Senior & Junior Scratch Cups

Matt Santos

I have made a very concious effort to play as many Junior Scratch Cups this year as I am playing off 5 and I had a ready made fourball of 5,6 & 9 handicaps so it made sense to pursue this. We had no luck anywhere but the different courses that we got to play for small money with a genuine chance of competing was refreshing.
Now. This is where my problem is. I think the count was 15 Junior Scratch Cups all over the place and I was really looking forward to my own clubs Competition. Today (Sunday) is the set date for both Senior & Junior Scratch Cups. Imagine my dismay to see that the esteemed Competition Committee have made this years Competitions Senior 1 to 5 and the Junior 6 to 13!!
I cannot believe that this is the case but before I was gonna say anything I just wanted to check with others out there if this is common in other clubs. I have never came on it but in saying that I was never looking for it before.
There is not many club comps that a 5 handicap can really compete in and the one that I was looking forward to I now have to compete with several scratch golfers and a number of 1,2 and 3's.

Opinions please

M

FlutterinBantam

Out to the practice ground with ya ..get down to three!!!!

Seriously there will always be people at the "edge of the envelope".

Live with it and get on with it.

Mister Sifter

Matt Santos wrote:

I have made a very concious effort to play as many Junior Scratch Cups this year as I am playing off 5 and I had a ready made fourball of 5,6 & 9 handicaps so it made sense to pursue this. We had no luck anywhere but the different courses that we got to play for small money with a genuine chance of competing was refreshing.
Now. This is where my problem is. I think the count was 15 Junior Scratch Cups all over the place and I was really looking forward to my own clubs Competition. Today (Sunday) is the set date for both Senior & Junior Scratch Cups. Imagine my dismay to see that the esteemed Competition Committee have made this years Competitions Senior 1 to 5 and the Junior 6 to 13!!
I cannot believe that this is the case but before I was gonna say anything I just wanted to check with others out there if this is common in other clubs. I have never came on it but in saying that I was never looking for it before.
There is not many club comps that a 5 handicap can really compete in and the one that I was looking forward to I now have to compete with several scratch golfers and a number of 1,2 and 3's.

Opinions please

M

by the time of your post, i take it you were out drowning your sorrows.:D

As FB says though... it's a tough one, but just gotta get on with it. Look at it positively, at least your getting to test yourself against better players.

slumped

senior scratch comps (like Mullingar and Carlow) are generally aimed at top amateurs playing off scratch or better in some cases.

Junior Scratch can start at 4 or 5 and go to 11/12/13 in cases.

You should have checked the rules when putting your name down - this would have avoided problems on the day.

S

stringy

junior scratch would have said 5-9, intermediate 10 -16

think you were hard done by

Golf Ninja

Matt Santos wrote:

I have made a very concious effort to play as many Junior Scratch Cups this year as I am playing off 5 and I had a ready made fourball of 5,6 & 9 handicaps so it made sense to pursue this. We had no luck anywhere but the different courses that we got to play for small money with a genuine chance of competing was refreshing.
Now. This is where my problem is. I think the count was 15 Junior Scratch Cups all over the place and I was really looking forward to my own clubs Competition. Today (Sunday) is the set date for both Senior & Junior Scratch Cups. Imagine my dismay to see that the esteemed Competition Committee have made this years Competitions Senior 1 to 5 and the Junior 6 to 13!!
I cannot believe that this is the case but before I was gonna say anything I just wanted to check with others out there if this is common in other clubs. I have never came on it but in saying that I was never looking for it before.
There is not many club comps that a 5 handicap can really compete in and the one that I was looking forward to I now have to compete with several scratch golfers and a number of 1,2 and 3's.

Opinions please

M

Try to see it as a challange and it will make youa better player for sure.
A good reality check for anyone to play with someone better.

Matt Santos

Played the Senior Scratch and posted a strong 77 which was pretty ok for me as I am a genuine 5. I was 6 over with 3 over on each of the nines. Pretty unlucky with some 10 ft putts that may have dropped but it was one of the toughest set ups that I have played in my local club. The Par for the course is 71 and it was one with an excellent 69. My argument was negated when a 6 handicap posted a superb 73!!
I am not sure that most of you got the point of my initial post. The gap between 5 and scratch is HUGE. I dont think it possible for a 5 to properly compete with a scratch golfer in this type of competition. I felt that after playing so many others across the country that all the 5's were hard done by with this obviously stupid decision from the competitions committee.
Looking closer at the handicaps of all seven members of that committee I noticed that the lowest was 12 and the highest 16! So you have this crew of golfers who have quite possibly never broken 80 making these decisions!! Crazy.

Matt

Mister Sifter

Matt Santos wrote:

Looking closer at the handicaps of all seven members of that committee I noticed that the lowest was 12 and the highest 16! So you have this crew of golfers who have quite possibly never broken 80 making these decisions!! Crazy.

Matt

yep, it's true. so many clubs are the same too...decisions made by people who don't have a clue.

PhilipMarlowe

I played in a junior last year (my first and our clubs first one ever) while I was just on the lowest possible, 4.5
This year they had a senior scratch and a junior on the same day but like above, the 5 handicappers had to play in the senior.
I think this would have something to do with getting enough entrants for the senior really. I know there are only a handful of 0-4 guys in our club relative to the amount of 5-9 or 10's

I hear the point about the gulf between 5 and scratch but I guess it's all on the day too. A 3 handicapper won ours btw

f22

Have heard of 4 to 9 for junior scratch but never heard of 5's grouped the in Senior category. Big difference between even a proper 5 and proper 3 handicapper.

I know every dog has it's day but it would be a very tall order for a 5 handicapper to compete at that level.