[PChandler]

I have seen the advertisement "average handicap of the average golfer not getting better" in 40 years so many times. But where did this study come from...and why. Have the folks that conducted the study just used USGA Handicapping? Have they taken into account that the "average golfing population" changes every day. Every day a new hacker joins the ranks of the beginners and every day a seasoned cracker is lost from the ranks of the single digiters. And nobody is improving?

I am an average Joe. I started golf 10 years ago and can remember the first time I broke 50 on the 9-hole Par-3 course I started on. I am no Cracker...but I surely got better than when I started 10 years ago.

I bet if you took a random sample of 50 or so golfers in a point in time with a USGA Handicap and tracked those same 50 golfers 10 years later, their relative USGA Handicap will have indeed improved.

Disclaimer...I am not trying discount anyone's opinion or be critical of anyone in particular. I just find it hard to believe that I am not expected to be better at golf after 10 years of playing, countless hours of range time, better than a year of daily reading of these fantastic forums, playing a set of fitted Pings (instead of a Ping clones), easy to hit hybrids, and a 460cc headed Titanium driver. I have also taken lessons and gone to golf schools.

PChandler