Scratch By 50: Am I Good At Golf Yet?

Graham Averill has turned 50 this year and he’s freaking out. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he’s decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap attempting to reach scratch in a year. He is now an 8.1. Welcome to his midlife crisis.

“Are you good at golf yet?” 

I got that question from a buddy the other day and I didn’t really know how to answer him. We were having beers so I was feeling philosophical and I went into a discourse about how nobody is good at golf, citing Newton’s Third Law of Motion and Rory’s chunked wedge at The Open this year. 

But if you want a short answer, then no. I don’t think I’m good at golf yet. There are definitely days when I’m good at golf. There have been rounds recently where I know with confidence where the ball is going to go when I hit it. Most days I’m OK at golf. I’ll kind of know where the ball is gonna go but I’ll also duff a wedge or misread a putt. And then there are days when I’m straight up bad at golf. Days where my swing feels awkward, like a baby giraffe trying to run for the first time, and I can’t read a green any better than I can read my teenage daughter’s moods. 

I had all three of those days during the last week. Three rounds, three different outcomes. Good, bad and just OK. 

The Good: I shot two-under through nine on my home course. It’s my lowest score to date. It was a lunch round that I squeezed into the work day. I had zero expectations but gained 1.6 strokes against a scratch player. Honestly, I didn’t hit the ball great. I kept the ball in play but still only hit 67 percent of greens in regulation. But I putted like a champ, gaining almost a full stroke with the flat stick. That got me two birdies in situations where I’d normally walk away with pars. 

The Bad: I shot eight-over through nine while playing a relatively straightforward course with my teenage son. I’ve got excuses for this. The pace of play was excruciatingly slow and I couldn’t get into a rhythm. We had to wait up to 10 minutes before each tee shot so I had a hard time staying loose. We were supposed to play 18 but the course was so crowded and the pace was so slow that we had to bail at the turn. All of this is true but none of this is a good excuse for playing poorly. Good golfers hit the ball well when it’s their turn to hit. I didn’t.

The Just OK: I shot four-over through nine back at my home course. Again, this was supposed to be an 18-hole round but I got paired with a couple who were new to the game and it took us almost three hours to finish the front nine. I hit some good shots and I hit some less good shots. It was … whatever. The most frustrating aspect of this round was not getting to play 18. I know a lot of readers in the comments keep insisting that I need to play the full 18 on a regular basis and I want to but how do you fit a six-hour round into your day? That’s not rhetorical. I really want to know. How do you play 18 holes on a regular basis? Do you have a spouse and children? And how do you keep them from hating you? 

So, no. I’m not good at golf yet. But I am getting better. The truth is my bad days aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be and my good days are pretty damn good. And the mental side of my game is trending in the right direction. During the good round this week, I was even-par going into the last two holes. I’ve been in that position before but instead of trying to hold on to a good score and “not mess up,” I put the hammer down and got aggressive. I was looking to see how low I could go. Even during the bad round this week, I pulled it together after a couple of double bogeys and finished with two pars. A few months ago, I would’ve fallen apart and listed my clubs on Facebook Marketplace after back-to-back double bogeys. 

The mental side gets “Most Improved” but every aspect of my game has gotten better. Even in this roller-coaster of a week, I managed to drop my handicap by half a stroke. 

Am I good at golf? No. I’m bad at golf less often. And, right now, that’s pretty great. 

Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to get better at golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch By 50 where Graham details the five pieces of gear that have helped him improve so far.