Hope your day yesterday was as good as mine!!

[funkyfred]

Had our first (Spring) society meet yesterday at Chartham Park (Kent) what a wonderful day. Good venue, the course in pretty good nick and the weather to die for, 17c and sunny all day.
I’m in the process of getting my first (proper) h/c having recently joined my first club, 3 cards and all that. Society h/c of 18 but will probably be a 26ish h/c when all my cards are in.

I was given some tips from a low h/c player last week about where the ball should be for my drives, (further back in my stance) what a change drove well all day and hit some true golf shots to many of the greens.

But golf being golf there is always something ready to sort you out. Shot 100 (par 72) with 9 three putts, yes nine, 43 putts in total. My stats for putting last year (on the green only) was just over 34. But even with this sad total I walked off pleased with my days performance, knowing that my golf is going in the right direction.

 

[KeefG]

Congrats on being pleased with the round.

One thing i will say though, how the hell have you got an 18 h/c with your society if you believe you're a 26 ish?

Either you've carded a serious contender for bandit of the year (50 points) with your society or your society's handicap committee need a good slap!!!

 

[USER1999]

Society handicaps can be notoriously savage. I was off 3 at one point, which is a joke, but if other people are shooting 23 points stableford, because they play once a year, then if you shoot 25, you are going to win, and get cut every time.

Luckily we had an amnesty, and I am now off 10, which I can live with, given my club h/cap is now 11.

 

[tincup]

My club handicap is 10 but my society handicap is 2, but like Murph said it is all relative to the scores as everyone is in the same boat, on our society days the average winning score is 30 points, and even though I lose 8 shots off my official handicap I still ended up finishing second in the stableford league and winning the knockout.

 

[funkyfred]

Murph and tincup, you have hit the nail on the head.

Nothing very technical in our way of doing things, winner gets cut 3 second 2 and third one. At the other end of the scale +3 +2 +1 etc. Not ideal but after about 8 years we are reasonable close in giving everyone a chance (except the once/twice a year guys)

Winner yesterday 52 points (27 holes) playing off 16, looking forward to him starting off 13 at the beginning of our 4 day meeting in May/June.

 

[rgs]

I play off 13 in our society whereas my club h/cap is 19. Overall winner cut 1.6 or 10% which ever is lower,
class winners 1.1 or 5%, class runner ups 0.6 or 2.5%.
Score 29 pts or less and you get 0.5 back.
Score over 38 points and you get cut 5%.
The percentage rule ensures the single figure handicappers are not penalised excessively when they win a prize.

Helps keep everyone in with a chance of winning which IMHO is one of the real attributes of a socety.

 

[Molly]

I run a society of 45 and our handicaps are adjusted using the same method employed when it was started 27 years ago...

First Place
-2 if score 36 or more (bit harsh as you only hit your h/cap with 36!)
-1 if score <36
An extra shot cut for back-to-back wins!

Second Place
-1 if you score 36 or more

Shots back if you don't hit your handicap for three consecutive matches.

Being a society, we tend to have lower handicaps than the clubs hand out. It can be harsh for some, but most are fairly well balanced. That said, being a society, we always get people moan they are hard done by. We've talked about different options and I really like rgs' percentage idea, that sounds very fair..but if I win off 28, I get cut 3 instead of 2...so someone will always grumble!

I have suggested an online handicap software solution, but they all seem to be labour intensive....you have to load every score on the card so 18 scores for 40 players would take forever! I know this is what it's all about, but we need a simple solution that allows you to just enter the stableford points score and adjust the handicap accordingly. It's easily managed in my spreadsheet with the 3 simple rules for now.

Whatever we do though, someone will always moan...our society is as predictable as death and taxes!