Playing in the Bell Canadian Open

[Husband]

Anyone every tried it? Or tried qualifying?

Over the summer I've decided that this is my new "recreational" life goal. I noticed that the qualifier involves having to shoot under par at a considerably difficult course... Should make for a fun road

Looking for tips, advice or simply let me know that I'm crazy. Whatever you've got!

Dream come true would be to qualify and finish second last; anything better is gravy.

[kilmidyke]

Yeah....good luck with that! Just kidding of course....how great would that be! I know I dont have anywhere near the game to even think about trying it. Kudos to you though if you do.

Be very interesting to say the least and if you decide to really do this....blog it so we can all live the experience with you.

Good on ya for even thinking about it.

[Husband]

Oh, I'm still far, far away from achieving this (or even trying). I'm only a 12 hcp, but it's at least trending downwards. I figure if I put enough into it maybe 2-3 years could be enough time to give the qualifier a go.

In the Monday qualifier the top 4 make the open and last year it would've needed a (-4) scrore to get in. I know I've got a ways to go (and that I'm dreaming), but yeah wouldn't that be awesome?! I'm sure someone on here has tried or knows someone who has.

[kilmidyke]

I have a good friend in the UK, an older guy, late 60's now, anyway waaay back in the day he was a very good golfer and I mean very good. carried a +2 handicap as an am. Anyway, he thought he was THE guy, won lots of Am stuff in the north of England, decided to have a go at a qualifier for The Open. The qualifier was at Lytham & St Annes golf club, not Royal Lytham but a very tough test of golf. He told me that he couldnt believe just how average he was compared to some of the guys in the field and that even though he played well, finishing at -2 for the event, wasnt even close to making it to the big show. Now that was back in the early seventies i guess, when dare I say, perhaps the standard of golf generally wasnt as high as it is today. But imagine, a +2 handicapper, finishing at -2 (level par for him) not even being close!

I think that to make it....you dont just have to be good, you would have to be good and really on your game that day(s) and then rely on a little luck, hoping that the other guys werent! lol

My friend, David, was good enough by the way to be offered the assistant pro job at Royal Birkdale way back when. To borrow the quote from his father...."Tha wants nowt to do wi golf lad...theres nay money in that game...get yerself a propper job!" and he did then regretted it everyday since I think.
Still plays to a 2or3 cap now though!

Go check out a qualifier next year, free to watch i think, and see how good those guys are. Worth a day out in my book. Some fantastic golf gets played at those events.

[kilmidyke]

Oh...and I also know another guy...(well sort of)...John Longcake plays at Silloth-on-Solway golf club. he is an amazing player, best non-pro golfer I have ever seen I think. holds the course record at Silloth...59!!

He didnt make it either!

Just found this....
http://www.golfinternationalmag.com/...-news&Itemid=6

[Husband]

There's no question that being good is not enough, you've also gotta be lucky.

To be honest, I don't expect to make it but simply feeling prepared and participating in the qualifier will be enough to get the warm and fuzzies.

I'll never make it if I don't try

[jvincent]

Nothing wrong with trying.

For the Canadian open you must have a 0 or better handicap to get into the qualifier.

[Ginker]

My roomate is a local pro and went to the qualifier this year. He shot 75 in bad weather and finished t35. There was only 4 spots available and around 165 guys playing. Including the likes of Notah Begay.

[byerxa]

Um, not to sound like a jerk but forget about it. You said you are currently a 12, so unless you attained that in your first 5 rounds of golf ever (and hence have some talent) it ain't happening. Instead make your goal something like getting to an 8 or better and entering into something like the Ottawa Citizen tournament.

Think about it - all of the pro golfers started as kids and spent years playing all of the different amateur tournaments (and most did college golf) before turning pro. What makes us think we could short circuit to the same level of golf as an adult?

Again not to sound like a jerk but if all of this was a joke post then .

[jvincent]

If you really want to go for the big leagues, the one to shoot for is the US Mid-AM. A victory there will get you into the Masters!

[DenisO]

Sure some pro golfers started out as kids, playing early, and in about 10 years when they hit their late teens early 20's they're playing really well and made it to the big leagues. It takes time, but if you have talent and determination, I think its doable to at least compete in a qualifier (not necessarily qualify). I'm guaranteeing that I'm going to be playing in a tour in my early 30's, even if that means getting a sex change and playing in the Duramed futures tour

Um, not to sound like a jerk but forget about it. You said you are currently a 12, so unless you attained that in your first 5 rounds of golf ever (and hence have some talent) it ain't happening. Instead make your goal something like getting to an 8 or better and entering into something like the Ottawa Citizen tournament.

Think about it - all of the pro golfers started as kids and spent years playing all of the different amateur tournaments (and most did college golf) before turning pro. What makes us think we could short circuit to the same level of golf as an adult?

Again not to sound like a jerk but if all of this was a joke post then .

[Husband]

I can appreciate and expected some negative comments; but really, golf is a sport where it doesn't really matter when you started to play. There are pros that have started in their 20s and I'm sure someone starting in their 30s could also achieve a brief stint at stardom. I'm only 25 and really only began playing more often 2-3 years ago.

Regardless, I do not want to go pro; I don't want to make this my career; I'm not delusional. I'm much better at my 9-5 job than at golf, so I'll stick to that.

I just want to try and qualify... bonus if I do. I know I have to be a 0 handicap and I know I've got it in me; albeit years away, though.

Sure setting a goal like being an 8 handicap is cool, but there's no glory in that. No one's gonna listen to you brag about being an 8 or even a 0 handicap; but I bet they'd listen if you were telling about the time you chipped it in from ankle deep rough on 18 in the Monday qualifier to get onto the Open (only to shoot an 82 on Thursday and miss the cut haha). Or even the time you tried to qualify but fell apart on 18 dropping 7 balls in the water when a par would've gotten you into a pla... wait a minute that's a movie, isn't it?

Its no fun when your goals are all easily achievable!

[kilmidyke]

My posts certainly weren't intended to be negative. i simply just mentioned that qualifying or attempting to qualify is no easy task even for very low handicap golfers. Just thought i'd share a couple of stories of people I know who have/had great game and struggled. I fully agree with your comments about goal setting and if your goal is to attemp to qualify then great, as I said before, good on ya!

Nothing wrong with your quest at all, if you set your stall out to play in an Open qualifier and dont work toward that goal, then it is a wish not a goal,however if you follow through with it, play a ton of golf and practice hard to give yourself the best possible shot at achievng it then you can be satisfied with whatever the outcome knowing you put eveything in to it.

Best of luck with it and I hope you will post frequent updates on your progress. Threads about people getting better or going through the process of getting better are always a good read and that is what we are all here for really. (well that and to try and buy a few more putters! lol)

As I said before, kudos to you for even thinking and posting about it.

[Husband]

Man, it's totally cool! I was hoping for those kind of stories so I really appreciate you taking the time to share. Thanks again.

[byerxa]

In general it DOES matter when you start playing. I'd seriously doubt a large number of today's pros would get to the same level if you started them when they were in their 20s instead of playing as kids. Pro atheletes from other sports realize this fairly quickly when they try to follow the golf dream after they leave their first sport. There are exceptions of course but not many.

As for goals, currently aiming to play in a Monday qualifier for a PGA event is waaayyy out there. My amateur events comment was meant to drive home the fact that you should follow the same path as all of the pros have followed. Getting to an 8 and competing in some local amateur events might not sound sexy, but it is a much more attainable short term goal and is the foundation for the next step. You will never have any idea what it will take unless you start competing at some level.

And you have to be better than a 0 handicap. Remember handicap is best 10 out of 20 and you will only play to your handicap or better 1/4 of the time. It is more about scoring average which must be consistently under par on tough courses.

Sure it is nice to dream but this one is too far out there. Set more realistic goals and build on those.

[holeinone]

not to be negative but you're only a 12 handicap after 2-3 years of playing...to play at the level you need exceptional talent.

Being a 12 handicap after that short amount of time is impressive but certianly not enough to reach your goal.

[Brewcee]

General Rule of thumb of 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill (See Canadian Sport for Life Long Term Athlete Development model). Ok, so master would mean your a world class athlete, you're not necessarily looking for this, you are simply looking to qualify for 1 pro tournament. So, again for arguments sake, lets say you require 5,000 hours of meaningful practice (the right practice, not just playing or going to the range and hitting balls). Ok, you likely sleep for 7 hours a day, that leaves 17 hours left. You said you work 9-5, so that leaves 9 hours a day, on average it gets dark in the summer months around 8:15 say (this includes may - october) and sun rises at 6am. so you could practice from 6am - 8am (give yourself time to get ready and get to work) and from 6pm - 8pm (you need to eat so give yourself an hour for that) each week day, so we are looking at 4 hours a day, plus say 10 hours on weekend, which gives you 14 hours a week of practice. Because you can move indoors in winter let's say you can do this year round. You will get approximately 730 hours a year of practice. Given this calculation, you can expect to be good enough to qualify for the Canadian Open in 7 years. This assumes that you have the time (family requirements, overtime at work, illness) and money (will need a coach/golf pro, plus club fees) to keep this up for 7 years. I think it is safe to say that no one could keep this up for 7 years while balancing everything else, so let's say it takes you 10 years to hit 5,000 hours of practice. The average Olympian takes 10 years to hit 10,000 hours of meaningful practice.

I think, with the right coach and committment you could honestly look at being good to enough to attempt to qualify in 10 years.

[Husband]

I only started keeping track of my handicap late last year when I was shooting in the 90s. To be fair, I only really started playing a lot this year. I'm at 35 rounds or so this season and my last two were in the 70s... my cap is on a steep decline. It's a mid-12 now... was 15 last month... 20 at the beginning of the season. I won't make it into the single digits this year, but I will next season.

I know I'm no natural talent, but with enough hard work and dedication I don't see how being a scratch golfer is impossible.

I'll definitely look into the Amateur tournaments byerxa mentioned, though! It's all for fun, and I'm a very competitive person so I enjoy the thrill of the chase.

[Husband]

with the right coach and committment you could honestly look at being good to enough to attempt to qualify in 10 years.

That's insane (and I agree)... but that would make me only 35 when I achieve the goal (assuming I haven't had any previous practice and am starting today).

In my original post, I did say 'life' goal ;-) I guess I better go hit the range on lunch!

[habsfan]

Going from a 20 handicap to a 10 is probably the easiest task you've accomplished so far, and so far so good, but as im finding out right now going from a 7-8 handicapp to a 5 seems impossible, and im willing to bet that going from 5 to scratch is going to be even harder, I dont have the time or money to invest in a psychiatrist to bring me to that next step.

[nokids]

one thing to consider with any sports goals is injuries. you have to not overdo it like me. i played 70 rounds so far this year, and took 50 trips to the driving range. i lowered my hc this year from 20.1 to 8.0 in 5 months, but about two months ago i started having back problems. everyone warned me about this, but i didn't listen.

i didn't listen!

[hackzaw]

Husband - have you played golf with or do you actually know any golfers of this "elite" level? I think this is an important question. Do you really have a good concept of how good you're going to have to be? At my course, our Club Champion is Darren Shaw. He joins our men's night pretty routinely, and I've been lucky to be in his foursome. The skills are out of sight! This guy has a LOT of experience at high level golf. He was on scholarship down in the States; he's competed at mid- amateur events; recently went to the US mid-amateur and played their practice round with Dave Bunker (Google him). This guy is good! Tremendous natural talent, with many, many years of HIGH LEVEL golf under his belt.

Unfortunately, while not impossible, to be at this elite level requires more than just determination and time. It comes from years and years of playing at a high level. This guy can cream a 4-iron 250 yards (and I'm not exaggerating because I've seen it). The mental aspect can't be ignored to get to this level. And the foundation is cemented from years of competitive golf.

As an aside - my wife plays violin in an amateur chamber orchestra. Some of the musicians are professionals. After one of the performances, I asked the lead violinist how many years it might take me to go from zero violin playing ability to concert master at the amateur level. He said...... "You don't have enough years in life left to accomplish that". (I'm 36) I think this isn't too far from a good analogy.

I hate to come across that your goal is absurd, but it is. Even getting to a scratch in 5 years will be difficult. I'd have to agree with setting preliminary goals like finishing in the top 5 in local tournaments.

I admire your determination. And one thing is for certain, if you don't reach your ultimate goal, and that is that at least you'll be a better playing than you are today!

[mjf]

Sure setting a goal like being an 8 handicap is cool, but there's no glory in that. No one's gonna listen to you brag about being an 8 or even a 0 handicap

Well... my I've gotten my handicap to just under 5 and I can tell you I'm envious of anyone who's a scratch golfer. I suspect the vast majority of the people on this forum would feel the same way.

I know I get more than a little bit of satisfaction from playing with casual golfer friends of mine and having them say "Wow!" after I bust a drive or hit a flop shot over a bunker to 2 feet.

Its no fun when your goals are all easily achievable!

It's generally also no fun when they're damned near impossible.

I wish you luck, but I'd say the only way you have any chance at all is if you quit your job, move some place warm year-round and hire an instructor.

[Husband]

All it takes is one great day of golf on Monday once I get to a scratch rating

250 yard 4 iron is definitely huge, but no offense distance isn't my weakness. Just came back from a fitting today and I duffed one drive of 6; It went 268. The others were all 305-310+ w/ a fairly consistent slight draw. I'm faaaaaaaaaaaar from ready, but I've got the baseline to get going from here.

I realize it ain't going to be easy, but sheesh it can't be that impossible. All it takes is a scratch golfer version of me to have a good day on Monday in a few years.

I'll save this thread and send you all a signed copy of my scorecard, regardless of how I shoot on that Monday. You'll either get to say you told me so, or perhaps not!

[adam]

Jerry Rice is a scratch golfer and did you see his scores in the Nation Wide Tour ??
The difference between scratch golf and making a living at it (or competing with those who do) is the same as those two categories in any other sport, huge difference.

See all those NCAA basketball players competing in the top ranks of amateur basketball every March? How many of them make it in the pros?
64 teams x 12-15 players = at least 800 players . . . all of whom could step into ANY gym in the world and make the non-pros look downright silly.

I played varsity volleyball here in Ottawa a couple years ago and am now 23 playing in OCVL (Ottawa City league). Paul Gratton played for the Canadian Olympic team back in the 80s and is now 52 years old playing in the same league. In a sport which involves much more "pure athleticism" than golf the 52 year old is still BY FAR a better player.

In every sport the athletes doing it for a living will be better than the best amateur players when they are 15 years old and when they are 50.

[DenisO]

http://thesandtrap.com/the_numbers_g...es_of_the_pros

Found this article interesting...so the goal is to be a +4 handicap!

[Husband]

Very interesting and awe-inspiring, but I don't want to be a tour player. I simply want to qualify for one tournament and finish dead last.

http://rcga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/rc...eaderboard.htm

Example: (-2) gets you in the tournament for 2010.

I assume they played the back tees at 7,477 yards making for a whopping 76.8/146 rating/slope. Is there anything that tough in the region?

Playing a 70 on that course would be the equivalent of shooting a +8.8 handicap differential. (70-76.8)*(146/113)=8.8 *0.96 only brings it to an +8.5

My current index (12.7) would mean I'd likely shoot an 86 there on a decent day. Good for a T129 *IN THE QUALIFIER* haha

Even a scratch golfer is expected to play only 77 in those conditions. Sweet... upto a tie for 53rd!! [/Sarcasm]

Trust me, I know what's involved and that the odds are against me. Many of you still don't understand the point of the thread. I'm not trying to be a pro, that boat sailed without me at age 10 or so.

A scratch-ish golfer on their best day could muster a win during the qualifier, and that's all I'm aiming for.

Let's let this one rest

[mberube]

Although nothing is impossible, qualifying for the Open will be close to impossible for a weekend amateur. Just to bring things into perspective, the Tunis is a huge regional amateur tournament hard to get in to. You need to be a very good player to qualify let alone be in contention. There are a lot of great local talents that played and even won that event and never qualified for the Can Open or US Open.

Although your main goal is to qualify, do you have a plan to get there? Club Championship, local OVGA tournaments, Ott Citizen, Tunis, Kent? I think your first step to greatness is getting a golf membership so that you can play lots of golf and practice. The Tunis is a more realistic goal at least for now. You need a plan and short term goal.

My goal is to make it into the Tunis one day and I hope I can accomplish that task.

[Rusty]

The question I have, is that do you have a technically sound swing?
I saw Jerry Rice play golf; and he plays to a high level, but he is fighting less than optimal swing mechanics.
If you have a very very good swing, that does not need to be overhauled to get to the scratch level, then I don't see why its not possible.

But if you are letting athletic ability make up for your swing, then there is no chance imho.

I play a lot of golf as a single (alas no friends ) and have seen lots of very good players. The best was a fellow in Phoenix that was 1 over hitting from the tips, and he had a great swing, and he said that he was about second last in the Canadian Tour (2002 or so) Man he was good, but not awsome, I think the jump from last in the Canadian Tour to the top 10 in the Canadian Tour is huge!
But I have played with guys that look like a monkey humping a football, but still get around with an 82, but thats it, they combine pure physical abilty with luck to score that well.

If you have the swing, go for it, a goal is a great thing to have, and it can only make you play better.

Me, I'm gona get John Daly drunk the night before, while he's sleeping it off, I'm going to disguise myself as him - I should be on the 3rd hole before the figure it out!!

Rusty

[nokids]

I just remembered this thread. Husband you didn't give us a 2010 year end progress report. How is the journey going? Is the goal still the same?

I don't doubt you can accomplish this goal. As long as you put in a lot of time, money, and become obsessed with achieving this goal you will have a shot.

My goal is to get to scratch, and as Habsfan said, it gets harder and harder as you go down to single digits. I haven't succeeded yet, and I don't know what the secret to succeed is, but I have a feeling it's all in my head. Conquering the mind is probably the secret to conquering golf~!