I GET SHOTS

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Thing is…in the old world I knew 99.99% that if I scored above my buffer I would go up 0.1. New system I have to go and examine and analyse my handicap record to know what would happen depending upon what gross I shot. If I don’t do that then I can stand on the 1st and just set out to play to score the best gross I can…and just that one thing reduces the pressure on me from the word go, and right through the round.

 

[Voyager EMH]

It’s even more worrying that its conversations you are having in the “real world”

Why does that phrase worry you?
This world, the forum, is a rarefied one of a small sample of golfers who are interested enough in various issues about golf to type their views for others to read.
I find the other world of a golf club has similarities and differences, but it feels more like the real world to me where you talk to people face-to-face and can better gauge their level of interest, lack or depth of understanding, etc.
If your view of "the real world" as opposed to the world of this forum, differs from my view of those two things, then that won't be worrying to me.
If it is simply "me" that worries you - then feel free to be worried by me.

I really can't help but reply to posts that are addressed directly to me. But it is not what I wanted this thread to be.

My request for the thread to move towards what steps might be taken to help others adapt to the new handicapping system and relieve their anxieties and gripes appears to have had very little effect so far.
Thanks to those who are trying, though.

 

[John Evans 9]

I would like to thank everyone for their responses.
Just about all responses have come from people who are very well adjusted to the new system.
The post#1 text will have been very dull reading in that case and the scornful responses are understandable in those cases.

Away from this forum in the real world, I have many conversations with players whose minds are still very much stuck in the old system. I'm sure many of you must be having that same experience. My intention was to help those people adjust to the new system.

I was hoping that this thread would invite comments about helping all those others that you meet adjust to the new system. How you go about heling them etc,

Instead it became about comments directed to me and who could come up with the best indignant and scornfully cutting ones.
Water off a duck's back, and I have no animosity for anyone.

If this thread is to continue in any way, I would like to see some comments about helping people whose minds are sill very much stuck in the old system, adjust to the new system.

I have already expressed my scepticism about this being a real problem but I’d like to understand a little more. The OP posts
“Away from this forum in the real world, I have many conversations with players whose minds are still very much stuck in the old system.”

How did this mindset manifest itself ? And did these players confess that it was a problem for them ? I might be stuck in the old system myself: how would I know ? What help would you prescribe ?
I am starting to worry that I may have a problem without realising it. Blissful ignorance, perhaps.

 

[Voyager EMH]

@Voyager EMH it just might take a tad longer than you think

Its 50+ years since the UK went metric, who's course is still measured in yards on the scorecard ?

Change doesn't come easy

I sometimes wonder how many kilometres per litre my car is doing.

100 pennies to the pound was supposed to be just one part of decimalisation.
It took so many so long so get used to that it actually caused a build up of resistance to further decimalisation.
(100 pennies to the pound - difficult to get used to? - and yet it was for a great many people)
So we have ended up with a right old hodge-podge of weights and measures.

"Hello landlord, please pour me 0.568 of a litre of your finest ale?"

Winter rule: pick and place 152mm no nearer the hole.

And of course - we can blame the USA for some of it - we love doing that - national pastime.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I have already expressed my scepticism about this being a real problem but I’d like to understand a little more. The OP posts
“Away from this forum in the real world, I have many conversations with players whose minds are still very much stuck in the old system.”

How did this mindset manifest itself ? And did these players confess that it was a problem for them ? I might be stuck in the old system myself: how would I know ? What help would you prescribe ?
I am starting to worry that I may have a problem without realising it. Blissful ignorance, perhaps.

Hard for me to answer your questions without meeting you face to face to properly understand your degree of perception of how your own mind works.
It has appeared to have stimulated some thoughts of your own along these lines that you may have never had before.

As for, How did this mindset manifest itself ? And did these players confess that it was a problem for them ?

My two answers: In the things that they said. Yes.

 

[Region3]

What I don’t understand is why I need to change my way of thinking. If I turn up and look up how many shots I get on a board by the first tee, how is that hindering my golf game or my enjoyment of it?

 

[Voyager EMH]

What I don’t understand is why I need to change my way of thinking. If I turn up and look up how many shots I get on a board by the first tee, how is that hindering my golf game or my enjoyment of it?

Why are you considering changing your thinking?
Who or what is prompting you to do that?

Bye the way, do you have any ideas about how to help others who might be struggling to adjust to the new handicap system?

 

[Jimaroid]

Bye the way, do you have any ideas about how to help others who might be struggling to adjust to the new handicap system?

Record how many times you hit the ball.
Sign the card.
Hand it in.
Some time passes.
Other people tell you what your handicap is.

That's the new system. Same as the old system.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Record how many times you hit the ball.
Sign the card.
Hand it in.
Some time passes.
Other people tell you what your handicap is.

That's the new system. Same as the old system.

I think that if I tried that approach with people I talk to they would either
1. Think that I'm an idiot or trying to be as unhelpful as possible
2. Ignore me completely
3. Punch me in the face.

 

[BrianM]

I think that if I tried that approach with people I talk to they would either
1. Think that I'm an idiot or trying to be as unhelpful as possible
2. Ignore me completely
3. Punch me in the face.

You must hang out with some weirdo’s

 

[Deleted member 1147]

You must hang out with some weirdo’s

Or they do

 

[SteveW86]

I think that if I tried that approach with people I talk to they would either
1. Think that I'm an idiot or trying to be as unhelpful as possible
2. Ignore me completely
3. Punch me in the face.

Do you ever think you are just thinking way too much about this?

Just hit the ball, then hit it again until it’s in the hole.

 

[Region3]

Why are you considering changing your thinking?

I’m not considering changing my thinking because I think I am ok with the way I think. I do think about how many shots I get but don’t know why that is a bad idea.

Who or what is prompting you to do that?

Unless I have misread your posts on the subject it seems like you are suggesting that we should think about the new system in a different way regarding “getting shots”.

Bye the way, do you have any ideas about how to help others who might be struggling to adjust to the new handicap system?

I believe I could explain the new system to somebody who was struggling to understand how it works, but I couldn’t explain why it should be thought about in a different way.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

Record how many times you hit the ball.
Sign the card.
Hand it in.
Some time passes.
Other people tell you what your handicap is.

That's the new system. Same as the old system.

Not difficult is it? Unless you are very hard of thinking, or pretending it is because you don’t like change!

 

[Deleted member 31467]

Do you ever think you are just thinking way too much about this?

Just hit the ball, then hit it again until it’s in the hole.

That's what 99.99% of golfers do. Why do some people try to overcomplicate things

 

[Voyager EMH]

Do you ever think you are just thinking way too much about this?

Just hit the ball, then hit it again until it’s in the hole.

No.
Yes.

 

[Voyager EMH]

Not difficult is it? Unless you are very hard of thinking, or pretending it is because you don’t like change!

and what do you think you could do or say to those who are struggling to adapt to the new handicap system?
They might be not liking change or be hard of thinking - just as you say. So what do think would help them?

 

[Voyager EMH]

That's what 99.99% of golfers do. Why do some people try to overcomplicate things

1.Yes.
2. We would have to ask them and try to make sense of their answers.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I’m not considering changing my thinking because I think I am ok with the way I think. I do think about how many shots I get but don’t know why that is a bad idea.

Unless I have misread your posts on the subject it seems like you are suggesting that we should think about the new system in a different way regarding “getting shots”.

I believe I could explain the new system to somebody who was struggling to understand how it works, but I couldn’t explain why it should be thought about in a different way.

That is very insightful.
Because net scores determined the movement of your handicap in the old system, many people are still very much focussed on their net scores.
But now it is solely gross scores that affect the movement of your handicap and people do not need to focus their thoughts on their net score in quite the same way.
You can play to or below your handicap, but your handicap might rise - 20th ago score was a good one.
This stills feels very odd to a lot of people. You can explain how and why it is happening, but they will still feel that it is odd until they adjust their thinking to the new system.
Then it will not feel odd.
Of course, if you never experienced the old system, then it won't feel odd either.

Denying that people feel this way, when it seems to me to be a fact that they do feel this way, the whole point of post#1, is why I keep asking for suggestions about how to help people adjust to the new system.
Many posts here seem to be suggesting that I think this is a very BIG DEAL in some way. I do not think it is a BIG DEAL.
But I know that people are still very much at odds with the new system.
Maybe no one posting on this thread has any problem, but many others do. This might include non-members of this forum who might be reading this.

 

[Alan Clifford]

Actually, seeing as you're being pedantic, what you actually have on your handicapping record is 20 score differentials.

FWIW, my mindset now is that I tend to know:
(a) if I'm about to lose one of my best 8 scores, therefore what score I need to avoid going up;
(b) what the worst of my best 8 scores is, and therefore what I need to score to get a cut.
It's a bit more involved than just knowing how to keep in buffer under the CONGU system, but the pressure when playing a qualifier is still there.

I calculate what gross score I need to get a handicap cut and what I need to stay the same. It makes more sense to me when playing social games and not really competing against my mates.

A score differential is 113/slope x (adjusted gross - course rating - pcc). So why isn't that a net score rather than a gross score? Albeit a different kind of nett score but it's not a gross score.