oldschool87 said:
A real 2 - 5 handicapper, is shooting 80, more than 74 or 77. Especially on a course he has never played before. The Pro's are not that consistent...
I agree with most everything you said except for this last part. If you're talking about playing different courses regularly, I'll agree with you.
But if you're talking about playing a home course regularly, I think you're wrong. I'm in that handicap range, and it doesn't apply to me, or to the guys I play with who are in that range. I keep all kinds of stats on my golf, so these are real numbers. I've played 92 rounds on my home course this year, and only 7 are 80's. Last year I played 107 home course rounds, with sixteen rounds in the 80's. 2016 was 87 home course rounds with five rounds in the 80's. I think this is probably pretty representative of the guys I play with as well, but I have no numbers to back that up.
I have no illusions that I would be a 2 if I played a different course every week. The fact that the pros can be as good as they are, and deal with different conditions every week, impresses me as much as anything else they do.
(Edited to add: I didn't post my numbers for any reason other than to give my real world experience for why I disagreed with one part of the post. No humblebrag! I know there are guys on here with similar or better numbers.)