Indexing on courses

scrubber72

I was discussing this with some friends recently.

Who decides which holes have which index and are they true throughout the year?

Example is on the course I play the index 1 is a par 4 431yds dogleg with the second shot over water.
During the summer the tee shot is into the wind and is difficult but during the winter its downwind and this changes the entire playability of the hole.

Also the 3 easiest holes, according to the index, are par 3`s, one over water and one 186 yards all up hill.

Rippeditup

It's done off the score indexing I think so defined by that average score on the hole. I think

link_2007

I know in Roscommon GC they base it on the average score taken on each hole from the previous calendar year (they get the info from the scores entered into the computer).

levitronix

I always thought par 3's play harder than their index , same my course index 18 is a par 3 down a hill , very hard hole to club right. At Millicent the par 5's are all low index's which for me are easy birdie holes.
So it all depends what kinda player you are if the index's suit your game or not.

Senna

Do they ever change? I don't think the index has changed on any hole in my course since it was redesigned in 2000.
I always assumed it went by scoring, but I know there has been a few complaints about a long par 5 that normally plays down wind and is stroke index 16. I think the stroke index is right, but the short hitters usually needs drive, 3 wood and hybrid to reach it on most days.

Rikand

We review the indexes on the holes in Athlone every 4 or 5 years. We also have separate indexes depending on what tees you are playing off. On society tees and in the winter 2 of the Par 4's are stretched out to Par 5's

Almaviva

Indexes are not necessarily according to the scoring difficulty although that is the starting point. GUI gives guidance on how this scoring list must be modified to ensure for eg that indexes are equally balanced between the two nines, that the lowest indexes are towards the middle of each nine, that the low index holes cannot be beside each other, etc .

So you do come across courses where the indexes clearly feel wrong as far a hole difficulty goes, but you will find it is due to this rearrangement of them.

spacecoyote

On my course, the front 9 are all odd indices,the back 9 all even.

I have to say they are pretty fair. If you look at the course scoring analysis every week on howdidido, the top 5 indices are almost always within I'd say the 6/7 hardest playing holes on the course

stockdam

As Almaviva said there are guidelines and that doesn't always result in the hardest hole being index 1.

The guideline states that Index 1 should not be on the opening hole(s) as that is normally the first playoff hole in a match.

However the committee can decide to do whatever they want - Scrabo's first hle is index 1 (and rightly so).

slave1

spacecoyote wrote: »

On my course, the front 9 are all odd indices,the back 9 all even.

Just looked through a few old scorecards I have here and there's a few like that alright, in all the years playing I never noticed it before!

Golfgraffix

From Congu

Rule of Golf 33-4 requires Committees to “publish a table indicating the order of holes at which handicap strokes are to be given or received”. To provide consistency at Affiliated Clubs it is strongly recommended that Appendix G of the CONGU UHS is followed.
Clubs and members alike should be aware that Stroke Index is not determined on hole difficulty but on ensuring an equal distribution of strokes is given/received in a match play competition.

Below is an outline of Appendix G.

Of paramount importance for match play competition is the even spread of the strokes to be received at all handicap differences over the 18 holes.

This is best achieved by allocating the odd numbered strokes to the more difficult of the two nines, usually the longer nine, and the even numbers to the other nine.

The first and second stroke index holes should be placed close to the centre of each nine and the first six strokes should not be allocated to adjacent holes. The 7th to the 10th indices should be allocated so that a player receiving 10 strokes does not receive strokes on three consecutive holes.

None of the first eight strokes should be allocated to the first or the last hole, and at clubs where competitive matches may be started at the 10th hole, at the 9th or 10th holes. This avoids a player receiving an undue advantage on the 19th hole should a match continue to sudden death. Unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary, stroke indices 9, 10, 11 and 12 should be allocated to holes 1, 9, 10 and 18 in such order as shall be considered appropriate.

Subject to the foregoing recommendations, when selecting each stroke index in turn holes of varying length should be selected. Index 1 could be a Par 5, index 2 a long Par 4, index 3 a shorter Par 4 and index 4 a Par 3. There is no recommended order for this selection, the objective being to select in index sequence holes of varying playing difficulty. Such a selection provides more equal opportunity for all handicaps in match play and Stableford and Par competitions than an order based upon hole length or difficulty to obtain Par.