Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
I played in a seniors comp yesterday off the forward (our yellow) tees. My CH for the comp was 5. I’ve only got to that in recent weeks. This is first time I’ve played in a club comp off that handicap and it’s my lowest ever in all the decades I’ve played the game. The playing conditions weren’t the easiest and I found it very difficult and scoring 36 pts would have been a huge challenge - I didn’t - by quite some way.
Looking back to Oct 2021 my CH for yellows was 10 (12 for whites and in general I don’t find yellows 2 shots easier). Whether 7 shots lower or 5 the difference is huge, and room for error so small. The holes I wasn’t getting shots on yesterday…
In a field of 72 I was out on my own the lowest handicap - my two playing companions off 21 and 26 were not untypical of the handicaps of the field - though there were a good few in the teens. Don’t think I’ll bother playing in any seniors - or indeed any - strokeplay comps played off the yellows. I’m still in a couple of matchplay comps off yellows - but matchplay is quite another matter.
The above said I clearly should have better chance of winning ‘closest the hole’ stuff. And on two par 3s I won one and was prob second or thereabouts on another, beating a guy playing off 7 in the one I won and coming second to him in the one I didn’t. So can’t complain on that front.
Same observation about divisions really
Players off low single/scratch/+ handicaps shouldn’t be in the same full field comp division as 28/36/54 handicap players. Not a fault with the system that allocated the handicaps, fault with the club/comp committee
Although not being anywhere close to your handicap makes it a bit of a moot point
(relatively speaking as a mid-handicap I’ve recently done a similar poor scoring comp in tough conditions but others seemed to manage ok, so I know your pain)