Handicapping Rule Change

[Gwelfgulfer]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

Uh oh...

http://golfcanada.ca/news/article/am...ystem-changes/

Continuing with the out of touch with reality facade they present so well.

[mpare]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

I should have posted this comment here.

I am very disappointed with Golf Canada. This is change that makes no sense and sends the wrong message (namely: we don't trust you any longer) to Canadian golfers. Worse, Golf Canada knew that this change was bad as they did not initially adopt it. That they have now done so for the sake of uniformity is a sad statement of their inability and unwillingness to withstand meritless, outside pressure. That's a pity.

[Onin3]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

This is unfortunate. I like to keep a proper handicap. Being at a private club and often playing late in the day; solo rounds have become more common.
This makes no sense to me, given that the bulk of dishonest golfers are vanity caps.

[Cowboy]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

This is complete foolishness. I am conflicted on whether to adapt to the rule, as I feel not posting solo rounds is actually going to result in a less accurate calculation for myself, as I frequently post 9 hole scores from after work.

[Onin3]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

I wouldn't sweat it. Many people do not follow rules of posting. I am not condoning it. I remember in the old system trying to explain to people that you had to enter triples on "9" hole only scores. No one seemed to know this!
Now the 7 max is easy to understand. However to say you cant put in your ESC after a solo round is suggesting that Sandbaggers succeed at cheating largely by playing solo rounds and inflating the score entry then.
If so there must be a lot of them to mandate such a large change across the board.
Its like Men's leauges now have "Mens night" handicaps; to also curtail the cheating. Are golfers a dishonest lot? One might have to wonder with all of these changes, both with RCGA and with club events.

[LobWedge]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

One thing that comes to mind that may have factored into this decision. It's possible that the USGA could choose not to recognize a Golf Canada handicap for a player that wants to compete in a USGA event because it wasn't established according to their criteria.

CONGU wouldn't have this issue because their handicaps are competition based.

[rulie]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

In the UK and Europe, all scores entered for handicaps are attested (not sure about Australia, South Africa, NZ).

This change to the USGA and Canadian system is likely a small step towards a unified, worldwide handicapping system, which is being worked on by the appropriate parties. It is not meant as a solution to sandbagging or vanity caps - that's the responsibility of the club's handicap committee.

Imo, it's not a big deal. If 25% of my scores aren't eligible for handicap calculation, it won't change my handicap factor by more than 0.1, and then because the handicap factor gets rounded to the nearest hole number, my course handicap probably doesn't change at all.

[AlfaGolfer]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

In the UK and Europe, all scores entered for handicaps are attested (not sure about Australia, South Africa, NZ).

This change to the USGA and Canadian system is likely a small step towards a unified, worldwide handicapping system, which is being worked on by the appropriate parties. It is not meant as a solution to sandbagging or vanity caps - that's the responsibility of the club's handicap committee.

Imo, it's not a big deal. If 25% of my scores aren't eligible for handicap calculation, it won't change my handicap factor by more than 0.1, and then because the handicap factor gets rounded to the nearest hole number, my course handicap probably doesn't change at all.

This isn't about requiring attestation of rounds - that has been proper protocol all along and possible to do on the GAO/RCGA website. The issue, one of them, is that an attestor has to be a member of an RCGA sanctioned club - not simply a fellow golfer.

Handicap committees review records of golfers and determine outcomes from transgressors. I would ask a few questions:

How do you suggest a committee police 400+ factors from players who may or may not play rounds outside of their home club.

How do you suggest that they do so for public players?

Where does the percentage of 25 come from; how do you know it's not 75% or more?

One thing I agree with, it's not a solution to sandbagging - it's a facilitation.

[LobWedge]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

This isn't about requiring attestation of rounds - that has been proper protocol all along and possible to do on the GAO/RCGA website. The issue, one of them, is that an attestor has to be a member of an RCGA sanctioned club - not simply a fellow golfer.

Handicap committees review records of golfers and determine outcomes from transgressors. I would ask a few questions:

How do you suggest a committee police 400+ factors from players who may or may not play rounds outside of their home club.

How do you suggest that they do so for public players?

Where does the percentage of 25 come from; how do you know it's not 75% or more?

One thing I agree with, it's not a solution to sandbagging - it's a facilitation.

How is it a facilitation to sandbagging?

[AlfaGolfer]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

How is it a facilitation to sandbagging?

By allowing players to play as many rounds as they wish to and either playing with someone who isn't a member of the RCGA or saying that they played with someone who isn't. It provides a massive grey area for unreported rounds.

[rulie]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

Handicap committees review records of golfers and determine outcomes from transgressors. I would ask a few questions:

How do you suggest a committee police 400+ factors from players who may or may not play rounds outside of their home club. Each club is required to have a Handicap Committee. The club's Handicap Committee has access to the complete scoring record of every member of that club. It doesn't matter if the rounds were played at the home club or elsewhere.

How do you suggest that they do so for public players? Public players belong to their own club.

Where does the percentage of 25 come from; how do you know it's not 75% or more? A number picked from the air to illustrate a point that eliminating 25% of my scores from my personal scoring record would not likely change my handicap factor significantly, and perhaps not change my course handicap at all.

[bogey5]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

In the UK and Europe, all scores entered for handicaps are attested (not sure about Australia, South Africa, NZ).

This change to the USGA and Canadian system is likely a small step towards a unified, worldwide handicapping system, which is being worked on by the appropriate parties. It is not meant as a solution to sandbagging or vanity caps - that's the responsibility of the club's handicap committee.

Imo, it's not a big deal. If 25% of my scores aren't eligible for handicap calculation, it won't change my handicap factor by more than 0.1, and then because the handicap factor gets rounded to the nearest hole number, my course handicap probably doesn't change at all.

Maybe I heard wrong but I thought only competition rounds are used for determining handicaps in the UK (and I assumed same for rest of Euro zone) which works better for them as weekly club comps are more the norm than here where most never play in an organized competition.

[aaagc]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

Maybe I heard wrong but I thought only competition rounds are used for determining handicaps in the UK (and I assumed same for rest of Euro zone) which works better for them as weekly club comps are more the norm than here where most never play in an organized competition.

In addition to competition rounds they can return Supplementary Scores (or Extra Day Scores). These have to be formally registered before play and the card marked by someone approved by the Committee. They may be over 18 or 9 holes.

[ParMaker]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

This is unfortunate. I like to keep a proper handicap. Being at a private club and often playing late in the day; solo rounds have become more common.
This makes no sense to me, given that the bulk of dishonest golfers are vanity caps.

Great observation - for every Sandbagger there are easily 20 Vanity caps...

Trying to eliminate sandbaggers by only counting certain rounds is like chasing ghosts - cheaters cheat...

We keep a Wednesday (Men's day) handicap for our golf league so only your Wednesday scores count - this isn't actually fair to all but it was a compromise for our keeping track for those who don't input scores into the machine at all

[Gwelfgulfer]

Re: Handicapping Rule Change

We keep a Wednesday (Men's day) handicap for our golf league so only your Wednesday scores count - this isn't actually fair to all but it was a compromise for our keeping track for those who don't input scores into the machine at all

Lots of clubs do this now as it helps with exactly what you mentioned in those who don't input scores. Also good for the vanity cap players to see their scores for a 'competitive' round.