Best handicap management strategy ?

[Orikoru]

But that's the point of WHS - it reflects your form.
If those 3 good cards were a year ago that's not your form now....
And what if your index does go up?
In the words of a famous individual - Play Better...!
Back in February my index was 4.3...it went up to 8 a few weeks back..it's now just over 6...
Thats how form/Golf goes..

Yeah, I do think it fluctuates too much as well. If you have a bad month or two you can easily go up 3 shots but I don't think you're genuinely 3 shots worse at golf in that time. Maybe it's just wishful thinking as I'm currently on the way up but don't like to believe I've actually got worse at golf.

 

[jim8flog]

I'm talking about the ratings/handicaps for the two 9s of the 18 hole course. Not a separate 9 hole course.

I understand.

Our 18 is an out and back course so we do not have the 9s set up for handicap purpose on the WHS platform.

 

[Imurg]

Yeah, I do think it fluctuates too much as well. If you have a bad month or two you can easily go up 3 shots but I don't think you're genuinely 3 shots worse at golf in that time. Maybe it's just wishful thinking as I'm currently on the way up but don't like to believe I've actually got worse at golf.

The scores you're putting in would imply that, for that period, you are 3 shots worse...because that's what you're scoring....

 

[BiMGuy]

My pb of 84 is the next score to drop off, closest I’ve got since is 88, no doubt I’ll go up a fair bit, dreading it!

Seriously, what is there to dread?

It’s just your golf HI. And if you can’t get anywhere near your best round, is your HI reflective of your ability?

If it goes up, or indeed down. Literally no one else cares. Nothing bad will happen. It’s just an arbitrary number used to give people the illusion they are competing against other players.

Just go and play golf and let it be what it will be.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Seriously, what is there to dread?

It’s just your golf HI. And if you can’t get anywhere near your best round, is your HI reflective of your ability?

If it goes up, or indeed down. Literally no one else cares. Nothing bad will happen. It’s just an arbitrary number used to give people the illusion they are competing against other players.

Just go and play golf and let it be what it will be.

…and if you can still play as well as the best diff you are losing then in no time at all you’ll do it again, or even if you don’t quickly repeat it, you’ll play one or indeed more times very close to it, and so back down you’ll come.

 

[Orikoru]

The scores you're putting in would imply that, for that period, you are 3 shots worse...because that's what you're scoring....

I know it's form rather than ability - that's the tough part to get one's head around. Just because I didn't play well for a spell I don't think it means you're actually three shots worse at golf. You just didn't produce it for a little while. You don't suddenly need 3 more shots to compensate for that. But it is what it is.

I know I should try harder not to care but I'm on my way to 15+ when I had ambitions of getting to 12 this year. I've had a round recently where I shot 67 over 16 holes but it was in a betterball match so it counts for nothing - but it proves that I haven't got worse. I just never seem to strike while the iron is hot in terms of putting a counting round down.

 

[Imurg]

I know it's form rather than ability - that's the tough part to get one's head around. Just because I didn't play well for a spell I don't think it means you're actually three shots worse at golf. You just didn't produce it for a little while. You don't suddenly need 3 more shots to compensate for that. But it is what it is.

I know I should try harder not to care but I'm on my way to 15+ when I had ambitions of getting to 12 this year. I've had a round recently where I shot 67 over 16 holes but it was in a betterball match so it counts for nothing - but it proves that I haven't got worse. I just never seem to strike while the iron is hot in terms of putting a counting round down.

Ollie...I hated having 10 shots round my place....hated it....
But it is what it is...

 

[RichA]

And sometimes you can have a shocking front 9 followed by a stellar back 9. Or vice versa.
Sometimes the middle 10 are stellar and the outer 8 are awful. Or vice versa.
Golf innit.

 

[BiMGuy]

And sometimes you can have a shocking front 9 followed by a stellar back 9. Or vice versa.
Sometimes the middle 10 are stellar and the outer 8 are awful. Or vice versa.
Golf innit.

This is pretty much me at the moment. Apart from my last round which was a knockout, the previous 5 rounds I’m an average of 5 shots better on the back 9.

 

[bobmac]

The

How is it any different to people managing their handicaps before WHS?

Because they never discussed it before, now they are.

 

[BiMGuy]

Because they never discussed it before, now they are.

No? They just did it in secret then

 

[Slab]

My pb of 84 is the next score to drop off, closest I’ve got since is 88, no doubt I’ll go up a fair bit, dreading it!

Might not be as bad as you fear

I had the exact same thing when (at that time) my PB of 84 dropped off about half a dozen rounds ago by carding a 98 !
If I recall it was about a .3 or .4 increase in index which seemed really painful, but some sub-90 scoring has given a bit of stability meaning last weeks 86 actually gave me my a .2 drop to my lowest ever index despite having 3 'ton up' cards in the last 20

 

[timd77]

Seriously, what is there to dread?

It’s just your golf HI. And if you can’t get anywhere near your best round, is your HI reflective of your ability?

If it goes up, or indeed down. Literally no one else cares. Nothing bad will happen. It’s just an arbitrary number used to give people the illusion they are competing against other players.

Just go and play golf and let it be what it will be.

Because I was proud get down in the 15s and hoped it would keep creeping down. Don’t care what anyone else thinks about my handicap, I just want to keep on improving.

 

[timd77]

Might not be as bad as you fear

I had the exact same thing when (at that time) my PB of 84 dropped off about half a dozen rounds ago by carding a 98 !
If I recall it was about a .3 or .4 increase in index which seemed really painful, but some sub-90 scoring has given a bit of stability meaning last weeks 86 actually gave me my a .2 drop to my lowest ever index despite having 3 'ton up' cards in the last 20

Hopefully. And maybe I’ll replace it with another decent score!

 

[Backsticks]

If you have never manipulated your scores up to this point, why would you do it at the last hurdle?

It's a great personal achievement to reach single figures for the first time. Don't ruin it with some handicap jiggery pokery.

I see what you mean, but wasnt really seeing it as manipulation. Fully OK to put in 9 hole scores. Many in my club do it frequently. I just tend to be a one 18 holes round per week in competition man, so just dont do nines.

Not in any way think of a fake or fictional score. The HI would be 100% legit. But think the variance on a nine would be lower.
And now that I think about, are the guys who would have regular 9 hole scores in their counting ones for HC, working on a slightly different handicap basis than mine which is all eighteens ? If not, then nothing whatsoever offside from me submitting one. If yes...then a flaw in the system if a significant portion of 9 hole rounds give a different HI than exclusively 18s.

 

[Backsticks]

When you enter a round for 9 holes you don't get half your handicap though, you get less. Like at ours for example, if I enter an 18 hole round I get 14 playing handicap. If I enter just the front nine though it's 6, while just the back nine it's 5. So this is likely to negate any perceived benefit of only playing 9.

As far as I can see, I do 10 when I play the 18, and 5 each nine if I were to just play either 9. The 'cut' that playing the nine imposes, as I understand it, is that it will put me a 6 over for the make-up 9. So that is a trimming of sorts.

 

[Backsticks]

Yeah, I do think it fluctuates too much as well. If you have a bad month or two you can easily go up 3 shots but I don't think you're genuinely 3 shots worse at golf in that time. Maybe it's just wishful thinking as I'm currently on the way up but don't like to believe I've actually got worse at golf.

Agree there is more fluctuation in this system. And to some degree, am still thinking old UHS 'stickiness' on my own goal here. And trying to counter it by choosing a bit of stickiness restraint that I think a nine gives over 18.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Because I was proud get down in the 15s and hoped it would keep creeping down. Don’t care what anyone else thinks about my handicap, I just want to keep on improving.

BIB - and you will with practice and focus when practicing (don’t practice without a clear and specific objective), and when playing just make sure your course management is ‘accepting‘ of your errors and averse to high risk.

With that your game and scores will tend towards stability (less huge fluctuation) and once you have that stability you have a platform upon which to build your game - to create the opportunities for even better scoring…but you have to build the platform first.

 

[Alan Clifford]

Oh. That's weird. I assumed it was a universal thing to reflect how it's easier to put a good round over 9 than it is on 18. WHS makes less and less sense by the day.

9 hole course handicaps have course rating minus par in the calculation.

 

[clubchamp98]

Buy a house near a course. Any course! Set up a bogus account in a false name to sign them off. Good way of seeing if your handicap committee are on the ball!

I wonder if the app is clever enough to know you're starting a round at 11pm at night.

Floodlit golf it’s a thing