Does your handicap matter to you?

KenL

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Yes, it matters to me. I don't have much chance of winning medals and am not really good enough to win scratch events.
So, my personal achievements are about keeping my handicap down.
 

harpo_72

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Used to be Cat 1 , would go round regularly under or level. Now I am nowhere, I am not old I still hit the ball fine enough .. on occasions and this really bothers me, it bothers me to the point where I don’t want to play the game. Just cannot find anything else I want to do ☹️. Bored of rubbish golf if I am honest… want normality back
 

Crow

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I used to be really focused on it and felt in some ways it defined what sort of a golfer you were.

Over the last 5 or 6 years due to a combination of shanks, chipping yips and health issues I've gone from 8 to 17.

Playing with old clubs gave me a whole new interest in the game and I thought I was no longer too concerned about my handicap, but now I think about it I still get very nervy with a card in hand as I want to score as well as I can, which usually results in a bad round as my golf has deteriorated so much!
 

Ethan

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I'm sure that's what's been mentioned,I never play in it tbh... but now maybe I should:ROFLMAO:

I used to play in them, and quite liked them. They are the same as versus par. Basically 3 points/net birdie or more is a win, 2 points/net par a half and 1 or 0 points/net bogey or worse a loss, so it is like stableford but with a cap on how many points you can win or lose on a given hole, so often a 3/4 of handicap was applied because a 0 point hole didn't hurt more than 1 point.
 

Ethan

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Just to add to the oddness, I'd rather hit a great shot that came beautifully off the club face then hit the flag and ricocheted into the bunker than a thinned shot that hit a tree and rebounded onto the green.
 
D

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I'm told there is a new scoring method with bogey , hence the silly scores. I'm sure someone said net bogey now wins the hole??
We've still got the same slope as before, we were rated before WHS came in. I think part of the problem was all the comps are from before the Am when there was little or no rough, now its pretty brutal. Mind the guy that won the bogey won the Stapleford last week with 45 points

Not to be that person, but I am going to be anyway. It's stableford, not stapleford.
 

jim8flog

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I don't think the WHS is inconsistent, but it has a very short memory. CONGU had a lot of drag because it was pinned to the running handicap, WHS can completely change over a relatively small number of rounds. If WHS was the best 16 out of 40 rounds, it would change a lot more slowly.

The trouble with making it anything much more then x out of 20 is that an awful lot of players do not put in 20 cards a year and many probably do not put in 20 cards in 2 years.
 

Billysboots

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I’d like to get back to single figures, and I’m very nearly there, but it’s less important now than it once was.

A good mate of mine, who plays off 5, genuinely couldn’t care less. He’s of the view his handicap will reduce if he plays well, and go up if he doesn’t. His view is to concentrate on his game, and his handicap will take care of itself.
 

Imurg

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I’d like to get back to single figures, and I’m very nearly there, but it’s less important now than it once was.

A good mate of mine, who plays off 5, genuinely couldn’t care less. He’s of the view his handicap will reduce if he plays well, and go up if he doesn’t. His view is to concentrate on his game, and his handicap will take care of itself.
This is me as well.
I used to take Ethan's view that the shot mattered almost more than the result...these days?
Don't give a damn how it gets there :LOL:
 

rksquire

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I care about my handicap, but it's changing so quickly now that part of the 'interest' of being able to track it easily is gone.
 
D

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Messes with your head to think you are never more than 8 rounds from becoming a scratch golfer :LOL:
 

BiMGuy

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Every time I go out to record a score for handicap assessment and/or adjustment I am trying to play to the best of my ability.

I would hope this is true for everyone. (Playing deliberately poorly is not something I am considering anyone here is doing)

If so, then you do care about your handicap as you are trying to get as low as you can every recorded round. This should be true for everyone.

Please someone, tell me where I am going wrong with my reasoning!

There is nothing wrong with your reasoning.

I try to try my best regardless of whether the round will go towards my hc or not. As I said. I don't care what my hc. I measure my ability/progress by the score I shoot.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Yes it matters quite a bit, but on a round-by-round basis much less so than under the previous system.

My exact handicap used to come down as a result of a few good rounds a year, but I’d go up an almost balancing amount through +0.1s. As I tried to keep my playing handicap to 8 I was always very aware of my exact and so when playing a qualifier I knew if I was between say 8.1 and 8.4 I’d try very hard to avoid a +0.1.

Doesnt seem to matter to me in the same way under the new system. I’ve drifted up to 10.1 but have four fairly high counting scores in a row coming soon and so know that if I play my decent game I will be able to lower my HI quite quickly.
 
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Tashyboy

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Does my hcap matter. Yes. But that’s only a small part. Covid helped emphasise that. It’s getting out and meeting other golfers. Fresh air, me time, recharge batteries. The wild life. Don’t get me wrong, I won £28 yesterday plus what the club winnings are. But dropping 0.3 was massive for me.
What is also important is at times playing well. Hitting good shots, shots that bring me back. Seeing PPs playing well.
 

Golfnut1957

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Under congu participating in a competition was primarily about an opportunity to reduce my handicap. Whether or not I did well in a comp' was taken care of by my performance, and my focus there was to perform well enough to reduce my handicap.

Under WHS I still have the desire to reduce my handicap, but the reliance on competition rounds is much diminished, with access to the EG app and the ability to make every round a scoring round. There is also the added bonus that while in the past the opportunities to reduce a handicap where restricted to the competition season (summer), the opportunity is now year long, although in practical terms the course condition and weather conditions during the depth of winter would almost certainly result in nothing other than an upward trend.
 

adam6177

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It matters only in terms of being a fair reflection of my ability when I play with mates.... I haven't played real competition golf for about 3 years now and doubt I ever will again, so I'll use mscoreboard to monitor it.
 
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