GM Article - Handicap System Ruining Comps for Low Handicaps

[Banchory Buddha]

We had this exact same sentiment at my club, where the membership were consistenyl moaning about 25 handicappers winning with a Nett 60.

Until I crunched the numbers for them and pointed out that the old Cat 1 golfers made up just 6% of our membership, yet won 13% of all handicap competitions. Actually the best performing handicap category.

Our membership has 70% of people in the 12.5 to 28.4 range. So it should be more likely that someone from that group wins the comps on a weekend. They actually underperformed in terms of wins.

Correct, but now it's swung the other way under WHS, proportionately there's a premium on poor play and high handicaps. That cannot be right

 

[Banchory Buddha]

That’s not the handicap systems failure it can be resolved by the entry requirements..
If you’re so worried about it as a high handicapper have dedicated competitions for high handicappers.

I felt robbed the other week when I came 4 th overall got a payout lower than the lowest gross who was nowhere.com , div 1 was p5 and div 3 winner was p17 … but in the end that’s just how it is, next time I will try harder and I will keep trying.. these are the criteria and requirements that need to be met.

Of course it is a WHS issue, that is where the handicaps come from. yes you can have divisions, but there's still overall winners, and there can only be one of those.

Here's an idea, make the playing handicap percentage 80%, it would massively favour lower handicaps, but that could be resolved by entry requirements couldn't it?

 

[AussieKB]

I always thought the better you got the more chance of winning you had, who knew the worse you are the more chance you have of winning.

 

[GB72]

I always thought the better you got the more chance of winning you had, who knew the worse you are the more chance you have of winning.

The better you are in comparison to how good the system thinks you are is what gives you more chance of winning.

 

[harpo_72]

The better you are in comparison to how good the system thinks you are is what gives you more chance of winning.

That’s why improving golfers are more likely to win. The fact you have reached the pinnacle of your abilities means you cannot compete.. it’s always been that way.
WHS is very dynamic and it will reward those who want change whether that is up or down. The old system didn’t change fast enough so you could shoot level off a 4.9 handicap come down by 0.5 and still have 4 shots in your reserve, that’s what this is all about..

 

[clubchamp98]

That’s why improving golfers are more likely to win. The fact you have reached the pinnacle of your abilities means you cannot compete.. it’s always been that way.
WHS is very dynamic and it will reward those who want change whether that is up or down. The old system didn’t change fast enough so you could shoot level off a 4.9 handicap come down by 0.5 and still have 4 shots in your reserve, that’s what this is all about..

I shot 69 3 under nett saturday and went from 6.7 to 6.6. Because I was losing a score from 5 months ago.
I have played in every weekend comp.
Hardly current form .

 

[AussieKB]

That’s why improving golfers are more likely to win. The fact you have reached the pinnacle of your abilities means you cannot compete.. it’s always been that way.
WHS is very dynamic and it will reward those who want change whether that is up or down. The old system didn’t change fast enough so you could shoot level off a 4.9 handicap come down by 0.5 and still have 4 shots in your reserve, that’s what this is all about..

Or you could win the event and go out 1.0 shots (which I have seen several times) and the guy who came second lost a shot.....
a very fair system NOT

 

[Alan Clifford]

I shot 69 3 under nett saturday and went from 6.7 to 6.6. Because I was losing a score from 5 months ago.
I have played in every weekend comp.
Hardly current form .

have yiou only played 20 games in 5 months?

 

[wjemather]

Or you could win the event and go out 1.0 shots (which I have seen several times) and the guy who came second lost a shot.....
a very fair system NOT

Competition finishing positions are utterly irrelevant to handicap calculations. A winning score could be 10 over or 10 under handicap - treating them the same would be absurd.
Rightly, only the scores are used, so yes, it is fair.

 

[harpo_72]

have yiou only played 20 games in 5 months?

To be honest I am in a similar position coming into my next competition, I could lose a good score and go up. But really it’s not that relevant because it’s how I do against everyone else on the day .. I think my HI will go up 0.3 at most so no big change because my 20 scores are pretty tight in dispersion. So I should be whining about not being able to win but I understand I have pretty much topped out my competition level.

 

[clubchamp98]

have yiou only played 20 games in 5 months?

It’s been raining a bit here.

 

[Banchory Buddha]

have yiou only played 20 games in 5 months?

I still have a score from October in my 20, I am a member at two clubs and play both their medals (plus opens), it's mid-May, hardly unrelaistic that someone has scores from last year still on their record.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I still have a score from October in my 20, I am a member at two clubs and play both their medals (plus opens), it's mid-May, hardly unrelaistic that someone has scores from last year still on their record.

Has some scores from last year . I have one from THIS year. We have only had 3 weeks of Q comps due to the weather. First week, I play the Saturday comp, course closed for rain, second week, played comp, 3rd week played a 4BBB open elsewhere. My handicap is currently 95% based on last year. This will not be unusual for players in the NE of England right now.

 

[Orikoru]

I still have a score from October in my 20, I am a member at two clubs and play both their medals (plus opens), it's mid-May, hardly unrelaistic that someone has scores from last year still on their record.

I can do better than that, my 20th score is from June 2023. My oldest green counting score is from August. Obviously this year has been a joke though weather-wise, I've only had two cards in since December (both comps that I entered in April and May).

I've kind of shot myself in the foot by not being someone who puts general play cards in though. If I had I'd be off about 16 by now I think. That would have been quite helpful for my upcoming matches.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I can do better than that, my 20th score is from June 2023.

Maybe this should be a thread in itself but I've just checked and my 20th score is from June 2022. My last counting score is from July 2022.

 

[Imurg]

My 20th score is from 10th April.....this year
One playing partner has a 20th score dated August 23rd.....2020.

 

[Backache]

Not many years I put in more than7-8 cards . I only put in competition scores and then only strokeplay singles.

 

[IanMcC]

My 20th score is from 10th April.....this year
One playing partner has a 20th score dated August 23rd.....2020.

Mine is from the end of June 2023. About average I reckon. No GP rounds, just comps.

 

[D-S]

We have quite a few players whose past 20 scores have all been since January of this year. A lot of them feature on the soft/hard cap report as their indexes have increased by 3 or more shots. This is because conditions over the past few months have been incredibly challenging, with courses playing extremely long, green surrounds being muddy and greens being not very flat. These players have been doing well, unsurprisingly, in recent competitions. The system is beginning to rebalance their indexes as they submit better scores.

 

[IanM]

My 20th score is from 10th April.....this year
One playing partner has a 20th score dated August 23rd.....2020.

An anomaly of the system that is virtually impossible to fix for a multitude of reasons.