Current handicaps

[revkev]

During this strange time Golf Courses that are open have made modifications to the rules for obvious safety reasons. The most notable change has been the pool noodle in the cup. The rule at most clubs is, if it hits the noodle it’s deemed holed regardless if it goes in or not.

 

According to the Florida Golf Association we are to continue posting scores but we should add a strike to our score on a hole if in our estimation the ball would not have gone in.

 

I hit one “in” from 125 yards a month ago. How in the world am I supposed to judge if that would have gone down or not? It’s often tough to tell on a 15 foot putt, did it have too much pace, would it have caught the lip on the low side?

 

I have a buddy whose handicap index has dropped from over 11 to 7.4 at this time. I will grant that he’s playing every day and hitting the ball much better than I’ve ever seen him.

 

But also, he’s an attorney, he would argue that his ball would have hit the noodle if a gust of wind hadn’t of come up and removed particles from it so he’s counting it as holed. He’s had several “eagles” the past month. Most of the guys that he plays with can’t see the ball from 150 yards away (myself included at times) much less tell if it hit the hole or not.

 

I think it’s a mistake to allow scores to be posted under these conditions unless the mitigations are put in place for the entire season. Way too much judgment involved here.

 

Thoughts

 

 

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[tony@CIC]

4 minutes ago, revkev said:

 

During this strange time Golf Courses that are open have made modifications to the rules for obvious safety reasons. The most notable change has been the pool noodle in the cup. The rule at most clubs is, if it hits the noodle it’s deemed holed regardless if it goes in or not.

 

According to the Florida Golf Association we are to continue posting scores but we should add a strike to our score on a hole if in our estimation the ball would not have gone in.

 

I hit one “in” from 125 yards a month ago. How in the world am I supposed to judge if that would have gone down or not? It’s often tough to tell on a 15 foot putt, did it have too much pace, would it have caught the lip on the low side?

 

I have a buddy whose handicap index has dropped from over 11 to 7.4 at this time. I will grant that he’s playing every day and hitting the ball much better than I’ve ever seen him.

 

But also, he’s an attorney, he would argue that his ball would have hit the noodle if a gust of wind hadn’t of come up and removed particles from it so he’s counting it as holed. He’s had several “eagles” the past month. Most of the guys that he plays with can’t see the ball from 150 yards away (myself included at times) much less tell if it hit the hole or not.

 

I think it’s a mistake to allow scores to be posted under these conditions unless the mitigations are put in place for the entire season. Way too much judgment involved here.

 

Thoughts

 

 

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Not sure about the 'noodles' and posting there since I assume they (noodles) probably take up most of the hole. At our Club, they inverted the cups, so they're just below the green. You can definitely tell if it went in or not. So we're posting those. 

[silver & black]

I don't compete, so I don't keep a HC these days. If I had to guess what I am right now... it would be a big number. 

[PlaidJacket]

I carry a 5 in GHIN but that number is a little stale. Throughout the year I range between a 3-5. I don't record all my rounds anymore. Sometimes I'll get a new score posted when someone I've played with turns it in and I get recorded as well. I used to be obsessed with lowering my hcp - ie... chasing a number; and I'd never let a round go unrecorded. Then I quit mostly. Another reason is I might only play the Senior City Championship and/or Club Championship each year. I'll be in the championship flight regardless whether I have a 3 or a 5 on the books. I know this isn't ideal but it's what I do. Also, when I play games/matches we never play with a handicap. It's all heads-up.

[PMookie]

Coming down. I can’t close-out my rounds! So close to being in the 70s each round. I just need to hit more GIR.

 

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[Jmikecpa]

We are not posting scores at my club until the pool noodles go away. Had one cost me an ace today, nice 8 iron over the flag that sucked back hit the stick and bounced up off the noodle.


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[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, Jmikecpa said:

We are not posting scores at my club until the pool noodles go away. Had one cost me an ace today, nice 8 iron over the flag that sucked back hit the stick and bounced up off the noodle.

Has your club indicated why they are choosing to disregard the USGA recommendation?  Is this possibly a decision made by the regional Association for all of its member clubs?  I'm not sure there's a real right or wrong here, but I'm curious.

At my club, we're using pool noodles maybe an inch below the green surface.  In my opinion, its really rare that these will "reject" a putt that otherwise would be holed, so to me its perfectly appropriate to post the scores.  If you can be close enough to be reasonably certain that a putt was rejected by the noodle, by all means count it as made.  If I'm an 8-iron away, I'm not sure I can see well enough to be certain that it wasn't simply rejected by the pin, or was moving too fast to be holed, but that's just me

Its a difficult time, even for those of us who are allowed to play golf.  I'm really looking forward to the days when we can resume tournament play as a step towards normalcy, and allowing (requiring) scores to be posted for handicap is a reasonable step to making those competitions fair when they can begin.

[Jmikecpa]

Has your club indicated why they are choosing to disregard the USGA recommendation?  Is this possibly a decision made by the regional Association for all of its member clubs?  I'm not sure there's a real right or wrong here, but I'm curious.
At my club, we're using pool noodles maybe an inch below the green surface.  In my opinion, its really rare that these will "reject" a putt that otherwise would be holed, so to me its perfectly appropriate to post the scores.  If you can be close enough to be reasonably certain that a putt was rejected by the noodle, by all means count it as made.  If I'm an 8-iron away, I'm not sure I can see well enough to be certain that it wasn't simply rejected by the pin, or was moving too fast to be holed, but that's just me
Its a difficult time, even for those of us who are allowed to play golf.  I'm really looking forward to the days when we can resume tournament play as a step towards normalcy, and allowing (requiring) scores to be posted for handicap is a reasonable step to making those competitions fair when they can begin.

No clue. Pro sent the membership and email that we are not posting scores at this time. As a general rule though tend to ignore most of the things that the USGA recommends.


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[revkev]

Has your club indicated why they are choosing to disregard the USGA recommendation?  Is this possibly a decision made by the regional Association for all of its member clubs?  I'm not sure there's a real right or wrong here, but I'm curious.
At my club, we're using pool noodles maybe an inch below the green surface.  In my opinion, its really rare that these will "reject" a putt that otherwise would be holed, so to me its perfectly appropriate to post the scores.  If you can be close enough to be reasonably certain that a putt was rejected by the noodle, by all means count it as made.  If I'm an 8-iron away, I'm not sure I can see well enough to be certain that it wasn't simply rejected by the pin, or was moving too fast to be holed, but that's just me
Its a difficult time, even for those of us who are allowed to play golf.  I'm really looking forward to the days when we can resume tournament play as a step towards normalcy, and allowing (requiring) scores to be posted for handicap is a reasonable step to making those competitions fair when they can begin.

Yes we now have the noodles where they are below the cup level every where I play so the judgment factor has been greatly reduced - thank goodness - but it wasn’t that way at first and I know of people who are taking advantage of the situation to claim balls are holed or what have been holed when there’s no way.

Oh well I suppose it will be better for me when we can play again and my handicap index remains legit


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[Lacassem]

This is tough. I personally wouldn’t be posting rounds rifgt now regardless. To much judgment involved. Hopefully we can all hear that sweet sound of the bottom of the cup soon

[tony@CIC]

Coming down. I can’t close-out my rounds! So close to being in the 70s each round. I just need to hit more GIR.

 
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I'm loving the new GHIN app with the stats.


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[revkev]

But if you play you should post  - do I occasionally miss posting a round = yes - but I try not to - I'm playing better and might consider playing in some tournaments this year - those all come in October in Florida so I'll have lots of rounds between now and then - these will probably be off the card by then - I'm also only a year away from becoming a super senior where I will be much more competitive - I'm in that Senior Category of 55-64 - I was very competitive at 55 - at 63, not so much.

[DaveP043]

13 hours ago, Lacassem said:

This is tough. I personally wouldn’t be posting rounds rifgt now regardless. To much judgment involved. Hopefully we can all hear that sweet sound of the bottom of the cup soon

@revkev is right, if posting is active in your region, at your club, it isn't a matter of choice, you're required to post your scores.  The system works when everyone follows the rules, it breaks down if each one of us exercises our own (widely varying) judgement.

[tony@CIC]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

@revkev is right, if posting is active in your region, at your club, it isn't a matter of choice, you're required to post your scores.  The system works when everyone follows the rules, it breaks down if each one of us exercises our own (widely varying) judgement.

One of the interesting "things" about the new GHIN app is that you can enter other players (called Partners) and see if they are posting current rounds. Both my wife and I are getting annoyed because we know those players are out (men and women) and are not posting scores. i figure they're not posting because they didn't play well - which of course works against them for handicap purposes. Both of us are pretty diligent posting all of our scores. 

[Lacassem]

1 hour ago, DaveP043 said:

@revkev is right, if posting is active in your region, at your club, it isn't a matter of choice, you're required to post your scores.  The system works when everyone follows the rules, it breaks down if each one of us exercises our own (widely varying) judgement.

True good point. Let’s lower those handicaps boys!!!!

i still currently am not able to play but sounds like MA is putting out openings on Tuesday from what I hear

[PMookie]

It confuses me as to why a state says don’t post... Yeah, if the cups are kept up and out of the hole, that would not be good, but if you still have to sink a putt, I don’t get it. It’s not like this virus makes everyone super human so they can hit drives 400 yards, or deadly accurate! Golf is still GOLF. Maybe they don’t want to “encourage” golf??? Who knows, but if one is playing, they ought to be putting in their scores.


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[ZenGolfer]

Id agree that everyone's handicap is probably artificially low right now because of the cup situations.  I know that Im currently routinely shooting in the mid 80s, even on days where I feel like Im not hitting the ball all that well and I feel its largely because of the raised cups and because Im giving myself gimmies on anything within 5 feet.

Normally, I would be making myself hole out on every hole and I know that I would be missing some of those short putts.

[revkev]

Id agree that everyone's handicap is probably artificially low right now because of the cup situations.  I know that Im currently routinely shooting in the mid 80s, even on days where I feel like Im not hitting the ball all that well and I feel its largely because of the raised cups and because Im giving myself gimmies on anything within 5 feet.
Normally, I would be making myself hole out on every hole and I know that I would be missing some of those short putts.

Yes this was my point exactly - that’s not your fault BTW. Over the last two weeks everyone has gone to the pool noodles imbedded enough so that you can hole out. The instruction from the Florida Golf Association is that if the ball strikes the noodle and comes out and you think it would have been holed, you should count it as holed. (Paraphrase)

I think we’re good on the greens now, but from distance, guys are counting anything approaching the hole as eagle. I was uncomfortable counting the one I had that we could all see hit the noodle (week 1) but it was in a money game and won the hole.


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[tony@CIC]

Our holes have inverted cups and as of yesterday the flag sticks are in. It's pretty easy to tell if your ball went it. If it didn't and you're counting it - you're just fooling yourself. 

[DiscipleofPenick]

Similar things today. My course had 2 inch pvc pipe cut and placed down in the hole. A putt would fall in with the ball being 80% below the cup. I had 4 or 5 lip outs today.

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