Question of Competition?? - Please HELP

[iacas]

OK, I thought you said he asked to be moved on to another bracket. I think I misread your post!

No. So finally we played (our pro basically made him put it, despite the fact that we'd since missed the SECOND ROUND cutoff date). It's the day before our three-day member guest, so the greens were super-fast and I had trouble getting the speed down. Needless to say, I was a tentative putter.

He was a 10 handicap, me a four. The match ended on the 13th hole, 6&5. I was, on the day, three over through 13 - about right. He was four strokes under his handicap at the time (with two doubles on the card!). Had we finished, his likely score would have been 76 - that's nearly better than my handicap (3.9 index versus 3.7), and I was giving the guy six strokes. The odds of him shooting that score were 536:1, according to the USGA. So... yeah. At least I'm done with him. I won't be playing any more handicap events at my club - not my Tuesday men's league, not the men's stroke or match play championships, not the member-guests. Nothing. Put me in Rafi's camp now. The handicap system works... within about four or five strokes. I play a weekly match with a guy I give four strokes to, and we have close matches (he's up $10 in our $5 nassau, after 10 rounds or so, that's how close it is). Outside of four or five strokes - especially when the guy has a wonderous 536:1 day against you - forget it.

[Rafcin]

I feel for you brother... hcp system is B.S. when matchplay scoring is in use. That's another example out of 100's I collected myself already

[iacas]

Tough break, I wonder how often he has these 536:1 rounds while in competition? If the club does not enter scores, how often does his good score get entered.

His last two tournament rounds are 77 (4.6 index) and 82 (8.2 index - both beneath his 8.4/8.8-ish index). Both were from June (June 14, June 25). The deadline for our match was supposed to be the 11th.

Oh well.

I know all of us were hoping you would wax his a**. At least you can be proud that you played pretty solid and stood for what was right, too bad your pros don't have a backbone.

They assured me next year the dates will be treated with some level of authority. My guess is someone has been told this every year for the past 20 years.

[rembrandt]

I feel for ya and I know how you felt cause I've been there and done that. I won the Championship bracket at Star Valley Ranch in Wy, and had to play the 1st Flight, 2ond Flight and 3rd Flight Champions. I beat the 1st Flight and the 2ond Flight champions but I had to give the 3rd Flight Champion 8 strokes. No way I could overcome that and lost at the 15th hole, 4 and 3. The club at Star Valley Ranch said after it was over that no longer would it be held like that. It was unfair and they knew it.

[Xt1ncT]

We are lucky in NZ it seems.

Our Club Championships are all played "Off the stick", so by definition, the best golfers win, which is how it should be.

I'll explain it in a bit more detail.

There are 4 divisions:

Seniors: Golfers who have a handicap up to 8
Intermediate: Golfers who's handicap is between 8 and 14
Juniors: Golfers who's handicap is between 15 and 22
C Grade: Golfers who's handicap is 23 or above.

For the matchplay champs, we have an 18 hole qualifying tournament, and the top 16 in each division qualify, and get seeded by where they came and then play match-play on set Saturdays - if you don't turn up you forfeit. As I said earlier, all matches are played with no handicap allowance so you don't get the same situation occuring.

[NCGolfer]

Put me in Rafi's camp now. The handicap system works... within about four or five strokes. I play a weekly match with a guy I give four strokes to, and we have close matches (he's up $10 in our $5 nassau, after 10 rounds or so, that's how close it is). Outside of four or five strokes - especially when the guy has a wonderous 536:1 day against you - forget it.

I swore off net tournaments a long time ago. It's not worth it. Not ever.

[iacas]

I swore off net tournaments a long time ago. It's not worth it. Not ever.

The problem is that as a four handicap I'm right in between. I'm not good enough to beat the scratch golfers (who shoot 74 on a bad day) even up, and I can't beat the guys with handicaps giving them five or six or more strokes.

I guess that right there should be my incentive to improve, but at the same time, going from 4 to 0 is pretty damn tough, especially playing only 7 months a year.

[tartanjack]

The problem is that as a four handicap I'm right in between. I'm not good enough to beat the scratch golfers (who shoot 74 on a bad day) even up, and I can't beat the guys with handicaps giving them five or six or more strokes.

I'm not a fan of handicapped match play at all and your experience giving strokes to a lucky/sandbagging opponent is why. Match play by its nature evens players to some extent. I much prefer flighted matches played even up. I think they're much fairer. The idea is to see who is the better golfer, not who is lucky that day.

As a 4, though, I think you should look forward to challenging yourself in match play against stronger opponents. In match play, all is possible and the satisfaction of beating a lower handicapped player would be great! Here in Jersey the PGA runs weekly pro-ams - a club pro and three members make a team. There's money involved for the pros - so who are the pros picking to play? Why 14, 15 handicappers because they know they have the best shot to beat the "spread" and come in low. Handicapping really only works as it does with your regular playing companion... somebody you know with the same level of posting honesty as yourself. Finally, to be perfectly honest, I've never felt any sense of accomplishment winning a net event, especially if I was given strokes.