Handicap query.

[Losttheplot]

I'm currently in the process of changing clubs so was thinkin of my handicap.
Now I had a handicap at my last club of 8.1 and my last comp was back in April, now when I move (hopefully be a member by October) will I have to register 3 cards again or do I keep my handicap from my last club??

I only ask as I know a few people who have made the exact same move as I am doing and they said their handicaps were similar to mine but when they moved because of the course being a lot more difficult there handicaps went from around 8 to 13-15.

I've got to be honest the course I've left is a lot easier than the one I'm going to and I know I'm not an 8hdcp player or anywhere near it on any other course. More like a 14.

Any thoughts?

 

[Smiffy]

My membership finished at Highwoods at the end of March this year and my active handicap was 12.2.
I joined a small club locally, literally to keep my handicap active. I haven't even played there yet!
My handicap of 12.2 was transferred over to the new club with immediate effect.
The course I am at now is a lot easier than Highwoods so with a few qualifiers under my belt I'm hoping to get down to 3 or 4 within six months

 

[Losttheplot]

The course I am at now is a lot easier than Highwoods so with a few qualifiers under my belt I'm hoping to get down to 3 or 4 within six months

 

[RGDave]

Steve.....I think it's a 99% certainty they'll keep you on whatever you are on, since it was so recent.

However, I feel that h'caps in the "mid range" are often determined by the difficulty of the course (the difficulty for average/good players, not SSS players). For example, I go round mine weekly playing between 10-15 in general. 10 gets me a cut, but 11 doesn't (due to the CSS) and 14-16 gets me a +0.1. When I play at the other club in my town, if I go round in more than 81 (10 over) I'm disappointed. Players moving from mine to the other are known to walk away with the first few comps and then level out 2 or 3 shots lower. It's an interesting thing to follow, our players off 18 OFTEN play to 14/15 etc. around the other course and another one 15 miles up the road. Players from these clubs that visit ours RARELY get close to their h'caps. I.M.O. it's all about how costly bad shots are; there a 7 or 8 holes at mine which are deadly, I can only think of 1 at the other local club. If I played there, I'm confident I would be off a single figure.

So, if the course you are planning on joining is considered hard, why not ask to hand in 3 cards....I would personally INSIST upon this if ever move clubs again. My mate went from the local "easy" course to Aberdovey (proper links golf) with a h'cap of 3.8. They asked him if it was OK to play off that and he replied "No..." I can't touch that around here. He handed in 3 cards and was put off 7.0. He's now on 7.6 (I know 'cause I played him off 8 recently). I can ask how he set up the deal to start playing as a new un-h'cap'd player handing in 3 cards.
T.B.H. he should never have been off 3.8....I've matched him gross on numerous occasions.


Where are you going "from" and "to"? I might have played them?

 

[Losttheplot]

From Patshull Park to South Staffordshire GC. South Staffs is a venue every year for national and regional qualifiers as well as being Peter Baker's home course so you can imagine it's a touch harder

 

[Losttheplot]

If I was going to play lots and lots of comps then I would probably accept being off 8.1 and let me handicap level out but because of work I might only play half a dozen comps a year so it would take me 3 years to level out

Think insisting on 3 cards is the option if they allow it.

 

[DCB]

Since you're moving from one club to another with no 'dead' time between then your handicap should transfer. If however you were lo leave one club now and not join another until next year then your current handicap would lapse when you left your first club.

If you're doing a simple move from one to another then your handicap should be transferred to your new 'home' club.

 

[SharkAttack]

Any club that lets someone with a current handicap play for their handicap again are fools. You could just play badly and get a false handicap, then clean up for the rest of the season or next season. Then move on and do the same again the following year.

I am not saying that you are someone who would do that for one minute, I am just playing Devils Advocate as there are some out there who would.

This comes from someone who has just changed back to his old club and when I changed my home club on howdidido, I got an email telling me my handicap had changed from 7.1- 9.1.

Shark

 

[Losttheplot]

Any club that lets someone with a current handicap play for their handicap again are fools. You could just play badly and get a false handicap, then clean up for the rest of the season or next season. Then move on and do the same again the following year.

I am not saying that you are someone who would do that for one minute, I am just playing Devils Advocate as there are some out there who would.

This comes from someone who has just changed back to his old club and when I changed my home club on howdidido, I got an email telling me my handicap had changed from 7.1- 9.1.

Shark

Forgive me if I ask silly questions... My old club use howdidido in the shop and I was on the system. Are you saying my handicap might change if I log in and change clubs on there??

 

[Swinger]

Trick is not to tell them what you have played off or that you had no handicap otherwise your H/C will stay the same in most cases I believe.
Be warned though that if you do get a H/C of 13+ and start winning a few comps in the first year or so some people will turn heads and if your really unlucky the club will find out your previous H/C and that it hadn't lapsed at all. Might be an interesting situation.
8.1 and care free golf sounds good to me, you might even surprise your self. And if it is that bad then you'll find that they'll probably give you an extra couple of shots in the annual H/C review if your really struggling.
Why do you feel that this other course if approx. 6 shots harder??

 

[Losttheplot]

Why do you feel that this other course if approx. 6 shots harder??

When you stand on the tee and look down the fairway you often say 'i need to be on the left side here or I have no shot in'. Well its like that a lot at the new course.
At my old course I didn't really have to say that. It was just hit the fairway and you'll be fine. Plus the fairways are narrower which makes target zones even smaller. As mentioned there is national qualifiers there so I think it's a few shots harder definately.

I'm not the sort of person to try to protect my handicap or even consider it. Just looking for a fairer one on a tougher course.
I play to about 10-12 on my current course with a handicap of 8.1 which is absolutely fine but knowing how much tighter and punishing the new course is I don't think I can play near 8. It's like driving off into an open field to driving off down an alley and the rest of the hole is similar too.
Maybe a slight exaduration but you get the picture

 

[Timberbonce]

I have moved clubs recently ( from Stressholme to Romanby ) and I have had a similar situation.

I went round Romanby to try it out before I joined and I found it much more difficult, it really punishes my bad shots where as Stressholme didn't.

I new My 18 handicap didn't mean much there but I still opted to keep it.

I wool much prefer to go and add to the pot a few times before I start cleaning up.

My first few rounds I was only scoring in the low 20's I can now just scrape 30 as my h/c is now 19 and my golf is starting to improve.

 

[viscount17]

Since you're moving from one club to another with no 'dead' time between then your handicap should transfer. If however you were lo leave one club now and not join another until next year then your current handicap would lapse when you left your first club.

If you're doing a simple move from one to another then your handicap should be transferred to your new 'home' club.

david, doesn't a handicap last 12 calendar months from the last recorded qualifier not simply April to April?

 

[SharkAttack]

This comes from someone who has just changed back to his old club and when I changed my home club on howdidido, I got an email telling me my handicap had changed from 7.1- 9.1.

Shark

Forgive me if I ask silly questions... My old club use howdidido in the shop and I was on the system. Are you saying my handicap might change if I log in and change clubs on there??

Maybe it's a bit different, I was a member at both clubs but never played at one this season. Howdidido never syncronised the handicaps (Why I don't know), so when I made my final descision to move back to my original club I changed my home club back. Howdidido then picked up that my old handicap was 9.1 and changed it from my proper handicap 7.1 to the old one. I have contacted them on three different occasions to sort this out but no joy, so I am going to have to get the Handicap Convenor at my club to change it. I was just worried that the end of season handicap review threw up some silly results because of the vast handicap changes.

Shark

 

[HughJars]

So, if the course you are planning on joining is considered hard, why not ask to hand in 3 cards....I would personally INSIST upon this if ever move clubs again. My mate went from the local "easy" course to Aberdovey (proper links golf) with a h'cap of 3.8. They asked him if it was OK to play off that and he replied "No..." I can't touch that around here. He handed in 3 cards and was put off 7.0.

What rubbish. You would 'insist' on playing for a handicap when you already have one? You rhandicap is 100% fully and compulsoraly transferable, there's no 'insist' about it.

And your 4 handicap mate wanted his handicap to go up when he moved clubs? Weirdest low handicapper I've ever heard of, every one I know of wants to get down lower, not get a few extra shots so he can swick a win in a medal.

 

[HughJars]

This comes from someone who has just changed back to his old club and when I changed my home club on howdidido, I got an email telling me my handicap had changed from 7.1- 9.1.

Shark

Forgive me if I ask silly questions... My old club use howdidido in the shop and I was on the system. Are you saying my handicap might change if I log in and change clubs on there??

Maybe it's a bit different, I was a member at both clubs but never played at one this season. Howdidido never syncronised the handicaps (Why I don't know), so when I made my final descision to move back to my original club I changed my home club back. Howdidido then picked up that my old handicap was 9.1 and changed it from my proper handicap 7.1 to the old one. I have contacted them on three different occasions to sort this out but no joy, so I am going to have to get the Handicap Convenor at my club to change it. I was just worried that the end of season handicap review threw up some silly results because of the vast handicap changes.

Shark

HowdidIdo has no official status whatsoever, your handicap will be displayed on your club noticeboard, and in your club's computer.

 

[SharkAttack]

This comes from someone who has just changed back to his old club and when I changed my home club on howdidido, I got an email telling me my handicap had changed from 7.1- 9.1.

Shark

Forgive me if I ask silly questions... My old club use howdidido in the shop and I was on the system. Are you saying my handicap might change if I log in and change clubs on there??

Maybe it's a bit different, I was a member at both clubs but never played at one this season. Howdidido never syncronised the handicaps (Why I don't know), so when I made my final descision to move back to my original club I changed my home club back. Howdidido then picked up that my old handicap was 9.1 and changed it from my proper handicap 7.1 to the old one. I have contacted them on three different occasions to sort this out but no joy, so I am going to have to get the Handicap Convenor at my club to change it. I was just worried that the end of season handicap review threw up some silly results because of the vast handicap changes.

Shark

HowdidIdo has no official status whatsoever, your handicap will be displayed on your club noticeboard, and in your club's computer.

Just found this out tonight 16 days after my first email to howdidido. This was what I was asking them, because I thought that being a member at two clubs meant that each club were notified of scores at competitions played at the other (both use howdidido/club2000). Surely the least they could have done was replied letting me know this, in the 48hrs the say when you send the email (They still haven't repied to the 1st or 2nd emails).

 

[DCB]

If a player is a member of two clubs, it's the players responsibility to declare which of the clubs is his 'home' club and which is his 'away' club.

All competition scores and CSS/SSS/Par info then needs to be relayed for any 'away' results back to the 'home' club.

Failure to do this in a reasonable timescale can cause real problems with your handicap

how did I do is autiomatically updated with results and handicap info when your club closes the competition on Club200 and sends the info online to how did I do.

 

[Losttheplot]

Call me stupid here but is there a system where handicaps are altered depending on the course you play?

For example:
Player X has a handicap of 5 on a really tight, tough, punishing and long course.
He goes and plays in an open competition on another course that is short, wide open, forgiving, flat and easy.
In theory Player X is likely to rip the course apart.
How is this allowed/ monitored????

 

[Region3]

Standard Scratch Score (SSS) is supposed to level the playing field as far as handicaps across different courses go.

A par72 tight & long course might be SSS73, and the short open course might be SSS69 or 70.

It's not perfect but it's (arguably) better than everything vs par.