Should You Always Keep Score When Playing Golf

I play a lot of golf - way more than 100 rounds a year. And like most of us who play this wonderful but extremely frustrating game, my aim is to keep improving. 

I play often enough to know what my strengths and weaknesses are and that means I am also aware of the areas that I need to work on if I am to have any chance of lowering my handicap.

My aim in 2025 is to get down to 12, a target that I know is within my grasp. I don’t need a scorecard in my hand to know if I am heading in the right direction. And I am the first to admit that I do not always keep my score. There are no ulterior motives for doing this. 

Our seniors section has a competition day every Tuesday and I am a member of Thursday group that insists we submit our scores. So, twice a week, 52 weeks a year, I am submitting my scores.

The Benefits of Always Keeping Score

There are obvious benefits to this. First and foremost, it means that you know that your handicap is going to be pretty accurate and nobody can ever accuse you of being a bandit. 

It is also an easy way of identifying the holes that give you trouble - and if you know that then you can adopt a different strategy and approach those holes in a different manner.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

During winter, all of my competitive golf is played from blue tees and is played in Stableford format. 

And while that is all well and good, it can be misleading. You can have a couple of nightmare holes, pick up your ball and still score 38 points. That might well be good enough to win a competition but you will always know that if you had been playing a medal round then you would have finished way down the field.

Playing Golf Without Keeping Score

I believe it is absolutely fine to play without keeping your score. As I have said on many, many occasions, most of us play golf because we want to have some fun. And formats such as Stableford or Texas Scramble take the pressure off because it simply doesn’t matter if you hit the odd bad shot.

Over the years I have played a great deal of competitive golf. Some of it has been pretty impressive.

In my heart of hearts, I know that if I really want to improve then I should hole out every putt and record each and every score. But for golfers at our level, I can’t help but feel that this increases the pressure on us.

I vividly remember a round of golf played at Waldringfield Golf Club in Suffolk. It was a competitive medal round and for 17 holes I had played out of my skin. 

My handicap at the time was seven and I came to the 18th hole one under par gross. The final hole was a par three with a green guarded by water on the right and a huge hedge on the left. 

I was fully aware of my score. And that was the problem. 

I should have taken a short iron, laid up and hoped to chip on and perhaps hole out for a par. Doing that would have seen me break par at this course for the very first time. A two-putt bogey would still have seen me finish in level par, which would also have been a personal best. 

So what did I do? I went for the green. Obviously. And where did my ball finish? In the water of course. 

I walked off with a double-bogey five, which meant I had finished my round in one over par. It still turned out to be a winning score, but I was gutted. 

And I remain convinced to this day that had I not known my score standing on that tee then I would have parred the hole. I failed to do so because I put myself under pressure. Yes, it was a wonderful round of golf by my own standards, but the only thing I remember about it to this day is that final tee shot.

The Shots & Rounds You Remember

If you ask Rory McIlroy about the shots that stick in his mind from 2024, I absolutely guarantee that it will be the short putts he missed coming doing the stretch at the US Open and that awful drive he hit at the 72nd hole.

Conversely, ask Rasmus Hojgaard for the shot that lives in his mind from 2024 and I am pretty certain he would cite the shot he hit into the final green to beat McIlroy at the Irish Open. And Billy Horschel will point to the eagle putt that beat McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship.

The point I am trying to make here is that if you keep a scorecard I am pretty certain that it will stick in your mind far longer than any round you play for fun, but not always for the right reasons. And the longer you go in a round without any mishaps the more you prepare yourself for the inevitable disaster hole.

But I guess when all is said and done it all depends on what you want to get from your game. There are those of us who play this game purely and simply to record a score, but I believe that most golfers are actually not too bothered about knowing exactly how many shots they have played. And both approaches are absolutely fine.

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