Singles Matchplay

Played first round of this years club singles knockout today and managed to scrape a win to progress further.

We play full handicap difference in singles matchplay since a recommendation from the Essex Golf Union a few years ago. Would be interested to hear if any of your clubs are still playing three quarter difference, as was always traditional, or any views or comments on this subject.

I seem to remember someone putting up some CONGU research on one of the earlier incarnations of this board which showed that lower handicappers still won the majority of matches at full difference - I must be the person the victorious high handicappers always seem to draw.

i think all the 3/4 handicap rule did was correct any advantage gained by a bandit. for golfers with a handicap which is genuinely accurate, then full handicap allowance is relatively fair. the more pressing issue in my opinion is a system which generates accurate handicaps for golfers who play a limited number of qualifying comps. how can 3 medals give accurate reflection and adjustment for someone who only puts in three cards per season to maintain a handicap and enter matchplay comps?..for example.

Excellent post scarpa - my feelings exactly. However I'm not sure how the system could be improved unless you increased the number of qualifiers people have to play in a year (3 does seem on the low side)

I have been accused of being a bit of a bandit more than once (thankfully only in a friendly way rather than any more sinister accusation) yet last year I played something like 20 qualifiers in the year so it should be a reasonably accurate assessment of my handicap. My problem seems to be that I play better in casual games rather than medals. It's no longer a question of nerves I don't think - though I can't think what else it could be. I have played a couple of friendlies recently where my opponents have commented that that think I should be lower than I am but I just don't seem to perform as consistently in qualifiers

Of the 20 or so qualifiers from last year I had a couple of small cuts, about 8 or 9 rounds in my buffer zone and the rest were +0.1 so evening out the couple of small cuts and therefore my handicap was fairly static throughout the year.

The only other thing that could make the handicap more accurate would be to take the approach I think they have in USA and Canada where all rounds are submitted for assessment (even casual rounds). This would see me off a lower handicap though I can see the problems with that is "how would you go out and play a practice round where you wanted to experiment with different things"?

Clubs can still impose their own restrictions for competitions. One of my previous clubs insisted that a minimum of 4 Medals had to be played for someone to enter a "trophy" competition. As a club based at a municipal course, we had several members who also belonged to private clubs which they had as their "home" club. The rule was brought in to stop them turning up to play for trophies (pot-hunting) without participating in the general life of the club, to the detriment of those of us who either didn't have the money to belong to two clubs or the time to play at two. Strangely enough, it was the pot-hunters who complained about the rule! But it worked.

Nice going Blue, always nice to scrape a win when you're not playing well.

Davie, therein lies one of the flaws in the handicap system in the US. You're encouraged to post all scores, including ones when you play 9 holes, and even if you don't finish the last few holes. Personally if it was an experimenting round or practice then I wouldn't post the score. However it really depends upon the amount of golf that you play.

The handicap is calculated from the best 10 of the last 20 scores so a one off round is unlikely to affect your handicap calculation. If you are undergoing a large scale change to your game then I think you should post providing you keep working on the changes.

Sorry for the thread hijack Blue

No problem Grumps, it's all interesting stuff

Both my clubs play full difference in singles and 3/4 off the lowest in 4bbb. I thought that was the accepted standard everywhere.

As Merc mentioned earlier research apparently confirms that by and large, lower handicappers prevail more often than not. Yes you'll get the odd result when a high handicapper has a good day or 2 but once you get to say the quarter final stages of a matchplay draw (4-5 rounds in) an 18+ handicapper is very much a rarity.
Going back through my main clubs handicap singles winners of the last 6 years only one wasn't single figures and he was a 10.

I went out 1st round at my main club Sunday Played well but the other guy just played better and I had to give him 4 shots. At some point last year I would only have to have given him one (I've gone 8 to 6, he's gone 9 to 10). That's just the way the cookie crumbles and the way S.I. 2,3 & 4 went...the result would still have been the same. I think it can be a bit too easy to blame the imperfections in the handicap system and worry/moan about it rather than accept what you're faced with.

1st round at my other club later this afternoon, expecting another tight one. I think I'm only giving 1 shot today.

Well I wasn't wrong...see-saw match and I eventually prevailed 2&1 having had to give him a shot.

Confidence is growing with each round now that the new changes are at last bedding in. Not the finished article by any means but I'm in a far better place than this time last year