Handicap Generalizations

I have been noticing with increasing frequency golf advice being handed out based solely on handicap rather than personal ability. Admittedly, your handicap is to a certain degree a key indicator of your ability, but I would like to argue that it shouldn’t be the sole indicator when we ask for advice on club selection, distance, swing speed, etc…

Perhaps we are all guilty of it to a degree, but we seem to want to quantify and categorise golf, when in actual fact it is rather unpredictable. For example, say you have a 24 handicap at your local course. Some would automatically think—right slow swinger, soft to medium flex shaft, game improvement irons, poor chipper and putter, off in the trees most of the time type of player. But what if we find out later that the player plays off a Wellington, NZ course that is so windy that balls actually blow off the green from time to time. Pull this person to another course and watch out they are shooting 8’s and 12’s off the stick. I have seen this personally which is why I am using this example.

I have also seen people directly correlate distance off the tee with a driver as a key indicator of swing speed. I have a mate who is an ex-cricketer, who from time to time can nail some seriously long drives, but is usually plagued with much shorter drives do to miss hits, etc… His normal swing speed is definitely higher than his handicap would suggest.

I would like to hear what every else thinks about this trend of generalizing ability with handicap.

Cheers,

__________________
SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

as a 24 h/c i do tend to fit into the slowish swing speed with medium flex,distance is a key issue i am working on.but on the other side of the coin , so to speak, i have read a lot of articles from high h/c's playing with stiff shafted blades . maybe in the profile section , imformation on the players home course would be of some benefit.

I tend to find that when a golfer gets their handicap to around a bogey to 20 player there is little difference in their knowledge or skill than a low handicapper, the lower handicapper generally is more consistent with their game, both mentally and physically.

im really confused about handicaps
i joined a club at the same time as a work colleague joined his, we got our cards in and his starting handicap was 22 mine was 23.
he invited me to play at his course a couple of weeks back and i beat him by 17 strokes!
so surely one of our handicaps is wrong?

Most clubs use an average from three cards to find your handicap, from then on it will get adjusted when you play in competitions or as a general play change.

This guy may have achieved his hcap initially but not played in any competitions. You on the other hand Slats seem to be going through a purple patch right now which will be reflected in your handicap if you maintain it through the season. I am sure you will get a good clipping down on general play if you maintain your current form.

This type of thing is exactly my point. How can we rely on golf handicap alone to determine anything.

I don't get to play that often, but over Christmas holidays (if I can fit in a game a day--I do.). My scores dramatically drop---but my distance stays the same with my clubs--my aim just gets better.

Though even so, isn;t it true to say that despite its inadequacies, golf provides a sturcture that beats all other sports. Even if it doesn;t work perfectly, you wouldn't want to play 5 aside pub football against Man U, but there is a system in golf, even if it isn't perfect. That's cool, isn't it?

Yes it is. And generally it works OK