What is rule when player has a handicap from his club - based on medal competitions playing off white - and then plays in a competition playing off yellow - using his official handicap - ie in his favour.

If a player has an official club handicap, that is what should be used. The fact that he is playing off the yellows is irrelevant. In theory, everyone at that club should have got their handicap off the whites so would gain equal benefit moving forward to the yellows

Brendon,

The SSS (which your hcp was worked out from) should differ off the yellows. So if you shoot 90 off Whites (SSS70) and then shoot an 88 off Yellows (SSS68) then you have played to the same hcp on both.

In this competition the other players were not club members and had done golfshakes handicap based on their rounds of which the majority were off yellow, so in the competition which was again off yellow - the club handicapper seemed to have an advantage.

Brendon,

Are you saying that some of the guys played off Yellows but put the cards in off Whites? If so they were worse off, hcp lower than should be.

If scores are submitted off yellow tees, then yellow tee SSS will be used - if off whites, white tee SSS will be used. I think you will find that for those members who have club and golfshake handicaps, the golfshake handicap will be lower than the club handicap.

The only handicap that truly counts is the official club CONGU handicap.

yes the club handicap obviously official - the problem was the other 7 players over 6 rounds of golf in Le Touquet - had golfshakes / yellow tees handicaps and when the club handicapper played he had an advantage - as he won every round!! one wuld have thought there would be some mechanism to adjust the club handicapper when he played off yellow tees. Guess not - so will just have to live with it.

Let's say it again - golfshake handicaps are intrinsically optimistic, inevitable when it's essentially self-regulating with no cross-checking.

Brendan, if you don't like it, get a CONGU handicap yourself and clean up.

If you have an 'Official' CONGU handicap then you should use that for your competitions. Even if your GolfShake handicap is lower.

For the situation you have mentioned then somebody should be adjusting people's handicaps after each round of golf.

Russ

Generally speaking, if you're playing in a society comp and have an official club handicap as well as a society handicap, it's the done thing to play off the lower of the two.

Also, there is no rule about using your official handicap when playing off the yellow tees. Your handicap is your handicap, whichever colour tee you use.

Russ

just seems obvious that a player who has a off whites handicap will gain from playing off yellow against yellow handicappers, since you would expect him to play 2/3 shots better from the shorter distances.

Why are you so sure his handicap was allocated from cards played off white tees? The cards could have been off whites or yellows with the appropriate SSS used in allocating the handicap. Your handicap is applicable to play from whites or yellows - in competitions from different tees, the approprate SSS is used for handicap adjustments. I cannot understand your conviction that he has an advantage due to having a club handicap.

The other possibiliites could be:

a. Your golfshake handicaps are unrealistically low for your standard of play.

b. He is just a better player than the others.

Don't take any offence - it's only a game.

not to open a can of worms but what about

c. he manipulates his club handicap (or is this just an urban myth ? )

c. is possible but much less likely these days. I wonder If Brendan and his mates asked him for a handicap certificate to see if his handicap was active.

Next time you play, do so on the condition that everybody plays off scratch.

yes that could work better

I have found that the better a player is the more likely they are to shoot near 36pts if stablford is played. Also on my limited experience of playing on the continent the courses of good length 6000yd+ tend not to be too easy. Usually with loads of bunkers and water in front of greens etc. The better player is going to benefit. The answer to the also rans is get better and compete. Dave CAC handed Geordie.

Correct, Dave, but we also must take into account that they played at Le Touquet and although La Foret is quite straightforward La Mer is one really tough cookie and the better player would most certainly shine.