WHS doesn't work

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Captain_Black.

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Scratching my head this season looking at the incredible scores coming in.
So I had a look back through the results.
Turns out that with the exception of our Club Champs, which was a Gross comp, nobody with a handicap under 16 has won a comp all season.
Indeed the vast majority of the top 5 finishers in all comps have had handicaps in excess of 20.
Ok, the ground conditions have favoured the shorter hitters, but really!!!
It seems to me, once a handicap exceeds 18 anyone lower than that will struggle to compete.

Apart from the usual suspects who i'm sure are maintaining a high handicap which sadly exist at all clubs, it's quite incredible.
As policing handicaps on an individual basis is impossible, I think the only answer is to split every comp into handicap divisions & split the prize pot accordingly.

Thoughts?
 
Since I joined my first club in 1994 the majority of comps have been in divisions .
The exception being specific comps where the best nett score overall wins..and they number somewhere between 3 and 5 at my current club
I struggle to comprehend how clubs fail to have divisions for the majority of competitions.
In our monthly medals and stablefords, as a Div1 player, I couldn't care less about the scores in the other divisions as I'm not playing against them.
 
Captain_Black. said:
Scratching my head this season looking at the incredible scores coming in.
So I had a look back through the results.
Turns out that with the exception of our Club Champs, which was a Gross comp, nobody with a handicap under 16 has won a comp all season.
Indeed the vast majority of the top 5 finishers in all comps have had handicaps in excess of 20.
Ok, the ground conditions have favoured the shorter hitters, but really!!!
It seems to me, once a handicap exceeds 18 anyone lower than that will struggle to compete.

Apart from the usual suspects who i'm sure are maintaining a high handicap which sadly exist at all clubs, it's quite incredible.
As policing handicaps on an individual basis is impossible, I think the only answer is to split every comp into handicap divisions & split the prize pot accordingly.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
They already do this at ours. 1-14 is division 1 and above that division 2.
 
Captain_Black. said:
Scratching my head this season looking at the incredible scores coming in.
So I had a look back through the results.
Turns out that with the exception of our Club Champs, which was a Gross comp, nobody with a handicap under 16 has won a comp all season.
Indeed the vast majority of the top 5 finishers in all comps have had handicaps in excess of 20.
Ok, the ground conditions have favoured the shorter hitters, but really!!!
It seems to me, once a handicap exceeds 18 anyone lower than that will struggle to compete.

Apart from the usual suspects who i'm sure are maintaining a high handicap which sadly exist at all clubs, it's quite incredible.
As policing handicaps on an individual basis is impossible, I think the only answer is to split every comp into handicap divisions & split the prize pot accordingly.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Possibly WHS is redressing the balance.
 
Very similar issue at my place. Very few winners below 15 or so.

Divisions would fix the problem but if put to a vote, the high handicappers outnumber the low guys massively so were stuck in a never ending cycle of crap.

I've stopped entering singles comps - absolutely pointless waste of £3 entry.

Annoyingly the Sunday roll up couldn't be a better example of how it can work - when everyone has accurate handicaps - as we have seen low and high guys winning with around a 50/50 split. So that's where I play my "competitive" golf these days because Saturday medals are just bandit central.
 
My club is very strong on the competitions front and the membership generally buy into that, and competitions are highly subscribed. As a result I think WHS must be working fine as even med-high SF handicappers and mid teens cappers fare well in comps. The last two Stableford comps I entered had winners with 43pts and 41pts. Now the former is probably out of reach of the low SF and +hcap players, but both are just within reach for med-high SF players, and certainly for many of our mid teens guys. And depending upon numbers entered we will often have two divisions with winnings split pro-rata.

One reason is that we have rebuilt our bunkers and they ALL have severe steep sides, and you have to be able to play proper bunker shots or you get stuck in them, and many high handicappers do not seem inclined to work on their bunker play.
 
Last edited:
We have always run Divisions for the prize money.

What is noticeable these days is that the trophies where it is a stableford compare are being won by some very high handicap players but not so much in handicap stroke play comps.
 
Just went through a few of our last board comps and sweeps and the winning handicaps and net or points (I just guessed some since we play so many stablefords and looked at their points compared to their posted score so might be 1 shot out here or there)

19 (67), 19 (44), 16 (40), 3 (38), 9 (42), 18 (63), 20 (65), 13 (40), 19 (39), 22 (44), 9 (41), 8 (64), 11 (61), 23 (42), 12 (41), 7 (41)

The lad who won off of 3 is usually a scratch golfer so he must be going through a rough patch. The 9 handicap with 42 points has been as low as 5. Overall it looks like a bias towards higher handicaps but there are more of them.

We have divisions for the board comps but the lowest overall gets their name on the board. Winning your division gives you £40 in credit onto your club card. This was only introduced this season though.
 
Springveldt said:
Just went through a few of our last board comps and sweeps and the winning handicaps and net or points (I just guessed some since we play so many stablefords and looked at their points compared to their posted score so might be 1 shot out here or there)

19 (67), 19 (44), 16 (40), 3 (38), 9 (42), 18 (63), 20 (65), 13 (40), 19 (39), 22 (44), 9 (41), 8 (64), 11 (61), 23 (42), 12 (41), 7 (41)

The lad who won off of 3 is usually a scratch golfer so he must be going through a rough patch. The 9 handicap with 42 points has been as low as 5. Overall it looks like a bias towards higher handicaps but there are more of them.

We have divisions for the board comps but the lowest overall gets their name on the board. Winning your division gives you £40 in credit onto your club card. This was only introduced this season though.
Click to expand...

Am I reading this right? A 9HC won with 67 points?
 
I don’t see WHS being the problem in this instance. The fact there is no divisions is the major problem. Even then, yes you will have 2,3,4 Divisional winners but you have to have an overall winner and that won’t change having divisional comps.
 
It might share out the pot, for those who care about that, but I never consider a category win, a real win. Its half a win. Or a third of a win.
 
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