Eureka - 9 hole comps

[El Diablo]

At my second club they have been running 9 hole comps for over 18 months at a rate of at least one a month as qualifiers.

I stopped entering after 1 comp as playing off 12 they would make me play off 4 i.e. deduct 2 shots which meant to buffer I had to play below handicap.

As far as I could see they became mainly the mecca for the unscrupulous to maintain and increase their competition handicaps and too risky for mid to low handicap players to enter as had to be right on your game.

Just checking the results of the recent midweek 9 holer and low and behold they played it off full 50% of handicap, so then thought I should double check the tees used and they were still yellow as usual so no change to the whites (don't make much difference on front 9 anyway).

Will be interesting to see if this remains or was it an an error by the comps team, or have they been doing it wrong for 18 months ?

They are very touchy if you query or question what they do (even when you can show they are wrong) so will observe for now before considering an entry.

 

[inc0gnito]

Maybe deliberate manipulation to be a bit elitist for the competition?

 

[Foxholer]

At my second club they have been running 9 hole comps for over 18 months at a rate of at least one a month as qualifiers.

I stopped entering after 1 comp as playing off 12 they would make me play off 4 i.e. deduct 2 shots which meant to buffer I had to play below handicap.

As far as I could see they became mainly the mecca for the unscrupulous to maintain and increase their competition handicaps and too risky for mid to low handicap players to enter as had to be right on your game.

Just checking the results of the recent midweek 9 holer and low and behold they played it off full 50% of handicap, so then thought I should double check the tees used and they were still yellow as usual so no change to the whites (don't make much difference on front 9 anyway).

Will be interesting to see if this remains or was it an an error by the comps team, or have they been doing it wrong for 18 months ?

They are very touchy if you query or question what they do (even when you can show they are wrong) so will observe for now before considering an entry.

Don't know for certain without knowing Par, SSS and your exact handicap, but I suspect their method could well be correct!

The '4' handicap you play off means you get shots on the 4 lowest SIs on the 9-Hole course - not holes with SI 1 to 4. So if 9-Hole course has odd SIs, you get shots on SI 1, 3, 5 and 7 (2, 4, 6 and 8 if the evens).

Assuming you are in England, it's all in Clause 22 of this document http://www.englandgolf.org/library-media\documents\English Web Version(2).pdf

 

[backwoodsman]

Don't know for certain without knowing Par, SSS and your exact handicap, but I suspect their method could well be correct!

The '4' handicap you play off means you get shots on the 4 lowest SIs on the 9-Hole course - not holes with SI 1 to 4. So if 9-Hole course has odd SIs, you get shots on SI 1, 3, 5 and 7 (2, 4, 6 and 8 if the evens).

Assuming you are in England, it's all in Clause 22 of this document http://www.englandgolf.org/library-media\documents\English Web Version(2).pdf

I can see how the formula might well give you either one more, or one less, stroke than you might expect (ie different from a straight 50% calculation). But surely it would take a very weird relationship between SSS and Par to end with 2 shots difference wouldn’t it ?

Edit: Cancel that - just worked out that its not that difficult at all.

 

[Capella]

Our 9-hole comps are normally treated as really half an 18 hole comp. They are mostly Stableford, so you just get 18 points for the back nine and play the front nine as you would in any other Stabelford comp, getting shots on the holes where you usually get them.

 

[El Diablo]

I do understand that there is a formula to apply (see below) on 9 hole comps (plus add 18 pts) and having put it into an excel spreadsheet the notional SSS for our front 9 as an 18 would have to be 66 to support the deductions that they had been doing.

For example, if the player has an Exact Handicap of 12.8 and the Nine-Hole SSS and Par are 69 and 34 respectively the Nine-Hole Competition Handicap Allowance is:

[ 12.8 + 69 – (34 x2)]/2= [ 12.8 + 69 – 68] / 2 = 6.9 rounded to 7.

The course as a whole is par 71/SSS 71 and if the front 9 were that easy then the overall SSS would never be equal to par.

1. 
   

The scores that you see from the competition results analysis would also never support a notional SSS of 66 for the front 9

Looking at the new deductions they have applied (if correct and not a one off) this uses SSS 70 for front 9 which would make sense based upon course difficulty.

Has always looked wrong - will be interesting to see the next 9 hole comp result.

 

[jim8flog]

Our 9-hole comps are normally treated as really half an 18 hole comp. They are mostly Stableford, so you just get 18 points for the back nine and play the front nine as you would in any other Stabelford comp, getting shots on the holes where you usually get them.

To be a qualifying comp it can only be played as a Stableford comp, Congu Rule 22.2

 

[jim8flog]

I understood that for a 9 hole comp to be a qualifying comp it has to be played on a designated 9 hole course (ie if an 18 hole layout then the 9 are chosen from that)

We play ours on a 9 hole course but have a SSS set for the 9 hole comp which is actually one shot higher than the the SSS for 18 (2x9). Course measured and SSS set by the local authority for 9 hole comps. We have a specific 9 hole card with SIs set for difficulty and not match play.

I assumed that the computer software would take care of all the appropriate calculations and looking at past results this appears to be the case.

 

[rosecott]

To be a qualifying comp it can only be played as a Stableford comp, Congu Rule 22.2

Plays in Germany under EGA rules.

 

[rosecott]

I understood that for a 9 hole comp to be a qualifying comp it has to be played on a designated 9 hole course (ie if an 18 hole layout then the 9 are chosen from that)

We play ours on a 9 hole course but have a SSS set for the 9 hole comp which is actually one shot higher than the the SSS for 18 (2x9). Course measured and SSS set by the local authority for 9 hole comps. We have a specific 9 hole card with SIs set for difficulty and not match play.

I assumed that the computer software would take care of all the appropriate calculations and looking at past results this appears to be the case.

Surely the SIs for 9-hole competitions relate to the SIs for the 9 holes being played using the 18-hole SIs. If - as they should be - the odds are on one 9 and evens on the other then a 9-hole qualifier's SIs will relate to either the odd or even SIs (unless the club has opted for a mixture of holes from each 9). If the odd number SIs are used then the 9-hole SIs 1 to 9 would be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 from the 18-hole card.

 

[Foxholer]

...We have a specific 9 hole card with SIs set for difficulty and not match play.
...

Surely the SIs for 9-hole competitions relate to the SIs for the 9 holes being played using the 18-hole SIs. If - as they should be - the odds are on one 9 and evens on the other then a 9-hole qualifier's SIs will relate to either the odd or even SIs (unless the club has opted for a mixture of holes from each 9). If the odd number SIs are used then the 9-hole SIs 1 to 9 would be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 from the 18-hole card.

18 hole SIs are set for Matchplay using rules that may may not reflect the true relative difficulty of the holes. Those SIs are normally then 'borrowed' for use in Stableford comps - though application of separate 'Stableford' SIs is permitted.

It actually makes sense to have/use Stableford SIs - which reflect the relative difficulty of each hole - for the 9 Hole course, as there is no concept of 9 Hole Matchplay! There would be no difference to the number of shots allocated, just a difference where they might be allocated.