Matchplay over 6 holes

[Stedd365]

Hi,
I'm arranging a golf competition (nothing formal, just with 3 friends) and want to play matchplay, round robin format so we all play each other over 6 holes. I'm just wondering how to apply handicaps?
Do you apply 1/3rd to the full handicap and apply that to each 6 hole match?
Or do you take into account that matchplay is a leveller of sorts anyway and reduce handicaps?

Any suggestions gratefully received!
Cheers!

 

[louise_a]

surely you use normal handicap and get strokes depending on the stroke index of the hole.

 

[Ian_S]

Same as louise. Full handicap and give strokes as per SI of holes. For example, if someone gives 17 strokes on full handicap, then they give 5 or 6 strokes to their opponent over the 6 holes, depending on whether the SI 18 hole is in their six or not.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Do it on the SI order of the holes being played, so if a player gets three shots and the SI are 1,2,7,15,16,18 they got shots on 1, 2 and 7 but not on 15,16,18.

 

[sev112]

Absolutely no way is it Pro Rata
You might as well give all the money to the highest handicap and just all go to the bar.
First of all handicaps come from stroke play competitions, not match play. TYpically a higher handicapper has 3 bad holes a round of 2 to 3 over per each of the bad holes - their handicap is not evenly spread acorss every hole.
Therefore as soon as you reduce the number of holes, you have to reduce handicaps. and the fewer holes you play the more you have to cut them

As an extreme, but relevant example, imagine you are playing a 1 hole match.
Would you give shots ?
How do you decide which stroke index holes to play ?

 

[Ian_S]

Sev - you've given me a nice opportunity to use some of the stats I spent a while pulling together. If you'll excuse me going on a mathsy tangent. The table below is an approximate breakdown of the percentage of time a handicap 6 and handicap 24 player will score different numbers of strokes on a par 4 (so nearly half the time, a handicap 6 player gets par)

Strokes | HCP 6 | HCP 24
3 | 6 | 1
4 | 49 | 15
5 | 33 | 35
6 | 10 | 30
7 | 2 | 13
8 | 1 | 4
9 | 0 | 1

If you put those into a match, with no strokes given, the lower handicap player wins roughly 2/3rds of the time, the hole is halved around 1/4 of the time and the higher handicap player winning around 1/8th of the time (all approximations).

If you give the higher handicap a stroke, that comes to about 35%/30%/35%, so basically an even matchup over the one hole shoot-out. So when the handicap difference is 18, you probably ought to give 1/18th handicap (i.e. one stroke) if you play one hole.

 

[Foxholer]

Absolutely no way is it Pro Rata
You might as well give all the money to the highest handicap and just all go to the bar.
First of all handicaps come from stroke play competitions, not match play. TYpically a higher handicapper has 3 bad holes a round of 2 to 3 over per each of the bad holes - their handicap is not evenly spread acorss every hole.
Therefore as soon as you reduce the number of holes, you have to reduce handicaps. and the fewer holes you play the more you have to cut them

As an extreme, but relevant example, imagine you are playing a 1 hole match.
Would you give shots ?
How do you decide which stroke index holes to play ?

Complete bollocks imo!

If I am giving someone 18 shots over 18 holes, I should give them 9 shots over 9 holes or 6 shots over 6 holes. That is why R&A recommend that SIs are split odds/evens between front/back 9s. That way, if I difference is 4, then I give a shot on SI 1 and 3. As you are distorting the course setup slightly by playing 3*6 hole matches there may be a small abberation, but the concept is still sound.

So, imo, higher handicap should get strokes on every hole with SI less than or equal to the difference in handicap from lower 'capper whether the match is over 8, 9 6 or 1 (eg playoff after tie).