i play off a handicap off 4 and am 15. is it better to turn pro straight away or stay an amateur?

Question

what handicap do u think it would be best to turn pro at?

Answer 1

The best handicap to turn pro at is 0. Try staying an amateur for a year or two , then think about it and turn pro.

Answer 2

The big misconception is you have to be a top amateur to turn professional. There are no free rides onto a professional circuit, meaning by winning an amateur event you don't make it onto a pro tour. However, all tournament experience is beneficial but I would not measure yourself strictly by your performance. The way you determine if you're ready is by how good your good rounds are and how often they happen. If you can't shoot rounds like 63 or 64 occasionally then you're not ready. During a 3-4 round tournament the scores are always varied usually with one or two low rounds with an average round. You just don't see guys shooting 4-70's.

Handicaps are based off the courses rating and slope. So a four HCP you are still probably 6-7 shots away from par on a Tour course with a rating of 74 or 75.

The good news is the Canadian Tour and the Hooters Tour are great developmental tours where you can really develop your game. The Canadian tour has a q-school and the Hooter's tour you just pay and you're in.

Answer 3

If you turned pro with a handicap of 4 you would be slaughtered week after week. Anything worse than +1 would be a struggle. Before you even think of turning pro you really have to be winning ( or at least getting very high on the leaderboard) national amateur tournaments.

Answer 4

Oliver, playing off 4 at 15 is really great but you should be enjoying yourself and the game at this stage. Enter all the school and local tournaments you can. Play as much golf as you can with the best senior players in your club. Watch how they work their way around a course. Stick into your school work and get some decent A-Levels. If you continue to improve there is a real possibility you could win a scholarship to an American university and that is the best possible route into the pro circuit. BUT, you will have to have a decent education to survive in the US college system. If you turn pro too early, say when you leave school, you will end up as a glorified shop assistant and be bored out of you brain giving lessons to silly old men and women. Write to Peter Dawson at the R & A in St Andrews and ask for advice. He will put you in touch with people who can advise and help you. All the very best.

Answer 5

Handicap should be the least of your concerns in terms of turning pro. How many tournaments you have entered and won? I don´t know but you should feel and learn how to win tournaments. I´ts not that you came in in the top ten or that you are in the top 25 in a tourney. Other question are you playing strokeplay or match play. If you are not playing match play you are not used to deal with pressure. I´ts not about your score but how to be in the hunt when you are a few holes back or how to keep your lead when you win a few holes. After you learn all this and you can bring you mind into the game you may turn pro. Ian Woosnam turned pro with a handicap of two and became a hell of a good player. So consider competing as an amateur first win a few tournaments and try to win an US Amateur and then you can go and shoot for the tour.

Answer 6

You need to have a positive index to even think about turning pro. (This means that in a handicap tournament, strokes are added to your score!)

When was the last time you saw a pro win a tournament with scores of 75? (Besides the US Open. But see how well you do on that course!)

More important than the score is how you handle the pressures of a tournament. The USGA (or R&A) conduct tournaments. Enter some of them and see how well you do.

There is an enourmous difference between a four handicap on your home course on a Saturday morning, and playing competitively on a course you don't know against players who have proven themselves in competition.

Edit: Think of how well Paula Creamer is doing, as compared to Michelle WIe.

Answer 7

Don't turn pro for a few years mate. You've clearly got a natural ability of the game, don't throw it all away now because you want to be a pro and be on the telly. if you approach it in a more mature way you will get there in the end, but you will be in the right frame of mind as well.

Keep in the amateur ranks, enter tournaments etc. you will see that there is people just like you out there. And you shouldn't even be thinking of turning pro until you are at least a scratch golfer.

Best of luck to you. Wish i had your talents. I play off 18 and don't think i'm going to get much better than that.

Answer 8

Mate, keep going until you have a year or two better than scratch and play the Am circuit, then decide. I tried too early and it's tough, really tough. So, become known as an amateur, then break into the pro ranks. Rooting for you, it's a cool life.

Answer 9

You should be about a +4 before you think about it..Go to college, and play in competition as much as possible...You obviously are talented, but what's the rush? A 4 handicap means you're probably 4-5 shots higher in competition...Bobby Jones said "There is golf and there is tournament golf, and they are not at all the same" I learned this the hard way, but competitve golf is what puts my game in perspective...You have to think well out there and execute, and you must have develop once hell of a short game...

Answer 10

Whoa whoa whoa! Slow down there.
I'm 16 and I am a scratch golfer. Am I thinking of turning pro? Hell no! I'm just looking to play D1 college golf when I graduate high school in two years. Sorry man, but there are a lot of good junior golfers out there. You need to win some tournaments and lower your handicap a whole bunch to even play golf in college. Don't get ahead of yourself.