This booklet arrived with my renewed membership for the coming year in the USGA. It's chock full of interesting tidbits about handicaps and how they are the equalizer when golfers of different skill levels compete against one another. The intro page says "the idea behind the system is to enable golfers of all levels to compete on a comparatively equal basis." Equal basis here is comparative (some feature to a greater or lesser extent than the thing it is being compared). Greater or lesser; hmmmm.....
Now I'm not the sour grapes kind and I do believe the handicap system, while some have questions about how it's administered, is what keeps most coming back to golf year after year. Yeah, there's the club sandbaggers and because you know who they are, you can choose to not compete in events where they're playing.
Yesterday, our MGA had a flighted, low net mixer. The MGA paid the top three in our flight with golf shop credits (I've got lots to say about that - goodness, I'd not want to jeopardize my amateur standing by winning too much cash each year - mixer entry fees here are $3 to $5 depending on the day you want to play so you can see how it could add up on an annual basis) but....I digress.
One in my group played from the forward tees. Yes, his handicap was adjusted to account for the advantage of the shorter course, but, on average, he had almost a 50 yard advantage on all par 4s and par 5s. After yesterday's event, I found out that 2 of the 3 winners in our flight (first) played from the forward tees. 50 yards represents a significant advantage; maybe next time I'll opt to play from the forward tees.
