Handicap

Tones69

I know the norm is if you join a club they issue you a handicap, but say for the likes of me who has come off playing par 3 courses, and has just started playing full courses, would i give myself a maximum handicap,anything at all? or what way does it work?
Probably gonna get laughed at for this question now
Thanks

broders3

No stupid questions, only muppets who think they know it all laugh at others!

You will need to submit 3 cards to the handicap secretary. Each of the rounds will need to be played with a fully paid up member of the club who will sign each card. Some clubs enforce a rule that one of the rounds you play must be with a committee member but check with the club you are joining for specific criteria. Good luck

the lawman

I think the OP is asking what unofficial handicap he should give himself as a guide.

If I'm right then the best thing to do is play stableford and aim for 34 - 36 points and whatever handicap it takes you to reach that sort of figure is a good guide.

If I'm wrong, well, carry on!

JOSman

I've handed in my three cards and contacted the handicap sec when I didn't hear anything for a few weeks. He told me that the cards (or something) has to go to GUI and gave me a provisional handicap of 15.

So now I can hold my head up and say I'm off fifteen.

Wait until they see me play. Not even close to that, I'm absolutely rubbish.:D

Tones69

the lawman wrote: »

I think the OP is asking what unofficial handicap he should give himself as a guide.

If I'm right then the best thing to do is play stableford and aim for 34 - 36 points and whatever handicap it takes you to reach that sort of figure is a good guide.

If I'm wrong, well, carry on!

Stableford, points? Hmmm now you need to explain stableford and points please Thanks for the info regarding the official handicap procedure

the lawman

Tones69 wrote: »

Stableford, points? Hmmm now you need to explain stableford and points please Thanks for the info regarding the official handicap procedure

I'll do my best but check it up also on wiki or something:

It can be broken into two sections the points and the handicap.

Points- You score points for how many strokes you take to complete a hole. The points are scored as follows; bogey is 1 point, par is 2 points, birdie is 3 points and an eagle is 4 points etc.

Handicap- If your handicap is 20 say then you get an extra shot on every hole plus 2 extra shots on the index 1 and index 2 (18 +2 = 20).

So if your handicap is 20 and you shoot a 5 on a par 4 index 1 hole you score 3 points (5 strokes - 2 extra shots = a birdie = 3 points). If you score 5 on a par 4 index 3 or above you get 2 points (5 - 1 extra shot = a par = 2 points).

Hope this expains it even a little and I hope you appreciate I typed that all on an iPhone!!!!

Tones69

the lawman wrote: »

I'll do my best but check it up also on wiki or something:

It can be broken into two sections the points and the handicap.

Points- You score points for how many strokes you take to complete a hole. The points are scored as follows; bogey is 1 point, par is 2 points, birdie is 3 points and an eagle is 4 points etc.

Handicap- If your handicap is 20 say then you get an extra shot on every hole plus 2 extra shots on the index 1 and index 2 (18 +2 = 20).

So if your handicap is 20 and you shoot a 5 on a par 4 index 1 hole you score 3 points (5 strokes - 2 extra shots = a birdie = 3 points). If you score 5 on a par 4 index 3 or above you get 2 points (5 - 1 extra shot = a par = 2 points).

Hope this expains it even a little and I hope you appreciate I typed that all on an iPhone!!!!

Thanks man much appreciated, and dont try get sympathy for typing on the phone, ive an iphone too and we all know we love any excuse to use it!!

Fursttimer

Play 3 rounds and mark the strokes taken for each hole.

Go to this site and do your maths. That's your unofficial handicap.

If you want to track it over the course of time, sign up here

davidrafferty

For more info on official handicapping system in Ireland:
http://www.gui.ie/template1.asp?parent=23&pid=30&parent2=30&area=1

Tones69

Talking to a friend of mine lastnight from carlow golfclub and he said that i must be a member of a club to get a handicap? I was under the impression that i could go with him to his club 3 times and hand in cards and obtain a handicap then, or was i totally wrong?!

cackhanded

Tones69 wrote: »

Talking to a friend of mine lastnight from carlow golfclub and he said that i must be a member of a club to get a handicap? I was under the impression that i could go with him to his club 3 times and hand in cards and obtain a handicap then, or was i totally wrong?!

You must be a member of a GUI affiliated club in order to get an official GUI handicap.

Shane101

Tones69 wrote: »

Talking to a friend of mine lastnight from carlow golfclub and he said that i must be a member of a club to get a handicap? I was under the impression that i could go with him to his club 3 times and hand in cards and obtain a handicap then, or was i totally wrong?!

Your friend is right, you need to join a club and hand in 3 cards signed by a member of that club. Then the committee issue you a handicap.

Tones69

Shane101 wrote: »

Your friend is right, you need to join a club and hand in 3 cards signed by a member of that club. Then the committee issue you a handicap.

Ok gotcha

Tones69

Just reviving this thread, got 3 cards done, 105, 102 and 101. The 105 day was lashing out of the heavens Making a few silly mistakes and hitting 7's, once i can cut them out il be very confident in hitting mid to low 90s. Anyway, regarding handicapp, what will i get, 26-28?

hades

18, nearly everyone gets 18, unless they're really good.

Tones69

hades wrote: »

18, nearly everyone gets 18, unless they're really good.

I heard that alright, how does one get a handicapp of upwards of 20 so? Shoot rounds of 120 plus?! If im gonna be playing off 18 i better step my game up fast ha

Jul3s

Tones69 wrote: »

I heard that alright, how does one get a handicapp of upwards of 20 so? Shoot rounds of 120 plus?! If im gonna be playing off 18 i better step my game up fast ha

Wrong question to be asking, you should be asking how do I get a lower handicap?.
Afaik 24 is the max for men, but to achieve that handicap you'd want to have some kind of physical disability.

Tones69

Jul3s wrote: »

Wrong question to be asking, you should be asking how do I get a lower handicap?.
Afaik 24 is the max for men, but to achieve that handicap you'd want to have some kind of physical disability.

Well i know how to get it lower, 28 is the highest for men, i thought i would have been about 24 or so, anyway whatever i get i get, and il improve from there

nocal

Tones69 wrote: »

Well i know how to get it lower, 28 is the highest for men, i thought i would have been about 24 or so, anyway whatever i get i get, and il improve from there

Ah Torres - I thought you would have read the answer in this forum a few times. Usually, they will take your best card and reduce anything worse than a double bogey to a double bogey. Then they will look for signs of form (e.g. a few good holes in a row).

When all of this is done, then they will give you 18

ssbob

I got 20 starting off, cards of

115
111
99

DamienOB

I got 21.0 last year, cards of like 100-110

Off 19.6 and playing some amazinf golf.

charlieIRL

hades wrote: »

18, nearly everyone gets 18, unless they're really good.

not always, i got 22 starting off and all my cars were around the 100 mark

Jul3s wrote: »

Afaik 24 is the max for men, but to achieve that handicap you'd want to have some kind of physical disability.

ya think? Some of us are not golfing gods.

Jul3s

charlieIRL wrote: »

ya think? Some of us are not golfing gods.

Relax Charlie, that comment was a bit tongue in cheek, although there maybe some merit in it:D.

ssbob

charlieIRL wrote: »

not always, i got 22 starting off and all my cars were around the 100 mark

ya think? Some of us are not golfing gods.

Jul3s wrote: »

Relax Charlie, that comment was a bit tongue in cheek, although there maybe some merit in it:D.

One of my first times playing golf:

Me: "What do you think a realistic score would be for a beginner(small bit f P&P experience, driving range 4/5times)?"
Friend: "Ah you would want to be handicapped to not break 100":eek:

Went on to score 120, felt totally crap about it, looking back it was quite a good score

charlieIRL

Jul3s wrote: »

Relax Charlie, that comment was a bit tongue in cheek, although there maybe some merit in it:D.

ah i know, so was my comment!!

Tones69

I reckon i should be gettin abotu 20-22 or so with cards around the 100 mar, but ive a feeling as a couple of people have said that i wont recieve anything higher than 18, so guess i better get practising if im gonna play to 18 ha will let you know monday anyway

alxmorgan

Our handicap secretary seems less forgiving than some...

113, 110, 108 and I got 18.
20 or 22 would have made more sense but I don't mind.
19 now but getting closer to playing to 18 now and hopefully some cuts coming

Tones69

alxmorgan wrote: »

Our handicap secretary seems less forgiving than some...

113, 110, 108 and I got 18.
20 or 22 would have made more sense but I don't mind.
19 now but getting closer to playing to 18 now and hopefully some cuts coming

Ive heard its the same for me though, i shot 105, 102 and 101 and apparently im gonna get no more than 18 also, oh well i reckon itl make a better golfer out of me having to live up to it

nocal

Tones69 wrote: »

Ive heard its the same for me though, i shot 105, 102 and 101 and apparently im gonna get no more than 18 also, oh well i reckon itl make a better golfer out of me having to live up to it

Ah but you see there is the thing - you won't play to 18 to begin with and possibly for a while. The real trick is starting to play within your buffer zone in stableford competitions. Until you do you will get .1 every time you enter a card in a competition. So you could well be off 19 or 20 (or even higher) by the time you begin to play to your handicap.

Tones69

nocal wrote: »

Ah but you see there is the thing - you won't play to 18 to begin with and possibly for a while. The real trick is starting to play within your buffer zone in stableford competitions. Until you do you will get .1 every time you enter a card in a competition. So you could well be off 19 or 20 (or even higher) by the time you begin to play to your handicap.

Ah now i get ya, so even though they start u on 18, if i keep handing in cards that are say 100/101 etc it might creep up a little bit aswell as down if i start shooting considerably lower?

nocal

There you go. So if you do get 18 - no pressure to begin playing to it straight away. Enter competitions - especially stableford ones to begin with. Your handicap might even be changed at the end of the year with an annual review. (I got a shot at the end of last year - little did the handicap secretary know that I was practising hard and taking some lessons - he thought that I needed some encouragement. Ah well one more shot to get rid of when the cuts come.)

On the other hand you might find the more you play your home course the better you get on it - more familiar with the greens and better course management. From what you are shooting to going to 90-92 is not necessarily a massive leap.

Tones69

nocal wrote: »

There you go. So if you do get 18 - no pressure to begin playing to it straight away. Enter competitions - especially stableford ones to begin with. Your handicap might even be changed at the end of the year with an annual review. (I got a shot at the end of last year - little did the handicap secretary know that I was practising hard and taking some lessons - he thought that I needed some encouragement. Ah well one more shot to get rid of when the cuts come.)

On the other hand you might find the more you play your home course the better you get on it - more familiar with the greens and better course management. From what you are shooting to going to 90-92 is not necessarily a massive leap.

Yeah i really feel like im not far away from mid to low 90s, just gotta chop out the 4 or 5 7's that i always throw in a round

nocal

Tones69 wrote: »

Yeah i really feel like im not far away from mid to low 90s, just gotta chop out the 4 or 5 7's that i always throw in a round

I would not stress over them too much - I had 2 7's one 8 and what would have been a 9 or 10 today. I still got 33 points and it looks like the CSS might be below 36. I scratched 4 holes compared to only scratching one in total the last 2 times that I played. That's golf.

Tones69

nocal wrote: »

I would not stress over them too much - I had 2 7's one 8 and what would have been a 9 or 10 today. I still got 33 points and it looks like the CSS might be below 36. I scratched 4 holes compared to only scratching one in total the last 2 times that I played. That's golf.

Cool, and what do you play off? How do the scores for stableford work off each diff handicapp? or is 1pt for par, 2 points for birdie etc regardless of handicapp?

nocal

Guess we are going a little off topic - but seeing as it is your thread....

1 pt for bogey
2 for par
3 for birdie etc.

Points awarded on nett score on each hole. Thus 36 points is what you would return if you played exactly to your handicap. I am currently playing off 22. Was given 19.7 initially and it has just crept out as I have been learning to play. The creep down is just around the corner.

spurscormac

nocal wrote: »

Guess we are going a little off topic - but seeing as it is your thread....

1 pt for bogey
2 for par
3 for birdie etc.

Points awarded on nett score on each hole. Thus 36 points is what you would return if you played exactly to your handicap. I am currently playing off 22. Was given 19.7 initially and it has just crept out as I have been learning to play. The creep down is just around the corner.

To expand on the above, if you have a h/c of 18, you get one shot per hole.
Anything above 18, you get another extra shot on each of the highest indexed holes on the course, so a h/c of 23 would get 2 shots in holes index 1-5, and 1 shot on the rest.

Scoring wise, with 23 h/c, a 5 on index 3 par 4, would equate to a birdie and 3 points. 5 on index 10 par 4 would be 2 points, and so on.

Tones69

spurscormac wrote: »

To expand on the above, if you have a h/c of 18, you get one shot per hole.
Anything above 18, you get another extra shot on each of the highest indexed holes on the course, so a h/c of 23 would get 2 shots in holes index 1-5, and 1 shot on the rest.

Scoring wise, with 23 h/c, a 5 on index 3 par 4, would equate to a birdie and 3 points. 5 on index 10 par 4 would be 2 points, and so on.

ok so let me get this right ha, say im given h/c of 18, i play stableford comp, if i shoot a 4 on a par 3 i give myself a par and so on so forth?

nocal

That's it as you have one shot on that hole. So a 4 is a nett 3.

Opics

Tones69 wrote: »

ok so let me get this right ha, say im given h/c of 18, i play stableford comp, if i shoot a 4 on a par 3 i give myself a par and so on so forth?

You write down what you really shot on the card, not the nett score. I wouldn't like to see the competition secretarys face when you walk in shooting level par and 54 points

danthefan

Tones69 wrote: »

ok so let me get this right ha, say im given h/c of 18, i play stableford comp, if i shoot a 4 on a par 3 i give myself a par and so on so forth?

You give yourself 2 points.

Tones69

Got 16, sheesh i thought i would have been about 20-22, gonna enter a few cmops anyway and see how it goes

nocal

Tones69 wrote: »

Got 16, sheesh i thought i would have been about 20-22, gonna enter a few cmops anyway and see how it goes

Congrats. You obviously put in some good runs of scores or good scores on some of the tougher holes on your card. Do enter some competitions - especially stableford ones. Or if there are any competitions in your club that are aimed at higher handicaps. At least now with a handicap you can play on a regular basis at the weekends when competitions are on.

ssbob

Tones69 wrote: »

Got 16, sheesh i thought i would have been about 20-22, gonna enter a few cmops anyway and see how it goes

Your a bandit Tones, telling everyone you should be about 22

Tones69

ssbob wrote: »

Your a bandit Tones, telling everyone you should be about 22

lol 20? yes i lied...................................More like 24 ha

JOSman

Finally got my handicap today. They've started me on 16. It's a start and looking forward to playing opens.:D

Tones69

JOSman wrote: »

Finally got my handicap today. They've started me on 16. It's a start and looking forward to playing opens.:D

Same as me, what kinda cards did you hand in dude

charlieIRL

Tones69 wrote: »

Just reviving this thread, got 3 cards done, 105, 102 and 101. The 105 day was lashing out of the heavens Making a few silly mistakes and hitting 7's, once i can cut them out il be very confident in hitting mid to low 90s. Anyway, regarding handicapp, what will i get, 26-28?

Tones69 wrote: »

Got 16, sheesh i thought i would have been about 20-22, gonna enter a few cmops anyway and see how it goes

thats a fairly low handicap to be starting off from!! i started at 22 with similar cards.

Mr. Larson

charlieIRL wrote: »

thats a fairly low handicap to be starting off from!! i started at 22 with similar cards.

Somewhere between the two might have been fair. Most beginners at my club now get 17.5. When I joined I got 18.0.

Tones69

charlieIRL wrote: »

Tones69 wrote: »

Just reviving this thread, got 3 cards done, 105, 102 and 101. The 105 day was lashing out of the heavens Making a few silly mistakes and hitting 7's, once i can cut them out il be very confident in hitting mid to low 90s. Anyway, regarding handicapp, what will i get, 26-28?

Tones69 wrote: »

Got 16, sheesh i thought i would have been about 20-22, gonna enter a few cmops anyway and see how it goes

thats a fairly low handicap to be starting off from!! i started at 22 with similar cards.

I know, im no lower than a 22 or so, but sure look its like this, after 10 to 20 comps il be around my true handicap then and i can work my way down

Tones69

16.1 after that stableford comp yesterday, winner came in with 41 pts, happy with my 27 for now