Yes. The new system limits how much handicap can go up. There is a soft and hard cap applied as poorer scores are entered.
Fyi there is also an exceptional score reduction in handicap as well. Beating cap by 7 reduces cap by 1 and beating by 10 reduces cap by 2.
Or something like that.
No more separately notated tournament rounds that stick in the handicap calculation for a year, as in the old system.
Most of it is guys who magically can muster up a gross of 76 77 in tourney play and their weekday play is 85. This happened alot, hence how our association keeps people fairly honest. It was happening with regularity a few years ago. Hence a in house club tourney cap and u’re usga. 2 separate entities. Alot of people establish usga and then play in county events. I don’t know what to tell you, but for the group of guys like me…it was frustrating. Like I said I just had my QF match play that I didn’t even want to play, but I did to prove a point. I won 4&2 with tourney cap, basically I only had to give the guy 2 aside. Without that, I would have lost 1up…I would have had to give him 4 and 3. That’s the difference. I would never accuse anyone of fooling around. As a matter of fact, in a regular match I would never accept more than 1 aside from anyone. But it is amazing to see a 15 hit 9 fairways, hit 7 gir, no 3 putts when cash is on the line and they go well I just concentrate more…you might get away with that 2 outta 10 rounds, not 6 or 7 outta 10.
If they are doing this, they are the exact opposite of honest.
Hence, OUR association solving the issue…most of the people, including me, won’t throw people under the bus…it causes serious arguments and leaves open wounds. Tourney handicaps solved the issue by removing the temptation…you understand this? Again, USGA, does make assumptions people are all inherently honest…it’s self reporting. Do you believe it’s a good system and that people are inherently honest…It’s the best we have at the moment. Look, there are PGA players that have issues with honesty…it’s at all levels.
IMO, the better solution to guys cheating is to kick them out of the club or not let them compete.
Ideally, but proving someone is cheating can be difficult in some cases. Some players generally play better better in competition My best round was second day of the club championship when leading by 1 shot from the first day, went on to win by 6 and have never played as well again! Was I cheating (my handicap did drop by 3 after this but would still have won at that level) or did I just rise to the occasion?
Its sad that we have to have this discussion. For my club we now require a minimum number of cards to be submitted and to have played in a minimum number of monthly events before you can enter a ‘board’ competition to try and keep it honest and I feel it works.
Outliers happen but not so often that there is a need for a handicap that is meaningfully different than the every day handicap. If someone has so many outliers that this ends up being necessary, the odds he’s posting honest scores to get that higher handicap are astronomical.
Unfortunately, I think the reality is you have to have meaningful rounds in competition to have a relevant competition handicap… which creates some issues, but it’s fine.
I played in a gross club championship event, and failed to qualify… had I played in the net event the next day and shot 2 rounds in the 70s, I’m sure people would have called me a sandbagger, even though I’ve posted 2 rounds in the 70s this season… I don’t play much weekend golf, and not everyone knows me.
It’s too bad, I’d love to be more confident when traveling that other people are playing to an honest handicap.