Swindle handicaps

[jim8flog]

We have several swindles running on a Saturday and the organiser of the group before ours was informing everybody of their swindle handicaps. Made good listening as the handicap chairman but then I remembered they always play off yellows.

The clubs lowest handicap golfer (varies between 0 and +1) has a swindle handicap of +5.

What's the lowest to their handicap that you know of?

 

[pendodave]

when our assistant plays (I know he's technically scratch, but probably is about 2 atm), he plays off +4

 

[inc0gnito]

What’s a swindle handicap?

 

[duncan mackie]

We have several swindles running on a Saturday and the organiser of the group before ours was informing everybody of their swindle handicaps. Made good listening as the handicap chairman but then I remembered they always play off yellows.

The clubs lowest handicap golfer (varies between 0 and +1) has a swindle handicap of +5.

What's the lowest to their handicap that you know of?

There's rarely much in it, and they are reset to club handicaps when the clocks change ie twice a year. All swindle scores are maintained in a book, and that book has been included in the handicap committees reviews since before the annual review became the formal thing it currently is!
The max swindle adjustment is 2 for a single round, and I think there have been a couple of occasions over the years where someone's managed to get 4 under their club handicap - normally more due to a brief purple patch and conditions suiting their game than any underlying handicapping issues. Those that play the swindle are pretty much 100% comp players as well; the swindle takes place when there's no comp.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I have been down to +2 in the one during the week and down to scratch in both the weekend ones

Back up to 2 in both of them at the weekend and scratch during the week

 

[jim8flog]

What’s a swindle handicap?

A swindle is a group of mates who play together on a regular basis. Many swindles operate their own handicap system to help reduce the chance of a player winning the kitty on consecutive occasions. In the one I play in shoot to your club handicap and you will get cut 2 shots for next two swindle rounds, shoot 2 or more better than your handicap get a 3 shot cut. Win the swindle championship and you get a 2 shot for the next year.

 

[Backsticks]

A swindle is a group of mates who play together on a regular basis. Many swindles operate their own handicap system to help reduce the chance of a player winning the kitty on consecutive occasions.

I hadnt heard of this. Is it not an indicator of a failure by the handicap committee to maintain official handicaps correctly though - if handicaps are correct, everybody in a group should have more or less the same chance on average as anyone else of winning the kitty ?

 

[Old Skier]

I hadnt heard of this. Is it not an indicator of a failure by the handicap committee to maintain official handicaps correctly though - if handicaps are correct, everybody in a group should have more or less the same chance on average as anyone else of winning the kitty ?

No, its about having fun and spread the chances of winning around.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I hadnt heard of this. Is it not an indicator of a failure by the handicap committee to maintain official handicaps correctly though - if handicaps are correct, everybody in a group should have more or less the same chance on average as anyone else of winning the kitty ?

Many Swindle or rolls ups use their own handicap system - some people get cut whole shots or two shots just for winning regardless of the score but then they also get shots back quickly - the swindles are also mainly played of yellows and with gimmies.

People’s official handicaps can mainly only be cut via Qualifying comps so if some people struggle in comps maybe but relax more in a swindle then they may play a bit better - that doesn’t suggest the HC committee aren’t failing. Also plenty of times I have seen people who are doing well in swindles replicate that form in the club comps

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Our big Sunday one never has handicap reductions and it is shared around fairly evenly but the winner is then expected to get a round in with the winnings and so the take home is significantly reduced. Our Saturday one use to be run by HawkeyeMS when he was a member and then got taking on by various others but stopped being done. That does tend to be a smaller field and so more regular winners and I'm thinking of starting it up again in 2018

 

[Hobbit]

Toughest I've seen is +2, but to be fair I'd won a fair bit of dosh by then... I think they're a great idea. It keeps the interest going every week and helps ensure more people play when its easier to stay in front of the fire at home.

 

[shortgame]

I know a 6 h/c who has to play off scratch

And 13 h/c who has to olay off 7

Both known handicap protectors

 

[patricks148]

not swindle what ever they are, but one of the courses in Inverness used to have winter handicaps, there were guys who were off 20+in summer but comfortably single figures in winter.

 

[jim8flog]

I hadnt heard of this. Is it not an indicator of a failure by the handicap committee to maintain official handicaps correctly though - if handicaps are correct, everybody in a group should have more or less the same chance on average as anyone else of winning the kitty ?

It should be remembered that most swindles are played off short tees and are not played to full rules of golf eg most I play in allow gimmes of some length or another, we often have lift clean and place through the green at this time of year. In the swindles I play in I know that virtually everybody who plays competes in more than enough club comps for their handicaps to be assessed under normal procedures.

 

[inc0gnito]

A swindle is a group of mates who play together on a regular basis. Many swindles operate their own handicap system to help reduce the chance of a player winning the kitty on consecutive occasions. In the one I play in shoot to your club handicap and you will get cut 2 shots for next two swindle rounds, shoot 2 or more better than your handicap get a 3 shot cut. Win the swindle championship and you get a 2 shot for the next year.

cheers for the explanation. I took ‘swindle’ to mean cheating the system to have a higher handicap to do better in competitions. But that’s not the case by looks of it. The opposite it seems.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Our big Sunday one never has handicap reductions and it is shared around fairly evenly but the winner is then expected to get a round in with the winnings and so the take home is significantly reduced. Our Saturday one use to be run by HawkeyeMS when he was a member and then got taking on by various others but stopped being done. That does tend to be a smaller field and so more regular winners and I'm thinking of starting it up again in 2018

So you haven't got to single figures in that either?

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

One of my previous clubs had a very simple solution......the winner got cut 2 shots for the following week. If he won 2 weeks in a row it became a 4 shot cut and so on until he didn't win then he reverted back to his original handicap. No need to keep track of a load of false handicaps.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

cheers for the explanation. I took ‘swindle’ to mean cheating the system to have a higher handicap to do better in competitions. But that’s not the case by looks of it. The opposite it seems.

Swindle has that implied meaning for the group - maybe that's why we only have 'roll-ups' at our club.

We adjust roll-up handicaps to try to avoid the same player or players winning too many times. At the start of the 'Summer season' our roll-up handicap is the same as our club handicap. In our Saturday roll-up if any Saturday you win it then you get cut 0.1 for ever £ that you win. So for instance a few weeks ago I won it - and won £18 - as a result my handicap was cut by 1.8. At the end of Summer and start of Winter our roll-up handicaps are reset to club ones.

And so it goes on.

But - yes - not a great fan of the term 'swindle' for what is a friendly get together.

 

[rosecott]

Going back many years, our Seniors had Seniors Handicaps in addition to normal CONGU handicaps, and these were used in non-qualifiers (in those days CONGU didn't insist on every comp being a qualifier). They ran on a 6-month cycle and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd were docked 3, 2, and 1 shot. There was no remission for good conduct and you didn't revert to your normal handicap until the end of the 6-month cycle. I had a particularly good spell in one cycle and was playing off 3 come the last day of the cycle. It was a very cold day with frozen greens and the comp was a Bogey. On that day I set a never to be beaten record - minus 18 on a Bogey competition.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Going back many years, our Seniors had Seniors Handicaps in addition to normal CONGU handicaps, and these were used in non-qualifiers (in those days CONGU didn't insist on every comp being a qualifier). They ran on a 6-month cycle and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd were docked 3, 2, and 1 shot. There was no remission for good conduct and you didn't revert to your normal handicap until the end of the 6-month cycle. I had a particularly good spell in one cycle and was playing off 3 come the last day of the cycle. It was a very cold day with frozen greens and the comp was a Bogey. On that day I set a never to be beaten record - minus 18 on a Bogey competition.

My roll-up handicap this summer got down from 10.3 (in June) to 6.3. But the 6.3 was only for 10hrs as I did it on the last Saturday of summer. At 4pm that day I was 6.3 - come 2am the next day I was 8.1 - a good day to win.