First H/C and a little disappointed/confused

[Curls]

So I went last night and picked up my CONGU cert with my spanking new handicap and was instantly confused.

The 3 cards I handed in were all +13 (when you knocked down the odd blob). On one I was 2 over for the front 9, on another I was 2 over for the back, the other was more consistent. I had birdies on some of the hardest holes. According to anyone I talked to I was sure to get about 12 on general play, so when I picked up my card last night and it said 17....

Eh?!

I spoke to the H/C secretary, who it has to be said came across as a top bloke, fair play.

Apparently CSS at our par 70 course is 66, so my 13 became 17. I get it, but surely my H/C should be against SSS?! I have shots on holes now that I practically always par or better, how is that fair against a visiting opponent who plays off 13 at another club? If we're both on our average day we both shoot 13 over and I win.

Our CSS is so low cos Cat1s can drive a lot of the dogleg par 4s, they're short with good bends but the fairways are tight so for anyone who cant drive 300 accurately you have to go the long route and can end up in trouble very easily, once you leave the fairway here you're usually behind a tree and chipping out sideways. I can imagine a really good player murdering the course, but for mere mortals its more of a test because the "rough" doesnt exist its just youngish trees designed to stop any forward progression of play once you're in em. If you can find your ball that is .

Anyway I rang on the basis that I thought I would be lower and I didn't want cries of "bandit" should I go out and shoot what Im capable of doing, I've broken 80 a few times there now and yes on comp day off white tees it'll be harder but still, anyone I played with at the club wouldn't have given me this many shots.

I'm entering a comp next weekend, not sure what the format is yet, cant believe I have a shot on every hole but 1, doesn't make sense.

Guess my pride just took a jolt as I thought I was closer to Cat 2 than 4

 

[brendy]

I would wait and see how you play with a comp card in your back pocket. You might well end up wanting more shots

 

[patricks148]

Whats the problem, thats the hadicap you have been given, if you can play under it you will get cut straight away won't you?

 

[HawkeyeMS]

You're h'cap has to be against SSS as that is what you will be compared against for h'cap adjustments in a comp. If you go and shoot +13 in a medal off of 13 you'll go up 0.1, off of 17 you'll hit the buffer zone so won't even get a cut. You say you've broken 80 a couple of times which is great but you'd have to do that every week off of 13 just to stay at that h'cap.

If your oppo in matchplay comes from a longer course with an SSS closer to par then the liklihood is he'll shoot better than 13 at your place as it is shorter\easier so it will all work itself out.

All you can do if you think it is too high is go out and prove it but it sounds pretty accurate to me

 

[Curls]

There isn't a problem really, I get it, I just felt guilty for getting more than I thought but as you say, might be a different story come game-time

 

[JezzE]

Best thing to do is forget all about how many under or over par you are as that has nothing to do with handicap, especially at a course where par and SSS are several shots apart as at your place

 

[Curls]

You're h'cap has to be against SSS as that is what you will be compared against for h'cap adjustments in a comp. If you go and shoot +13 in a medal off of 13 you'll go up 0.1, off of 17 you'll hit the buffer zone so won't even get a cut. You say you've broken 80 a couple of times which is great but you'd have to do that every week off of 13 just to stay at that h'cap.

If your oppo in matchplay comes from a longer course with an SSS closer to par then the liklihood is he'll shoot better than 13 at your place as it is shorter\easier so it will all work itself out.

All you can do if you think it is too high is go out and prove it but it sounds pretty accurate to me

That's a pretty good explanation, thanks Hawkeye, I guess I didn't understand enough about how it was worked out, is CSS not worked out every time though? Or is it averaged or something? The though that I'd have to shoot 9 over to maintain a 13 h/c never occurred to me, and when you put it like that you could be onto something.

Its all a bit academic as between you me and the internet we're moving on next month, so wherever we end up our H/Cs will follow us to a course we don't know and will doubtless go the wrong way til we get to know the track.

Thanks for sorting that out, like I say, neither myself nor anyone I talked to clearly hadn't didn't quite grasped the concept! We thought birdies on hard holes and good front/back stretches would come into play. Egg meet face

 

[HawkeyeMS]

You're h'cap has to be against SSS as that is what you will be compared against for h'cap adjustments in a comp. If you go and shoot +13 in a medal off of 13 you'll go up 0.1, off of 17 you'll hit the buffer zone so won't even get a cut. You say you've broken 80 a couple of times which is great but you'd have to do that every week off of 13 just to stay at that h'cap.

If your oppo in matchplay comes from a longer course with an SSS closer to par then the liklihood is he'll shoot better than 13 at your place as it is shorter\easier so it will all work itself out.

All you can do if you think it is too high is go out and prove it but it sounds pretty accurate to me

That's a pretty good explanation, thanks Hawkeye, I guess I didn't understand enough about how it was worked out, is CSS not worked out every time though? Or is it averaged or something? The though that I'd have to shoot 9 over to maintain a 13 h/c never occurred to me, and when you put it like that you could be onto something.

Its all a bit academic as between you me and the internet we're moving on next month, so wherever we end up our H/Cs will follow us to a course we don't know and will doubtless go the wrong way til we get to know the track.

Thanks for sorting that out, like I say, neither myself nor anyone I talked to clearly hadn't didn't quite grasped the concept! We thought birdies on hard holes and good front/back stretches would come into play. Egg meet face

Glad it makes sense. Good and bad stretches of holes are largely irrelevent, it's 18 holes that count. Scores are rounded down to nett double bogey for h'cap purposes and that takes account of the bad holes but stretches of good holes aren't usually considered.

CSS is calculated for every comp, it can range from 1 under to 3 over SSS depending on the scores returned in the comp. 99 times out of 100 CSS will be 1 under or equal to SSS. It rarely goes above SSS but it can. Your h'cap will be adjusted against CSS in a comp and not SSS(I didn't want to make the previous post any more confusing but since you bought it up )

Off of 17 you will need to shoot between 83 and 86 to hit the buffer zone if CSS = SSS. If CSS goes down 1 then those figures are 82 to 85 and obviously if it goes up above SSS they change the other way.

 

[Curls]

CSS is calculated for every comp, it can range from 1 under to 3 over SSS depending on the scores returned in the comp. 99 times out of 100 CSS will be 1 under or equal to SSS. It rarely goes above SSS but it can. Your h'cap will be adjusted against CSS in a comp and not SSS(I didn't want to make the previous post any more confusing but since you bought it up )

Off of 17 you will need to shoot between 83 and 86 to hit the buffer zone if CSS = SSS. If CSS goes down 1 then those figures are 82 to 85 and obviously if it goes up above SSS they change the other way.

Diamond. Cheers chap.

What a thoroughly good bunch of blokes not to say "ha ha you moron not as good as you think you are ha ha"

 

[ScienceBoy]

My first handicap was 17, I was down to 12 in just over a year. I am confident that with a V-Easy and your ability you will drop faster than that! I have never broken 80, only come close once, usually shoot 83-89.

 

[Curls]

My first handicap was 17, I was down to 12 in just over a year. I am confident that with a V-Easy and your ability you will drop faster than that!

Well played! Didn't get a chance to use the V Easy last night, was so f---ing busy at our course (as per usual), so I ended up having to team up with another couple of players. Wasn't going to crack it out then! If we had a practice green I suppose I could use it there, but we have a 20 foot by 15 foot bit of wasteland with a few holes that were dug there back in a time when someone gave a toss.

Have to say on using it at home I was startled by how unlike my normal putting stroke was to the v-easy pendulum motion. Got me thinking that did...

 

[ScienceBoy]

We have a 20 foot by 15 foot bit of wasteland with a few holes that were dug there back in a time when someone gave a toss.

Classy

 

[Curls]

Classy

Indeed, you could think of 1000 adjectives to describe our club and that would not be one of them.



Its served us well as a training ground, was cheap and close to home so cant complain, time to move on though, Im sick of repairing 10 pitch marks on every green, Im pretty sure thats someone elses job. A green chap or something? I dont know, Ive never seen one in the flesh.

Edit - yes it should be the players responsibility, but if you get a bunch of clowns out there every night expect a circus.

 

[sev112]

Our SSS is 3 under, and CSS is usually 4 under

Tough to get cut