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5 or 6, last summer. Had a hole in 1 and a par 5 eagle in the same round. Shot an even 72.

The first time that I ever shot even par I was a 12 hdcp. Bogeyed the first and last holes with back to back birdies on 7 and 8. That was also the fastest round that I have ever played.

ARmygrunt, I just checked out your profile. what is your secret from going from a 12 hcap to a plus handicap in one years time. I'm going to be blunt, I flat out don't believe that.

It actually took me a year to go from 12 to 1.5 and 6 months from there to scratch. In that time period I started working at a course and I practiced atleast an hour a day 7 days a week. (Mostly from 100 yds and in)I also got my clubs fitted and started playing with a 5-6 guys that were /are mini tour players and learned a lot from them.

awesome. didn't want to sound like a dick, I sincerely wanted to know! I'm sure people question you on it all the time. I love practicing, it's just hard living in a big city to get to a course or a decent range to practice. When I do practice, I try to do the bulk of my work on the 100 yards and in stuff myself as well as a couple of specific putting drills. I'm sure playing with the minitour guys helps a ton.

I think I was a 3 at the time...it was back in 2010. Now I'm a 1.9, but I still don't dip under par very often. Maybe tomorrow...who knows...

And I'll second ArmyGrunt. Playing with better players makes you play better if you're paying attention. I've played for a long time, about 22 or 23 years, but I only got serious about 5 or 6 years ago. At that time, I was a 100-shooter, big time. But a friend of mine from college was a pretty solid bogey golfer, and I played with him a lot...I got tired of getting my butt whooped! It motivated me to practice, and lo and behold I started beating the guy. Then I also made a friend who was (and still is) close to scratch. His short game is tremendous. Again, I got tired of getting beat! And I started working on that whole short game/putting thing...lo and behold I can give the guy a game now.

And then, I also got to become friends with a Champions Tour player. I played with him about twice a month as he was ending his tour career...watching that was something special. His precision is something I'm always going to aspire to...he is the greatest ballstriker I've ever seen, and probably will ever see (it's hard to find much better than a guy who hits 14 to 16 greens a round every time he tees it up). Great with every club in the bag.

So find some good players and play with them. It will make you step your game up. The thing is, by "step your game up" I don't mean "try to impress them." That never works. I just mean you will learn to give that ball your best swing every time, just like they do. The only thing you have to impress is the golf ball.

I agree completely. Playing with better players also helps force you to make the correct decision instead of the fun decision. for me that means forgoing driver a LOT. I left my driver home last week just to force myself not to hit it and what I realized was that on a couple of the short driveable or nearly driveable par 4's I really ought to just hit 2 iron off the tee and play my approach from 100 yards. I'm rarely going to miss a green from 100 yards and if I do, probably still have a good chance to get it up and down, vs hitting driver and maybe crushing it greenside but just as likely blasting it off line and having 100 yards from a poor lie. Lately, I've had some blow up holes creeping back into my game though, even when I play smart. that is frustrating.

I'm sure playing with the minitour guys helps a ton.

I've gotten down to the 3s, and I've only broken par once.

And I stay mostly between 6 and 4, and I've only shot even par three times ever (and two of those were from tees that gave those even-par rounds handicap differentials of about 3.5).

Half the rounds I play are from tees that rate much tougher than par, especially when factoring in slope. That means I can shoot a handful of rounds in the high 70s up to 81 or 82 at some courses and keep my handicap well into the single digits.

In other words, handicap has little to do with par.

My lowest score is a 73 (+1), or difference of 1.2, I was a 4.0 when I did that. The lowest I have been was a 3.1. I shot a 77 (+5) when I played in CA at Coronado, which was a -1.2, so that brought the HCAP way down. I have shot even on combined rounds, but don't count that.

I have been a sub 5 HCAP for a while, and haven't broken it. One of my goals this year was to shoot a 74, I accomplished that. I still have plenty of time this year, but if not this year, it's a goal for next year. Gotta set milestones, it'll happen! (I'm hoping it does to me too!)

Mostly course management

I know hcap and par have nothing to do with one another but lets face it, if you've ever gotten good enough at this game to even be ahigh single digit than you've probably thought about breaking par. If you've gotten to mid/low single digits you think about par golf. IT's also fun to think about in relation to the pro's who are well into the plusses with their hcaps and on an average course shoot a couple shots under par routinely. I'm just trying to do it once!

I've shot par many times but unfortunately that usually comes around holes 13-16.