I GET SHOTS

Voyager EMH

Slipper Wearing Plucker of Pheasants
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
5,138
Location
Leicestershire
Visit site
We need to separate these two things.
1. Playing against the course.
2. Playing with and against others.

Play Against The Course

Old System: You were playing off your handicap and your net score determined the movement of your handicap.

New System: You return a gross score and this is included with your previous 19 gross scores to calculate your handicap.
Your net scores for those 20 rounds are not calculated or used for handicap assessment or adjustment.
(The net double bogey limit per hole does apply to those gross scores)

The new system allows the golfer to be completely free from thoughts of net score (or stableford points) and simply play each hole to the best of ability.

“I get x-shots on this course” is a misconception. It was true and very important to handicapping in the old system.
You have no handicap when playing against the course in the new system. You are returning a gross score. You returned a net score in the old system.

Playing With And Against Others.

This is what you can be doing in competitions and in social golf. Your playing handicap for the format of play should be in your mind. “I get x-shots” is relevant when comparing yourself to the other players.

Both At The Same Time

You might be playing with and against others and submitting a score for handicapping at the same time.
“I get x-shots” is not relevant to the score being submitted for handicapping – your gross score only is being recorded and used for handicapping.

From Now On

Eventually we will all adapt our thinking to the new system just as we did with the change from shillings and pence to the new decimal coinage. The labels on supermarket shelves showed prices in the old system for a while. This helped people to be clearer in their minds about how much money they were spending. Eventually the old prices were no longer needed.

Your thinking may continue to be that your mind is searching for something that resembles your old “one” handicap.
That concept is still there in your thinking, just as shillings and pence remained in our thinking.
That thinking will change over time, as you gradually think less and less about the old system.

If you can accept, or you can get your thinking around the fact that, “I get shots” (course handicap) matters not in your play against the course, you will know that you are adapting to the new system.

Your handicap is your Playing Handicap for when you are playing with and against others.
You have no handicap when playing against the course. You are merely attempting to return the best gross score that you can – this is golf.

Get out there, play to the best of your ability and enjoy it! The new handicapping system allows you to do this and it is very liberating.

“Play up, play up and play the game.”

I hope this has helped to stimulate thought and understanding.
 

SwingsitlikeHogan

Major Champion
Joined
Jul 24, 2012
Messages
32,219
Visit site
We need to separate these two things.
1. Playing against the course.
2. Playing with and against others.

Play Against The Course

Old System: You were playing off your handicap and your net score determined the movement of your handicap.

New System: You return a gross score and this is included with your previous 19 gross scores to calculate your handicap.
Your net scores for those 20 rounds are not calculated or used for handicap assessment or adjustment.
(The net double bogey limit per hole does apply to those gross scores)

The new system allows the golfer to be completely free from thoughts of net score (or stableford points) and simply play each hole to the best of ability.

“I get x-shots on this course” is a misconception. It was true and very important to handicapping in the old system.
You have no handicap when playing against the course in the new system. You are returning a gross score. You returned a net score in the old system.

Playing With And Against Others.

This is what you can be doing in competitions and in social golf. Your playing handicap for the format of play should be in your mind. “I get x-shots” is relevant when comparing yourself to the other players.

Both At The Same Time

You might be playing with and against others and submitting a score for handicapping at the same time.
“I get x-shots” is not relevant to the score being submitted for handicapping – your gross score only is being recorded and used for handicapping.

From Now On

Eventually we will all adapt our thinking to the new system just as we did with the change from shillings and pence to the new decimal coinage. The labels on supermarket shelves showed prices in the old system for a while. This helped people to be clearer in their minds about how much money they were spending. Eventually the old prices were no longer needed.

Your thinking may continue to be that your mind is searching for something that resembles your old “one” handicap.
That concept is still there in your thinking, just as shillings and pence remained in our thinking.
That thinking will change over time, as you gradually think less and less about the old system.

If you can accept, or you can get your thinking around the fact that, “I get shots” (course handicap) matters not in your play against the course, you will know that you are adapting to the new system.

Your handicap is your Playing Handicap for when you are playing with and against others.
You have no handicap when playing against the course. You are merely attempting to return the best gross score that you can – this is golf.

Get out there, play to the best of your ability and enjoy it! The new handicapping system allows you to do this and it is very liberating.

“Play up, play up and play the game.”

I hope this has helped to stimulate thought and understanding.
Quite a summary…🤔 Though I ‘get it’.

I had an epiphany/lightbulb moment when WHS first came in when out for a walk with my Mrs. I had been fretting that Doing a Card = Pressure = Less enjoyment. I realised that the pressure I felt under old system was the pressure to not submit a rubbish score.

I suddenly realised that after ‘doing a card’ for handicap what I would do was, in effect, chuck it over a fence into a pond of 20 scores and one of them would be displaced. If my score was a good one it would float on the surface with seven others, if it was rubbish it would sink to the bottom of the pond, unlikely to ever resurface. With that thinking I now saw that the pressure of doing a rubbish score was much less.

Ok…if the score being displaced from my pond was a ’floater’ I could take on some pressure to replace it like4like, but importantly I didn’t have to, as it was more than likely to be replaced by another already in my pond but floating just under the surface. Even if I have a good round going I feel less pressure to ‘convert’ than before…the one round matters much less, and even if I let it slip a little from immediately being a ‘floater’, it is likely to become one just under the surface.

With this thinking I play every ‘card’ round with pretty much the same mindset as for any social/non-card round. I play the best I can and put whatever might happen to my HI to the back of my mind, and just enjoy my golf.
 

Jimaroid

Journeyman Pro
Joined
May 15, 2014
Messages
3,734
Location
Fife
Visit site
This still doesn’t make sense. Skipping physical reality to support a strange semantic argument.

You cannot in any system return a nett score without first achieving a gross score.
 

Voyager EMH

Slipper Wearing Plucker of Pheasants
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
5,138
Location
Leicestershire
Visit site
This still doesn’t make sense. Skipping physical reality to support a strange semantic argument.

You cannot in any system return a nett score without first achieving a gross score.
Net scores are for playing with and against each other.
Everyone has 20 gross scores on their record for handicapping purposes.
This is not a strange semantic argument. It is a description of the (physical) reality.
 
Last edited:

evemccc

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2020
Messages
1,594
Visit site
I have no idea what any of this means, having not played under CONGU.
All I know is I only ever care about my gross score and want to shoot as low as I can every time I play golf and mark a card (playing solo I’ll try things and experiment)
 

IanM

Journeyman Pro
Joined
May 18, 2009
Messages
12,192
Location
Monmouthshire, UK via Guildford!
www.newportgolfclub.org.uk
I have no idea what any of this means, having not played under CONGU.
All I know is I only ever care about my gross score and want to shoot as low as I can every time I play golf and mark a card (playing solo I’ll try things and experiment)

Under the old system some (many?) had a mindset in competitions that they MUST avoid the dreaded 0.1 increase. Now, the odd shocker won't count. Trouble is, when those start to count, it's an upsetting reality!🤭
 

Voyager EMH

Slipper Wearing Plucker of Pheasants
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
5,138
Location
Leicestershire
Visit site
When is this new system being introduced ? I like the sound of it !
It is creeping in (to everyone's brains) slowly at this moment. Some like it, some don't. Some are adapting, some aren't. Some welcome it, some are resisting it.
Each and all are free to view it as they please. This will not change the physical reality of it.
It is the physical reality that I have tried to describe in post#1, without expressing any opinion or argument, with a hope of helping people adapt to it.
 
Last edited:

yandabrown

Newbie
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
1,090
Visit site
We need to separate these two things.
...

Play Against The Course

Old System: You were playing off your handicap and your net score determined the movement of your handicap.

New System: You return a gross score and this is included with your previous 19 gross scores to calculate your handicap.
Your net scores for those 20 rounds are not calculated or used for handicap assessment or adjustment.
(The net double bogey limit per hole does apply to those gross scores)

The new system allows the golfer to be completely free from thoughts of net score (or stableford points) and simply play each hole to the best of ability.

“I get x-shots on this course” is a misconception. It was true and very important to handicapping in the old system.
You have no handicap when playing against the course in the new system. You are returning a gross score. You returned a net score in the old system.

...
But for handicapping purposes don't I need to know "How many shots I get on this course" (Course Handicap) to understand if I've reached my net double bogey score for any particular hole?
 
  • Like
Reactions: D-S

cliveb

Head Pro
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
2,371
Visit site
Net scores are for playing with and against each other.
Everyone has 20 gross scores on their record for handicapping purposes.
This is not a strange semantic argument. It is a description of the (physical) reality.
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.
 
Top