Heres a thought..about handicaps maxing at 18 for comps

[Jack_bfc]

I joined my club with my first ever HC of 23, based on 3 cards from the year before on a pay and play course with questionable comps qualification.

I always new I could possibly bring that down in big chunks and consequently possible win something in my first year.

I have brought It to down to 19, with hopefully a bit more to come this year, in the process I have won a comp and done well in others.


I would have been happy to play in the comps with a max of 18 and let it rise from there till it settled and or I got the score to maintain or reduce it..

Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get the cut to 18 and if that results in a win or a place then so be it!!!!

Them's the rules...

 

[Old Skier]

how does losing a few shots alienate anyone its a comp and 18 shots is not exactly the end of the world is it.. if you are worried about losing a few shots of your handicap, how is it spoiling you

Perhaps the problem may be that as most comps have an entrance fee, you may find that players with a greater handicap may not wish to throw their money away on a comp that they would have no chance of winning so in the end you start reducing the entrance numbers.
The solution to this might be that if you have an 18 limit you can work out who is going to lose the most shots, say a person has 25 handicap loses 7 shots, then the whole field plays off 7 shots less. That sounds fairer. Unworkable, impractical and a nightmare to administer, but it's normally people that rock up play and then disappear that are the usual suspects when they want things changed.

 

[patricks148]

So in these comps that are Max handicap 18, if you were say a 22 handicap but played to 18 and shot 5 under there usual handicap, would they still get cut?

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Why should people lose shots when they can't play to 18 ?

 

[Old Skier]

Why should people lose shots when they can't play to 18 ?

It's just an example not a realistic proposal. My aim has always been to get more people playing in comps not less and am lucky enough to belong to a club where lower handicappers are good enough not to worry about higher ones.

 

[garyinderry]

here is a different way of viewing things.


everyone doesn't put in for their cards at the same experience level. some people put in for their cards when they cant hit the ball out of their way. sometimes they rapidly improve cleaning up the prizes along the way. board comps and all. sometimes the system can barely keep up. ESR helps in this respect.

other people wait a little while before getting a handicap and usually start with something less than 28 and don't go on the clean sweep for months on end.



I'm pretty sure Lee Park don't do divisions for their comps. my old club did for medals.

 

[Old Skier]

I'm pretty sure Lee Park don't do divisions for their comps.

They don't appear to looking on hdido. It also looks like your winners are in the low to mid handicap bracket. Looking at the results very few +20 people seem to play in the comps. Is this because you don't have many or they feel that there chances of doing well are limited.

 

[garyinderry]

in all honesty I wouldn't know how many +20 guys there is. liverbidie is on the handicap committee. he would be able to answer that.

 

[Old Skier]

in all honesty I wouldn't know how many +20 guys there is. liverbidie is on the handicap committee. he would be able to answer that.

Suprisingly few in relationship to members looking at your mens handicap list. Quite unusual.

 

[Cheifi0]

It's an interesting one. At our club the last 3 order of merit comps have been won by juniors who are off of high 20 plus handicaps. Yesterdays winner was a 24 handicap who shot 85 for a net 61 and second was another junior with a net 64 who was another junior. The club has put a lot of effort into a Junior program that must be working but there are few that are becoming very disgruntled. I even heard that someone wasn't going to bother any more because he feels that he can't get near those sorts of scores to compete. Apparently they pay less to get into the comp but still take all the prize money which I was a little miffed about. Maybe something like the 18 limit handicap could be implemented. I am not so sure as it could create an atmosphere that prohibit the juniors development if it wasn't rolled across the board for all high handicappers. I am not sure that could be done either as it could swing the other way with the high cappers not feeling like they can compete.

 

[patricks148]

It's an interesting one. At our club the last 3 order of merit comps have been won by juniors who are off of high 20 plus handicaps. Yesterdays winner was a 24 handicap who shot 85 for a net 61 and second was another junior with a net 64 who was another junior. The club has put a lot of effort into a Junior program that must be working but there are few that are becoming very disgruntled. I even heard that someone wasn't going to bother any more because he feels that he can't get near those sorts of scores to compete. Apparently they pay less to get into the comp but still take all the prize money which I was a little miffed about. Maybe something like the 18 limit handicap could be implemented. I am not so sure as it could create an atmosphere that prohibit the juniors development if it wasn't rolled across the board for all high handicappers. I am not sure that could be done either as it could swing the other way with the high cappers not feeling like they can compete.

bloody Juniors, one, won our Silver Trophy comp on Sat... 67 gross off scratch the little bandit

 

[Liverbirdie]

here is a different way of viewing things.


everyone doesn't put in for their cards at the same experience level. some people put in for their cards when they cant hit the ball out of their way. sometimes they rapidly improve cleaning up the prizes along the way. board comps and all. sometimes the system can barely keep up. ESR helps in this respect.

other people wait a little while before getting a handicap and usually start with something less than 28 and don't go on the clean sweep for months on end.



I'm pretty sure Lee Park don't do divisions for their comps. my old club did for medals.

Divisional prizes are being trialled again soon.

 

[GB72]

At my old club there was an increasing number of comps with a maximum of an 18 handicap. It pretty much came about because a very vocal minority were fed up with not winning and pushed through a few more comps with handicap restrictions each year. I entered them anyway as I wanted the chance to get my handicap down.

At my current club there are very few comps with restrictions and, to be fair, we get a good cross section of abilities winning. The club are pretty alert to repeat winners and look to cut handicaps where appropriate.

The people that I have sympathy for are the mid handicappers with and accurate handicap. I know plenty playing around the 13/14/15 mark who have been there for years and have plateaued. They stand little chance of winning anything as if the conditions are easier then there is someone on a rapidly improving handicap who shoots the lights out of the course or if it is tough the low handicappers sweep up the honours. The low handicappers also have the lowest gross to play for that pays out equally to the winning prize. Plenty of them have almost given up comps for social golf.

What always gets me is the low handicappers at both clubs I have played at who, in one breath, are happy to state that the club championship is the only event that matters at all and in the next breath complain that Joe Bloggs with his 19 handicap has gone and won a meaningless stapleford.

 

[Old Skier]

It's an interesting one. At our club the last 3 order of merit comps have been won by juniors who are off of high 20 plus handicaps. Yesterdays winner was a 24 handicap who shot 85 for a net 61 and second was another junior with a net 64 who was another junior. The club has put a lot of effort into a Junior program that must be working but there are few that are becoming very disgruntled. I even heard that someone wasn't going to bother any more because he feels that he can't get near those sorts of scores to compete. Apparently they pay less to get into the comp but still take all the prize money which I was a little miffed about. Maybe something like the 18 limit handicap could be implemented. I am not so sure as it could create an atmosphere that prohibit the juniors development if it wasn't rolled across the board for all high handicappers. I am not sure that could be done either as it could swing the other way with the high cappers not feeling like they can compete.

Juniors at this time of the year have to be looked at very carefully. They are always at the club and practising like crazy, encourage them to enter as many Q and junior opens as possible during August and they will soon tumble down to a realistic level. The other option for the eveyday comps is to hold seperate junior events. The one thing that is for certain, if you dont encourage them to join in on the big comps, they will soon leave and go to another club.

 

[sjw7]

My club has two divisions the first for HC of 15 or less and the second for 16-28. I think this is used for all competitions at the course and works well as the lower handicappers don't have to worry about bandits while those of us with a high HC have something extra to aim for which is moving up a division.

Im not sure how the prizes are worked out but i assume its just evenly split between the two divisions for fairness. Im not totally sure on this point as i haven't won anything yet (2nd in my division at the weekend stableford).

This system seems to give the lower handicap players a fairer chance while also giving the higher ones a opportunity to win something.