Combined Scratch Score

[HRC99]

We had a medal on Saturday and it was extremely windy indeed and, consequently, very tough going.

Out of 113 cards, only 11 bettered their handicaps (best being 5 under) and 5 matched them and there were some big numbers out there.

Yet, the CSS for the day was the same as the SSS.

I'm a bit new to all of this so I wondered how it was worked out as I'd've thought the CSS would have been higher?

 

[HawkeyeMS]

It's complicated and you need tables from a booklet provided by CONGU but basically I think it is something like this...

count up how many players are in the competiton. They are split up according to their playing categories (Cat 4 are ignored) and the percentage (to nearest 10%) in each category is used to look up the tables. Table A is used when there are 30 or more competitors and Table B when there are less than 31.

Next you calculate the number of players (again ignore Cat 4) who have scored 2 over par or better in the competition. Convert this to a percentage of the total playing and use this to look up on the table whether the course has played easy or difficult on the day and by how many strokes (+3 to -1). The Competition Standard Scratch (CSS) is the SSS adjusted by this number.

 

[Fyldewhite]

Yes, it's a myth that there have to be a lot of low scores to get the CSS down. A score of +1 over SSS counts just the same in the calculation as one of -7 etc. In this case I'd think there must have been a significant number in the +1/+2 range so although not many matched or broke par the usual sort of percentage were less than +2.

 

[HRC99]

Blimey, I'll just forget about CSS and its calculations in future! Thanks for the replies. Never realised it was so complicated.

I suppose it's a lot easier now with computers. It must have been a nightmare before.