I would appreciate any thoughts on how I can best handle the following situation. My apology for the length so I will offer a summary but read the details if you want to understand the full situation.
SUMMARY
I am a VERY directionally challenged golfer. I play a very narrow hard course all summer and easy wide courses in the winter. The soft and hard caps in the WHS prevent my course handicap from rising enough in the summer to allow me to be competitive on the hard course and I end up being a huge anchor to my teams and partners in the summer. I have stopped playing in the summer as a result of this.
DETAILS
I live in two locations – A southern USA climate for ~6 months in the winter and a northern USA climate for ~6 months of the summer. For the time that I am south, I play on a large number of courses that are in my community. All of these courses are fairly easy. They have ratings from the white tees of 63.9 to 66.4 and slopes of 102 to 116. The averages are 65.5 and 109. In addition, most of the holes are very wide. You can hit the ball very far right or left and have no trouble.
In the summer, I play at only one course where I am a member. It is in my community. It is a much harder course with a rating of 68.1 and a slope of 126 from the white tees and a par 71. It is also a VERY tight course. Almost every hole has dense woods or out of bounds on both sides, the fairways are not very wide, and there is not a lot of rough.
In the winters I have a handicap index of 16.5 which, for the courses I play gives me a course handicap of 7-12 with an average of 9. I hit the ball pretty far for my age (60 years old) but am extremely directionally challenged. Sometimes I hit the fairway or rough but more often I am in the wide open areas beyond the fairway or rough of the hole I am playing. This doesn’t hurt me very much since the courses are so wide open. I play reasonably to my handicap and am competitive with other players in the matches we play – both individual and team. I shoot from 78 to 95 with an average of ~88. I win once in a while, I lose a lot, but I am not an embarrassment to my team or partner.
In the summers on this one course that I play, all my far right and left shots cost me dearly. I probably hit 7-9 balls a round out of bounds, lost in the woods, or (best result) into the woods marked as hazards. This costs me around 10-15 strokes a round.
Before the world handicap system came into effect, I would go north, play a LOT of golf quickly in the first month and my handicap index would increase greatly to around 24 due to the course being so difficult for me. This allowed me to be competitive for the rest of my summer golf. I would win once in a while, lose a lot, but not be an embarrassment to my team or partner.
After the implementation of the WHS, due to the hard and soft caps, my handicap can only go up 5 and it goes up only very slowly after it raises just 3. Note that my typical course handicaps for the winter (open and easy courses) is 7-12 with an average of ~9 while my course handicap before the WHS for the summer (hard and narrow course) was ~24. This is a difference of ~15 strokes. Unfortunately, my handicap is only allowed to increase by 5 and is slow to increase after raising 3.
With the WHS soft and hard caps, I am not competitive in the summer by at least 10 strokes. I never win and, more importantly, I drag down my team and partners. Last year, I was so detrimental to my teams and partners that I stopped playing half way through the summer and did not start again until I returned south for the winter.
Do you have any advice on how I can best handle this situation? Thanks.
