Golfers that don't keep score!?!?

[TheStray]

I think you missed the point that we are talking about non-tourney rounds...

How do you compare a score of a 10 over on the worlds hardest course, to a 10 down on the easiest? Its arbitrary my friend.

Anyone can tell they are playing better just be the feel of their throws and their results. Who cares what you shot on a course 10 months ago? NO ONE!

Yeah it would be arbitrary if that was the comparison but the op was talking about the SAME course over the period of a year. No, it's not arbitrary.

 

[medicinalfunk]

You really don't need scores to tell yourself how your playing. You know if you are having a good or bad day and what is wrong with your game.

wisdom

 

[TheStray]

I almost never keep score. I have more fun improving my throws and trying to hit lines and distances than I do lowering my score. I'm not claiming that it's useless information, just not information that I'm all that interested in. I'm more interested in stuff like, "I'm now throwing my Teebirds 400' consistently, land within 20' of the basket from all shots from within 200' and hit all of my putts from 20' in" than I am my actual score. Stuff like that transfers to courses you've never played before. Getting a lower score on a particular course might just mean you're getting better at playing that course.

Here's an article that describes this philosophy more in depth:

https://www.dgcoursereview.com/dgr/resources/articles/measureskills.shtml

...or you could just keep score, and when someone asks how you shot that day you repeat your score.

 

[NOStheBOSS]

Barry Schultz never keeps score when he plays practice rounds

Just sayin

 

[garublador]

...or you could just keep score, and when someone asks how you shot that day you repeat your score.

Except that I don't know anyone who is interested in the actual score I get for any given round. Why spend the time counting strokes when no one cares what the result is? Or the more realistic question might be, "Why spend the time counting strokes when I don't care if anyone else cares what the result is?"

 

[jdggna]

Scores aren't arbitrary. If they are, why keep them at all. Why not just have 3 judges sitting behind the tee box during tourneys and award points for how pretty the shot looked?!?! Absurd. There is a direct correlation between avg scores and skill level. We all know that right? To put this in a real perspective, last year I played a course for the first time and shot +16. I had only been playing for a couple months. Recently, I went back there and played two rounds. I shot E the first round and -3 the second. THAT is how I know I'm improving. You really think I remember what my shots looked like during a round 10 months ago? No. But I know what I shot because I kept score.

He means scores are arbitrary to determining if you're improving or not when comparing individual rounds...obviously not that tourneys should be judged on style.

Shooting down a stroke or two doesn't necessarily mean improvement. Determining how much closer my shots are to doing what I intended is much more important to me than if I hit the same tree with the same errant shot but this time it deflected towards the pin/fairway instead of into a place where you have to take an out shot. Scores are a good way to track progress over long periods of time, but its easy enough to tell if my shot execution is better than it was a month ago.

The key point if what you mentioned is average scores. A single round's score doesn't give a meaningful comparison to an average in terms of actual improvement. Comparing the average of your last ten rounds to the average of your rounds for the prior month is a better way to get an idea based on score...however most people don't feel like making Excel sheets to track their disc golf ability.

EDIT: super ninja'd

 

[GT Chris]

...or you could just keep score, and when someone asks how you shot that day you repeat your score.

I think there is a subtle distinction between *what* you shot and *how* you shot. You can shoot poorly but get some good tree kicks and lucky breaks, and score a 54. Or you can shoot really well, have some cut-throughs and bad luck and get that same 54. I find that scores are useful when comparing myself to other golfers, but I use *how* I shot when comparing my own game to how I've played in the past.

Edit: This thread is moving fast!

 

[cjskier]

Why not just have 3 judges sitting behind the tee box during tourneys and award points for how pretty the shot looked?!?!

...obviously not that tourneys should be judged on style.

Maybe we should start a new kind of DG, this actually sounds like fun.

 

[UnitedPuppySlayer]

You really don't need scores to tell yourself how your playing. You know if you are having a good or bad day and what is wrong with your game.

Exactly what I was tihnking.

 

[Discwrangler]

I don't keep score on a round unless it's league or a tournament. I'm working on my game, not really caring about score most of the time. When I play ball golf I don't really keep score either…unless I have a bet going.

 

[Darth Anovin]

Garublador, I'm not saying that philosophy is incorrect. I'm always trying to improve my lines and gain more consistancy. I'm just saying that if you were throwing your go to driver 300 ft and your go to mid within 30 feet, and now your throwing those two discs 350 accurately and your mid within 10, it will translate in your SCORES.

 

[UncleSweat]

I find myself keeping score in my head even if I'm playing a casual round where we're not keeping score.

 

[Frank Delicious]

Garublador, I'm not saying that philosophy is incorrect. I'm always trying to improve my lines and gain more consistancy. I'm just saying that if you were throwing your go to driver 300 ft and your go to mid within 30 feet, and now your throwing those two discs 350 accurately and your mid within 10, it will translate in your SCORES.

Scores don't matter unless you are playing a competitive round.

 

[Frank Delicious]

If people talk to me about DG, they usually ask me how I shot. The only time I get asked what I shot is when I'm in a tight competition with someone in a tourney.

 

[cjskier]

Edit: This thread is moving fast!

38 posts and 60 views, yeah it is, lol.

 

[Frank Delicious]

READ

 

[Frank Delicious]

POSTS

 

[garublador]

Garublador, I'm not saying that philosophy is incorrect. I'm always trying to improve my lines and gain more consistancy. I'm just saying that if you were throwing your go to driver 300 ft and your go to mid within 30 feet, and now your throwing those two discs 350 accurately and your mid within 10, it will translate in your SCORES.

I understand that. You asked about why some people don't keep score so I told you why I don't keep score. The actual number or the change in the number doesn't interest me. It only tells me if I was better or worse. I like a more specific breakdown. What was I better or worse at?

Say I had two rounds where I scored 54. On the first one my driving and approaching was right on, but I missed all my putts outside of 10'. On the second one my driving and approaching was just OK but I hit all of my putts inside of 30'. What I decided to practice next would be very different depending on which round I had, but my score would be the same. That's how I decide on what to focus on for next time but I leave out the part where I have to either write down or remember a number.

Now that I think about it, when my wife asks me how I did disc golfing I usually say something like, "My driving was pretty good but my putting was just OK," or maybe, "My driving was just OK but I hit a lot of long putts," or more realistically, "Bad."

 

[Beable]

If I'm not playing a tourney round nowadays I'm not keeping score. this is because I'm usually practicing lines, throwing multiple drives and testing out new discs.

Ditto.

 

[Beable]

...or you could just keep score, and when someone asks how you shot that day you repeat your score.

It's not that easy. If you're throwing multiple discs per lie and so on, you can't actually compute a valid score.