Does your Club give a prize for best Gross score in weekly Medal?

[Swango1980]

Yeah if you "ding" then you are NR technically for best gross during stableford.

Interesting. I suppose that means the lower handicapped golfers will technically try and finish every hole then, even when they can score no points, so long as they are not generally having a disaster.

 

[Swango1980]

In a stableford it's easier to make it best "scratch", how many points with no shots.
Very easy to work out and no need to DQ anyone.

I guess that is one way to do it, except it is not really lowest gross as many would know it. It is simply Stableford with no handicaps. Because, it still allows, for example, a player to have a nightmare hole, such as a 10, but it only count as a double bogey on the card. So, Player A could shoot 18 pars for a gross 72. Player B could shoot 3 birdies, 14 pars and a 10 (say on a par 3) to finish with a 76. Player B would win "lowest gross" despite having 4 shots more than Player A

 

[Orikoru]

I've been involved in these discussions before.
People with pre-conceived ideas about "the same person always winning" would be pleasantly surprised to see the spread of the best gross/scratch score.

Depends on the membership I guess. If you had one scratch player and everyone else 5 shots higher then maybe. At our club the best players that regularly play comps are only off 4 and 5 so there would be a decent spread of winners.

 

[Orikoru]

I guess that is one way to do it, except it is not really lowest gross as many would know it. It is simply Stableford with no handicaps. Because, it still allows, for example, a player to have a nightmare hole, such as a 10, but it only count as a double bogey on the card. So, Player A could shoot 18 pars for a gross 72. Player B could shoot 3 birdies, 14 pars and a 10 (say on a par 3) to finish with a 76. Player B would win "lowest gross" despite having 4 shots more than Player A

Yeah I agree with that. So you should have to putt out to be eligible for the gross prize. Which negates the speed of play benefit of picking up during Stableford though, so I think it's a bit silly to mix the two really. But each to their own.

 

[patricks148]

Yes, we have a scratch and Handicap for every mens comp held at Nairn.

 

[Swango1980]

Yeah I agree with that. So you should have to putt out to be eligible for the gross prize. Which negates the speed of play benefit of picking up during Stableford though, so I think it's a bit silly to mix the two really. But each to their own.

Yeah, I agree. We have lowest gross on all medal competitions, as well as best nett in Division 1 and Division 2. All Stableford comps are purely handicap based, so no lowest gross or best points. However, we tend to have prizes for more places. (i.e. for medals, 3 prizes, lowest gross, best Div 1 nett and best Div 2 nett). Whereas for Stableford, prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd generally.

 

[Grant85]

Although, you could argue the same when competitions are split into Divisions. Will someone playing in Division 2 make the argument "why am I paying for a Division 1 winner, when I beat them nett but only came 5th in Division 2 and got nothing?"

If prizes are still given out for best nett scores, I don't see why there is a problem also having a prize for best gross. It is an acknowledgement that they scored the absolute best medal score on the day, which I think is fair enough.

Divisions are fine from a sweep point of view. You pay to enter the sweep for your division.
If you're div 2 player, you're not paying towards Division 1 or 3 prize money.

 

[KenL]

We have a lowest gross. Theory being that you can count on one hand the amount of comps won by Cat 1 golfers over the years. Gives them something to play for.

Exactly. High cappers can easily shoot 43-45 points but that would be very unlikely for low handicappers.

 

[Swango1980]

Yeah, maybe only 5-10% of the field are in with a realistic chance of winning the lowest gross. But, probably only 5-10% of the field have a realistic chance of shooting a score of 45+ points (or nett 10 under or better), and it is probably not the lowest handicappers.

 

[jim8flog]

For club comps it is the Saturday comp only.

For Seniors comp it is only when we play medal and not Stableford.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

In the 1990's one of my old clubs had around 30 members 5 handicap or lower.
Over 60 members single figure.
Never a problem with Scratch competition players regularly winning.
I find it very sad that some clubs do not award scratch medal prizes...surely that is what golf is all about.
Perhaps those clubs need to look at how their club develops young/new golfers.

 

[fenwayrich]

We have a Scratch prize for every medal, also Scratch winners as well as Divisions 1, 2 and 3 qualify for Medal Finals at the end of the year. We have had some people complaining about the Scratch prize because they have no chance of winning. The point of the game in its purest sense clearly eludes them.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We operate divisions for the medals and stabelfords and so the argument has always been that you are competing against your handicap peers for the best net score with the handicap levelling everything up. I know HDID is set up to recognise the lowest gross but no prize. I can sort of see the club's argument that we're trying to shoot our best scores (nett) so it should be about the nett score and this applies to division 1 where the low guys play. I wonder if there is also a cost implication as well as we have an awful lot of medals/stableford both weekly and monthly in a normal year

 

[Backsticks]

We only have monthly medals, and do give a prize to the best gross. The other three weeks, we dont play medal and can be a mix of stableford or fourball. No gross prize for them.

 

[Backsticks]

Yes, in most medals.
Of course the player who scores the best on the day should get something, that's the whole point of the game.

Its not the whole point of the game of handicap golf though, so not true that the best score should get something.

And, not a lot of justice, if as in many clubs, the gross is likely to be contended for by a handful, that the rest of the field should be stumping up for a prize for them week in week out, when they have no chance whatsoever of contending for. We play 8 medals a year. With Captains and Presidents also have gross prizes, thats 10 per year. Plenty.

 

[Swango1980]

Its not the whole point of the game of handicap golf though, so not true that the best score should get something.

And, not a lot of justice, if as in many clubs, the gross is likely to be contended for by a handful, that the rest of the field should be stumping up for a prize for them week in week out, when they have no chance whatsoever of contending for. We play 8 medals a year. With Captains and Presidents also have gross prizes, thats 10 per year. Plenty.

Maybe we could also limit all scores to, say, 40 points. So, if a 30 handicapper gets 48 points, and a scratch golfer gets 40 points, they both tie and share the prize?

 

[CountLippe]

Maybe you could write to the committee and get a 30p discount each time?

its probably nearer 10p -15p...

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We don't actually have weekly medals - monthly only - and for them not that I am aware of so I very much doubt it. Our weekly comp is stableford scoring.

 

[OnTour]

Nope my current club is very much against it and shows in the standard of player tbh. forward thinking clubs do it for the right reason to get better and lower. not protect the bandicaps

 

[bobmac]

When I was at RAF Bruggen, the entry fee for medals was DM5 for everyone.
If you wanted to enter the best scratch, you had to pay another DM5.
So the good players had to pay double for a chance of winning a much smaller (gross) prize than the best net which they had next to no chance of winning which they also had to pay into.
The only sport where the better you get the harder it is to win.