Handicaps low/mid/high

Interesting point touched on in a post about clubs a bit further down the forum where a couple of people indicated the bandings they regard as low/mid/high handicaps.

For me, I see low as 0-8, mid 9-17, high 18+

What are the general thoughts on this?

I think the 4 handicap catagories serve as a decent indicator. But our club has 3 catagories for all comps so it's a bit fairer on the prize allocation and they work out well. Cat 1 and 2 play for one prize catagory, cat 3 in the other and finally the choppers in the 3rd catagory. 

agree with the comment above, if your going to put players in brackets i think you ought to put courses in brackets, some courses are harder than others,some courses you shouldn't go passed a double bogey all day and if you did there's got to be a good explanation for it, i.e.water. and then theres courses were you think theres numerous holes just waiting to wreck a good card.

Colin, love the "recreational menace" phrase, however I disagree with your rankings mate. It's damn hard to maintain a decent handicap (IMO 12-17) and harder still to progress in to the next category. Where decent golfers move on to good, then excellent categories.

Colin

i am not one to criticise someone else for their opinions, but i will watch with anticipation over the next 4 months as you halve your handicap to single figures !!!!

Colin is a nice guy who writes extremely good posts, but I too also feel that he is setting himself up for the inevitable fall. Getting into single fiogures is done very quickly in my opinion. It is not a long drawn out excercise.

you cant tell me there aren't a couple of holes that have multiple ways of making you look silly,the back 9 where i play is littered with them, of course i realise i am the common denominator in these "card wreckers"...getting back to low/mid high, low 4-10, mid 10-18,high 18-24,..24+still learning,0-4 pretty special

I'll respond to a few things here....

The 3 bandings i used are simply those which general get associated with golfers, whether its clubs or just bar banter.  I dont think I could see the day when I walk into a golf shop explaining that I'm an 'average to fair' with a bit of a slice.....

John and Mally, agree with both of your points:

John - totally agree that those who will excel are those with natural ability.  If you take a handicap list and look at the same list for 3-5 years prior you'll find most will be in the same/similar CONGU category.  I'm under no illusions that dropping to (and maintaining) 11 this year is a fairly tall order

Mally - totally agree that you are normally the common demoniator......  (sorry mate, couldn't resist)

Hi Colin,

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I in no way meant to come across as demeaning yours, so apologies if I did. I too would love to get down to a single figure handicap, and if i can replicate some of the form I had in autumn last year, should get there. At the minute I've no chance, confidence and swing are erratic to say the least. The difficulty I think most people face in getting their handicap down, is time dedicated to doing it.

Hi Colin

I had a quick look at your profile last night and thought that might be the case.

Good luck this year, look forward to seeing your scores.

The course plays a massive part, we were a 4 ball of members playing at whychwood park last season, all of us struggled massivly to play to our handicaps and were just steadily rising and rising. We have recently changed clubs obviously handicaps came with and our 4 ball at the new clubs has had a lot of funny looks recently. 4 comps played we've had 3 victories from the 4 ball (overall not just in our category) and 5 runner up/place prizes.  I am yet to score under 36 points in any of the 4 comps we have been in. All comps are non-qualifying at the minute but I don't see a drastic reduction in handicapp happening overnight because the CSS is allways well under par on the course. At wychwood you shot under your handicap you were pretty much guarnteed a cut.