society handicaps

[marinemac]

I have had the opportunity to play in a few societies lately and can't make up my mind whether although only been playing golf for a couple of years i have become a bad loser or very synical. All of the games i have played have been one with people coming in with 42, 43 41 points all of which included at least 2 holes where they did not score. Are people having great days or do people really keep their handicaps at a level where they can win these type of events?

 

[6inchcup]

I have had the opportunity to play in a few societies lately and can't make up my mind whether although only been playing golf for a couple of years i have become a bad loser or very cynical. All of the games i have played have been one with people coming in with 42, 43 41 points all of which included at least 2 holes where they did not score. Are people having great days or do people really keep their handicaps at a level where they can win these type of events?

most are just made up for the use of that society,the problem arises when the cheating no goods turn up at club opens with a piece of paper stating 22h/c then play to a cat1 standard,happened last year at a comp i played in in wales.

 

[Snelly]

I have had the opportunity to play in a few societies lately and can't make up my mind whether although only been playing golf for a couple of years i have become a bad loser or very synical. All of the games i have played have been one with people coming in with 42, 43 41 points all of which included at least 2 holes where they did not score. Are people having great days or do people really keep their handicaps at a level where they can win these type of events?

I am in a pretty big golf society that has excellent prizes for winners. In order to keep things fair, if you win an event, your society handicap is cut two shots and the runner up is cut by one. It works brilliantly and I would recommend that all golf societies do the same.

It stops the usual suspects winning regularly and adds an element of fun to the golfing year too.

 

[sweatysock41]

Our works society uses a similar penalty to the one Snelly's society uses. However because we only have 6 events a year if you don't hit buffer you get 0.3 back. If you have the 2 shot penalty with a smaller number of players (we have about 25 members) you could get down to a ridiculously low handicap very quickly if the others play badly so this .3 was introduced to balance things a little. Seems to work OK with different winners each time.

 

[Hobbit]

I ran a Society for a number of years. In the early 80's there were quite few people taking up the game and we started to see problems with those on 'home made' handicaps winning with silly scores. We adopted a system that went by divisions, 0-8=1 shot cut, 9-18=2 shot cut, 19-28=3 shot cut. Sorted.

 

[duncan mackie]

so much depends on how many were playing, which tees were being used and the make up of the group re club and society handicaps.

for a group of around 30 players, played of the average 'yellow' tees on the average society course I would expect to see the winning score at around this level.

overall, as the other responses have indicated, society handicapping is an art form rather than a science - and amongst a relatively tight group the process of redistribution of prizes over time is taken care of by simply cutting the winner's handicap each time; works fine.

you will never achieve the same situation as within a club because different courses favour different golfers styles (strengths and weaknesses) significantly amongst handicap golfers.

as to the final question you pose - generally those selecting their own handicap will pick what they actually play to on average; which will be stronger than a club handicap, but the club handicap will be based on white tees etc swings and roundabouts but both meaning higher scores are likely than in a club comp.

 

[Imurg]

Anyone ever heard of a Society handicap that's higher than your official CONGU one...?

 

[bladeplayer]

Anyone ever heard of a Society handicap that's higher than your official CONGU one...?

Yep we have a few believe it or not , as the society is not affiliated to the GUI its of no relevence to them ,

In our society we play once a month , you have to play 3 comps to be eligable to win a prize , overall winner gets cut 3 shots , cat winners (3 catagorys) cut 2 & cat runner up cut 1... the only time the handicap sec will change from this is the 0-what ever group , if you win your cat with under 30pts youl get cut 1 ... 3 comps without winning a prize gets you a shot back ..

members with current society handicaps cannot win the captains or presidents unless you have played 3 events that callender year ... works well for us .. mind you societies are struggling a bit for numbers over here at present ..

 

[Essex_Stu]

Our swindle has has quite an intresting scoring method. The league runs for 6 months and its your 12 best scores through that time that count for your total. You lose a shot for winning the front 9, a shot for the back 9 and a shot for overall, so potentially you could lose 3 in a week. The good part is you do not get the shots back until the end of the league. The league has just started and the winning score has been mid 40's for the last 3 weeks. By the end the winning score will be mid 30's and some of the better players will be off scratch.