What's the level of competition like at your club.

[Fader]

Reason I ask this is because having moved from one club to another this last week I've noticed a big difference in handicap levels.

Now my Old club Deangate is a municipal course where the wind blows , but you can get it round and the greens are never better than average and tend to be slow, plus the tees aren't very even. I'm not being bitter about the place as its a good layout and I enjoy playing it. But my point is around this course the SSS & CSS are always under par and there are a lot of cat 1 players and a couple of + handicappers, a few cat 2's, a whole host of teens and the twenties make up the rest. The average handicap at Deangate seems to be high teens.

Still with me or have I bored you yet.

Contrast the above with my new club The Ridge, where from a quick look on HDID shows CSS regularly at +1 to +2 for par also shows a massive difference in the average handicap. There are only 2 yes 2 Cat 1 players, about 15 or so Cat 2s, a load of Cat 3s but an absolute boat load of Cat 4s. I'd say the average Handicap is somewhere around 22-24, which without doing exact sums would be at my guess about 5 or 6 shots more than my old place.

Just wondering why the big difference and is it odd there's so few cat 1 and 2s because its poles apart from my old place.

The condition of the new place is alway immaculate when I've been there, greens are good and very tricky plus it can be penal of the tee if out of position, but just a little surprised this would give such a difference in average handicap.

I guess I better get working on course management as it seems the layout with its extra doglegs and undulating greens is going to be far more tricky than what I've been used to.

So what's your place like compared others you've been a member at or played at.

 

[Stuart_Wales]

Sorry for the newbie type post, but what do all the abreviations you've made stand for?

 

[Canary_Yellow]

What you've described doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

In my opinion, SSS and CSS don't fully offset increased / decreased difficulty levels. I play at quite a tough course, friends that are used to playing elsewhere can't get close to their handicaps when they come and play with me.

However, I would think that's more of an issue for higher handicap golfers than for the Cat 1 guys. I don't think you can fluke cat 1, even on a slightly easier than some others track.

 

[pbrown7582]

Sorry for the newbie type post, but what do all the abreviations you've made stand for?

SSS standard scratch score basically a leveller for course difficulty SSS bow par indicates an easyjet par 4/5 and SSS above par would suggest a difficult par 4 where a scratch player would be prone to dropping a shot ( rough description a lot more detailed when calculated!)
CSS is the SSS fog the day variable +/-2 depending on scores returned
HDID is how did I do website where clubs record scores

Hope that helps.

 

[USER1999]

Average handicap at my place is around 12.(we have a high/low drawn pairs comp, and often both the high and low are 12s). Around a third are single figures, a third in the teens, and a third higher. We have quite a lot of cat 1s, but I haven't counted. 50 odd at a guess.

 

[G1BB0]

my course has 1 cat1, several cat 2's and the majority are cat 3/4. Its usually high 30's low 40's that win stablefords but medals are always the single figure guys for the gross as it should be. There are no exceptional players so in my opinion everyone has a chance in comps particularly for the stableford and gross results. We are only a small club with around 90 members this year & the majority are seniors!

I will move in a year or 2 and have just taken out my membership again after saying I was gonna have a year away as I enjoy the competition and its a lot cheaper than anywhere else. The course sounds similar to your old one in that the greens are ok nothing spectacular, the tee boxes not brilliant but something that is being addressed this year.

as its 400 a year I can accept that, if it was anymore then I would be offski.

 

[Fish]

I think our handicap average at my club would be around 15.

I have noticed a stark difference when I play at other courses especially since September onwards and because I think my course is a good test of golf with quite tight tree lined fairways, that whilst I am learning on it my handicap travels very well, in some instances I think as much as 5/6 shots!

I see visiting low to mid handicappers struggle around our tight course at times and can only imagine their course must be very open.

I think handicaps are to some degree only a guideline of ability and not an exact science.

 

[AMcC]

We have 63 category 1 players, with 2 plus players, 5 at scratch and 8 at 1.

Our SSS is now 73 with a par of 71, but CSSS is often 73 or 74 and the last medal it got to 75 !!!.
My opinion is that the tougher courses, certainly around here, attract the better players - don't know what I am doing there though

 

[louise_a]

Sorry for the newbie type post, but what do all the abreviations you've made stand for?

SSS Standard Scratch score, the score a scratch golfer ought to take
CSS Competition Scratch score, an adjuxtment version of SSS depending on performances in competition it relates to
Cat The category a golfer falls into depending on their handicap, Cat 1 is 5.4 or less
HDID HowdidIdo a website where a lot of clubs results are recorded

 

[HawkeyeMS]

We have...

7 x Cat 1
73 x Cat 2
201 x Cat 3
187 x Cat 4

Average handicap is about 18. CSS is usually equal to SSS off the whites, occasionally goes up but rarely goes down. Anything 2 under Nett will usually win you a comp.

Out of interest, 132 of the above handicaps are inactive, primarily in Cat 3 and 4.

I think it's quite telling that midweek stablefords off the yellow tees have higher entry numbers than any midweek or weekend comps off the whites.

 

[patricks148]

We have 63 category 1 players, with 2 plus players, 5 at scratch and 8 at 1.

Our SSS is now 73 with a par of 71, but CSSS is often 73 or 74 and the last medal it got to 75 !!!.
My opinion is that the tougher courses, certainly around here, attract the better players - don't know what I am doing there though

I agree, all the course around here that have high sss/css attract the lower players. we have loads of low handicap playes. We also have a fair few older high handicappers who won't play on the Championship course in a comp.

a local course to me has one cat 1 member and there css is alway 2 or 3 under par.

If you are a low guy and you have to shoot under par just to make buffer, you are more likly to want to play at a harder course with the css 3 shots harder than par i would have though.

Royal Dornoch is Usually reduction only in most of their comps i'm told

 

[duncan mackie]

In my opinion, SSS and CSS don't fully offset increased / decreased difficulty levels. I play at quite a tough course, friends that are used to playing elsewhere can't get close to their handicaps when they come and play with me.

where do you play Canary Yellow?

 

[AMcC]

We also have a fair few older high handicappers who won't play on the Championship course in a comp.

Our club actually introduced a couple of midweek competitions off the yellow boxes to allow the older, higher handicappers to maintain a handicap. Many of them can be heard saying " not playing today, will only go up point one".

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We have...

7 x Cat 1
73 x Cat 2
201 x Cat 3
187 x Cat 4

Average handicap is about 18. CSS is usually equal to SSS off the whites, occasionally goes up but rarely goes down. Anything 2 under Nett will usually win you a comp.

Out of interest, 132 of the above handicaps are inactive, primarily in Cat 3 and 4.

I think it's quite telling that midweek stablefords off the yellow tees have higher entry numbers than any midweek or weekend comps off the whites.

However for those events played off the whites, anything around 38 points or nett 68 (par 70) is usually in contention and certainly good in most cases for a top three in the division for monthly stableford or medal

 

[ludders]

we have
4 Cat 1's
approx 60 Cat 2's
approx 100 cat 3's and cat 4's

One thing I noticed when looking at this on HDID was the fact that about 70% of Cat 4's and 50% of cat 3's have inactive handicaps so is using them for averaging purposes wrong

our sss is 65 and the css about the same

 

[Region3]

We are Par 72, SSS 71. It used to be SSS 72 but frequently CSS was 71. We were re-assessed late last year and changed to 71.

Cat 1	7
Cat 2	79
Cat 3	147
Cat 4	136

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Our club actually introduced a couple of midweek competitions off the yellow boxes to allow the older, higher handicappers to maintain a handicap. Many of them can be heard saying " not playing today, will only go up point one".

Similar with us. Sometimes I wonder if handicaps should be calculated off of each set of tees (I know the practicalities would make this impossible) but I don't think SSS\CSS really equates for the difference in difficulty for some guys. What is the point having a h'cap off the yellows that you can't play to off the whites?

 

[Canary_Yellow]

where do you play Canary Yellow?

I play at Lamberhurst in Kent.

On the face of it, it looks straight forward, not too long and some straightforward looking holes. However, you never get a flat lie, it's quite undulating, it's tight in places, there are several dog leg holes which mean if you don't get your drive right your chance of par is gone, and there are only 3 par 3's, each quite lengthy.

Probably worth noting though, that the guys that play with me as guests are similar standard to me (20 ish handicaps) and therefore playing with the ball above or below their feet presents a particular challenge, as does some of the accurate driving that is necessary. A good golfer however, can probably cut the corner on quite a few of dog leg holes, and then the course is a different beast altogether!

I'm yet to get in the 80's. But I've managed that feat at both New Zealand Golf Club (85) and Tudor Park (89). It's the undulation and ball above / below feet that makes it so much harder for me at least.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Pretty low, midweek stableford attracts 6-10 golfers at the most. I came second with 26 points, OK it was stupidly windy and the 29 that won did very well.

 

[bladeplayer]

It would be pretty strong in our place , time sheets full most of the time , the tuesday open is nearly always full .. some very good low handicappers in our place & some good 19-23 year olds who are also nice lads ..

Its that competitive that even off 7 i fell like im playing for the gross most weeks & there are a few others the same .. nice to win the overall but a nice glow when ya win a gross ..