Stroke play competitions

One_up

Does your club hold many stroke play competitions throughout the year? Seems like most clubs play mainly Stableford nowadays.

FixdePitchmark

About 12 to 15 a year.

Not sure stroke completions are suited to amateurs at all . Even mid handicap players.

Played in one recently,
Lad first of all went to pick up ball on first green without finishing.
We just stopped him.

He then had a 9 then 10 then 8 in a row.

He went ob 3 times on another hole and 3 balls on the go.

I just couldn't stop myself from laughing at one point , was incredible.

So one a month for medal about all club golf can take imo

Montgolfier

Stableford is faster and easier but I think stroke play will make you more aware of mistakes and how you compound them. You see lads including myself trying to get up and down from ridiculous places to save a point. Whereas stroke play you would take your medicine and manage the course better. I would like to see a lot more stroke play.

FixdePitchmark

Montgolfier wrote: »

Stableford is faster and easier but I think stroke play will make you more aware of mistakes and how you compound them. You see lads including myself trying to get up and down from ridiculous places to save a point. Whereas stroke play you would take your medicine and manage the course better. I would like to see a lot more stroke play.

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

One_up

Good to hear these points and I agree completely. Our club has stopped holding stroke competitions as the field size dropped significantly when a stroke play competition is held. I fear stroke play may be a thing of the past in a couple of years.

FixdePitchmark

One_up wrote: »

Good to hear these points and I agree completely. Our club has stopped holding stroke competitions as the field size dropped significantly when a stroke play competition is held. I fear stroke play may be a thing of the past in a couple of years.

It is a totally different game and one i love.

But I'm genuinely saying about 80 % of golfers are not up to it.

In saying that a lad off , 25 or so won one last year. But seriously slow day.

dar_cool

Same as fix. Around 15/25. Not enough in my opinion. Proper golf. Love playing stoke play

Montgolfier

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

I suppose the fact we don't play stroke enough it strikes fear into most of us, making us make silly mistakes.

spacecoyote

My place would do the monthly medals which will be strokes off the blues, as well as captains.

Also do a number of event comps that are strokes off the whites which is a bit more manageable for most.

Have my first strokes comp of the year this Saturday in the medal. Looking forward to it.

It genuinely does give a more realistic view of the shape of your game

One_up

Also, I feel that stroke play is as much about your mindset as anything else. It is very easy to allow sloppiness to set in when playing Stableford all the time.

Keano

About 10-12 a year for me.

Slightly off topic but I prefer to count my strokes versus points, as pointed out above stroke play puts more manners on you.

FixdePitchmark

I was just thinking there - how obsessed with my storkes I am.

I actually hate gimmies -

I've played with some lads more into the American style of gimmies and mulligans - I actaully feel guilty if I pick a ball up.

ForeRight

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Senecio

I'm with Fixed on this one. Stroke play should be limited to only major club competitions for amateurs (monthly medals and honour board events). I know the purist will disagree but golf needs to be enjoyable for everyone. Scoring and 8 or 9 is no fun at all.

redzerdrog

Prob 10-12 events a year mostly medals

It is definitely a different ball game and a very different challenge but an enjoyable one at that.

Our place only has 3 balls if it strokes so that helps the pace of play. Think we were 4 hours 10mins on Sunday so wasn't bad

Ben1977

Love stroke events, generally 2 a month, 1 of blues and 1 of white. Helps me with course management and concentration.
Haven't alway loved them. Couldn't tell you what points I'm on but I'll know how many I'm over par.

BigChap1759

Probably about 10/15 again but stroke play IS golf, stableford is not when you don't have to worry about having a bad hole - totally agree with the practicalities but I'd say guys would improve more if they played more strokes and had to worry about every shot.

Back at my old club in Scotland a stableford competition was a very rare event

galwaylad14

Stroke play is certainly the truest form of golf and it's a format I love. Have to put 18 decent holes together to have a score.

Would agree that there's some golfers that aren't at a level where they can really play stroke play. They just have too many bad holes that can slow everything up. Would it be seen as patronising to just have a seperate stableford competition for guys with handicaps of say over 18?

In terms of my own scoring I don't really find it any more difficult to be honest

FixdePitchmark

galwaylad14 wrote: »

Stroke play is certainly the truest form of golf and it's a format I love. Have to put 18 decent holes together to have a score.

Would agree that there's some golfers that aren't at a level where they can really play stroke play. They just have too many bad holes that can slow everything up. Would it be seen as patronising to just have a seperate stableford competition for guys with handicaps of say over 18?

In terms of my own scoring I don't really find it any more difficult to be honest

I think this will not go down well - But i don't think you should be winning a medal with a handicap of 18 +

DuckSlice

i love stroke play. really have to think about what you are doing. ive won 2 in the last couple of years. one off 16 the other off 12.
I just played one at the weekend, our first comp of the year is a stroke play event. wind was brutal though.

i can understand where Fixde is coming from, i know a few higher handicappers and they dont like strokeplay and playing with them can be very frustrating as they take a long time. knowing that they cant pick up if they miss a 2 foot putt can mess with there heads.

I play about 10-15 a year. i play one which is a two day event in july every year. leaders go out together on the second day. Its an open event in a club near me, so there does usually be a field of about 70-90 golfers.

Golfgraffix

Our 12 medals and club championship are strokes and that is enough for me, I do love it but it can be brutally tough, especially on higher handicaps.

Our captains day is stableford and it works well and has a great fun day feel to it.

J

gman127

I also like the challenge of stroke play comps. Makes you get more into some proper course management.
All our medals and big comps are strokes, maybe 15 a year.

But aside from that I'd like to see a better mix of other comps, just because it's not a medal weekend doesn't mean we have to default into singles stableford every week!!

How about a v-par?
Or throw in an odd scramble?

Some imagination would be nice is all

Seve OB

Real golf. I love it, but couldn't be having it every week :rolleyes:
We play a good bit in our club, I'd say there is at least 20 a year. All medals are strokes. I don't understand clubs who have staple ford as medals

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Unless you get out very early, your talking an hour longer at least.

Disagree. Usually it is not much more than 15 minutes longer in our place. You know you can pick up the ball and scratch your round if you are having a mare? On computer you just put in 0 for that hole. A 10 or whatever will always be brought back to a net dbl bogey for handicap.

Keano wrote: »

About 10-12 a year for me.

Slightly off topic but I prefer to count my strokes versus points, as pointed out above stroke play puts more manners on you.

I always count my strokes.

ForeRight wrote: »

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Our captains is staple ford. I think once it was strokes. Staple ford makes it fairer and gives everyone a chance. We have a lot of older guys in our club.

valoren

Once you have a solid repeating swing, then Strokeplay is the litmus test for the state of your game and your handicap.
It's golf as it's meant to be played. You play a strokeplay event and there you have it in black and white on the scorecard; your current skill level as a golfer. If you are a 10 handicapper at a Par 70 club, then you should be consistently scoring 80.

Ideally, you want to improve. We all do. Strokeplay is a test. It's not meant to be easy.
Playing strokeplay your mindset is "What would a professional do?", you might take a 4 iron off the tee for a certain hole where you usually just blast with the driver for example. Strokeplay helps you realise the central importance of having a solid short game. From 120 yards is where you begin to realise where you need to improve your skill level.

That's the attraction of golf though. You have a variety of formats to make it as interesting or as challenging as you want or need. Strokeplay, Matchplay, Stableford, Better ball etc but for me Golf is strokeplay.

Dr_Colossus

By far the best competition format and my favorite to play, real golf that gets you thinking about optimal course management and strategy. I try and play most of the stroke play events at my home course (monthly medals and majors such as captain's, president's, pro's prize which all count towards our Golfer of the Year leaderboard). I also try and play as much scratch cup events as I can, savage test of golf playing an away course off the back tees in stroke play and a great day out especially if it involves 36 holes.

I don't find strokeplay events that much slower to be honest. In my home course all singles competitions are out in 3 balls which is great. In scratch cups most are also played in three balls and I guess it helps that players are of a similar ability. Having looked through my 2015 competitions I played a total of 44 events - 19 Stableford, 24 Strokeplay and 1 V-par.

Another benefit of strokeplay is that you're like likely to get ridiculous scores such as the 40pts+ often required in stableford. Often in strokeplay events if you shoot a nett par round you shouldn't be too far away from being in contention which is fairer for all handicap ranges I think. Higher 20+ handicaps just need to learn to utilise their shots and keep the ball in play rather than going for glory and the hero all or nothing shot they habitually play in stableford competitions to give them that big score on days when they regularly pull it off.

Seve OB

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

By far the best competition format and my favorite to play, real golf that gets you thinking about optimal course management and strategy. I try and play most of the stroke play events at my home course (monthly medals and majors such as captain's, president's, pro's prize which all count towards our Golfer of the Year leaderboard). I also try and play as much scratch cup events as I can, savage test of golf playing an away course off the back tees in stroke play and a great day out especially if it involves 36 holes.

I don't find strokeplay events that much slower to be honest. In my home course all singles competitions are out in 3 balls which is great. In scratch cups most are also played in three balls and I guess it helps that players are of a similar ability. Having looked through my 2015 competitions I played a total of 44 events - 29 Stableford, 23 Strokeplay and 1 V-par.

Hmmm, with those maths Im sure you probably shot a 59 as well

Dr_Colossus

Seve OB wrote: »

Hmmm, with those maths Im sure you probably shot a 59 as well

Oops, post edited now to correct numbers. Should have realised I had more strokeplay than stableford events played. Thanks

spacecoyote

ForeRight wrote: »

Out of interest and might be slightly off topic but anyone have their captains day as stableford instead of strokes.
I've heard of it in clubs and I think it's crazy to be honest.
Imo no way should someone be able to win captains day with a couple of double digit numbers on their card that are just scratches and made up for with a few pars if they have strokes to play with.

Grange castle was stableford for captains while I was there. It may have changed now.

I can see some merits to it, but it does generally benefit the higher handicap more than the low.

Was talking to the assistant pro in my place & he was saying how much he hated stableford comps as they hide problems.

You could have someone come in with 36 points with 3 scratches that could be 8,9, 10 strokes. You're not realistically playing to your handicap

Seve OB

Next 3 Saturday's in Greystones....... All Strokes

Senna

I couldn't work out how I had only play one stroke comp all last year, then I realised that the society I play in(90% members of my club), play on the day each month when its stroke at my club, just so people can avoid it.

Milk_Tray

playing one soon, cant wait, real golf. Hate Vpar though, stableford is good and gets a round done and you can work on stuff but strokes is the real deal

Seve OB

Im playing Saturday with a lad off +2 so that should be fun. My game tends to rise to the occasion when i am out with better golfers, so anything short if a medal on saturday will be a dissapointment

Russman

We have only 6 (I think) strokes competitions in my club, just the monthly medals from April to September. There might be one or two more but that's about it. Plus there's probably a couple of foresomes competitions that will be strokes.

I genuinely think most high handicappers are put off before they tee it up in strokes, rather than going out and playing their game and seeing what it gives them. And I think it mostly makes no difference at all to a winning score, if you're going to shoot 41pts, chances are you're not going to have any scratches (although not impossible).

Even V-Par is slightly tougher than stableford I think, a loss is a loss, none of this 1pt rubbish !

Our Captains is always stableford unfortunately, but I hear on the grapevine that might change soon, its the captain's decision each year and there's a couple of golfers coming down the line that might just rock the boat hopefully. There will be much wailing and crying then !!

Fix, why shouldn't an 18 handicapper win a medal ? Surely he's as entitled to a good day as the next fella ?

joxer1988

Just had my best ever round in a stroke play competition. I'm off 25 (gross 88, net 63), so I'm thinking that the possibility of carding a 10 helped me concentrate that bit more!

Seve OB

joxer1988 wrote: »

Just had my best ever round in a stroke play competition. I'm off 25 (gross 88, net 63), so I'm thinking that the possibility of carding a 10 helped me concentrate that bit more!

definately

Seve OB

Russman wrote: »

We have only 6 (I think) strokes competitions in my club, just the monthly medals from April to September. There might be one or two more but that's about it. Plus there's probably a couple of foresomes competitions that will be strokes.

I genuinely think most high handicappers are put off before they tee it up in strokes, rather than going out and playing their game and seeing what it gives them. And I think it mostly makes no difference at all to a winning score, if you're going to shoot 41pts, chances are you're not going to have any scratches (although not impossible).

Even V-Par is slightly tougher than stableford I think, a loss is a loss, none of this 1pt rubbish !

Our Captains is always stableford unfortunately, but I hear on the grapevine that might change soon, its the captain's decision each year and there's a couple of golfers coming down the line that might just rock the boat hopefully. There will be much wailing and crying then !!

Fix, why shouldn't an 18 handicapper win a medal ? Surely he's as entitled to a good day as the next fella ?

Agree with this. If you are not scratching a hole from a stapleford point of view, your score in strokes will actually be the same. strokes is more a mindset really. some people get mental blocks when they are told they are playing strokes

Senecio

Myself personally, it doesn't change my mindset. As a mid single figure golfer my stableford and stroke scores rarely differ.

The thing is, amateur golf is a game that needs to cater to all levels of ability and I feel that stableford does that better than stroke. For better golfers there is little difference. For higher handicappers there is the safety that a scratch doesn't destroy a card. Nor does it drop them half a hole behind the group in front if they card a 10.

galwaylad14

Seve OB wrote: »

Agree with this. If you are not scratching a hole from a stapleford point of view, your score in strokes will actually be the same. strokes is more a mindset really. some people get mental blocks when they are told they are playing strokes

Well I play off 4 and I'd agree that for me this is almost always the case, that my stroke score and stableford score would be exactly the same. Thankfully I've reached a stage where "blowout" holes are fairly rare and whenever I would have a scratch it's generally just a case of a double bogey on a hole that I don't have a stroke on.

But for higher handicaps out there that definitely isn't the case IMO. I'd say no matter how well they play they'd always have a hole or two where things go astray and in stableford they'd end up picking up the ball.

As an example say if I was to shoot a 40 point round chances are it would be made up something like: 12 pars, 3 birdies, 3 bogeys. Consistent scoring and that'd be a net -4 in stroke aswell.

Where as a 20 handicapper having 40 points will have mostly pars and bogeys with a few doubles and then a maybe 1 or 2 unspeakables which could take the stroke score to somewhere around 72.

So I've no doubt that strokes definitely do favour lower handicap golfers but stableford favours the higher players so a balance does need to be struck

Senna

Regardless of handicap, if you have a decent round in stroke, you always feel like you could be near contention. -1 net can be in the top 5 in my club regularly.

spacecoyote

My place announced a change today. A new Alternate Medal.

Over 60s with a handicap above 19 can play stableford off the blues instead.

I think it's a good logical option. A lot of the older guys can't handle the length off the blues in my place so it should in theory speed things up

whizbang

Just had my best ever round in a stroke play competition. I'm off 25 (gross 88, net 63), so I'm thinking that the possibility of carding a 10 helped me concentrate that bit more!

Me too!!

It wasn't technically strokeplay game, but as i'm playing for handicap(first time), The last 4 rounds i have played as strokeplay. 2 of those have been bests.

spacecoyote

Well, played a thoroughly mediocre round of strokes at the weekend. No blowups, but 1 too many doubles was costly. Would have scraped a buffer (if it had been qualifying, big IF these days)

Playing partner had an incident though.

He was playing really solid golf the whole way round. an 11 handicap who drove the ball better than most single digit lads I've played with. Got to the 12th hole. He hit the green in 2. Its index 12 so in stableford he wouldn't have a stroke.

He overhit his first putt, missed his par putt back, then missed a tiddler for 5. It was like his brain switched into stableford mode. Thinking he'd scratched the hole, he knocked the ball away as we were shouting "STROKES" at him. He managed to just pull out of the swing & his ball stayed on the green. Took him 2 to get down, so a bad 6 turned into an awful 8.

He'd been 5 over through 11 holes, suddenly was 9 over through 12. Never quite got it back after that.

Really felt sorry for the guy.

Moral of the story...keep the concentration up in strokes!

Seve OB

spacecoyote wrote: »

Well, played a thoroughly mediocre round of strokes at the weekend. No blowups, but 1 too many doubles was costly. Would have scraped a buffer (if it had been qualifying, big IF these days)

Playing partner had an incident though.

He was playing really solid golf the whole way round. an 11 handicap who drove the ball better than most single digit lads I've played with. Got to the 12th hole. He hit the green in 2. Its index 12 so in stableford he wouldn't have a stroke.

He overhit his first putt, missed his par putt back, then missed a tiddler for 5. It was like his brain switched into stableford mode. Thinking he'd scratched the hole, he knocked the ball away as we were shouting "STROKES" at him. He managed to just pull out of the swing & his ball stayed on the green. Took him 2 to get down, so a bad 6 turned into an awful 8.

He'd been 5 over through 11 holes, suddenly was 9 over through 12. Never quite got it back after that.

Really felt sorry for the guy.

Moral of the story...keep the concentration up in strokes!

Ouch!!!

It would be nearly never I could fall into this trap because if I have made it as far as the green I would pretty much always finish out even if it is for a scratch. Reason being the above example, but also and more important for me, taking the 2 foot putts or whatever give me practice and confidence for when they actually count.

Nearly had a boo boo myself on Saturday. We were qualifying for the first time. On the fourth hole I was just on the edge of the fairway, but with a nice bit of mud on the ball, the hand in the pocket picking out a tee and as it was on it's way down to mark the ball, playing partner shouted at me..... close one!

Normally, right throughout the winter I try not do the whole placing thing unless the ball is in need of a clean. That way it keeps the mental frame of mind that you just play it as it lies and when the summer rules come in, it tends not to make much of a difference. Probably why I made it as far as the 4th hole before I went to mark the ball!!!

Incidentally, strokes on Saturday... I had a disastrous round, but time taken was 3:50

bustercherry

Seve OB wrote: »

Ouch!!!

It would be nearly never I could fall into this trap because if I have made it as far as the green I would pretty much always finish out even if it is for a scratch. Reason being the above example, but also and more important for me, taking the 2 foot putts or whatever give me practice and confidence for when they actually count.

Nearly had a boo boo myself on Saturday. We were qualifying for the first time. On the fourth hole I was just on the edge of the fairway, but with a nice bit of mud on the ball, the hand in the pocket picking out a tee and as it was on it's way down to mark the ball, playing partner shouted at me..... close one!

Normally, right throughout the winter I try not do the whole placing thing unless the ball is in need of a clean. That way it keeps the mental frame of mind that you just play it as it lies and when the summer rules come in, it tends not to make much of a difference. Probably why I made it as far as the 4th hole before I went to mark the ball!!!

Incidentally, strokes on Saturday... I had a disastrous round, but time taken was 3:50

That's great for you but you should pick up and move on or the slow play police will start whining.

kieran.

bustercherry wrote: »

That's great for you but you should pick up and move on or the slow play police will start whining.

Seve OB wrote: »

but time taken was 3:50

But he is the slow police so its allowed !!!:)

Boskowski

kieran. wrote: »

But he is the slow police so its allowed !!!:)

In fairness 3:50 for a stroke play round is not that bad.

BoardsMember

Agree about the Strokes being the true test. Our Medals and some of our bigger Comps are Strokes. But Captains is just too busy for Strokes. The timesheet is from first light and last players in usually struggle with bad light, you would lose an hour or more if stroke play, so common sense has been applied.

Ronney

Even if you have a blow up in strokes, when qualifying your score is converted back to Stableford for H/C purpose. So you can still save that point 1 or even get cut with a big number on the card.

kieran.

Boskowski wrote: »

In fairness 3:50 for a stroke play round is not that bad.

3.50 is a brisk round in my opinion if it was a fourball !!

BoardsMember

kieran. wrote: »

3.50 is a brisk round in my opinion if it was a fourball !!

It'd be fairly unusual to have a strokeplay fourball I would have thought.

bustercherry

Boskowski wrote: »

In fairness 3:50 for a stroke play round is not that bad.

Just imagine then how quick their stableford round would be if he picked up then.