What's your Average Score in Links 2k3?

[Adelade]

Scores in Links depend on so many things beyond pure player skill - swing type, settings, courses, computer, mouse, just to mention a few, so please dont take this as some type of contest, just a way to see what types of scores are common for players on Links Corner, for those of us who are curious

I added stroke amounts to the poll too... I counted 71 as an average course par, but maybe its closer to 71.5 ? ... I hope it will do...

[Jimbo]

My scores improve when I leave the driver "in the digital locker room" but I still can't figure how some online players consistently shoot -18 or better.

[pmgolf]

You've got to know where these guys who shoot -18 are coming from. A bunch of guys like to play Amateur level with easy conditions and no wind. They've figured out how to hole out 2nd shots from certain distances so they get a lot of eagles. You won't find players who play difficult conditions with at least breezy winds shooting those scores. It's like finding a guy who has a lot of hole-in-ones, and then you find out that he just hits tee shot after tee shot, using mulligans and "no wind", until he gets a hole-in-one. It's not exactly as skilled as you may have thought it was at first.

My stats: 70.68 average after 212 rounds of competition RTS Pro

Pete

[Jimbo]

Hi Pete-I played a couple of rounds at Amateur level once...sure it was easy to post a decent score (but not 10 under par) but I have to wonder if that wouon't get boring after a while. I just looked at the Power Stroke article and, frankly a lot of those suggestions were valuable even for us clickers!
Between learning PS and the APCD (not to mention nitpicking), I have enough to last a lifetime!

[MrT]

You are mixing pears with oranges and apples and perhaps even some beans, I am afraid.

Without similar standard conditions and settings, there is no possible comparison. Also, I am not convinced that playing Classic Swing is the same as playing RTS or PS.

With no wind, Pro level, Medium/Difficult pin settings M/Mc I can shoot -8 on average. Not enjoyable as it feels like fake golf
Moved up to Gusty wind, Pro level/ Medium-Difficult pin settings M/Mc and the average was -2.
Now I have moved to Champ level and M/Fc minimum speed settings (which is what I used almost all the times), Gusty winds.. average around +0.5

Then, it is easy to improve one's average by playing the easy courses many times.

[Adelade]

You are mixing pears with oranges and apples and perhaps even some beans, I am afraid.

Without similar standard conditions and settings, there is no possible comparison.[...]

The purpose of this poll and thread is not a comparison. If you see it that way, you're missing the point. This is purely a study of what type of scores people like to simulate. For people who play various different sets of settings, the poll states "for your preferred settings", as in your favourite ones among them. If being unable to pick a favourite, one can settle for an overall average.

[MrT]

You are mixing pears with oranges and apples and perhaps even some beans, I am afraid.

Without similar standard conditions and settings, there is no possible comparison.[...]

The purpose of this poll and thread is not a comparison. If you see it that way, you're missing the point. This is purely a study of what type of scores people like to simulate. For people who play various different sets of settings, the poll states "for your preferred settings", as in your favourite ones among them. If being unable to pick a favorite, one can settle for an overall average.

I did enter my number in the poll: around even which is my level right now. Playing favorite courses, I could lower it, but I change course every time so it is actually a real average. I do like to have an average around even once I am really good.

[Andy]

These are the stats for the player I used on the OWGT at Mick's site years ago. Playing at Champ RTS.

andy_stats.jpg (40.15 KiB) Viewed 5255 times

Playing on various tours was the only time I ever used to play 18 holes seriously.

[pmgolf]

You are mixing pears with oranges and apples and perhaps even some beans, I am afraid.

Without similar standard conditions and settings, there is no possible comparison. Also, I am not convinced that playing Classic Swing is the same as playing RTS or PS.

With no wind, Pro level, Medium/Difficult pin settings M/Mc I can shoot -8 on average. Not enjoyable as it feels like fake golf
Moved up to Gusty wind, Pro level/ Medium-Difficult pin settings M/Mc and the average was -2.
Now I have moved to Champ level and M/Fc minimum speed settings (which is what I used almost all the times), Gusty winds.. average around +0.5

Then, it is easy to improve one's average by playing the easy courses many times.

First, Links 2003 is supposed to mimic real-life golf, right? I don't know if you have ever played IRL. Whether you play one course all the time, or play a variety of courses, mother nature sees to it that no two rounds are exactly the same. So you take every round you play over a period of time - real-life, now - and average them. None of this "it was raining Tuesday" or "they were mowing the grass Thursday" or "the course was really tough" (boo-hoo) excuse stuff. You average the good with the bad. No "apples and oranges" excuses.

Shooting way under par shouldn't be the goal - it certainly isn't the goal with real-life golf. For 400+ years, people have been playing some version of the game, challenging themselves to shoot the lowest score they can - but if they can't shoot a low score, most of them realize that they must accept what score they wind up with.

If you can't shoot as low a score as some other guys, they may shoot low scores because, like me, they have been playing for almost 30 years (with Links, with real-life golf I've been playing for 50 years). They may practice a lot. And with that practice you learn how to hit shots for almost every condition, which really helps your score. Your chances of beating them with you having minimal experience are slim. It boggles my mind how relative newbies can't understand why they can't shoot low scores with such minimal skills.

Rant over.

Pete

[MrT]

Perhaps the median would be a more meaningful measure? And wouldmn't the standard deviation be of relevance as well?
What if one has a bimodal distribution of scores? And what happens to skewness and kurtosis?