Winter League - reduced handicap

[jimjoachim]

Does anyone know the reason for reduced handicaps for winter league.
We play over 9 holes and get 3/8ths.(ie instead of getting 10 shots on my 19 handicap im only getting 7)

I can think of 2 possible reasons for it;
a)less holes increases the variance therefore reducing the handicap of higher handicap players will level the playing field.
b)the course is shorter along with temp greens so it plays easier

Im a bit at odds as to whether the reduction should happen. One issue at my course is a great player who plays at -1 is actually gaining a shot under the system while im losing 3. In the 4 weeks we have played he has one 2 weeks (23 points both times) and finished 4th in another. I feel i have to shoot the lights out to score 18-19 points...

What happens at other courses? what are your thoughts??

 

[HawkeyeMS]

If he's scoring 23pts off scratch he's playing to 5 under and he deserves to win

 

[USER1999]

It doesn't sound like his one shot he has got back is making much difference. Scores like that would win anyway.

Full allowance off mats to temporary greens is a nonsense.

 

[jimjoachim]

It doesn't sound like his one shot he has got back is making much difference. Scores like that would win anyway.

Full allowance off mats to temporary greens is a nonsense.

Why is it nonsense? considering the awful conditions would better players not be able to adapt better?
Its clear to me that hes adapting wonderfully to the conditions and shorter holes to be scoring like he is.
Im not saying he wouldnt and shouldnt win under a different method but i think him getting better than full allowance and the average player losing 2/3 shots could be a little unfair.

Is this common practice? its my first yr as a member of a club so im a bit ignorant to it.

If the reason for reduced handicap is course playing easier i would think a better method would be to knock a standard 1 or 2 shots off everyone regardless of handicap.

if i can be ar$ed i may look into it in a bit of detail to see if theres any statistical evidence to back the system up.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Why is it nonsense? considering the awful conditions would better players not be able to adapt better?
Its clear to me that hes adapting wonderfully to the conditions and shorter holes to be scoring like he is.
Im not saying he wouldnt and shouldnt win under a different method but i think him getting better than full allowance and the average player losing 2/3 shots could be a little unfair.

Is this common practice? its my first yr as a member of a club so im a bit ignorant to it.

If the reason for reduced handicap is course playing easier i would think a better method would be to knock a standard 1 or 2 shots off everyone regardless of handicap.

if i can be ar$ed i may look into it in a bit of detail to see if theres any statistical evidence to back the system up.

Again, he's shooting 5 under par - gross. I suspect he would win if you played off full handicaps.

 

[jimjoachim]

Allowance Average Score
Handicap Count Total Score Full Winter Diff Winter Full
-1 4 85 -1 0 1 21.3 20.3
2 4 71 1 1 0 17.8 17.8
5 4 65 3 2 -1 16.3 17.3
6 5 91 3 2 -1 18.2 19.2
8 14 241 4 3 -1 17.2 18.2
10 15 275 5 4 -1 18.3 19.3
11 19 294 6 4 -2 15.5 17.5
12 24 426 6 5 -1 17.8 18.8
13 14 237 7 5 -2 16.9 18.9
14 19 308 7 5 -2 16.2 18.2
15 19 288 8 6 -2 15.2 17.2
16 16 232 8 6 -2 14.5 16.5
17 14 213 9 6 -3 15.2 18.2
18 6 84 9 7 -2 14.0 16.0
19 11 159 10 7 -3 14.5 17.5
20 7 110 10 8 -2 15.7 17.7
21 13 203 11 8 -3 15.6 18.6
22 18 248 11 8 -3 13.8 16.8
24 17 225 12 9 -3 13.2 16.2
25 4 54 13 9 -4 13.5 17.5
27 6 90 14 10 -4 15.0 19.0

Sum -42.5 -1.5


Analyzed the scores for first 4 weeks of our winter league. Results seems to support full handicaps would level the playing field better than the method being used. Its only 4 weeks so may change over the next few month......To reitorate, im not saying he doesnt deserve to win shooting -5 gross but handicaps are supposed to level the playing field and in this case it isnt.