Another Thing....The Influence of Medal vs. Match Play on Handicaps

[GolfBookie]

One more thought on handicaps. Over the last 20 years, I've played in two different groups at Brookside GC in Pasadena, CA. The first group, a bunch of actors and Hollywood workers, alway has a standing medal bet of $10 to the low net winner, in addition to any number of match play bets. The second group is composed of other Pasadena residents, who never play a medal bet.....all bets are match play.

The difference in play is that the second group "gives" many more putts....if you're playing a medal bet, every putt counts, so fewer putts are given. I estimate that the difference in recorded scores between the groups is at least two strokes per round per player.

Thus, any group that bets on medal scores will have much higher indexes than a group which only has match bets.

[LeftyTrevor]

That may be. I play a lot of match play and will personally not take a putt. My group knows this. I used to and don't think my index was affected by it though. If it's in gimmie range you may miss it one out of five times and I can't see that affecting the overall index.

[ghalfaire]

I know we all play in "friendly" games with special rules and I don't have problems with that.  But for whatever it is worth the rules don't permit conceding putts in metal play and you can't refuse a conceded putt in match play.