REVEALED! How has the coronavirus pandemic affected your handicap?
We asked our readers how their golf game has fared during this difficult year and whether their handicap has gone up or down...
It's been a difficult year for everyone and golf has been through a serious rough patch due to the coronavirus pandemic, but how has your game been over the past few months and has your handicap gone up or down?
That's the question we posed to our readers recently, as we wanted to find out if working from home more and not being able to go out and do as much socially has been beneficial on the golf course.
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, golf courses across the UK were shut down, which had a seriously negative affect on the industry.
Some golf clubs were forced to close their doors for good due to lack of revenue, while others were able to survive thanks to the funding provided by the R&A to help keep clubs afloat.
RELATED: A list of the 328 golf clubs in England that received COVID-19 funding...
Many of us have now been working from home for months on end as offices stay closed to try and limit the spread of the virus and speaking from my own experience, it's meant a lot of short game practice in the garden during my lunch break.
Since golf courses reopened, thousands of golfers have flooded the courses which has helped the sport blossom once again and try to recover from what has been a very challenging year.
So we asked our readers on our social media pages how their golf game has fared in 2020 and whether their handicap has come tumbling down, or they've struggled to get their A-game back and seen it go up.
The results were extremely interesting, with 76% of those who got in touch revealing their handicap went down due to having more time to practice, with 14% saying it went up and 10% letting us know their handicap has remained exactly the same.
Check out some of the responses we received below and thank you to everyone who got involved!
"Down 1.4. Went up at first but a good round to win the Thursday 9-hole medal then treaded water till last week and got a decent cut," said Mark Jackson.
"2nd week in July I was 12.9 and now I'm 9.4," said Gary Evans.
Kelvin Sumner: "Managed to play more rounds than normal. Probably got worse."
"Stayed at 21, combination of no golf and our course having temporary tees and greens, hoping for a better 2021!" said Scott Williams.
Robert Bruce: "Gone down a couple of shots. If I could sort my putting out, could take another 3/4 shots off."
"1.1 down after plenty of time practicing short game in the garden," said Geraint Ingram.
"Up to 19," said Harbinder Rai.
Bob Steele: "Went up, then down - ended back where started."
"Down.. started at 16.2 now at 11.4," said Mike Mallette.
Eddy Edwards: "Up 7 to 9."
