Buffer Zone -

[Arthur Wedge]

You could have that in the old system as well. You could often tell early on you were barely going to get 30 points, let alone make buffer.

In the old system - miss the buffer and your HC is affected , many still battled away to try and get buffer

Whereas in current system, you can still grind to get a mid 30 point score. It might creep into your 8th best score, or be just outside it. If just outside it, it could well become a Top 8 score in the future

Which is no different to grind away to get a score to get into the buffer and not see your HC go up

 

[sunshine]

Because at some stage during a round you know you arent going to win anything , you know the score won’t affect your HC so most just stop bothering

How does trying to make buffer work as a target for you? You play off 1 right? Buffer is 2 over par. At what point do you say to yourself, I’m not going to hit my handicap of 1 over par today, I’ll just grind it out and target 2 over par instead?

 

[Arthur Wedge]

How does trying to make buffer work as a target for you? You play off 1 right? Buffer is 2 over par. At what point do you say to yourself, I’m not going to hit my handicap of 1 over par today, I’ll just grind it out and target 2 over par instead?

I personally don’t really care tbh

A lot of it is strange

I have played better than my HC and gone up

I have played worse than my HC and gone down



Just go out and play as best as I can

 

[sunshine]

I personally don’t really care tbh

A lot of it is strange

I have played better than my HC and gone up

I have played worse than my HC and gone down



Just go out and play as best as I can

Me too.

I just don’t understand the logic of grinding out a round to make buffer when handicap target has gone. Surely it only applied when I was walking up 18 on 32 points knowing I needed 2 or 3 points to make buffer.

 

[Orikoru]

Me too.

I just don’t understand the logic of grinding out a round to make buffer when handicap target has gone. Surely it only applied when I was walking up 18 on 32 points knowing I needed 2 or 3 points to make buffer.

Yeah, it seems like a lot of people overthink it. Targeting a particular score is silly and I don't think it benefits anybody. The best mindset is just to try and hit each shot as well as you can and let the score take care of itself.

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Me too.

I just don’t understand the logic of grinding out a round to make buffer when handicap target has gone. Surely it only applied when I was walking up 18 on 32 points knowing I needed 2 or 3 points to make buffer.

I saw it with a lot of people though - going up .1 at times made a lot of difference , moving from cat 1 to cat 2 etc or meaning missing out on entry to certain comps or teams etc

 

[Neilds]

The way some people on here continually harp on about 'the good old days' with buffer zones, less loft on clubs, etc. makes me wonder if some would be better off in the 1930s

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I hadn't before thought of my 'buffer zone' under WHS as being the difference between my current PH and the 'PH' for the worst diff of the best eight. I know it doesn't work that way, but if I did want a buffer zone that would do it for me. As it happens I don't do that calculation - it's not how I think about any one round.

ETA...actually just realized that sometimes I do work out what score I need to do to equal the worst diff of my eight because it differs according to tee I'm playing. Most of the time I don't bother as I don't look so much at my HI record as I used to.

 

[Swango1980]

In the old system - miss the buffer and your HC is affected , many still battled away to try and get buffer


Which is no different to grind away to get a score to get into the buffer and not see your HC go up

I know how the buffer worked.

The point I was making that there were plenty of times you were having a bad day under the old system, and you knew early on you wouldn't make the buffer. So, there was no point in "grinding" if that was your motivation.

And today, you may know you are not going to get a really good score, but you can still "grind" to try and get it as close to your top 8 as possible. Especially knowing that often, your 5th-8th best scores are worse than your Index anyway, so it is always worth "grinding" a score to try and get somewhere over 30 points anyway.

At any rate, everyone will have their own personal motivations. Perhaps very low handicappers were more aware of that 0.1 increase that they desperately wanted to avoid. Having a low handicap is good for the ego, the vanity golfer, so they simply want to keep it as low as possible. I wouldn't have been surprised a good chunk of very low handicappers didn't submit scores at all, for fear of an increase. Same now, if they are due to have a good score drop off.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

It is a mental thing..and a short-sighted thing but...
If you know that one of your 8 isn't dropping out of your 20 it's easy to, subconsciously, relax as your Index won't change.
It's the notion that this score won't count so you don't need to worry about it...even if it will at some point.
A really bad score, say 90 for me, would have meant a certain 0.1 increase whereas now it will, likely, mean absolutely nothing.
And that can be a big thing for some people to get their heads round....

It means absolutely nothing at the time, but do it often enough and one of the rounds you give up on can suddenly becomes one of your 8.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

There's always a chance a score could end up counting for WHS even if it feels like it might not at the time. If you can't stay motivated for a whole round of golf when things aren't going well, it sounds like a mindset problem.

The author alludes to being proud of grinding out good scores when it wasn't going his way... the only thing stopping him from still doing that is himself, not a change in system. I suggest he's not as belligerent as he might want us to believe.

Absolutely 100% this.

If you need a handicap system to force you to be motivated then you have a weak mindset in my opinion.

 

[wjemather]

You could have that in the old system as well. You could often tell early on you were barely going to get 30 points, let alone make buffer.

Whereas in current system, you can still grind to get a mid 30 point score. It might creep into your 8th best score, or be just outside it. If just outside it, it could well become a Top 8 score in the future

I know how the buffer worked.

The point I was making that there were plenty of times you were having a bad day under the old system, and you knew early on you wouldn't make the buffer. So, there was no point in "grinding" if that was your motivation.

And today, you may know you are not going to get a really good score, but you can still "grind" to try and get it as close to your top 8 as possible. Especially knowing that often, your 5th-8th best scores are worse than your Index anyway, so it is always worth "grinding" a score to try and get somewhere over 30 points anyway.

At any rate, everyone will have their own personal motivations. Perhaps very low handicappers were more aware of that 0.1 increase that they desperately wanted to avoid. Having a low handicap is good for the ego, the vanity golfer, so they simply want to keep it as low as possible. I wouldn't have been surprised a good chunk of very low handicappers didn't submit scores at all, for fear of an increase. Same now, if they are due to have a good score drop off.

Exactly. As far as having a score still potentially being worthwhile for handicapping goes, the point of futility occurred much sooner under the old system.
As I said earlier, the article has it backwards and there is now more incentive to grind a score out than before.
(P.S. how all these journalists/writers/contributors [and prolific posters on forums] manage to still be so utterly clueless about handicapping, given the volume and quality of research they must have done to produce endless click-bait articles about it, probably needs studying.)

 

[sunshine]

Yup, on a shocker buffer was a target.

This comment doesn't make any sense at all, unless you were walking up 18 targeting buffer because you can't get to handicap. So irrelevent for 17 holes

 

[Oddsocks]

This comment doesn't make any sense at all, unless you were walking up 18 targeting buffer because you can't get to handicap. So irrelevent for 17 holes

I preferred the buffer zone for multiple reasons but the main being that providing you were “ in buffer” you didn’t go up. I’m sure we can all agree that there are days where you swing just does not feel right, whether it be off the tee, long irons or another area in the game. After as an example the 6th, you know it’s a survival day and buffer was always a good target to limit the damage and not “ go up “.

As it stands I have two good scores coming off so unless I can’t find the form I had last year I will inevitably go back up as these were 3-5 shots below my current h/c, even a average or above average round simply won’t cut it.

Using the above example, I’ll know by the 5th or 6th how my day is going to pan out and I’m sure this affects the enjoyment level for most.

Handicap is the universal measure for us all, it’s what the percentage of us gauge ourselves on and knowing after 6 that you’ve failed for the day ….. I can’t help but think it may/does impact the mood of the round and the engagement within it.

 

[garyinderry]

Who cares if the handicap drifts a bit when a score drops off. That was 20 comp rounds ago and you can't dine out on that round forever.

Saddle up and go again.

 

[Oddsocks]

It’s just my opinion and view, and I’ve seen it impact others more than myself so it DOES happen. When PP’s shoulders drop and they disengage from the round walking off after 9 it’s a bit crap, this wouldn’t have happened with buffer being still achievable, I think the popularity of GP cards is also effecting enjoyment especially if your roll up insists on them.

 

[Swango1980]

It’s just my opinion and view, and I’ve seen it impact others more than myself so it DOES happen. When PP’s shoulders drop and they disengage from the round walking off after 9 it’s a bit crap, this wouldn’t have happened with buffer being still achievable, I think the popularity of GP cards is also effecting enjoyment especially if your roll up insists on them.

It WOULD have happened if buffer wasn't achievable. If they've barely managed to hit 10 points after 9, and they are playing terribly, they know they won't hit buffer. These type of weak mentality players would have walked off the course after 9 as well when we played with the old handicap system.

Whereas, these players may be playing terribly now, know this is one of the 60% of rounds that they are not losing a good score and thus not get a handicap increase, so they may just decide to keep playing and not stress about it.

And, these type of people, when they ARE about to lose a good score, may "grind" hard to try and shoot as good a score as they can, to hopefully ensure their increase is limited (and who knows, maybe they do well enough to get a reduction). The score they'd be aiming for to limit their increase would not be far off the score they were aiming for to hit buffer previously

 

[Arthur Wedge]

I know how the buffer worked.

The point I was making that there were plenty of times you were having a bad day under the old system, and you knew early on you wouldn't make the buffer. So, there was no point in "grinding" if that was your motivation.

And today, you may know you are not going to get a really good score, but you can still "grind" to try and get it as close to your top 8 as possible. Especially knowing that often, your 5th-8th best scores are worse than your Index anyway, so it is always worth "grinding" a score to try and get somewhere over 30 points anyway.

At any rate, everyone will have their own personal motivations. Perhaps very low handicappers were more aware of that 0.1 increase that they desperately wanted to avoid. Having a low handicap is good for the ego, the vanity golfer, so they simply want to keep it as low as possible. I wouldn't have been surprised a good chunk of very low handicappers didn't submit scores at all, for fear of an increase. Same now, if they are due to have a good score drop off.

Someone’s scores around 5-8th etc are more than likely where someone would expect the old buffer to be so the situation is the same

The difference in the past if you don’t reach buffer then your handicap changes - in the current situation there is a chance that getting nowhere near may have no affect at all on the HC

And the situation is not just the domain of low HCs

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Exactly. As far as having a score still potentially being worthwhile for handicapping goes, the point of futility occurred much sooner under the old system.
As I said earlier, the article has it backwards and there is now more incentive to grind a score out than before.
(P.S. how all these journalists/writers/contributors manage to still be so utterly clueless about handicapping, given the volume and quality of research they must have done to produce endless click-bait articles about it, probably needs studying.)

There needs to be some sort of realisation that WHS is far from perfect and these articles and comments from many golfers come from an area of experience of both systems

Articles like this are down to someone’s opinions - some maybe have the belief that the new system doesn’t give incentives to grind away , that’s just their opinions


There are lots of issues with WHS just like there were with the old Congu system

Current system is wide open for manipulation in multiple ways which is a consequence of the good things about WHS

I suspect there will be a good amount of changes to it over the years - we have already seen a number of tweaks over the years

It seems very strange that a system that works very well in somewhere like NZ works like a car crash with the borders of the UK

 

[Swango1980]

Someone’s scores around 5-8th etc are more than likely where someone would expect the old buffer to be so the situation is the same

The difference in the past if you don’t reach buffer then your handicap changes - in the current situation there is a chance that getting nowhere near may have no affect at all on the HC

And the situation is not just the domain of low HCs

Or there could be a situation where your handicap increases more dramatically than 0.1. Thus, such golfers may have even more incentive to fight hard to score as well as possible, to try and limit the increase.

Again, we could paint scenarios about all sorts of hypothetical golfers why have different mentalities and motivations. Maybe there are some golfers out there that, when they know they are not going to be losing a Top 8 score, basically give up early in the round if it isn't going well. And these golfers may not feel the impact after that round, but in the future, there will be times there handicap will start to increase more than it would have done, because when they do lose Top 8 scores, they won't always have as good scores (as they would have done if they always fought to the end of every round) just outside that which will replace them.

Ultimately, such golfers may moan and blame WHS for not giving them a reason to grind. But all they are doing is admitting to the rest of the world that they have weak mentalities in such situations, and they are just trying to blame WHS rather than deal with their own internal struggles in those scenarios.

Meanwhile, there will be many golfers who have been motivated by WHS. Not just because it has made it easier to submit social scores, thus making social rounds much more meaningful to them. But also because bad form can result in fairly rapid increases, and so they are motivated to either limit those increases, or get back to form and drive their handicap back down again. Whereas with the old system, once you hit a plateau in your ability, you could pretty much stagnate at the same handicap (or within 1-2 shots of it) for years. That could be demoralizing when you hit long periods of bad golf, and being completely uncompetitive.