How Good are LPGA Pros vs. Scratch Players?

fatshot

Good article....

https://golf.com/news/scratch-golfer-lpga-pros-handicap/?utm_campaign=forecast&utm_source=golf.com&utm_medium=email&utm_cont

sdandrea1

Good read! I would have won that bet. I know a few plus handicap guys who are well aware that players who earn a living at this game are in another league......even even the "girls".

fatshot

sdandrea1 Can you imagine how EMBARRASSING it would be to be invited to play in a pro am with
"the girls" and see how bad your game REALLY is in comparison!! No thank you!!

LBlack14

fatshot Can you imagine how EMBARRASSING it would be to be invited to play in a pro am with
"the girls" and see how bad your game REALLY is in comparison!! No thank you!!

I don't embarrass easy, ask my wife and kid. They sure do though. 😁

MartinD

Not a surprise to me. I'm fairly close to being a scratch player (handicap has been in the 1-2 range for the last year) - while I'm capable of hitting most of the shots that the female professionals can hit, I'll hit maybe 3 or 4 out of 10 shots well, where the pros will hit 8 or 9. (That's before I get to the distance side of things - I suspect that I'm a shorter hitter than probably 95% or more of tour-level female professionals.)

Tinker

It really comes down to distance. The lpga players average 250 to 260 just like good male players. At shorter holes that lets them zero in on the greens. Once you make the par fours 450, 200 into the green is a different ball game. It’s what’s frustrating me playing with my son, son in law and their buddies. I have a new membership to a course that plays 6600 from the whites which is where we play from. I have been hitting fairways like a machine but the 175 second shots are killing my greens in regulation.

ode

Tinker move up a tee or combo tee it and move up on the longer holes. I don't even play 6600 yards!

IMO it's a glaring issue with a lot of courses. Tee markers at ~ 6000 then the next tee ~ 6600. Combo tees are needed and if they don't have them it's relatively easy to come up with something!

rsvman2

ode one simple way is to move up a tee on the three or four or five hardest holes on both sides. The scorecard already tells you which holes are hardest. Depending on your distance, you could choose one hole or two holes per side, or five or six.
I have been moving to the golds on four tees per side, typically, so I play 8 holes from the golds and ten from the whites.

Martee

Good Article.

Someone posted a while ago in a thread that they decide which tees to play based on their tee shot leaving them 150 yds or less to the green. Granted not every tee shot will be perfect allowing for this metric to be meant, but it made sense to me and watching a number of our seniors, it proved correct, now just to get them to move up,

Women's golf is probably a good thing for most amateurs to watch and learn from.

Sneakylong

One of my golf buddies played in a Pro Am tournament with Brittany Lincicome several years ago. They won the tournament. There's a pretty good gap between Tour professionals and scratch players.

I've heard this before and it may or may not be true. But there's a bigger gap between scratch players and Tour professionals than between scratch players and 10 handicappers.

ode

rsvman2 there is a course I play in Door County that I really like that is 6200 and the blues are 6700. I've always played the whites but last year I picked 6 holes to play from the blues. They are all par 4's that are essentially driver and flip wedge without much fear of trouble. Moving back to the blues on those holes is the correct test of my skill level and IMO playing the hole more the way it was designed for me. Yardage turns out to be 6400+ which is about right. So much more fun with that adjustment!

candukid

ode
I spent a summer there in Sturgeon Bay 40 odd years ago working for my aunt and uncle. Door County reminds me of where I live now. Bruce Peninsula.
Loved that place.

Typhoon

I always tell people when looking at launch monitor numbers from the Trackman website to NOT look at the PGA Tour averages, use the LPGA Tour averages. Their swing speeds are closer to ours … much more realistic

mikeintopeka

Typhoon - I marveled at that Olympic golfer from India paired against Korda and Lydia Ko in the closing round. She was a tiny thing with a slow, controlled swing belting them off the tee about 225. I remember I could really relate to her with that number and she was hitting long irons or fairways into practically every green while her playing partners were at least 30 yards longer from the tee.

Eventually, I think she just wore out mentally and physically playing a different game than the best she was paired with. But, she never got upset with herself or with anything and gave it her best shot. And for that, she got my respect.

DC300

I worked at Locust Hill Country Club through college, the LPGA played there every year, watching those women play the course, then playing the day after they left, there has been ZERO question in my mind about the difference between Pros and Joes. I’m a decent stick, have friends who are scratch that played with me out there, nobody was within 10 strokes of our usual scores on the course that had been grown out for them. The punishment on mistakes was unreal and they all just blasted through like it was nothing.

Par4QC

DC300 The punishment on mistakes was unreal and they all just blasted through like it was nothing.

That's the difference between knowing how to 'swing a club' vs. 'hitting the ball'.
We (sometimes) know how to swing, they (always) know how to hit.

propman

Here is an idea. Say you hit your driver 225 yards and the pros average 300. Also, say the pros play on courses with avg lengths of 7500.
Now take your driver length and divide by pro length or 75%. Multiply .75 times 7500 yds. Result 5600 yards. Women tees. Can't do that, so play next tee back.😁

garyt1957

propman. 5600 yards is way too long for women's tees, that's more senior tee range

Typhoon

Par4QC That's the difference between knowing how to 'swing a club' vs. 'hitting the ball'.
We (sometimes) know how to swing, they (always) know how to hit.

Yup, Using video can be good and bad. People get too caught up in looking pretty.

DC300

Par4QC amen to that. Knowing how to and being able to execute on those shots all the time is special.

Walterjn

I KNOW that I will never make it on to ANY tour. I just really want to be able to hold my own on any course I walk onto. I REALLY want to aggravate the guys I normally play with by being the longest on off the tee and have the ability to put it in the fairway 75% of the time...

ode

"Scratch" golfer vs. LPGA is not really a good comparison IMO. Too many vanity caps and people Full of 💩 re their ability.

I'd say a legit + cap or someone who plays regularly in tournaments as an am/high level am, would be a better comparison. And anyone can get hot for 18 and hang, but what about 4 rounds.

I guess the man vs. woman comparison will always be a thing that gets brought up, but it's pointless IMO!

bigshank

ode you nailed it. Take a very good player like John Smolz or Tony Romo. They could have a hot round and clip one of them once in awhile. But it really wouldn’t be close. The consistency would separate them by a wide margin over time. These girls are legit and I enjoy watching them. The more penal the course and pin positions would only widen the gap more. I think a closer matchup might be mens top ranked college men. They are basically pros though and bomb it. Working guys that play weekend golf or even 3 times a week will never compete with pros

Ack8236

bigshank The consistency would separate them by a wide margin over time. These girls are legit and I enjoy watching them.

I definitely enjoyed LPGA events much more than PGA events.
I remember standing by the green on a longer par 5. Not many of the ladies could reach in two. We watched player after player run it up on the green through a VERY narrow strip of fairway. And watching Pettersen at the range striping shot after shot in the nearly exact place. Amazing consistency.