Captains/Presidents prize

His prize should be that he has to be Captain or President the following year

Trump?

they are all looking at me weirdly in the office here after I broke my shite laughing out loud at this one.

well you'd have to break your shite laughing because otherwise this type of carry on would break your heart.

i'm sure the gentleman in question is suitably embarrassed

Yes that's what I said. I think that was a genius idea.

Must be throwing in a ton of general play rounds to work the handicap back up quickly too

Only playing the system that is there.GI hold most of the responsibility with parameters governing the system. Have similar in my club.. Individual cut by HC comm by over 6 off index after complaint by interclub opponents. He has most of it worked off already… waste of time . these guys are just laughing at any HC sec trying to manage this.

so he is on the handicap committee and is facilitating himself to game the system by not abiding by the rules?

make a complaint to the committee and if they don't act, make a complaint to Golf Ireland

Guy in our club won the captains prize last year by 9 strokes playing off a handicap of 37. Handicap reduce by normal WHS to 34 after but not touched by the committee. Didn't play the captains this year but another big comp win with 48 points, what can you do against that.

While it is true that all handicap systems can be manipulated, it is the degree to which WHS can be manipulated that is worrying. Under this system, a handicap can increase by up to 5 shots per year. General Play is being used to accelerate that increase.

There are two clubs I know of that have presented Captains prizes to repeat winners, in both cases the winners had managed to claim the full 5 shots on top of their low index from the previous year.

well you have to ask

Them if they refuse without valid reason and if there is valid reason that something should be done (we don’t know based on what you have told us) then you make complaints to golf Ireland

Simply moaning about it on the internet will not get you anywhere

Exceptional score reduction is -1 when 7 shot better than HC and -2 for 10 shots better. It gets applied to the last 20 scores and only buffers out fully when 20 new scores come in.

@token56, there's a reason why most clubs now have a maximum handicap limit and require a full developed index (20+ scores) to win their comps. The wildest scores are usually from players who are new goflers with large handicaps. They rapidly drop their index and are almost guaranteed to have some huge scores within 6-12 months. Once they play more over time the handicap eventually aligns with their ability.

If yer man in this case is clearly sandbagging as soon as majors are done I'd be raging to not see it dealt with. I don't know what GI will do here tbh, they'll probably say talk to the handicap committee/secretary. If it was my club I round up a bunch of lads and vote some genuine people into committee roles to clean it up. You'd be surprised how much a small group can impact a club's trajectory. Worth considering canvassing now, well in advance of the AGM.

Regardless, it's another reason why the upward movement of handicaps needs to be restricted further. Allowing 5 shots back to a low single-digit player who's not experienced genuine physical/medical difficulties is just not realistic or fair. Too easy to manipulate.

Think a definite issue is that you can move your handicap very quickly in WHS. Before in old system the most you could get was a 0.1 back.

Now you can put in casual rounds plus 9 hole scores are allowed. Previously guys had to wait for a competition but now if they have the time available you could get multiple scores submitted in a week. I know in my club there's no fee to submit casual rounds, so the bandits don't even have to pay to build their handicap. At least before they'd have to do it through a competition and pay the entry fee.

So it's become easy enough to shoot a good score, win a prize and have the shots you lost gained back in a couple weeks ready to win another competition.

I still haven't read how you effectively manage this to stop it happening. Without really going after specific people. And people like this can be litigious. It could be a minefield.

There was a captain's day played over 2 weekends in a club in West of ireland in first full year of WHS. The eventual winner had a great first round, so got cut. Then played a load of casual rounds during the week. He had a higher handicap for the second weekend!

Exactly this, its almost impossible to prove anything. IMHO, Golf Ireland won't go near an alleged situation like this with a 10 foot barge pole.