Stroke play competitions

One_up

Does your club hold many stroke play competitions throughout the year? Seems like most clubs play mainly Stableford nowadays.

FixdePitchmark

About 12 to 15 a year.

Not sure stroke completions are suited to amateurs at all . Even mid handicap players.

Played in one recently,
Lad first of all went to pick up ball on first green without finishing.
We just stopped him.

He then had a 9 then 10 then 8 in a row.

He went ob 3 times on another hole and 3 balls on the go.

I just couldn't stop myself from laughing at one point , was incredible.

So one a month for medal about all club golf can take imo

Montgolfier

Stableford is faster and easier but I think stroke play will make you more aware of mistakes and how you compound them. You see lads including myself trying to get up and down from ridiculous places to save a point. Whereas stroke play you would take your medicine and manage the course better. I would like to see a lot more stroke play.

FixdePitchmark

Montgolfier wrote: »

Stableford is faster and easier but I think stroke play will make you more aware of mistakes and how you compound them. You see lads including myself trying to get up and down from ridiculous places to save a point. Whereas stroke play you would take your medicine and manage the course better. I would like to see a lot more stroke play.

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

One_up

Good to hear these points and I agree completely. Our club has stopped holding stroke competitions as the field size dropped significantly when a stroke play competition is held. I fear stroke play may be a thing of the past in a couple of years.

FixdePitchmark

One_up wrote: »

Good to hear these points and I agree completely. Our club has stopped holding stroke competitions as the field size dropped significantly when a stroke play competition is held. I fear stroke play may be a thing of the past in a couple of years.

It is a totally different game and one i love.

But I'm genuinely saying about 80 % of golfers are not up to it.

In saying that a lad off , 25 or so won one last year. But seriously slow day.

dar_cool

Same as fix. Around 15/25. Not enough in my opinion. Proper golf. Love playing stoke play

Montgolfier

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

I suppose the fact we don't play stroke enough it strikes fear into most of us, making us make silly mistakes.

spacecoyote

My place would do the monthly medals which will be strokes off the blues, as well as captains.

Also do a number of event comps that are strokes off the whites which is a bit more manageable for most.

Have my first strokes comp of the year this Saturday in the medal. Looking forward to it.

It genuinely does give a more realistic view of the shape of your game

One_up

Also, I feel that stroke play is as much about your mindset as anything else. It is very easy to allow sloppiness to set in when playing Stableford all the time.

Keano

About 10-12 a year for me.

Slightly off topic but I prefer to count my strokes versus points, as pointed out above stroke play puts more manners on you.

FixdePitchmark

I was just thinking there - how obsessed with my storkes I am.

I actually hate gimmies -

I've played with some lads more into the American style of gimmies and mulligans - I actaully feel guilty if I pick a ball up.

ForeRight

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Senecio

I'm with Fixed on this one. Stroke play should be limited to only major club competitions for amateurs (monthly medals and honour board events). I know the purist will disagree but golf needs to be enjoyable for everyone. Scoring and 8 or 9 is no fun at all.

redzerdrog

Prob 10-12 events a year mostly medals

It is definitely a different ball game and a very different challenge but an enjoyable one at that.

Our place only has 3 balls if it strokes so that helps the pace of play. Think we were 4 hours 10mins on Sunday so wasn't bad

Ben1977

Love stroke events, generally 2 a month, 1 of blues and 1 of white. Helps me with course management and concentration.
Haven't alway loved them. Couldn't tell you what points I'm on but I'll know how many I'm over par.

BigChap1759

Probably about 10/15 again but stroke play IS golf, stableford is not when you don't have to worry about having a bad hole - totally agree with the practicalities but I'd say guys would improve more if they played more strokes and had to worry about every shot.

Back at my old club in Scotland a stableford competition was a very rare event

galwaylad14

Stroke play is certainly the truest form of golf and it's a format I love. Have to put 18 decent holes together to have a score.

Would agree that there's some golfers that aren't at a level where they can really play stroke play. They just have too many bad holes that can slow everything up. Would it be seen as patronising to just have a seperate stableford competition for guys with handicaps of say over 18?

In terms of my own scoring I don't really find it any more difficult to be honest

FixdePitchmark

galwaylad14 wrote: »

Stroke play is certainly the truest form of golf and it's a format I love. Have to put 18 decent holes together to have a score.

Would agree that there's some golfers that aren't at a level where they can really play stroke play. They just have too many bad holes that can slow everything up. Would it be seen as patronising to just have a seperate stableford competition for guys with handicaps of say over 18?

In terms of my own scoring I don't really find it any more difficult to be honest

I think this will not go down well - But i don't think you should be winning a medal with a handicap of 18 +

DuckSlice

i love stroke play. really have to think about what you are doing. ive won 2 in the last couple of years. one off 16 the other off 12.
I just played one at the weekend, our first comp of the year is a stroke play event. wind was brutal though.

i can understand where Fixde is coming from, i know a few higher handicappers and they dont like strokeplay and playing with them can be very frustrating as they take a long time. knowing that they cant pick up if they miss a 2 foot putt can mess with there heads.

I play about 10-15 a year. i play one which is a two day event in july every year. leaders go out together on the second day. Its an open event in a club near me, so there does usually be a field of about 70-90 golfers.

Golfgraffix

Our 12 medals and club championship are strokes and that is enough for me, I do love it but it can be brutally tough, especially on higher handicaps.

Our captains day is stableford and it works well and has a great fun day feel to it.

J

gman127

I also like the challenge of stroke play comps. Makes you get more into some proper course management.
All our medals and big comps are strokes, maybe 15 a year.

But aside from that I'd like to see a better mix of other comps, just because it's not a medal weekend doesn't mean we have to default into singles stableford every week!!

How about a v-par?
Or throw in an odd scramble?

Some imagination would be nice is all

Seve OB

Real golf. I love it, but couldn't be having it every week :rolleyes:
We play a good bit in our club, I'd say there is at least 20 a year. All medals are strokes. I don't understand clubs who have staple ford as medals

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

Disagree. Usually it is not much more than 15 minutes longer in our place. You know you can pick up the ball and scratch your round if you are having a mare? On computer you just put in 0 for that hole. A 10 or whatever will always be brought back to a net dbl bogey for handicap.

Keano wrote: »

About 10-12 a year for me.

Slightly off topic but I prefer to count my strokes versus points, as pointed out above stroke play puts more manners on you.

I always count my strokes.

ForeRight wrote: »

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Our captains is staple ford. I think once it was strokes. Staple ford makes it fairer and gives everyone a chance. We have a lot of older guys in our club.

valoren

Once you have a solid repeating swing, then Strokeplay is the litmus test for the state of your game and your handicap.
It's golf as it's meant to be played. You play a strokeplay event and there you have it in black and white on the scorecard; your current skill level as a golfer. If you are a 10 handicapper at a Par 70 club, then you should be consistently scoring 80.

Ideally, you want to improve. We all do. Strokeplay is a test. It's not meant to be easy.
Playing strokeplay your mindset is "What would a professional do?", you might take a 4 iron off the tee for a certain hole where you usually just blast with the driver for example. Strokeplay helps you realise the central importance of having a solid short game. From 120 yards is where you begin to realise where you need to improve your skill level.

That's the attraction of golf though. You have a variety of formats to make it as interesting or as challenging as you want or need. Strokeplay, Matchplay, Stableford, Better ball etc but for me Golf is strokeplay.

Dr_Colossus

By far the best competition format and my favorite to play, real golf that gets you thinking about optimal course management and strategy. I try and play most of the stroke play events at my home course (monthly medals and majors such as captain's, president's, pro's prize which all count towards our Golfer of the Year leaderboard). I also try and play as much scratch cup events as I can, savage test of golf playing an away course off the back tees in stroke play and a great day out especially if it involves 36 holes.

I don't find strokeplay events that much slower to be honest. In my home course all singles competitions are out in 3 balls which is great. In scratch cups most are also played in three balls and I guess it helps that players are of a similar ability. Having looked through my 2015 competitions I played a total of 44 events - 19 Stableford, 24 Strokeplay and 1 V-par.

Another benefit of strokeplay is that you're like likely to get ridiculous scores such as the 40pts+ often required in stableford. Often in strokeplay events if you shoot a nett par round you shouldn't be too far away from being in contention which is fairer for all handicap ranges I think. Higher 20+ handicaps just need to learn to utilise their shots and keep the ball in play rather than going for glory and the hero all or nothing shot they habitually play in stableford competitions to give them that big score on days when they regularly pull it off.

Seve OB

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

By far the best competition format and my favorite to play, real golf that gets you thinking about optimal course management and strategy. I try and play most of the stroke play events at my home course (monthly medals and majors such as captain's, president's, pro's prize which all count towards our Golfer of the Year leaderboard). I also try and play as much scratch cup events as I can, savage test of golf playing an away course off the back tees in stroke play and a great day out especially if it involves 36 holes.

I don't find strokeplay events that much slower to be honest. In my home course all singles competitions are out in 3 balls which is great. In scratch cups most are also played in three balls and I guess it helps that players are of a similar ability. Having looked through my 2015 competitions I played a total of 44 events - 29 Stableford, 23 Strokeplay and 1 V-par.

Hmmm, with those maths Im sure you probably shot a 59 as well

Dr_Colossus

Seve OB wrote: »

Hmmm, with those maths Im sure you probably shot a 59 as well

Oops, post edited now to correct numbers. Should have realised I had more strokeplay than stableford events played. Thanks

spacecoyote

ForeRight wrote: »

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Grange castle was stableford for captains while I was there. It may have changed now.

I can see some merits to it, but it does generally benefit the higher handicap more than the low.

Was talking to the assistant pro in my place & he was saying how much he hated stableford comps as they hide problems.

You could have someone come in with 36 points with 3 scratches that could be 8,9, 10 strokes. You're not realistically playing to your handicap

Seve OB

Next 3 Saturday's in Greystones....... All Strokes

Senna

I couldn't work out how I had only play one stroke comp all last year, then I realised that the society I play in(90% members of my club), play on the day each month when its stroke at my club, just so people can avoid it.

Milk_Tray

playing one soon, cant wait, real golf. Hate Vpar though, stableford is good and gets a round done and you can work on stuff but strokes is the real deal