Opens and Prizes

[Neilds]

Let me see if I got this right - AW didn't play in the Open so can't justify if the playing conditions were as bad as he said. Also, he is not stating what the prizes were to let us judge if they were excessive and worth 'cheating' for. Also, is 93 from a 4 ball that high? What were the handicaps of the winners? They may have been good golfers with the game to cope with the conditions.

Does AW work for the Daily Mail with this kind of clickbait?

 

[hambugerpete]

Let me see if I got this right - AW didn't play in the Open so can't justify if the playing conditions were as bad as he said. Also, he is not stating what the prizes were to let us judge if they were excessive and worth 'cheating' for. Also, is 93 from a 4 ball that high? What were the handicaps of the winners? They may have been good golfers with the game to cope with the conditions.

Does AW work for the Daily Mail with this kind of clickbait?

I thought he did play in it.

 

[Neilds]

I thought he did play in it.

Correct, I misread the post about him playing not playing in Opens because of the prizes.

 

[AddisonRoad]

I played in it and I think 93 points was ambitious to say the least. It was 85% handicaps, with two of the winning group being higher handicappers losing 3 strokes from their CHs. Winds were so strong that two par 3s required driver. This wasn’t a case of low or mid single figure handicappers playing well in tough conditions.

 

[hambugerpete]

Correct, I misread the post about him playing not playing in Opens because of the prizes.

I wonder what was on offer ? No one will say
I'd imagine opens are nice earner the likes of porthcawl. Probably still £500 per team to enter, add to that what they spend. Money for old rope on a cold winters midweek day!

 

[LincolnShep]

What getting every club running an open to not attract players by offering prizes

Offering prizes attracts the wrong type of player.

 

[Orikoru]

I think even without prizes cheats are gonna cheat and bandits are gonna bandit. Some would just do it for the thrill.

What prize did they win for this one?

 

[hambugerpete]

I think even without prizes cheats are gonna cheat and bandits are gonna bandit. Some would just do it for the thrill.

What prize did they win for this one?

Exactly this .
Prize appears to be top secret sadly.

 

[AddisonRoad]

I think even without prizes cheats are gonna cheat and bandits are gonna bandit. Some would just do it for the thrill.

What prize did they win for this one?

I think you’re right to be fair. Cheats will just cheat. First place prizes were nice Porthcawl branded outer layer for each team member

 

[Orikoru]

I think you’re right to be fair. Cheats will just cheat. First place prizes were nice Porthcawl branded outer layer for each team member

I mean, that's not exactly an outlandish prize. I thought from the OP we were talking about cold, hard cash or a new driver each or something. I doubt the offer of a branded jumper has attracted any cheats to the competition. They'll have done it more for the thrill of 'winning'. (If they did indeed cheat, since we're just speculating.)

 

[Arthur Wedge]

Let me see if I got this right - AW didn't play in the Open so can't justify if the playing conditions were as bad as he said. Also, he is not stating what the prizes were to let us judge if they were excessive and worth 'cheating' for. Also, is 93 from a 4 ball that high? What were the handicaps of the winners? They may have been good golfers with the game to cope with the conditions.

Does AW work for the Daily Mail with this kind of clickbait?

Unfortunately you didn’t get it right

I played in the open

Conditions on a very very tough course were brutal

The normal score until recently winning there would be mid 80’s which is a very good score

To get over 90 points in those conditions is imo

A dodgy pencil or low HCs who have suddenly got high ones

Just like last year - and the players that were doing the same last year appeared to have been banned from many opens and indeed HC frozen

I wonder what was on offer ? No one will say
I'd imagine opens are nice earner the likes of porthcawl. Probably still £500 per team to enter, add to that what they spend. Money for old rope on a cold winters midweek day!

The prizes looked like some branded Peter Millar mid layers which I suspect can be exchanged for pro shop credit so over £100 each in Pro shop credit

 

[3 jabber]

I've played Porthcawl a few times. It is not the type of course that high handicappers can rip apart, especially in strong winds. Some of the greens complexes are extremely tough, if you don't hit the ball to the right part you are running off or 3 putting.
All the opens I play are just a good day out at a decent price, never thinking about prizes as they are cheats charters.

Maybe 4 man team events should be dropped so that nobody is marking their own cards.

 

[Bazz]

I've played RP in the conditions Arthur is describing and had a miserable day, the course is that tough that I wouldn't do any better in beautiful weather either.

 

[Slab]

I’m sure we’ve all sat at a prize giving shaking heads as a runaway winner/s score is announced. Open or not. Sometimes person(s) want it badly enough to conduct themselves a certain way (probably a learned behaviour from… ?) But its by no means the norm

Anyway, I don’t think it requires much of a prize to stir those baser instincts. Some people are just wired wrong

Just looked at that clubs Opens entry webpages and there’s no mention of what the prizes are for the upcoming Opens I checked. So, at time of entry entrants have no idea if it’s a Tour Bag or a Bag of Tees they’re competing for

 

[Slab]

Just like last year - and the players that were doing the same last year appeared to have been banned from many opens and indeed HC frozen

Maybe 4 man team events should be dropped so that nobody is marking their own cards.

It does seem weird that the organisers have learned nothing from last year
A simple change to a pairs comp with drawn FC's would reduce the opportunity for ne'er-do-well players to get up to their antics, along with some pre-comp historical handicap checks etc

 

[Arthur Wedge]

It does seem weird that the organisers have learned nothing from last year
A simple change to a pairs comp with drawn FC's would reduce the opportunity for ne'er-do-well players to get up to their antics, along with some pre-comp historical handicap checks etc

99% of the entries play fair and with integrity and respect for the comp and the game

4 man comps are very good and it does require trust

it’s a sport that’s supposed to built on that trust so don’t punish everyone based on the actions of the minority

 

[Deleted member 36735]

Fair play for digging that out.

Edit: Having said that, those handicaps are with the 85% adjustment presumably? So your 20 handicapper is actually off around 24 and so on? Then again the slope rating is probably pretty high at Porthcrawl, so... I have no idea.

Just to clarify again, no digging required it's just openly available for anyone to see.

The 20 hcap must have received 2 shots on Stroke 1 (12th hole) for the team to get 5 points, so these hcaps must be 85%.
This puts their actual CH's slightly higher obviously.

 

[hambugerpete]

Fair play for digging that out. It really doesn't look all that bad on there.

Now all we need to know is their home clubs so we can check each of their handicap records.

Edit: Having said that, those handicaps are with the 85% adjustment presumably? So your 20 handicapper is actually off around 24 and so on? Then again the slope rating is probably pretty high at Porthcawl, so... I have no idea.

Paying over £400 as a team just to win a jumper with the added risk of being openly shamed on golf monthly!

 

[Slab]

99% of the entries play fair and with integrity and respect for the comp and the game

4 man comps are very good and it does require trust

it’s a sport that’s supposed to built on that trust so don’t punish everyone based on the actions of the minority

I agree (& off topic, but that's exactly what the anti-whs want to do)

And those winning players may well be in your 99% stat and played with integrity etc & won but I also get how it doesn't seem real when we look at our own scores in that situation

But a 4 person team format allows the possibility a rogue element could sneak in. I'd guess all entrants know that prior to putting in their own entry

 

[Swango1980]

I played that format once when the winning score was 128 points, and second was 122 points. They were all mates, all off 28 (when that was the Max Handicap). We played behind them, and watched 3 of the 4 of them drive the par 4 4th hole. It was only about 280/290 yards, but not bad for 28 handicappers.

Ohh, and during food after, we watched them fill out their scorecard on memory, they didn't fill it out during the round.

My absolute best score in that format has been mid to high 90's before, but those are just the days that the team are outstanding. However, I'm not sure what the typical scores would be these days with CR-Par thrown into the mix. Probably lower, as a lot of the easier courses players will now have lower handicaps