Handicaps

Looking at the comments about handicaps in the uk I was surprised to see that the problem with the uk handicap system is being criticised,I never new it had been changed in the uk as a major critic of the German handicap system which is totally unfair I have often said the British system was fair and that the Germans make up their own rules to suit themselves.I play off a handicap of 8, recently I played in a Christmas 9 hole competition I scored a respecable 18 points only to finish 25th,the winner had a handicap of 54 and scored 41 points in 9 holes.I hope British golf does not sink to this level of golf.

Hugh Copeland

Handicaps are supposed to ensure that all players have an equal chance of winning, you have now found out, to your dismay, that handicaps are a farce, be it in golf or horse racing.

I would like to see four even split divisions of a maximum handicap of 24, and everyone in their own divission plays level. This would encourage those who like winning, to improve

Pretty sound ideas, Chris. I could go along with that.

Finally I wouldn't reward golfers with a 0.1 increase to handicaps when they have a bad round. Upward adjustments will be made at the end of the season during the annual review.

Chris - an interesting point ! But what would the annual review be looking at in terms of a basis for re-calculating their handicap i.e. give me an example of a hypothetical case that you might apply !

I am quite sure that a fair handicap could be assessed with all the scores for that season in front of the handicap committee. Annual revisions are commonplace in proper golf clubs.

The German golf assocition has come up with the idea that any golfer who does not play in competitions over the season will have their handicap cut automaticly by what they consider that the player should have improved over the season.I must say I laughed at the idea at first but when I saw the handicap adjustment lists I find the idea not so bad.Players in the future will find it harder to protect their handicaps for the better prize tournaments,maybe the Germans are beginning to get it right now.

Shuggie

so Chris are you saying that your rounds outside the 'buffer zone' were NOT considered (at the end of the day) only your better final rounds ? to be cut by 4 shots seems to indicate this !

I mean to be honest I don't have a gripe about that from my perspective I have a potential good game and it is up to me to aspire toward achieving that - the fact that in reallity that round only comes around every 12-20 games is 'my problem' !!

I like John's idea of playing in even divisions and players within each division playing off the same handicap.  However if this was done why limit the handicap to 24. 

I would argue that it would be better to have 4 divisions 0-9, 9-18, 19-27 and 28 -36.  I would have the best division competing off the back tees and the lowest playing off reds irrespective of age or gender.  I think a lot of male players when first starting would progress quicker if they started on the red tees spending less time hacking around in the rough which is no good for confidence or technique. 

I think this system would also benefit the more able women golfers as they would be able to compete off the back tees and against more golfers of the same standard at their local club.

I also think that cuts in handicap should come more quickly especially for golfers whose handicaps are not based on many rounds.  I would suggest that a golfer whose handicap is based on 10 QRs or less should get a whole point cut for each shot they shoot under handicap.  This could then be reduced by 0.1 after each subsequent 10 QRs they complete until it reaches 0.5 per shot under handicap.  If a golfer changed clubs and did not transfer their handicap they would go back to 0 QRs.