Why amateur golfers are gung-ho over handicap integrity

CHENNAI: Recently, a young golfer was informing a senior that purity of handicap is the holy of holies in the sport. “Unless the backmarker maintains handicap integrity, how can any of us arrive at the correct number of strokes for the other players in the fourball?” he asked, plaintively.

Let us not forget the one thing that makes golf interesting for players at all levels – the handicapping system that has become such an integral part of the game. Ask any amateur golfer and he/ she will tell you that handicap is the mother of all heartburns. A backmarker in a fourball is the one with the lowest handicap, which is arrived at based on his or her play. The lower the strokes taken to complete a round, the lower a player’s handicap will be and such a player has to be generous towards those with a high handicap.

Stay low, go high: Many club-level players have a complex attitude towards their handicap. After all, a low handicap gives one bragging rights and as Bob Hope famously quipped, “everyone is working at it all the time.” Most recreational golfers are also aware of the comfort a higher handicap gives them in club-level tournaments.

When it comes to friendlies, however, it is a different ballgame altogether. In order to make it interesting all around, high handicappers are given strokes by the backmarker. Negotiating for more strokes is nothing short of an art form.

The asker will start high and the giver will reply with a snort. They last for a maximum of five minutes, but the protracted negotiations are the stuff of legend. The better you pitch your case, the more strokes you will get. At the very least, you will make others take note of you, as the youngster who made heads turn when he spoke of the purity of handicap.

On and off, this becomes the basis of much insinuations and gripe among the best of friends when it comes to the handicap of others. Often, it is settled between friends as a mild compromise when a backmarker agrees to give 75 per cent of stroke difference. While it is a psychological one-upmanship for all concerned, this method also helps players improve their handicap by playing with good players.

How it works: Until one turns pro, a golfer has to have a base handicap. All handicaps were anchored to clubs of which the players are members and the clubs had their own ways of arriving at handicaps. As an expatriate, R Rajagopal has been playing golf in Nigeria for many years now. They follow an interesting system, he says, where the captain takes a new golfer for a round and fixes the starting handicap, after which the newbie has to amp his game.

Geneva-based R Badrinath says it is a different story in Switzerland. Most clubs in Europe have a weekly slot for handicap determination and players play in groups of three, with groupings done by the club. Players exchange cards in a cyclical manner, as is done in local tournaments everywhere, and record the score of their playing partners.

During the play, every putt has to be holed out (as in a tournament). There are no gimmes. In some courses, only the tournament scores are considered while in some others all the scores you record are considered.

In cities like Chennai, a player is required to appear for a playability test, after suitable coaching. The playability test is conducted on the course. On clearing this test, the player has to submit a minimum of ten score cards, countersigned by other players who were part of the newbie’s game. Subsequently, a handicap is assigned to the player, after which he can play with other players on all days, including weekends.

Post 2020, most clubs have begun to follow the World Handicap System (WHS), which is dynamic. The WHS unifies the methods adopted and also provides for inter-course transferability of one’s handicap anywhere in the world.

Whatever be the system, stroke negotiations will continue.

(The writer is the Lady Captain at Cosmo TNGF)