long distances harder, therefore playing a lot of golf would be challenging.

Difference in talent is across the whole game these days. They hit it further, straighter, more consistently and all have very good short games.

If I had to give any advice to a h'cap golfer it would be to practice your short game more. I wasn't a long hitter but saved my score by having a pretty good short game.

Indeed it is Saxon.
I was a postie for 36 years. I took the job so I could play golf every afternoon.

TameTheTiger
Fantastic 2nd to Rory at Kiawha.
A good lad, hope David is keeping well!

TameTheTiger
The Gary Player quote is spot on in my opinion!
I was very keen, and eventually got down to 2.9 in my 40s. Too hard to maintain,
I was a persimmon and balata man!

exactaman

What a good thread!
Totally agree about the modern game (it’s hard to hit a duck hook now!)

To slightly dampen your memory of the 1974 British Boys at Royal Liverpool… Sandy Lyle beat Brian Marchbank in his semi final and was hammered in the 36 hole final 10&9 by a T R Shannon

Lyle again lost in the final in 1975……to Brian Marchbank!

My R&A records only go back to the last 32 and Nick Faldo does not appear, but an I H Woosnam had a good run both years.

Faldo won the English amateur I believe. He mentioned it during his Open commentary. He didnt start playing until he was 14, was scratch by 16 and English amateur Champion at 18. Thats what I think he said ?

Sax

You're absolutely correct, not sure where that came from but certainly got my wires crossed about Faldo...

When I checked his age he was too old to play in the 74 Boys... Birth date 18th July 57 and the boys was always played in August..!

Faldo won the English Amateur in 1975 @ Royal Lytham beating David Eccleston in the final 6&5.

David was and still is a member of the club where I started the game. Ormskirk G.C.

He said after losing the final he would have turned Pro had he won but he never did.

Think he played for Lancashire over a 100 times...!

1957 was a good year for golfers...

Nick Faldo, Mark O'Meara, Nick Price, Seve, Bernhard Langer, Payne Stewart, Nancy Lopez ....

There is/was a guy whose son in law played on the tour, surname I believe was Dixon..
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Yep, and Daniel denisons dad posted on here too.

Gary Player said if an 18 handicapper played the first 2 shots on a hole, then he took over, the 18 handicapper would be off 4.

Former 14 handicap speaking.
Is Gary that good from in the rough 200 yards out?

I gained a European Tour card 3 of the 4 times I tried for it, but never did anything on tour.

exactaman

What a good thread!
Totally agree about the modern game (it’s hard to hit a duck hook now!)

To slightly dampen your memory of the 1974 British Boys at Royal Liverpool… Sandy Lyle beat Brian Marchbank in his semi final and was hammered in the 36 hole final 10&9 by a T R Shannon

Lyle again lost in the final in 1975……to Brian Marchbank!

My R&A records only go back to the last 32 and Nick Faldo does not appear, but an I H Woosnam had a good run both years.



I was a keen follower of British amateur golf during that period.

Toby Shannon was the name of the '74 winner.There was an outstanding junior from Scotland called David Robertson around in the mid 70s who went on to have a somewhat less
illustrious pro career than Faldo and Lyle.

This period was the begining of the end of very good amateurs remaining amateur for life.

Another thing I remember from the 70s was the horrendous handicapping scheme that was in place until the mid 80s when it was replaced by an excellent scheme.

Dave Robertson got a 20 year ban, moved his ball 10 feet closer to the hole, he would get to the green well ahead of you and pick up his ball pretending to mark it, while he actually had the coin on the flange of his putter and would slide it off nearer the hole.

Strange story about Robertson - he always denied any cheating.

Some say he moved his ball up to 20 feet.

Some reports say he moved it 2 inches and received the ban.

Is he still around? Would be mid-sixties now.

He was under suspicion for quite a while before getting caught, I played with him in the first two rounds of the Jersey open, myself and the third member of our 3 ball got taken aside when checking in and told to keep a close eye on him, dropping a ball in the ruff was what they suspected at that time.

A strange thing happened during one of the rounds, he hit a drive into deep ruff, so deep I can't imagine anyone not hitting a provisional, from the elevated tee he walked down the steps to his bag, we thought to get another ball, but the next thing we knew he was off up the fairway at speed, he had a start on us and we where virtually running after him like a blinking Benny Hill sketch.

Blimey!

Well, that does sound dodgy, trebor!

I knew one of the guys on the disciplinary committee,I suspect he was the chairman but can't remember.

Didn't discuss this incident with him but overheard him saying about moving his ball closer to the hole and on a better line.


Good write up about him here -- https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12120694.banned-professional-rebuilds-career-on-amateur-links-robertson-struggles-to-gain-acceptance/

Seems the R & A gave him is amateur status back about 6 years after he was banned by the pros.
Fortunately he didn't win anything bigger than a single county championship.



Trebor seems to have won "Whos the best golfer on this forum ?" by some distance.

Definitely not JML, Stating I never did anything on tour was probably an exaggeration    I made a living from regional events and Pro Ams but never really under any pressure at the qualifying school as tour events cost me money.

But the qualifying school did give me one very special memory, I had been in a slump all summer when I went to the school to try and regain my card, it was a 4 round event  in Portugal in the early 80's, so no internet, up to date scores where only really in the Telegraph newspaper, and no Sunday editions, so last scores known in UK would have been after 2 rounds, where I was way out of contention, shot the 2 best rounds of my year to finish 6th.  None of that matters, the memory is the Monday morning my father picking me up from the airport finding out just minutes earlier that I had qualified, had never seen him cry before, and I am in tears remembering it.

I'm welling it reading it!!

What a great story trebor.

fabulous trebor, or is it robert ? did you peg it up with any stars on tour ? although to me they are all stars.

No never played with any big names in tournament play, never made enough cuts to give myself a reasonable chance to really. Played with Woosnam in a Monday qualifying one week and then we played a few practice rounds after that. Also played a practice round with Langer at the World under 23 one year, due to the friend I travelled with that week knowing him. Bit surreal that because only a few weeks earlier I had been walking around St Pierre watching Langer win the Dunlop Masters, and now not only playing with him he was asking if I could tell him the position of his club shaft at the top of his backswing, wish mobiles had been around then as that would have been a photo for the shop wall years later.

One more memory from around that time regarding big names, if you did not have a tour card you where limited to one Monday Qualifier and The Open Qualifying each year,  the season before I first gained a tour card I played in the Monday Qualifier for the Martini Tournament and made it through. It was only when going to the venue for the practice round it hit me that this was a bit different to what I had been used to, I had never played an event of more than 36 holes before. Thoughts like had any Pro ever hit an air shot on the 1st tee entered my head, and what is the record for the highest ever score

First round was a early time, had lunch , then looked at the massive leader board and with all the morning starters in I was positioned better than I had expected. would not need to improve next day to make the cut!  Went to the practice ground that afternoon with a big confidence boost. These where the days when you used your own practice balls, tipped them out, and your caddie walked down the range and you used him as your target, hoping he did not have to walk too far to collect the ball, had never hit at a caddie before this week, but it made me feel like a proper pro and another confidence boost, a few spectators watching, was hitting the ball well, caddie well impressed

The crowd started to grow a bit, no problem, the later morning starters were coming out to practice, suddenly the crowd was massive and they had correctly anticipated where Seve and Norman would have to slot into the line, one each side of me!  Golf suddenly became a much harder game and I have never felt as much pressure as as I did on the shots that I attempted after the first Shank

Needless to say I missed the cut and had a shank in the round.

fabulous memories though mate, thanks for posting.

I just want to post a distant memory (and boast a bit)
In 1979 I was working in Lusaka, Zambia.
The Lusaka Open was on at the Lusaka Club.
I went along to spectate with a guy who played soccer with us on Fridays.
A few weeks earlier I had played the course and was 2 over after 7 holes.
Would the professionals match my fantastic play?
I followed Sandy Lyle and Eamonn Darcy and they were both 5 under for those seven holes.

The guy I went with had gone off with Christy O'Connor Jnr.
He actually walked the full 18 holes on the fairway with the golfers and caddies.
On the clubhouse veranda afterwards he called me over to have a beer with his pals Christy and Eamonn.
Christy, a gentleman, offered to give him a lesson so we went over to the practice fairway.
My pal was playing across the practice fairway at 90 degrees to the few pros playing down the fairway.
First shot he hit a massive shank that went about two feet over the head of 21 year old Bernhard Langer.
Bernhard gave a little grin.
We moved further down the range.
Christy said Bernhard was a good player who should do well.

Interesting story kincsem.