Is this a fair game?

[Dabbler]

Why not ditch the skins and do the scoring using Stableford points per hole?

[Mattplusness]

I never felt this was a fair way to conduct a game. Handicaps should be used to assign leagues and who competes with who. Once that is done it is a level playing field.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by Zimmy

Like most of you on here, I have a regular weekend group I play with.  It's a great group of guys.  We usually just play skins and greenies, which is fine, but the group wheels off the lowest handicap, which is mine.  I usually start the year at about a 4, and am able to work my day down to sratch over the course of the season.  I'm currently 2.

Our group, which is usually about 8-10 players, uses thef full handicap.  The next lowest handicap is a 4, but most of the others are in the 9-11 range.  I know there are larger issues in the world, but this doesn't seem like a fair game to me.  I seldom win any skins because my birdies will usually get covered up with somene who parred the hole, but then got a stroke.  In our last six games I've won exactly two holes, even though my highest score was a 77, and I shot two even par rounds, and a few just one over.   I'm not always the low round - we've got some guys who are certainly capapble of beating me on any given day - but I'd say I'm low at least 7 times out of ten.  I just don't have anything jingling in my pocket to show for it.

And it's not a money thing.  We don't play high stakes by an means.  We usually throw $4.50 into the pot for skins, and $2 for greenies.  My kids aren't going hungry, but it's more a principal of the thing.

I'd be fine with using handcaps if we used stroke-play, but this system seems to heavily favor those with the higher handicaps.  I've got two questions:  One, is this a fair way to run our game?  And two, what type of games do you play with your group.

Thanks.

One comment.... you should only be playing skins within your own group of 4, not against the entire field, even if the field is only 10 guys.  The handicap system is not designed to support a 9 stroke differential against multiple opponents.  It is really designed to work in a one on one or 2 on 2 match, or within a field of players who are all within 2 or 3 strokes of each other (as in a flighted stroke play tournament).  The more you diverge from that ideal the less reliable the system becomes.  I would have your group revisit how the competition is managed.

We have a similar group of players (from 8 to 15 players), with handicaps across the board, from near bogey to near scratch.  We only play net skins and round robin (6-6-6) within each fourball.  Greenies (closest to the pin) are the only game against the whole field playing that day.  Some guys not playing together will also have side bets between themselves which don't affect the other wagers.