Why the handicap system in Golf?

[scotview]

What amazes me with the handicap system is how consistently each golfer scores within a range according to his/her ability. Surprisingly, a golfer is usually within a couple of strokes plus or minus gross for each round. It's this consistency of gross scoring across abilities that makes the handicap system "work".

The handicap system can be applied to the Stableford method of scoring which uses a points score rather than a stroke score. The beauty of the Stableford system is that the golfer can have a bad hole and not write off the whole round whereas in stroke play each hole must be completed. The Stableford system is what makes senior golf so enjoyable.

PS just getting back to golfing again after breaking a leg last May on the 17th Tee of my course, so maybe golf isn't risk free. Anyway I'm delighted to have completed 12 holes today, pain free. It's 18 holes on Friday.......hopefully.

[servodude]

It's a bit of fun really. Golf isn't just about competition, it's about fresh air, having a laugh with your playing partners...

Thanks. That's exactly why it appeals to me.

Also exercise. Anyone who thinks golf isn't really exercise hasn't played a hilly course on a windy day. I read somewhere that golfers live 5 years longer on average than non-golfers

BoE

...and it seems longer still

[Tedx]

Ive heard of a fair few folk conking out on the golf course. It's what they would have wanted I guess.

[bungeejumper]

In a sort of perverse way, I see the reasoning of making the slower children try harder, but at the time it just seemed cruel.

But he 'was' a PE teacher, so in reality, I felt a bit sorry for him.

At my school, in the early sixties, pretty well all the PE teachers were fitness freaks who'd been hurriedly shoved into the schools after being demobbed, and with no educational training whatsoever. Jocks, as they'd have been called in the US, and sorry, I couldn't feel sorry for any of them.

Nothing about health issues, inclusiveness, or the prevention of bullying, and everything was about making it into the first fifteen, and everyone else was rubbish. Not a hope for me, then. I'm heavily built, broad in the shoulders, and my only real sporting ability was that I was quite good with my fists. (Oh yeah, I do have long arms.)

Ahem. Ah yes, golf: I also messed about with golf at university, where we had to do a compulsory sport during our first year. I was all right at pitch and putt, but when we finally advanced to a proper golf course my handicap came properly into play. Unbeknown to me, I was slightly cross-eyed.

BJ

[stevensfo]

In a sort of perverse way, I see the reasoning of making the slower children try harder, but at the time it just seemed cruel.

But he 'was' a PE teacher, so in reality, I felt a bit sorry for him.

At my school, in the early sixties, pretty well all the PE teachers were fitness freaks who'd been hurriedly shoved into the schools after being demobbed, and with no educational training whatsoever. Jocks, as they'd have been called in the US, and sorry, I couldn't feel sorry for any of them.

Nothing about health issues, inclusiveness, or the prevention of bullying, and everything was about making it into the first fifteen, and everyone else was rubbish. Not a hope for me, then. I'm heavily built, broad in the shoulders, and my only real sporting ability was that I was quite good with my fists. (Oh yeah, I do have long arms.)

Ahem. Ah yes, golf: I also messed about with golf at university, where we had to do a compulsory sport during our first year. I was all right at pitch and putt, but when we finally advanced to a proper golf course my handicap came properly into play. Unbeknown to me, I was slightly cross-eyed.

BJ

I also messed about with golf at university, where we had to do a compulsory sport during our first year.

OMG! At uni? I can just imagine if someone had suggested that at our uni! The main attraction of uni was to get away from that concept of 'compulsory'!

Even in our school sixth form, it wasn't till the 2nd term or so that our pompous sixth form master informed us that in theory, we should be doing a session of PE every week. Maybe it was in the small print. Can't remember.

What no teacher would have ever admitted was that our sixth form was in a sort of unofficial competition with a local Tech college, five miles away that also offered A-levels and with free buses. So I guess they were under pressure to hold onto their students.

Which explains why our PE sessions were only weakly enforced and for only a month or so till it fizzled out.

I couldn't complain. Like many other male sixth formers, I soon discovered the joys of trampolining. But only as a spectator. I was 17. The sight of those sixth form girls in their gym shorts, jumping and forming those provocative shapes was .....!!

Steve PS Imagine making a comment like that these days. Especially during Parents evening!

[Lootman]

It's a bit of fun really. Golf isn't just about competition, it's about fresh air, having a laugh with your playing partners...

Thanks. That's exactly why it appeals to me.

Also exercise. Anyone who thinks golf isn't really exercise hasn't played a hilly course on a windy day. I read somewhere that golfers live 5 years longer on average than non-golfers

Yes but golfers tend to be wealthier than the average, and so have better healthcare as well as better housing, food and everything else that money buys you.

Could you not say the same about any pastime or activity that requires a lot of money to engage in?

[9873210]

Also exercise. Anyone who thinks golf isn't really exercise hasn't played a hilly course on a windy day. I read somewhere that golfers live 5 years longer on average than non-golfers

Yes but golfers tend to be wealthier than the average, and so have better healthcare as well as better housing, food and everything else that money buys you.

Could you not say the same about any pastime or activity that requires a lot of money to engage in?

Cave diving.

An expensive way to die young.

[bungeejumper]

Could you not say the same about any pastime or activity that requires a lot of money to engage in?

Cave diving.

An expensive way to die young.

Any number of lunatic fast car and bike activities, either on or off the track. (Especially if done with conviction. ) Horse racing, unless of course you pay somebody else to do all the dangerous riding stuff for you. Wing suit flying, vintage planes, building your own submarine. There are such people.

BJ

[stevensfo]

Cave diving.

An expensive way to die young.

Any number of lunatic fast car and bike activities, either on or off the track. (Especially if done with conviction. ) Horse racing, unless of course you pay somebody else to do all the dangerous riding stuff for you. Wing suit flying, vintage planes, building your own submarine. There are such people.

BJ

building your own submarine.

At eleven I was a great fan of the Jacques Cousteau documentaries and there were two large ponds in the village where I grew up. One had a variety of junk nearby. We'd already seen boys make a raft so a submarine was obviously the next step. A large metal cupboard was going to be the sub. We had it all planned but hadn't taken the weight of the cupboard or the mud into consideration. Then there was the possibility of our muddy shoes and trousers receiving a negative response from our commanding officers. i.e. our mums!

Steve

PS I never did find out what happened to the raft.