Buffer meaning?

[craigstardis1976]

I see the term buffer being used on the forum. What does it mean please?

Thanks

 

[Junior]

If a player hits the 'buffer zone' in a competition his handicap remains the same. For cat 1 players, the buffer zone is 1 shot over par, cat 2 players 2 shots, cat 3 3 shots, and cat 4 4 shots.

So, if a player off 2 handicap (cat 1) shoots a net 73, on a par 71 course with a competition standard scratch (css) of 71, his handicap will not go up 0.1. If the css was 72, then the player could shoot nett 74 and his handicap would not get 0.1 back.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

If a player hits the 'buffer zone' in a competition his handicap remains the same. For cat 1 players, the buffer zone is 1 shot over par, cat 2 players 2 shots, cat 3 3 shots, and cat 4 4 shots.

So, if a player off 2 handicap (cat 1) shoots a net 73, on a par 71 course with a competition standard scratch (css) of 71, his handicap will not go up 0.1. If the css was 72, then the player could shoot nett 74 and his handicap would not get 0.1 back.

Almost...it is nothing to do with Par but SSS\CSS. Plus, a Cat 1 guy shooting Nett 73 against a Css of 71 would indeed go up

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Every course has a SSS. This is the score that a scratch golfer is expected to go round in. This may be lower than, equal to or higher than the Par.

For a Par of 70 and a SSS of 69, a 10 h'capper should shoot 79
For a par of 70 and a SSS of 70, they should shoot 80
For Par 70, SSS 71 they should shoot 81

Forgetting CSS for a minute, in a qualifying competition, the buffer zone means that the 10 h'capper, being in Category 2 gets an additional 2 shots above the numbers above before his handicap would increase.

The buffer is different for each category of player as Junior described.

Those are the basics, CSS and stableford adjustments to follow...

 

[guest100718]

Almost...it is nothing to do with Par but SSS\CSS. Plus, a Cat 1 guy shooting Nett 73 against a Css of 71 would indeed go up

Almost...As his handicap is worked out using stableford points he could have shot 35 pts on holes 1 to 17 but had a shocker on 18 and shot a net 80 and still made buffer

 

[Maninblack4612]

I'm often called this at my golf club, normally prefaced by "old", but the definitions here seem to be referring to something else.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Almost...As his handicap is worked out using stableford points he could have shot 35 pts on holes 1 to 17 but had a shocker on 18 and shot a net 80 and still made buffer

Of course, but l was going to get to that once I'd explained the basics. We don't want to overwhelm the OP

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Every course has a SSS. This is the score that a scratch golfer is expected to go round in. This may be lower than, equal to or higher than the Par.

For a Par of 70 and a SSS of 69, a 10 h'capper should shoot 79
For a par of 70 and a SSS of 70, they should shoot 80
For Par 70, SSS 71 they should shoot 81

Forgetting CSS for a minute, in a qualifying competition, the buffer zone means that the 10 h'capper, being in Category 2 gets an additional 2 shots above the numbers above before his handicap would increase.

The buffer is different for each category of player as Junior described.

Those are the basics, CSS and stableford adjustments to follow...

CSS is calculated for every qualifying competition. It is essentially based upon the percentage of the field that would have been in the buffer or better related to SSS. It can be between 1 below and 3 above SSS. There is also something called +3(RO) which means that scores have been so bad that no-one has their handicap increased but reductions for good scores still occur (RO = Reductions Only). CSS essentially adds a dynamic element to SSS which is supposed to account for the conditions on the day. If SSS is accurate, CSS should equal SSS most of the time.

Essentially, CSS is used in place of SSS in the example I gave of the 10 handicapper in the first post.


Stableford adjustments means that all handicaps are effectively worked out using stableford points which means that no score on any hole can be greater that a Nett Double Bogey and so are rounded down prior to the handicap calculation. This means that you can have one or more bad holes but can still get cut or be in the buffer. It also means that you can NR on a hole(s) in a medal and that hole(s) will be treated as a Nett Double bogey.

For example, if our 10 handicapper shoots 82, but has a 10 on a par 4 that (s)he gets a shot on (it is SI 1 to 10), that hole is round down to a 7 and his adjusted score would be 79. It is this 79 that is compared CSS for the handicap calculation. What I am not sure of is whether the score is adjusted prior to CSS calculation or just for handicap (I think it is the latter).

I hope that makes sense?