Why do we label people as "low/mid/high handicappers" when discussing clubs?

[SnazzyD]

I've been wondering about this for a while, and haven't seen it discussed on here so I thought I'd start a discussion thread - if this is a repost, apologies.

Why do we label people as "low/mid/high handicappers" when discussing which clubs are best suited to their game, when we rarely seem to take into account WHICH part of their game it is that lands them in that average stroke territory?

I suppose it's fair to say that anyone who struggles to break 100 can benefit from playing clubs with a lot of forgiveness in them, but it's a much different story when you get into the mid-handicap range with players who shoot in the mid to high 80s most of the time.

Not once have I ever had someone from Golftown etc. ask me "so...where are you losing strokes?" or "how often are you hitting the fairways and greens in regulation" and the most obvious one "how's your putting?" There's that old saying that you "drive for show and putt for dough" but most people seem to assume that if you're a 16-handicap you must be struggling to hit your irons or keep your drives in the fairway.

I get that salespeople exist to sell things to people, so I'm not all that surprised to have someone push a new set of irons or a new-and-improved driver on me. But I rarely see that being talked about on the course or in forums. Just makes me wonder...

[jvincent]

Good question, and has sort of been discussed here before.

The prevailing mantra is that the way to lower your handicap is short game, short game, short game. And for a lot of golfers that's just not true. Grinding over those putts for triple bogey because you sliced one out of bounds or chunked your 5th shot from the fairway into the water is NOT going to reduce your handicap.

If you want to make a concerted effort to reduce you handicap you need to figure out where you are losing the most strokes, and fix that first.

For me, when I went from mid-teens to single digits is was all about the driver. I was losing 6 or 7 shots off the tee per round. Fixed that and boom, single digits.

Once you get better, it becomes a lot harder to shave strokes because every mistake counts. At that point you could argue that focussing on the short game is a priority.

Somebody on another forum put it pretty well. Your tee to green game is what determines your scoring potential. Your short game is what lets you maximize that potential.

[tigger12]

I don't think talking about a players handicap is a bad starting point. It would be helpful was to get things going. If someone says I'm a 2 HDCP as opposed to a 30 HDCP that is probably inportant information.
A 30 HDCP may not be aware of all the information out there. (Yes you could be a 30 who has responsibilities but once was a 12)
There are also the hitting bays with all the electronic information to start conversations from.
Also I am a regular visitor to Golftown and have found them willing to help and facilitate any discussion I want to have
You mentioned driver as the cause of your struggles. How many players who have players irons would do better with a more forgiving irons? I hear regularly "Oh, I just missed the center of that one. Or, I hit it just off the toe."
If you had slightly more forgiving irons then wouldn't your errors not be as bad? You run those two shots a round over a season and would that not for most players be a significant improvement?
I am a single digit HDCP and know these clubs are not for me.
Before you start growling at me yes there are some fantastic iron players out there. (Yes I as jealous)
I get the feeling of a perfect iron shot but from purely a play your best golf my guess is a significant number of players with players clubs would shoot better scores with more forgiving irons. ( I will leave the long iron hybrid debate for another time.)

[leftylucas]

I think Jvincent has a great point as do you Tigger12, the suggestions on such a forum are from members who are helping out and a lot of them have a great deal of knowledge about the game and clubs. Fixing the weak point(s) in ones game is certainly the key. I know my personal bests have come when those weaknesses in my game were compensated by timely chips and putts. Varying handicap players will use varying types of clubs. I heard Rocco Mediate state that he is a pro therefore should be using "player's type irons" but has admitted to using the super game improvement irons in many a tournament and the results were great.

[orangeTANG]

My first time watching a LPGA event live I was quite surprised to see so many girls using "game improvement" irons, and they surely aren't 15 hcp. If I remember correctly Natalie Gulbus was using the same super game improvement Taylormade Burner irons I was using at the time. I've seen a number of PGA players using Titleist AP1 irons in tournaments

I think (kind of what was mentioned above) is that players at that caliber mainly swallow their pride and play what best works for them. At the end of the day it's the score that counts, not the clubs that got you there.

Sometimes I wonder why Tiger isn't out there with the biggest, fattest 460cc driver made.