How often do you play to your Handicap

First topic message reminder :

Ive only recently come down to 8, and while this time last year my average score was roughly 7, its currently about 10.
How often do you guys play to your handicaps, and is your average score under or over ?
Im playing to my handicap or better aprrox 40% of the time, but have quite a few 86's etc on bad days .

Is the handicap meant to reflect your average score, or a good one ?

Its been my experience hving been a member of 2 home golf clubs and 3 away golf clubs, that the majority of members do not play many medals. Of the total membership there is a vast majority of members who do not play any medals!! You never hear them complain about not getting on the course due to QC events etc, they are generally the silent majority. They also pay their subs and support the club knowing that they will probably not get their money's worth out of membership. When they are at the club they use the facilities, bar and food and also the pro shop and often use the pro for lessons etc. CONGU should devise a way of enabling these members to have a proper accurate handicap. At my old club we had a rule that mid-week medals could be done at anytime on the day. So I could leave work and tee off by myself (With anyone as a scorer, dont even have to be a member) Play the round and get the card signed and entered onto the system. Yes open to abuse but it is more inclusive as many members cannot play mid week unless they were seniors or retired.

The monster tough par 5 of only 400 yards is actually Ampleforth GC North Yorkshire.

Looking at the posts a lot of mentions seem to be made of medals being played for h/cap, but I thought the format of the comp was irrelevant (so long as it's individual strokeplay) as the systems all use stableford scoring for calculation anyway?

Using stableford examples means it's just easier to explain how the system works.

As a matter of interest I played on Saturday which was the first game for over a month. Although my technique had suffered slightly, I managed to scramble well and also really pleased with a lot of my ball striking. Very wet conditions and gloop in places, but still managed to play just above my handicap. In fact if some putts had dropped I would have been under, so well pleased with that.

Doc, i always find it funny how, after a while off, you go back and the first round is often pretty decent. It's rounds 2, 3 and so on it starts to decline!
I guess you're not overthinking it for the first round and not expecting much

MustPuttBetter wrote:Doc, i always find it funny how, after a while off, you go back and the first round is often pretty decent. It's rounds 2, 3 and so on it starts to decline!
I guess you're not overthinking it for the first round and not expecting much

MPB its amazing how fast we got around too, as it was white over and freezing first thing. Much blowing on hands stood on the tees, a little bit of fingler tingling when not connecting properly. But yes you're right about playing pretty good first time out. I think my next round should be fun as its supposed to be -7 Friday night, so some serious distances expected off the tee (Down the concrete fairway), but will it be in the right direction?

Cor bloody hell -7? wheres that due doc?

these days because i rarely play i would say I smash it 1 in 10, match it 2 in 10 , go a few over it 3 in 10 and 4 in ten go way over it.

If it was stableford scoring though i dont normally do so bad- its usually 1 or 2 holes that may kill my score

Mysti that sounds about right, and obviously stableford scoring in QC's takes into account the odd bad hole, which makes it seem that you played well. If it was a medal a hole or 2 nightmare means your card is wrecked and no way back. Stableford system means the odd bad hole is discounted/discarded. So that 8 doesnt count is great and you can still score way over 35 points.

Doc wrote:

MustPuttBetter wrote:Doc, i always find it funny how, after a while off, you go back and the first round is often pretty decent. It's rounds 2, 3 and so on it starts to decline!
I guess you're not overthinking it for the first round and not expecting much

MPB its amazing how fast we got around too, as it was white over and freezing first thing. Much blowing on hands stood on the tees, a little bit of fingler tingling when not connecting properly. But yes you're right about playing pretty good first time out. I think my next round should be fun as its supposed to be -7 Friday night, so some serious distances expected off the tee (Down the concrete fairway), but will it be in the right direction?

I hate playing golf with cold hands and really need to find a solution! Wearing big thermal gloves gives me the hump and by the time i've got them on it's time to take them back off again. I've tried those little things you put in your pocked that stay warm. Once they get going they work but usually take until about the 16th hole!
-7 is cold! Where are you playing? Antarctica??

Cheshire or Yorkshire this weekend and supposed to be well chilly

barragan wrote:

handicap increases should only occur at the annual review. at the end of the year, review the players best adjusted scorecard (as they do for handicap allocation purposes) and if the adjusted score is greater than the players handicap, the handicap ought to be adjusted up accordingly. i.e. if a 10 handicappers best score all year is an adjusted 12 over par, then they ought to have their handicap reset to 11.5 at the review. 3 cards would be insufficient in my opinion for this to work. if the player's best score is 10 or better, then any cuts made throughout the year should stand and the exact handcap remain unchanged.

Barra - I think this only works if you are playing regularly, consistently, and are showing progress (up or down).

It doesn't really work if your golf is irregular. Mysti's post of his typical scores is a really good example of someone who isn't able to play frequently so scores can be all over the place. If you have say a 10 handicapper who doesn't get out very often and shoots 20 over in 10 comps over the course of a year but then has 1 good round of 8 over, do you move his handicap up or down at the end of seson review?