Recently, I played a semi-final match for a work society knockout competition, and really couldn’t have got off to a worse start. Although I hadn’t been playing much golf in the weeks before, I still went into the match feeling confident that I could get a result. However, that confidence was short lived. I bogeyed each of the opening 5 holes, parred the 6th, and then double-bogeyed the 7th, putting me 7 over par through only 7 holes. As a 7 handicapper, giving 6 strokes to my opponent, by the time we reached the 9th hole where I was 4 down, I felt the match was as good as over.
What does the data say?
Having reviewed my Shot Scope data, it’s safe to say that my hunch was right – my performance on the front 9 is significantly weaker. Admittedly, I’ve not played as many full rounds of golf this year as I’d have liked to, but for those 10 rounds, I’ve averaged +10. As a 7.4 handicap golfer who really hasn’t played much golf, that’s probably not too bad. In fact, it’s actually 0.3 strokes better than my 2024 average. Sadly, that’s where the positives end.
Reaching the turn feeling that I have left myself too much to do has very much been a familiar feeling for me this year. I honestly can’t remember many rounds where I’ve not used most, if not all of my strokes by the 9th hole. Given that I use the Shot Scope V5 golf watch to automatically track all of my shots and scores, I thought it would be a good idea to review my scoring averages for the entire season, to see if I really have been as slow out of the blocks as I thought.
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Of these 10 rounds, 5 of which have been at home and 5 away, I have averaged +6.1 strokes on the front 9 and +3.9 on the back. This means my front 9 score is over 1.5 times worse than my back 9, with an average difference of 2.2 strokes per round. Now, I could probably live with these numbers if this was due to just a couple of outliers, but it’s really not, as you can see from my scores below, broken down by front 9/back 9 for each of the 10 rounds (oldest to newest).
Course Name | Front 9 Score | Back 9 Score | Worse 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
39 (+4) | 39 (+2) | Front | |
Craigmillar Park Golf Club | 42 (+7) | 32 (-1) | Front |
St. Andrews New Course | 40 (+4) | 40 (+5) | Front |
Kilspindie Golf Club | 44 (+9) | 48 (+4) | Front |
Dunfermline Golf Club | 39 (+5) | 42 (+6) | Front |
Dunfermline Golf Club | 38 (+4) | 42 (+6) | Front |
Dunfermline Golf Club | 39 (+5) | 38 (+2) | Front |
Harburn Golf Club | 43 (+8) | 41 (+6) | Front |
Cowdenbeath Golf Club | 41 (+7) | 42 (+6) | Back |
Dunfermline Golf Club | 42 (+8) | 39 (+3) | Front |
As you can see above, my score was worse on the front 9 compared to the back 9 70% of the time.
Why do I struggle with the front 9?
My Shot Scope data for the past 10 rounds has confirmed my suspicions that I generally tend to play better on the back 9 compared to the front 9, so it’s time to work out why that might be. If the issue had been purely with my home course performances then I’d have probably chalked it down to the design of the course and my (lack of) course management skills. However, as shown above, not only have I played the back 9 better 7 out of 10 times, but my scoring has also been better by an average of 2.2 strokes, so I think there’s more to it.
Not nearly warmed up enough
First of all, like many amateur golfers, I’m convinced that I don’t spend nearly enough time warming up before each round. Generally speaking, I probably dedicate a maximum of 10 minutes getting loose before teeing it up. Normally, I’ll grab two clubs and swing them together a few times to try and loosen off, chip a few balls, then make a few putts on the practise green before heading to the first tee. In fairness to me, this isn’t normally through choice – life just gets in the way. Whether that’s finishing up at work before the round, helping out around the house or preparing dinner, there’s just always something to do before heading to the golf course.
With this serious lack of warm up, the likelihood is that I’m not physically loose and warmed up until a good few holes into my round. By the time I’ve reached the back 9 around 90 minutes later, I’ll finally be warmed up but likely also 9 over par. In addition to being warmed up, by the time I’ve finished the front 9, I’ve probably got a good idea of what my miss is for the day, and generally how I’m hitting most of my clubs, which makes managing my game a bit easier for the back 9.
Lower pressure and focus
One of my biggest strengths on the golf course is my relaxed and care-free attitude, which could potentially also be a weakness. Given that I don’t get to play golf anywhere near as often as I’d like, I genuinely just look forward to getting out playing, and don’t really worry about my score (as you can probably tell). Whilst I feel like I’m more relaxed with this mindset, I sometimes worry that I’m perhaps too carefree, and at times, wasteful. For example, early on in my round, I normally spend more time chatting to playing partners, either catching up or learning about them, than actually concentrating on my game and course management.
Silly as it sounds, I almost feel like it’s not too big a deal dropping shots early on as there’s plenty of time to claw them back. The problem is that I don’t tend to make enough birdies in general, so after dropping shots, it’s more a case of making pars to try and limit the damage, rather than get strokes back.
Nutrition and hydration
Normally, golfers probably experience a worse back 9 due to lack of energy from perhaps not eating and drinking enough during the latter stages of their round. For me, I suspect it’s the other way round. Prior to every round, I make sure that I pack my golf bag with a range of healthy energy-rich snacks to feast on during my round. Whilst I’m good at making sure I eat them and keep myself hydrated as the round goes on, I’m not so good before my round begins. Ideally, I should be eating foods like wholegrains, brown rice, oats, grilled chicken, yoghurt and fruits for sustained energy, however, I either don’t eat much at all, or eat the wrong foods like a bacon roll and coffee, which end up leaving me feeling lethargic.
My Plan to improve front 9 scoring going forward
As mentioned above, there are some particular areas that I should be able to focus on in the future to try and get my rounds off to a better start. First of all, I’ll be making more of an effort to begin my warm up long before my tee time, at least 30 minutes before. This should give me enough time to properly stretch off, run through each of the clubs in my bag on the practise range or net, and do some putting. Whilst I’d love to say I’ll be rocking up 3 hours before my tee time, there’s no way that will happen, but 30 minutes should be manageable even with a busy schedule.
I’d also like to give more thought to course management, particularly when playing courses I’m less or not at all familiar with. As I’m sure you’ve already worked out, my concentration isn’t always the best early on, so I’d like to make more of an effort to give careful thought to my pre-shot routine, working out where the miss for each shot, and looking to hit the centre of the green with approach shots. Hopefully following these simple steps, I’ll be able to find more fairways and greens, and reduce the chance of lost balls and bogeys.
In my mind, there’s also value in setting a target for the first 9 holes. Currently, I just go out and play golf but give little thought to what I’d like to score. Really, I should be working out what would be a reasonable score for 9 holes based on how I’m feeling, how the warmup was and my knowledge of the course.
Finally, I need to make sure that the food and drink I’m consuming in the hours leading up to my round are going to properly prepare me for a round of golf. As well as packing snacks to consume later in the round, I need to be packing snacks to eat early on too, to avoid a sudden reduction in energy.
The above changes are manageable, and I genuinely think they will help me to improve front 9 scoring. Of course, there are probably many more things that I could try, so if you’ve got any suggestions, let me know in the comments section below.
I’ll be sure to revisit this post and provide an update on whether or not these improvements worked once I’ve got the first few rounds of 2026 under my belt.
