Handicapping

[JohnRogers]

The question in Have We Got Views For You in the May issue "Would you join a club perceived to be easy just to achieve a lower handicap?" is totally flawed. A CONGU handicap will not vary according to the difficulty of particular courses. The difficulty is taken into account by the area authority in setting the standard scratch score. The SSS at an easy course might be 66 and at a difficult course might be 73 and whatever a player's handicap, he would be expected to score 7 strokes lower at the easy course than the difficult one. I am very surprised that a leading golf magazine such as GM did not notice this fundamental misunderstanding of the handicap system.

 

[freddielong]

Work for CONGU do you ?

It shouldn't but there are course were it is easier to acheive a lower handicap, esspecially if there is a big corporate membership or an ageing membership that keep the CSS artificially high. I know a course that does not follow Congu rules to the letter, and has a lot of very low cat 1 and + players that you would not even worry about in a gross comp.

 

[SammmeBee]

I'm with freddie here...you just have to look at the scores at any English/Scottish national competitions who are played by the scratch, + handicappers....the ones down the bottom of the field are as much scratch players as Homer is (sorry H no disrespect intended), and just look at the courses they play at....

When was the last time someone really checked the category 1 players returns?

Pick your course and your event and you're off and running....

 

[JohnRogers]

Freddie & Sam can argue that black is white until the cows come home but a CONGU handicap is a CONGU handicap. Simple as that. Hopefully someone from CONGU or a County Union will confirm that to stop the debate.

 

[SS2]

John, cool your jets ! Stopping the debate is not something this forum wants, we want debates to continue.

In my opinion, CONGU is a pretty decent and simple handicapping system but the SSS method has a serious flaw: it doesn't take into account the Slope Rating of courses.

The USGA states that slope rating is a mark that indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty of a course for players who are not scratch golfers compared to the USGA course rating (e.g., compared to the difficulty of a course for scratch golfers). A slope rating is computed from the difference between the bogey rating and the USGA course rating. A golf course of standard playing difficulty has a slope rating of 113, and slope ratings range from a minimum of 55 (very easy) to a maximum of 155 (extremely difficult)

 

[freddielong]

Yes lets not discuss anything anymore incase we are wrong or we upset someone who if defending smething that is undefendable, the CONGU system is flawed, everyone knows it except CONGU it would seem.