Stroke Index

[Imurg]

As I understand it the Stroke Index applied to each hole doesn't necessarily indicate difficulty of the hole although often it does. Here's the general recommendation :-

http://www.englishgolfunion.org/showpage.asp?code=0001000200090009

So does your list correspond with the guidelines?
For example, SI 1-8 shouldn't be allocated to the first or last hole - at my place the 1st is SI 5 and the last SI 6!!

A 10 handicapper shouldn't get 3 shots in a row. 16, 17 and 18 at mine are 2, 10 and 6.....

Full list of my SI's are
5, 17, 11, 1, 7, 13, 9, 15, 3
16, 4, 18, 8, 12, 14, 2, 10, 6

And they seem to have been allocated purely on the difficulty of the hole.

What's yours like?

 

[Dodger]

Ours are on the EGU recommendations.

IM01 was saying he played at Strensell last week and they have 2 set of stroke indexes,1 for medal/stableford and 1 for Matchplay....go work that out!

 

[Region3]

Our 18th is SI 8, but is regularly rated in the top 3 (our internet results gives average score per hole).
The 2nd is also regularly in the top 3 but is SI 5.

They are roughly according to hole difficulty, but not strictly imo.

A 10 h/c would get shots on our 14, 15 & 16.

 

[richart]

Ours are slightly strange.If you are been given 7 shots, 6 shots come in the first 11 holes. Only one shot in last 7. You need to build up a good lead and then try and hang on.

Two of our hardest holes are par threes, but a par three always seem to have a high index. We have a 200 yard, into the prevailing wind par 3, upturned saucer green which is almost impossible to get down in two if you miss, and it's stroke index 15 !

 

[smange]

Ours seem to be allocated on hole difficulty as well

They go...
8 4 10 2 6 16 12 18 14
13 7 11 3 1 15 17 5 9

As for the 10 handicapper not having 3 shots in a row
well you have a shot at the first 5 holes at our place

Which is great for getting of to a decent start but then gives you 5 holes without a shot

There are definately a couple of our holes which are way harder/easier than the S.I would indicate though.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Here is RA's SI's

10 6 8 16 4 14 2 18 12

11 7 1 17 5 15 3 13 9

The good news is I get shots at the first three holes which as anyone on here who has played off the whites will testify isn't the easiest of openings. Our 17th is 218 with OB all down the left and usually plays with a slight wind into but always from right to left taking the ball towards the OB. Really hard penultimate hole especially with no shot. I tend to take 4 and move on

 

[JustOne]

In matchplay it's important to know where your opponent gets shots... but don't go reminding them on the tee!

Let them worry about which holes they are shotting on.

 

[Fyldewhite]

Yes, this is one of those golfing myths. 95% of golfers believe that SI indicates the difficulty of the hole when the primary reason for SI is to spread the shots out in matchplay. I've a feeling that this must be a recent thing as so many courses do seem to do it according to difficulty and against the current guidelines.

 

[MashieNiblick]

Yes intesting. I agree it makes more sense in match play to use the indexes simply to distribute shots.

Our indexes seem to follow the EGU recommendations but our 4 most difficult holes (2, 5, 10, and 12) are indexes 3, 1, 4 and 2. They are all long par 4s (over 440 yrds) and it is hard even for a good player to make 4, but they would (should!) play as easy 5's. This generally means the player getting a stroke is likely to win the hole. So playing off 11 h/c against a 15 h/c I'm giving him shots on holes where we're both normally looking to make 5. He can play for the 5, but I have to go for the 4 just to halve.

We have had interesting discussions as to whether this is fair. Should the stroke make it more likely that the players will halve the hole or should getting a stroke make it easier for the higher handicapper to win the hole in order to redress the balance against the holes he's likely to lose?

In other words I suppose, are the strokes given to make each hole fairer, or to redress the balance over the round? Does it matter?

Some people feel that, the whole match play stroke thing needs a re-jig and in the above example 15 h/c should get strokes at indexes 12, 13, 14,and 15, the holes where I'm supposed to be able to score better than him and where he'd normally get a shot and I wouldn't (as it happens these are 2 par 5s and 2 par 3s).

Trouble is in stableford I suppose you want your shots on the holes you need them most , i.e. the more difficult ones. So it's interesting that the EGU say "Clubs that conduct a significant number of Stableford, Par and Bogey competitions may wish to provide separate stroke indices for match play and the listed forms of stroke play." I think that would be confusing even if it was fairer.

Maybe it's because stablefords are becoming more common that the indexes tend to match the hole difficulty rather than the match play significance.

 

[Swinger]

If there are 18 holes and you get a shot on every other one that makes 9. The extra shot would have to fill in one of the gaps. It would stand to reason if the stroke indexes are spread remotly evenly through the 18 then 3 shots would happen more often then not.

Stroke indexes don't matter in medal play and unless you have more than a nett double bogey anywhere don't really matter in stableford.
So matchplay is where they really do come in and this is where most courses should have the stroke indexes set up for. The congu guidelines do try and keep shots away from starting holes (for playoffs) and finishing holes (to help people get their full quota of shots by having them earlier and nobody likes to lose it to a par nett birdie!!)
Personally though sometimes this should be secondary to the way the holes play afterall guidelines are just a guide.

We used to have our par 5 7th 498 yards as SI1, plays downwind, fairly open and plays one of the easier holes on the course. The person who set this got an absolute hammering at the time but it made sense. Not near the start of each half of the course not close to the end and a good matchplay hole.
It took until a few years after we changed them for him to get it over to people it doesn't matter in medals and not too much in stablefords. So the stroke indexes got changed and people have to give shots on par 3's now. Nice touch.

 

[SharkAttack]

If as has been stated, that SI is to distributed shots evenly. Why don't the golf unions just work out two or three layouts and let the clubs pick one. In fact why don't they just set one up and then it would not matter what course you are playing you would know where you are getting shots and it would be spread evenly

Shark

 

[Toad]

Ours has a good mix

Front 9= 9,13,3,17,7,15,1,11,1

Back 9= 10,14,4,16,8,2,18,6,12

9th is the hardest hole on the course at 617yards and apart from 15 the rest seem pretty random, as I would have the first with a lower SI due to the fact it is 440y uphill and most of the time into the wind.

 

[viscount17]

ours are balanced front and back, and with some attempt to rate the holes by difficulty, Par 3's are all 10 or more, though as three of the four involve water there is ample opportunity for lost balls. course changes have altered that without any change to the SI.

6 - 8 - 14 - 2 - 18 - 16 - 10 - 4 - 12
5 - 3 - 7 - 17 - 17 - 1 - 9 - 15 - 11 - 13

the logical holes for a playoff are 1 and 10, so don't really conform to the guidelines, but giving the 1st an SI of 9 would be daft.

 

[rgs]

Yours are:
4 18 6 16 14 8 2 10 12
11 7 15 1 13 9 3 17 5

 

[Paul_Stewart]

The accepted hardest hole in golf is the 17th at St.Andrews. It's SI 5. SI 1 on the Old Course is the par-5 14th, another great quirk of the best course in the world.