Tell us about your game today...

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Fresh thread - you know the score: share some of your tales of woe, indifference and banditry with us all.

I'm with Smithers here. I find it easier to beat handicap on away courses because my home course is tough.

It's back to the slope discussion... a difference of +/-1 on CSS/SSS is going to equate to maybe 3 shots difference for a 10 handicapper.

Ray/Smithers - it's an interesting point. My second course is much longer (500 yds off whites) than my home course. SSS is same as card 72, but invariably CSS gets notched up 1or2. For me that means I get extra shots - par 69 at home to 72, plus one or two on CSS. Maybe 5/6 extra shots to hit my buffer, for 500 yds. Bargain!
If we play away course off purple tees, an additional 500 yds and an extra 2 shots on SSS, with always it seems something extra on CSS. Effectively turns par into 75/76/77, or that's how I view it?
Hope that makes sense?

I think if you play away enough your game, and ability to score does become more adaptable. My home course is par 71 SSS 71 off the whites (but off the yellows is a pesky 69 - I think I've only ever had one cut off the yellows). Going away and getting familiar with away courses I love courses where the SSS is 2-3 above par, in Open Comps the CSS usually ticks 1-2 above SSS so places like Saunton for instance (SSS on the east is 74 (Par 71) it's not unusual for the CSS to be 76. That makes me feel like I'm sitting with a handful to play with and relaxes me somewhat in a strange way. Yes I know SSS is 74 for a reason and that reason being that it's tough but having played it enough I feel I know it well.

If my home course was Saunton I don't think that my handicap would be any higher/lower but I do think I would struggle more on courses where SSS/CSS was closer to Par...but that's just a personal thing. I have thought about country membership at Saunton and spending more weekend breaks down there but then I would be subject to the members CSS in Opens :-p

JAS - hi. Must get Remedy sorted for later in the year?
Agree your comments here, but one thing I have never fully understood is away CSS? I see it, but very occasionally, and just don't get when it applies and when it doesn't. Do you know?

Yes definitely, good memories of it as I'm sure I played at least to my handicap last time I played, that was 2013 where I had a really odd run of playing to or beating my handicap playing certain courses for the first time (e.g. Hoylake, Muirfield, North Berwick, Remedy, North Hants to name a few) yet couldn't get a cut at home for love nor money.

I don't know the mechanics of the away CSS either other than I assume there must be sufficient numbers of home and away players in the field to be able to make 2 separate calculations.

I wonder if in part at least it's the answer to the 10 handicapper from Wentworth and Chobham question? Though would only apply if one of them was at home.

JAS wrote:Yes definitely, good memories of it as I'm sure I played at least to my handicap last time I played, that was 2013 where I had a really odd run of playing to or beating my handicap playing certain courses for the first time (e.g. Hoylake, Muirfield, North Berwick, Remedy, North Hants to name a few) yet couldn't get a cut at home for love nor money.

I don't know the mechanics of the away CSS either other than I assume there must be sufficient numbers of home and away playyers in the field to be able to make 2 separate calculations.

There must be at least 15 home AND 15 away players in a field to calculate 2 separate css's, if there's 14 or less in either category then only 1 css is calculated.

Anybody in the Surrey area know Sutton Green? Got a match there on Sunday and not sure what to expect

Davie - I've played it once. Recall an enjoyable early season day. Condition of greens surprised us - they were very good, for the time of year, and looked like they would hold up well throughout. Really good covering of grass, and I hope that hasn't changed. Nothing else particularly memorable, but would happily go back, if only to make a better fist of finishing par 5!

Roller_Coaster wrote:In fact, harking back to a comment JAS made that someone suggested he was the worst 5 handicapper ever. I'd like to step up and suggest that I will appear to be that person more often than not!

Reckon I'd give you a run for your money Roller. My tee shot is a high loopey fade that on a good day struggles to 240, my full swing barely gets past the vertical and put me in a bunker and it's a celebration if I get out first time.

The 5-6 bounce is a conversation I think we've had on here before and I'm a classic example of it. If I knew how to upload a picture I'd show my handicap graph but so far this season I've played 14 qualifiers and starting at 5.4 I've had 6 +.1's (5 of which were off 5), 4 buffers (2 off 5 and 2 off 6) and 4 cuts (3 off 6, 1 off 5). I do think there is a mind set for me whereby when I'm off 5 and drop a couple of shots early the buffer zone seems a real challenge when our sss is 70 against a par of 71 and in easy summer conditions and with most qualifiers being stablefords CSS can sometimes even go to 69 or 38pts.

I've (work permitting) a couple of Open Comps coming up where, as JAS says, the CSS always rises which gives you more opportunity for a cut but generally this is because the tees are right back and it's bloody tough........

Hey ho despite all this a 3 over 74 today got me a .3 cut back to 5.2.

Davie wrote:Anybody in the Surrey area know Sutton Green? Got a match there on Sunday and not sure what to expect

I've played there Davie but it was at least 10 years ago. There are some very nice holes but the over-riding memory was of some fairways that were separated by only a couple of small trees meaning an errant tee shot wouldn't punish your score but might well have you ducking for cover if it's from another group. You might want to check your insurance is up to date.

It's the headquarters of the Surrey Golf Union so if she's working (guess not as it's a Sunday) pop in and see the unique and wonderful Jane Duhart.

Div. 3 winner for me today. Possibly the steadiest round of golf I've played in 12 months but never really lit it up

Nett 70 (par=SSS=CSS=70 today) so no cut though

Last year we used used to have our Cat 1 and 2 medals played one week and Cat 3/4 on another week. This year they are all together. So CSS today was 70 (there were a few 68s in Div. A and a 59(!!) in Div B.

If the Div 3 medal had been a separate comp like previous years the CSS would undoubtedly have gone up and I'd have got the cut I so want. At least that's me qualified for the end of season bash for medal winners though

Hibbz wrote:

Davie wrote:Anybody in the Surrey area know Sutton Green? Got a match there on Sunday and not sure what to expect

I've played there Davie but it was at least 10 years ago. There are some very nice holes but the over-riding memory was of some fairways that were separated by only a couple of small trees meaning an errant tee shot wouldn't punish your score but might well have you ducking for cover if it's from another group. You might want to check your insurance is up to date.

It's the headquarters of the Surrey Golf Union so if she's working (guess not as it's a Sunday) pop in and see the unique and wonderful Jane Duhart.

Thanks Hibbz. My insurance has just been renewed so I should be OK though I usually don't hit the ball far enough to reach adjacent fairways

Davie wrote:Div. 3 winner for me today. Possibly the steadiest round of golf I've played in 12 months but never really lit it up

Nett 70 (par=SSS=CSS=70 today) so no cut though

Last year we used used to have our Cat 1 and 2 medals played one week and Cat 3/4 on another week. This year they are all together. So CSS today was 70 (there were a few 68s in Div. A and a 59(!!) in Div B.

If the Div 3 medal had been a separate comp like previous years the CSS would undoubtedly have gone up and I'd have got the cut I so want. At least that's me qualified for the end of season bash for medal winners though

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you win a medal with 70 when others have scored 68 and 59?

It was split into three categories Ray. The scores mentioned were from the other categories.

Three comps in one Ray - A, B and C categories.

Davie wrote:

Hibbz wrote:

Davie wrote:Anybody in the Surrey area know Sutton Green? Got a match there on Sunday and not sure what to expect

I've played there Davie but it was at least 10 years ago. There are some very nice holes but the over-riding memory was of some fairways that were separated by only a couple of small trees meaning an errant tee shot wouldn't punish your score but might well have you ducking for cover if it's from another group. You might want to check your insurance is up to date.

It's the headquarters of the Surrey Golf Union so if she's working (guess not as it's a Sunday) pop in and see the unique and wonderful Jane Duhart.

Thanks Hibbz. My insurance has just been renewed so I should be OK though I usually don't hit the ball far enough to reach adjacent fairways

Well that was a blowout - Full team arrived just before 9am to be told the match had been cancelled two days ago - but no one seemed to know who at my club had been told!

We did get a free coffee and bacon roll for our troubles and to be fair they told us we could go out and play amongst ourselves, but the weather that early wasn't so great. Would have played the match but no one really fancied a knock about.

Looked nice from the club house though :P

Yet another weekend with horrendous conditions. Rain and 20mph+ winds, which makes my 75 with 2 opening bogies and a level par back 9 even more satisfying.

Club Champs R1 next weekend, and game feeling good.

Scruffy Saturday. 2 scruffy, scruffy doubles. Early bogies and only one birdie on 10 to lighten the mood (but it was a good one). Only a few regulation holes and a few scrappy scrapes for par. All summed up by the first really. Nice drive, 30 - 40 yard chip left. Duff, 4 yards. Poor chip on, poor first putt good bogey save putt for 5. Ended +8 (less 5 - +3 net) which was a score much better than my general play deserved.

Played with a guy we used to play with all the time but left a couple of years ago to play somewhere else, so despite pretty shabby play a great day catching up with him.

Davie that's shocking. I would have been gutted turning up ready to play on Sunday morning to find the match cancelled. Surprised you didn't play there anyway.

Regarding your previous competition, I don't understand why clubs run comps with several divisions when there is a handicap allowance. Surely that's the point of having handicaps? I'm sure my golf clubs have always done this too but I've never noticed it.

Yeah we were all pretty gutted Ray - as I said they did offer us tee times but the weather really wasn't that great to make us go out just for a knockabout

As for the medals, I did wonder after your previous comments whether other clubs had different divisions in medal comps. Kinda agree with you about handicaps supposedly levelling the playing field but I suspect all or most clubs do it this way. I may be wrong though!

As I previously mentioned, we used to have combined A and B medals one week and C medal the next; the A and B always had separate prizes for the two categories - this season we all play together so allowing for twice as many qualifiers in a month, but still three sub-competitions on the day. Just wish they calculated 3 separate CSS scores for the three categories and I'd almost certainly have been cut!

Davie your point about 3 separate CSS scores illustrates the deficiency in our CSS system, and the rationale for slope.

If the conditions are windy, scratch players are going to suffer least because they tend to strike the ball more purely and are more proficient in playing knock down shots, shaping the ball flight to counter-act the wind, course management etc. However a cat 4 golfer with a high slice might be well and truly buggered and not have the repertoire of shots to deal with the conditions. CSS for them might be 10 shots above SSS.

They split the comps into two divisions at our place, the split being at 12 handicaps.
I believe the reason, and I hope this doesn't cause any offence, but one of the 20 plus handicaps will ALWAYS score 40 or more points in every comp. Guaranteed. This means, with no split, the single figure handicappers would never ever win.  
Seems like a fair enough reason to me. To give everyone some chance of feeling like they might win something

Was meant to be playing Saturday, now cant. Its going to be about 2 months since I last swung a club by the time I next play. Just have to enjoy it when i do play i suppose!

Bearwood Lakes tomorrow - thunderstorms permitting!

Davie, I'd not seen the bits earlier about your intended round at Sutton Green and that falling through. Are you due to go back? If so I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

It is 10 mins down the road from me and is a very popular course around here. It's quite long, 6,500 off the whites and 6,000 off the next set (blues I think). They made a really big deal of it when it opened as it was affiliated to Laura Davies and she made a point of being there quite regularly in the early days. That said, I'm not sure she's been there in the last 10 years!
I've played it many times and have never massively enjoyed it. It's very straight up and down and I tend to find it one of those course where it's drive, hybrid, drive, fairway wood, drive, hybrid etc. Those type of courses bore me.
For a number of years I played poker in the clubhouse on a Thursday evening with a few of the members and they used to have a bit of a whinge as they apparently have a massive Korean corporate membership there and they swamp the course on weekend mornings.
I know they have made a few changes to the course since I last played it and they have recently installed a new short game practice area which is meant to be excellent.

Let me know what you think if you do get to play there.

Hi MPB - must admit I did think about you when I posted that as I knew you were in that general area. Not heard if the fixture is being arranged yet but I'll certainly let you know if I do go back. Despite the weather it looked OK from the road/clubhouse (and nice clubhouse too). Weather just wasn't good enough for us to feel like taking the courtesy round they offered us

Played first two rounds of English Senior Men's Open Amateur Championship, Weds/Thurs, but sadly won't be playing final round. Missed cut by a shot for second consecutive year, and now licking wounds!
Seriously good golf courses - West Hill and Worplesdon in Surrey. Greens at West Hill a bit patchy, but fortunately same for everyone, so hey ho!
Seriously poor first round at West Hill, including 4 doubles, 3 of them on the spin from 10! Difficult to recover from that, and I didn't! Good round today at Worplesdon, so balanced 0.1 increase yesterday, with 0.3 reduction today.
Interesting notes:
New CEO of R&A made the cut with excellent round at West Hill today.
West Hill, par 69 sss71, played much more difficult than Worplesdon, par71 sss71.
Only 2 sub par rounds over the two courses in two days.
Brilliantly organised by EGU. 288 players over 2 courses - top 80 and ties into final round.
I get another crack at Worplesdon next week in their own 3 day senior scratch comp. it is a gem.

puligny

What an awesome set of courses to play. Hope you do well next week.

Mac, this years courses include, Aberdovey, Beau Desert, Moor Park, Burnham and Berrow, Blackmoor, Allwoodley, Siloth, Brockenhurst, Parkstone, Trevose etc etc. All scratch events, with handicap supplementary prizes, most with 80-100 entrants.
One of the compensations for being a "senior"!

County championship at my place over the weekend. I saw some of the late finishers on the closing holes on Friday evening. All making a mess of things like high handicappers and didn't look like scratch golfers to me. Ho hum, I guess they had all blown their chances of making the cut by the time I saw them.

Playing Porters Park this afternoon.

After failing in English Seniors, capped a wonderful week on Saturday with medal (Board Comp) at home. Gross 71 nett 66 beaten into second place on count back by chap playing off 24. Well done him - it was a handicap comp after all.

puligny

Fixed that for you.

After failing in English Seniors, capped a wonderful week on Saturday with medal (Board Comp) at home. Gross 71 nett 66 beaten into second place on count back by chap playing off 24. Well done him - it was a handicap comp after all.

To indicate necessary sarcasm.

Finally stopped the rot on Sunday - no .1 back for the first time in 16 or so qualifying rounds.   I started well, 3 pars, then blobbed a par 3, couple of bogeys, blobbed another par 3 then settled down to par 8 of the last 11 holes, with 1 pointers on the other 3. No birdies (missed from 2 feet on the 2nd ) but some great up & downs and just 28 putts (actually 24, on the 2 blobbed par 3s I didn't get to even putt for a point!) 16 out and 19 home for 35 points, which is usually CSS so I should be safe!

Touch and go tonight - 33 points is usually buffer, but this being a comp spread over all 5 days of the week it could well end up CSS 36 and so still mean 0.1 back. Have to be happy really though - was level 2s for the first 6 but then went blob, 1, blob for 13 out. Gave myself a bit of a talking to and started back par, par, birdie, birdie, double. Then dropped a couple more coming in but good enough for 20 points on the back and hopefully no increase. There's a good round coming, I just need to get over the water on 7 and 14! Course was playing really short tonight - fairways cut very short and ground firm.

Club Champ R2 tomorrow for me. Currently sitting second.

Bombed out of comp at Worplesdon so no third day for me. Couple of bad weeks but with a 2 good rounds out of 5 ended up with 0.3 handicap cut! Crazy game, and would much rather have made the cuts. Hey ho, always next time!
25 medals so far since 1 April, but 2 weeks social now until club championships.
Anybody played Pleasington, Kirby Muxloe or Rothey Park?

Club championship qualifying yesterday and so a five hour round proceeded and i missed all the food at the BBQ i was going to after. Moan over, not a great round from a 36 point 90.

A disappointing 7 at the par 3 eighth and 9 at the par 4 16th cost me heavily for a good round. Highlight of the round a nice chip in on the 2nd to save par.

Nay Bother wrote:Club championship qualifying yesterday and so a five hour round proceeded and i missed all the food at the BBQ i was going to after. Moan over, not a great round from a 36 point 90.

A disappointing 7 at the par 3 eighth and 9 at the par 4 16th cost me heavily for a good round. Highlight of the round a nice chip in on the 2nd to save par.

Is your club championship stableford? Never heard of that before.

Its not its best scratch scores, i just worked that out as was curious as i walked off disappointed with the score, but stableford wise i played to handicap.

It seems silly to me.

super_realist wrote:Club Champ R2 tomorrow for me. Currently sitting second.

How did you get on Super?

Finally halted my worst ever handicap slide yesterday. Decent 75 in fairly tricky conditions (CSS ticked up 1 to 72, had been projecting at 73 when I tapped my score in). Started with an awful double, thinking "Aw no, here we go again" Canned a 30 foot birdie putt on 2, chipped in for par at 3 and so righted the mental ship. Tap in 2 at 6 got me back level. The big test at our course is 12 through 15 and yes, bled a few but limited the damage with a couple of really good up & downs, Disappointing bogey at the last after flushing a 7 iron through the green from 170.

Last cut was at Carnoustie last Sept, last buffer was November, slid all the way from 4.2 to 5.6 and to be honest it was beginning to feel like a monkey on my back as there has been some good golf in there but rounds ruined by one or 2 bad holes. So a 0.4 cut very welcome, especially as it should now get me an extra 16 minutes in bed before the club champs in 2 weeks time, not to mention a wee confidence boost too.

Blowing the proverbial over the weekend and my swing was horrendous. Played Sat & Sun had about 24 putts each day and maxed out at 31 points (28 other day). Short game was very, very good but the scores indicate how bad the long game was. About 6/7 balls down as well.

Stuck 2 OOB on 10th on Sat (both horrific pull hooks, starting left and going way, way left). Stuck 2 OOB on 10th on Sun (first replicated the 2 on Sat then a big carve to go out the other side)

Interestingly, they were so bad and the wind so strong that the resting points of the 2 drives on Sunday would have made a pretty good equilateral triangle if lines were drawn to each other and back to the tee. That's how far apart they were. (did I mention etc?)

Saturday was reductions only so "saved" the 0.1 no such luck I imagine for Sunday though. Still, an extra shot for next week and an extra buffer as it'll be back to Cat 2 for me. Short game was very good though, so positives to take.

Annual pilgrimage to Pine Valley yesterday. A pinched nerve in my neck had me thinking I should take a rain check, but this is Pine Valley, and as long as I'm upright I will gladly accept the invite.

Hot, humid and we played 36 holes. Since my neck only hurts at impact, I played with wild inconsistency, but I did have some memorable holes. (Wedge in on #2, birdie ... ok, that's about it.)

There is hardly a more unassuming entrance to a world class course. Go to an old strip mall, take the road behind it. Past an aging amusement park. Proceed along the train tracks and past the dead end sign. Take a right and if they let you past the guard house, get ready for a amazing experience.

Service and caddies: Exceptional and exceptional.

Food: Simple and perfect.

Practice facility: Pro-v's only and you can practice any shot you can think of. You can even saunter into the woods and punch out as you will need to at some point on the course.

Greens: I've been here several times and they were the best and most consistent I've ever seen. In fact, they were the best greens I have ever played on.

When I arrived, future Ryder Cup winning captain Darren Clarke was teeing off. Looks mighty fit. If he saw any of my game, I'm pretty sure he'll be lobbying for me as a captain's pick for the US squad.

Pine Valley is the most perfect test of penal golf. Totally unrelenting but fair.

Shotrock wrote: When I arrived, future Ryder Cup winning captain Darren Clarke was teeing off. Looks mighty fit. If he saw any of my game, I'm pretty sure he'll be lobbying for me as a captain's pick for the US squad.

Nice touches

I'm never wrong wrote:

super_realist wrote:Club Champ R2 tomorrow for me. Currently sitting second.

How did you get on Super?

Qualified #1 for knockouts.

Awesome Shotrock

Well done Souper

Well done Super

First Rd. Knockouts negotiated last night. Hard fought 3&2 win. In the last 8 now.

Looks a windy one tomorrow.

Awesome Super, well done you!!