Feeling useless on the course

In league play last night I think I should have went straight to the bar. It wasn't my best night ever but here is what I would have needed to score just to halve each hole.

1) Par 4 - Eagle

2) Par 3 - Bogey (yeah, I won a hole with a par)

* the first 2 holes were played against only 1 opponent. The 2nd player showed up on hole 3.

3) Par 5 - Par (I bogeyed after hitting my first tee shot O/B)

4) Par 4 - Birdie

5) Par 3 - Birdie

6) Par 4 - Eagle x2

7) Par 4 - Eagle

8) Par 4 - Birdie

9) Par 4 - Eagle

I think I need to work on my hole in one shots on par 4's . I'm not bemoaning our opponents performance as I know they played very well for this given night. Good for them. It was just sooooooooooooooooo frustrating feeling like I needed to hole out just about every shot. When your opponent is on or near the green in net 0/net 1 it is just so deflating. Oh well.

No way these were gross eagles and birdies!!! Dang..

It's tough to play a net game, against multiple partners where you're giving up a lot of strokes. Lower hcp players tend to get beat up pretty regularly in that type of game. Do they play 100% course hcp or something like 80%?

That's the downfall of not playing in flighted handicaps. Still, I would see how your league does handicaps.

One thing about playing golf (and life) is that some days are just not your day.

Net not gross.

It has not been bad overall except for tonight where no matter how well I played I wouldn't have been a factor in 4 of the holes and a bunch of other holes I needed to make a chip in just to have a chance to maybe halve a hole. It is my understanding that they use half of the 100% handicap since it is 9 holes. The guy would have needed to be a 30+ handicap to get that many strokes. I can't find him on the GHIN system.

True. However, I could have been having 'my day' and still not have stood a chance. When it's not my day because I play bad that it is one thing. To be not my day because I need to hole out from the fairway on par 4's? That is entirely different IMO.

I need to rethink this whole league thing. We had our 1st playoff in my other league tonight and a 26 handicap (for that course) shot a 2 over par (gross) for a net 11 under for 9 holes. I was even par through the first 6 holes and we got trounced. They are talking about using 75% or 80% of handicap for next year and that might be the only way I join again. The course is great, I don't mind the hour drive in rush hour traffic and the pro that runs it does a very good job keeping everything organized. However, if there are nights like that my money and time are better off spent somewhere else. My favorite course in the area supposedly has a Tuesday night league with all lower handicaps. I may have to check that out for next year.

League night.  I give strokes to most guys I play and lose every week.  For the most part, nearly all of us show up to play golf and have fun.  I rarely run into anybody outwardly trying to beat me.

Last year, I was the league money-lead in skins and closest to pin shots.  This year I won a total of $15 for one really close par-3 pin shot.  Made birdie and didn't even win a skin on the hole!

Who cares.  It's golf, it's league night and it's supposed to be fun.  Try not to lose sight of that and you'll definitely have much more fun!

dave

I don't get how it can be fun when someone can shoot a net 11 under par...... for 9 holes. While I am out to enjoy some golf I am also out for competition. IMO, It is impossible to be competitive in that situation which ruins any chance of fun from my perspective. I looked up what the guy had scored on that 9 throughout the league play this year 48, 47, 47, 47,47, 49, 49, 53 ......... 38. If the guy shot a 43 I would be thinking 'damn my luck, this guy had a great night'. Shooting that far below his handicap leaves me thinking there is something broken with the system (I do not feel he was sandbagging at all).

His scores on the other 9 during league were 53, 49, 52, 49, 45, 49, 47. I think my solution is to find a league where there is a handicap limit.

I could only imagine what would happen to this guy if he was in the US Handicap Championship. They would probably toss him and again I don't feel he was sandbagging at all.

It sucks because there is a lot of cheating in leagues. Same thing happens to me. We just finished our match play. A guy in 3rd flight won it. All of a sudden he started playing like a single digit handicapper. I see guys that post 90's for casual rounds shoot 39 and under gross on league night. The low gross in championship flight is often higher.

I have this complaint in my league some nights, we're not using ESC and so some people have an 18+ handicap for 9 holes. Giving 2 strokes on half or more of the holes makes it nearly impossible to win a match in my experience. All they have to do is bogey a few holes and you're in trouble, if they par a couple then you're really screwed!

That's crazy, lower indexes are totally getting screwed on this, I mean I'll have a triple every now and then but I know a 18+ is going to have at least 1 or 2 blowups per round and sometimes these go into double digits.

Your league needs to setup some stricter rules.In our am tournaments you can be disqualified for shooting under certain amount of your handicap.No way a 26 hcp is gonna shoot that low.Hope you dont play for money.

During the regular season they have skins and closest to the pin but I don't put any money into that. As far as I know there is no money to be won for league playoffs. I want to believe and still do believe the guy wasn't sandbagging so I don't know how you handle something like that. There is just too much potential for a high handicapper to suddenly find a game and shoot a super low net. So low that a low handicapper has 0% chance of being competitive. I would hope the course drastically reduces his handicap for the next round of playoffs but I somehow doubt it.

Our league implemented a hdcp limit for matches and skins money.  Even if a guy has a 30 hdcp, he gets a 2-stroke limit on all par-4s and 5s and one-stroke limit on par-3s.  His hdcp is still accurately calculated, but when it comes to the match and his ability to win skins, there is a limit.

What was happening is that the hacks were winning all the money due to high hdcp numbers and the better players won nothing.  It only took the league leaders who were doing all the work to realize an adjustment should be made.

Something else that happened:  A guy I'm playing against makes a hole-in-one on a par 3.  He was giving me a stroke on that particular hole and I made birdie, net-1.  Took a skin away from a guy who made a hole in one.  New rule:  Hole in one on par three = automatic closest-to-pin AND skin won.

Leagues have to make rules that are fair to players with differing scoring potential.  No way I'm giving a guy 3 shots on a par 4 or par 5.  I'd never a) win a match -- EVER; b) ever win a skin.  Gotta make things fair for the majority.

That said, nothing burns a guy's bums more than an UNfair hdcp system under which they have ZERO oppty to compete.  From what I hear from others, most leagues are setup unfairly than fairly.  Our league reviews this kind of stuff in January each winter and well ahead of league start in April.  If things don't look right, we look for solutions, predict outcomes and make changes that level the playing field for all members.

dave

Last year in league I hit a shot in league a few inches from the pin on a par 3. Won closest to the pin. My opponent sculls a chip in the hole for birdie. I'm giving him a stroke. I just pick up my ball because I just lost. We have a couple of former mini tour players in our work league. I of these players was giving me a couple of strokes but I beat him 35 to 35. I teased him just a little. The next time we play, he came out with his game face on. I started out par, par, birdie and lost all 3 holes. I shot 35 that day. He shot 29 and missed 3 putts inside 8 feet. I have never seen a better day of ball striking in my life. We do flight our league somewhat. The best player scheduled that day plays against the other teams best play and so on from A player to D player. In our 9 hole league, you can still get matches where the differential is more than 9. It sucks giving 2 strokes on some holes.

I believe our league has the strangest handicap of all.   Our league secretary uses IMA Golfer.    The last week of our league, we played another team and our handicaps were even (10/12 - 9/13).    The software chose to give us 1 stroke on 2 holes and the other team 1 stroke on two different holes.    It worked to our advantage that night but I've not seen anything like it.

Don't most leagues just play even up w/o strokes if the team handicaps are even.

Yes, that's the way we play it. The stroke differential is given on the toughest holes. The player with the lower handicap doesn't get any strokes. So based on our handicaps, I'd give you 11 strokes on the 11 toughest holes. In a 9 hole league, you'd get 5 (truncated) on the toughest holes. We have an individual championship at the end of the year fully handicapped. I never get in it because it is always won by guys with 30+ handicaps. I never get in handicap skins either.