Society handicaps, suggestions for a fair system.

two-clubs

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I am a member of a very informal society and am currently considering taking over the reigns from the current organiser who is moving away.

As we all know the biggest area for discussion at any gathering of golfers is handicaps and our group is not much different - currently if somebody puts in a good score they are (very) likely to get a cut, a cut that has not got much in relation to the points scored! if I take it over I would like to implement a system where everybody knows where they stand and with a view to making things go round a bit. One society I played in had a system where the winner got cut two shots and everybody else got a shot back, that seemed to go round nicely with a good mix of different winners over time - another society had a system where scores under 20 got two shots back, 21-29 got one back and 30-36 stayed the same, over 36 points got cut 1 or 2 depending on their score.

Can anybody suggest a system to make things fair or offer comments on the above - what does your society do?
 

Biggleswade Blue

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I am a member of a very informal society and am currently considering taking over the reigns from the current organiser who is moving away.

As we all know the biggest area for discussion at any gathering of golfers is handicaps and our group is not much different - currently if somebody puts in a good score they are (very) likely to get a cut, a cut that has not got much in relation to the points scored! if I take it over I would like to implement a system where everybody knows where they stand and with a view to making things go round a bit. One society I played in had a system where the winner got cut two shots and everybody else got a shot back, that seemed to go round nicely with a good mix of different winners over time - another society had a system where scores under 20 got two shots back, 21-29 got one back and 30-36 stayed the same, over 36 points got cut 1 or 2 depending on their score.

Can anybody suggest a system to make things fair or offer comments on the above - what does your society do?

I play in a group of very informal social golfers, a good few of whom would expect high scores. It is a social group first and foremost with no significant prizes. For most poeple, the only golf they play is with this group maybe half a dozen times a year.

What we do is take an average of the person's best score (when playing on one of our society days) and their last score (of all the times they've played on our society days), and give them a handicap equal to the difference between that and the course par (we always play the same place).

It seems to work ok. The winner tends to be someone who has had high scores, then plays out of their skin relative to that. It is an encouragement for the weaker players which is fine by us and in keeping with the group's ethos. It is very unsual for the same person to win on consecutive outings. It is also very easy to administrate. (If anyone picks up on a hole, I treat that as a net double bogey for handicap purposes.) It makes it very difficult for the consistent and better players to win but that's fine by us.
 

jim8flog

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My experience of playing in societies is that it is mainly about what you do with those players that do not have an official handicap.

If you have such players and you have records of their scores maybe you could work out the rough handicaps on the basis of the WHS

With the WHS players with official handicaps will get their handicaps adjusted course by course and hopefully the clubs where they play are encouraging them to submit cards on a regular basis.
 

Foxholer

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To me, Society Golf, where the reward is the company/banter cf actual prizes, is meant to be fun, so avoidance of 'banditry' and any recognition of 'persistant upward creep' is essential to be minimised. Participants will know and have their own view (pleased or otherwise) about their own play, so I'm an advocate of quite severe instant cuts for winners and solid (but less severe than winners - to allow for the inevitable? occasional terrible round) rises for those at the other end.

A hybrid WHS style (using fewer than 8/20) could work to achieve the above - with the addition of 'bonus' cuts/raises for (nearly?) winning/being significantly 'off the pace'.

The 1st (and 'happiest')'swindle' I participated in had a system that measured 'earnings', which depended on placement and number of participants, for possible reductions and a 'times where contributor only' trigger for 'bonus' increases - which were also on a sliding scale that depended on swindle handicap. It was actually 'managed' by an ex IT guy on his PC, so the complicated bits were 'automatically' managed.
 

nyckuk

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We use a system pretty much the same as your last suggestion , We do have a max hcp of 36 and any new golfers need to play 1 round before they get a society hcp (we've had bandits in the past ) unless they have an official WHS hcp. We normal try and play pairs, blind pairs or 2/3 teams depending on numbers

Stableford points / handicaps ...... 0-20 points - 2 shots added to your handicap 21-30 1 shot added 31-36 0 shots added 37-38 1 shot deducted 39-40 2 shots deducted And so on ( MAX HANDICAP 36 )

And keep a record of the HCP's as people tend to have a memory malfunction the next time you play
 

chico

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Ours is also similar in that a win gets you cut 2 shots. If your under par you also get cut 1 shot.
Even if you have an official hc you still get your society hc. Also you can't win on your first outing. We tend to have quite a regular group and the wins are shared quite evenly. Ever year the scores are assessed and if you've not had a win in while your hc gets adjusted.
 
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