balaclava
Assistant Pro
Why because it has made Golf in the UK an onerous endurance test and not FUN!!
I’ve recently returned to live in the UK and joined my local club having never played golf in this country; I am disappointed by what I find. Specifically I refer to the golf on offer in the standard club organised competitions and more specifically I refer to Medal competitions.
Golf in my previous country of residence was competitive and challenging but it was FUN. Medal was so unpopular, a vote was taken by the general membership to ban it to just one competition per month. Medal may be the truest test of a golfer’s skill but it is more of an ordeal and test of endurance than FUN. In my previous country over 90% of competitions were Stableford and all competitions were 4 ball. I was trudging round the golf course the other week and I asked a member why all the competitions here were 3 ball; “because playing 4 ball would take too long†he replied. I replied, “the reason 4 ball takes so long is because you’re playing Medal and were spending time looking for balls and walking back to the T to go again, if you played Stableford all that drudgery is gone.†It went over the top of his head because being a human being he (and you) presume that what you’ve been doing all your golfing life is as it should be because it was ordained by God as an addendum on the back of the tablet containing the Ten Commandments! What you don’t realise is what you’re missing. In my previous country because all competitions were Stableford and all were 4 balls, the balls there was always a ‘private’ better ball competition within the competition and that was FUN.
Of the many golfers I have spoken to about this all have said that they would prefer Stableford over Medal !! I played the other week with a member of the clubs Handicap/Competitions committee and I asked him the same questions. He replied that they played Medal because the single figure handicap golfers preferred it believing that Stableford benefited high handicap golfers. “What percentage of the membership are in single figures,†I asked? “Very few†he replied!!!
Another reply I have commonly received from members is that all competitions must be Medal because only Medal competitions qualify for handicap. Of course that’s not correct but that is a view commonly held. Certainly I get a clear impression that golfers here accept the drudgery of Medal because they feel the weekly battle is the ordained path to the Holy Grail of a lower handicap.
Of course the architects of CONGU will now be asking what’s all this got to do with them?
Another commonly misguided belief I have found here is that golfers presume that every country uses the CONGU handicap system. There may be another country that uses that system but I don’t know of any and I have played golf in a few different countries. Every other country I’ve played in takes every game, social or otherwise, into account when calculating a handicap. Because (normal) people tend to play better golf socially rather than in competition and because (normal) people tend to play better golf playing Stableford than Medal this produces a (lower and) truer reflection of the golfers ability (handicap). Because the UK has the CONGU system and because that systems only allows handicaps to be calculated on club competitions this somehow has been interpreted as all competitions should be Medal competitions!!
Of course nothing’s going to change because of what I have said here or elsewhere but I feel so much better for getting that off my chest
I’ve recently returned to live in the UK and joined my local club having never played golf in this country; I am disappointed by what I find. Specifically I refer to the golf on offer in the standard club organised competitions and more specifically I refer to Medal competitions.
Golf in my previous country of residence was competitive and challenging but it was FUN. Medal was so unpopular, a vote was taken by the general membership to ban it to just one competition per month. Medal may be the truest test of a golfer’s skill but it is more of an ordeal and test of endurance than FUN. In my previous country over 90% of competitions were Stableford and all competitions were 4 ball. I was trudging round the golf course the other week and I asked a member why all the competitions here were 3 ball; “because playing 4 ball would take too long†he replied. I replied, “the reason 4 ball takes so long is because you’re playing Medal and were spending time looking for balls and walking back to the T to go again, if you played Stableford all that drudgery is gone.†It went over the top of his head because being a human being he (and you) presume that what you’ve been doing all your golfing life is as it should be because it was ordained by God as an addendum on the back of the tablet containing the Ten Commandments! What you don’t realise is what you’re missing. In my previous country because all competitions were Stableford and all were 4 balls, the balls there was always a ‘private’ better ball competition within the competition and that was FUN.
Of the many golfers I have spoken to about this all have said that they would prefer Stableford over Medal !! I played the other week with a member of the clubs Handicap/Competitions committee and I asked him the same questions. He replied that they played Medal because the single figure handicap golfers preferred it believing that Stableford benefited high handicap golfers. “What percentage of the membership are in single figures,†I asked? “Very few†he replied!!!
Another reply I have commonly received from members is that all competitions must be Medal because only Medal competitions qualify for handicap. Of course that’s not correct but that is a view commonly held. Certainly I get a clear impression that golfers here accept the drudgery of Medal because they feel the weekly battle is the ordained path to the Holy Grail of a lower handicap.
Of course the architects of CONGU will now be asking what’s all this got to do with them?
Another commonly misguided belief I have found here is that golfers presume that every country uses the CONGU handicap system. There may be another country that uses that system but I don’t know of any and I have played golf in a few different countries. Every other country I’ve played in takes every game, social or otherwise, into account when calculating a handicap. Because (normal) people tend to play better golf socially rather than in competition and because (normal) people tend to play better golf playing Stableford than Medal this produces a (lower and) truer reflection of the golfers ability (handicap). Because the UK has the CONGU system and because that systems only allows handicaps to be calculated on club competitions this somehow has been interpreted as all competitions should be Medal competitions!!
Of course nothing’s going to change because of what I have said here or elsewhere but I feel so much better for getting that off my chest
