There has been some confusion over the handicap allowances for our knock out matches this year. Earlier this year we published the R&A handicap allowance guide for common golf formats on the Club website.
This clearly shows the allowance for individual matchplay at 100% and for four ball matchplay at 90%. And that was the intention for all Club competitions this year.
However we believe that in the last few years we have incorrectly been using 90% for the individual matchplay competition and most if not all of the first rounds have been completed using the incorrect 90%. The Handicap Competition and Rules Committee met this morning to consider how we deal with all remaining matches this year and concluded that it would be best to continue with the 90% even if it is incorrect. We agreed that we should continue with the set of rules we started with even if by an honest mistake. We have no time to have matches or holes replayed and so all the results will stand and we will continue to use 90% difference from the lower handicap ie take your handicap index and look up the slope rating boards for 100%. Then deduct lowest course handicap from highest and then deduct 10%, rounding up or down as appropriate, .5 and above being rounded up. This gives the strokes for the match. For future years we will adopt the R&A recommended allowance.
The four ball match allowance has been 90% for some years, and we have been using that this year. However the method of calculating the 90% difference changed (again) earlier this year and we should adopt this method. In most cases it makes no difference but due to rounding it can occasionally make a difference of a shot. We have set out below an example showing 1. The old method which we only used for the last few years and 2. The new approved method which we should use now.
For these examples let’s use course handicaps of 5,6,10 and 16 ie take your handicap index and use the slope table 100% column for each course, giving the course playing handicaps as set out above.
- Old method.
Take 90% first – 4.5 so 5, 5.4 so 5, 9.0 so 9 and 14.4 so 14. Take away from lowest so shots are 0,0,4 and 9.
2. New method.
Take course handicap away from lowest. 0,1,5 and 11. Now take 90% to give 0,1,5 and 10. So in this example it does make a difference.
We use 2. New method and João can do the calculations if asked.
If a match is tied after 18 holes, regardless of whenever you started on tee 1 or 10, you should explain the circumstances to the starter and request you play any extra holes from tee 1. Only if they cannot allow you to start from tee 1 should you have no choice but to start on tee 10. Hopefully when you explain you may only need to play 1-2 extra holes your request will be granted.
We apologise for the earlier confusion for the singles but hope members now fully understand the allowances and method of calculation.
The Committee
