Stableford competitions?

[19th]

I enjoy this forum and the contents very much but I am now aware that stableford is being discussed so often (2 bloobs -4 bloobs etc)when a round is being described.

I have checked our club board and we have played ONE stableford in our last 32 games of competitions.

Now this is what I would have expected, stableford when the ground/weather is 'iffy' and medal play at all other times - card in hand from start to finish, all shots counting.

Are we unusual up here in using medal play format during the summer or is the posters on here using stableford for 'bounce' games and then using this for posting and the official club competitions, like us, being medal play?

 

[Ethan]

One of the reasons has been handicap discussion. As described in numerous threads, all medals, whether stroke or stableford, effectively have handicap adjustments determined by stableford scores because of the effect of the stableford correction, so this may be a reason. Also, rollups and society games end to be stableford.

 

[Ken_A]

We have a fair mix with pretty much every other comp being different ie stroke followed by stableford - tho the lesser attended Sunday comps are generally stableford.

From what I hear it used to be mostly stroke with a few stablefords. A few of my friends play other courses and they tell me that they have mostly strok - suppose it depends on the amount of comps available and the copm conveneours ideas of fair..

We play mens comps - Saturday and Sunday with a montly medal on forst Fridday of each month - 90% are qualifing
Ladies have Thursdays
Seniors have Tuesdays and Saturday comps.

 

[19th]

Ethan, I take your point re stableford dictating handicaps and therefore mentioned more often on here. In fact I am now so knowledgeable regarding handicapping that I can join in the clubhouse debates - thanks to this lounge!!

 

[User 105]

At our place we have one stableford and one stroke play comp a month at weekends and the same mid-week as well.

We have occasional 4 ball better ball, which is pairs using stableford scoring but using a 3/4 handicap for each player.

During the winter we tend to have more pair comps than singles with daft scoring systems. Mostly some form of modified stableford scoring.

 

[rickg]

We have 6 medal and one stableford competition per month, not including any major competitions. This continues also through winter as our course is hardly ever closed and always off normal tees & greens.

 

[Spinn77]

We tend to have competitions Wed, Sat and Sundays. Mostly they are stableford, with one weekend staging monthly medals - One Sat and One Sun.

I wish there were more medals to be honest.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

At our place we have one stableford and one stroke play comp a month at weekends and the same mid-week as well.

We have occasional 4 ball better ball, which is pairs using stableford scoring but using a 3/4 handicap for each player.

My club is similar to Westy's. We have a number of medal comps which are honour board events such as club championship, Masters etc but a lot of them are stableford. We have some medal pairs events (greensome and foursome) and again a few like the Jubilee Cup HTL and I won which are stableford. We only have one bogey event per year.

I think the club probably has the mix about right as a lot of the older guys don't like medal. Simple as. As a result the fields especially in the winter can be relatively small so I guess the club has to cater towards the members to a degree and put on so many stablefords

 

[RGDave]

I think we have more stablefords than anything. It's a good idea too because medal games tend to bring more tears than joy. I've been looking around masterscoreboard.com today and have discovered that 3 holes cost SO many shots it's not true.
Unsurprisingly, the 3 in question are exactly the same holes I struggle on.

I guess it's the price we pay for playing a course where the owner (and designer) refuses to accept there is a problem.

I am actually no longer playing medals. I'll happily play a medal at Royal St. David's or Little Aston but not at my home club.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

We normally have one medal and one s'ford per month at weekends and the same in midweek.

Some people don't like and won't play medal so I guess that's what the s'fords are there for.

 

[RGDave]

We normally have one medal and one s'ford per month at weekends and the same in midweek.

Some people don't like and won't play medal so I guess that's what the s'fords are there for.

I love a medal round, just not at home!

 

[Leftie]

a lot of the older guys don't like medal. Simple as.

So you are saying that because the "older guys" don't like medal play, you have to play Stableford comps so that you can actually get enough people (read "older guys" to play?

.. the fields especially in the winter can be relatively small so I guess the club has to cater towards the members to a degree and put on so many stablefords.

Even at Sundridge, we have to limit the number of players of all ages that can be accommodated on the course teeing off in a comp in the depths of the winter between say just after 8am to about 11.30 so that they can get a full round in, as against this time of year when comps are fully subscribed (again by all age groups excepting those too ancient to even reach the fairway off the whites) between 7.30 and 4.00 or later.

So that would be something like 80/90 max players in a winter comp compared to possibly up to 200 in the summer months.

That might just possibly one of many reasons why there are fewer player at your gaff in comps in the winter.

(Just wish we had a smiley that had eyes being thrown sideways up to the heavens in total frustration.....)

 

[Region3]

(Just wish we had a smiley that had eyes being thrown sideways up to the heavens in total frustration.....)

Borrow this one mate

 

[Happy_Gilmore]

pretty much all our comps at the weekend are strokeplay comps, looking back at last year I think we had 4 stableford weekend comps across the whole year.

I moved from a club that played more stableford than medal and I was a terrible medal golfer, struggled to put together a full 18 without NR'ing somewhere on the back 9 and I think this had a lot to do with the stableford mentaility I had "it's ok to lose a ball here and there as it does not wreck your card"

Now that I'm palying pretty much all medal golf it's made me a far better/more consistent player.

 

[RGDave]

Now that I'm playing pretty much all medal golf it's made me a far better/more consistent player.

I'm not surprised to read this. As some will remember, I'm more interested in my gross score week in week out than anything else. My whole game (course management) is biased to getting round the course with the minimum shots which, for me, means staying out of trouble and letting the good shots count when they come. Sometimes, I roll onwards hole after hole making safe bogeys and patiently waiting for pars and birdies.
I was 7 over after 7 the other day and feared that my boring style was going to lead to 18 bogeys......then I popped it on the green at the 8th for an easy par and birdied the 9th to be back at 6 over.
It's a good style for medal. It's a decent style for stableford too.....it's clearly not for pairs though (despite being in the club semi-final).....