Elite College Golf Scores
MikkelGolf.com Newsletter #27
We’re continuing the theme of trying to understand what we can expect from a collegiate golf career. In a previous newsletter, we calculated (with the help of some assumptions) that the average golfer gets 71 competitive rounds during their collegiate career. You can find that post HERE.
Last week, we looked at the distribution of scores for an “average college golfer” - myself. To sum the post up, the variance in scores was huge during my career. The average score over 124 rounds was 74.29. I shot everything from 66 to 87, most common score was 72, won a tournament, and also finished next to last in another. In my opinion, most of what I experienced is to be expected during a college career. You can find that post HERE.
Today though, let’s look at a truly elite player. For obvious reasons, I’ve picked Ludvig Åberg.
Before we look at the charts - pop quiz: What do you think Ludvig’s mode score in college was? (the score he shot most often).
Answer to the quiz further down…
Quiz answer: Ludvig’s most common score in college was 67 (15 occurrences). That is wild!!
His range was from 63 to 80. Average score was 70.21. He shot 74 or higher 18% of his rounds. On just two occurrences did he shoot 77 or higher.
Ludvig’s scores are obviously very impressive. Most of these scores were shot on challenging courses with tough set-up too. He was the number one player in WAGR and in college for a reason. When he graduated last year, he immediately played his way onto the European Ryder Cup team. That’s an incredible testament to the level of golf he had in him throughout this collegiate career.
However, I do want you to notice the unpredictability and the range of scores even for the best. His range was from 63 to 80. Although he only shot 74 or higher 18% of the time, that’s still a lot of “bad rounds” to handle. Basically every fifth round in college for a world-class player is a “bad round.” How you handle those can be everything. There’s a fine line to dealing with set-backs and I believe the very best players have optimized this:
You need to accept the bad rounds without diminishing your competitive instinct. You need to learn from the bad rounds while growing your confidence. You need to dissect what’s skill and what’s chance. You need to identify and adjust your key mistakes/patterns without over-analyzing.
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