Unofficial team variations
Scramble: also known as ambrose or best-shot; each player in
a team tees off on each hole, and the players decide which shot was best. Every
player then plays their second shot from within a club length of where the best
shot has come to rest, and the procedure is repeated until the hole is
finished. This system is very common at informal tournaments such as for
charity, as it speeds play, allows teams of varying sizes, and allows players
of widely varying skill levels to participate without a profoundly negative
impact on team score.
Champagne scramble: a combination of a scramble and
best-ball, only the first shot of each hole is a scramble; all players tee off,
decide on the best tee shot, then each player plays their own ball starting at
that point until they hole out, without deciding any further "best
shots". The best score amongst the team's players is counted.
Better ball or best-ball: like fourball, each player plays the
hole as normal, but the lowest score of all the players on the team counts as
the team's score for the hole.
Greensome : also called modified alternate shot, this is
played in pairs; both players tee off, and then pick the best shot as in a
scramble. The player who did not shoot the best first shot plays the second
shot. The play then alternates as in a foursome. A variant of greensome is
sometimes played where the opposing team chooses which of their opponent's tee
shots the opponents should use. The player who did not shoot the chosen first
shot plays the second shot. Play then continues as a greensome.
Wolf : a version of match play; with a foursome an order of
play for each player is established for the duration of the round. The first
player hits a ball from the tee, then waits for each successive player to hit .
After each player hits the 1st player has the option of choosing a partner for
the hole usually by calling Wolf before
the next player hits. Once a partner is picked, each two-some scores their total strokes and the winning
two-some is awarded 1-point each for winning a hole and zero points for tying.
The next hole, the rotation moves forward . A Wolf can decide to go alone to
win extra points, but they must beat all other players in stroke play on that
hole. If alone, the Wolf is awarded 2-points for going alone after everyone has
hit or 4 points for declaring Lone Wolf before anyone else hits. If the Lone
Wolf loses, to even one player, the 3 other players get 1-point each. The
winner is the player with the most points at the end of the round.
Strategically, care must be taken not to let a low-handicap player run away
with all the points by being constantly paired with the Wolf.
Shotgun starts are mainly used for amateur tournament play.
In this variant, each of the groups playing starts their game on a different
hole, allowing for all players to start and end their round at roughly the same
time. All 18 holes are still played, but a player or foursome may, for
instance, start on hole 5, play through to the 18th hole, then continue with
hole 1 and end on hole 4. This speeds the completion of the entire event as
players are not kept waiting for progressive tee times at the first hole. This
form of play, as a minor variation to stroke or match play, is neither defined
nor disallowed by strict rules and so is used according to local rules for an
event.
Handicap systems
A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's
ability to play golf over the course of 18 holes. A player's handicap generally
represents the number of strokes above par that the player will make over the
course of an above-average round of golf. The better the player the lower their
handicap is. Someone with a handicap of 0 or less is often called a scratch
golfer, and would typically score or beat the course par on a round of play.
Calculating a handicap is often complicated, the general
reason being that golf courses are not uniformly challenging from course to
course or between skill levels. A player scoring even par on Course A might
average four over par on course B, while a player averaging 20 over par on
course A might average only 16 over on course B. So, to the "scratch
golfer", Course B is more difficult, but to the "bogey golfer",
Course A is more difficult. The reasons for this are inherent in the types of
challenges presented by the same course to both golfers. Distance is often a
problem for amateur "bogey" golfers with slower swing speeds, who get
less distance with each club, and so typically require more shots to get to the
green, raising their score compared to a scratch golfer with a stronger swing.
However, courses are often designed with hazard placement to mitigate this
advantage, forcing the scratch player to "lay up" to avoid bunkers or
water, while the bogey golfer is more or less unaffected as the hazard lies out
of their range. Finally, terrain features and fairway maintenance can affect
golfers of all skill levels; narrowing the fairway by adding obstacles or
widening the rough on each side will typically increase the percentage of shots
made from disadvantageous lies, increasing the challenge for all players.
By USGA rules, handicap calculation first requires
calculating a "Handicap Differential" for each round of play the
player has completed by strict rules. That in itself is a function of the
player's "gross adjusted score"
and two course-specific difficulty ratings: the Course Rating, a
calculated expected score for a hypothetical "scratch golfer": and
the Slope Rating, a number based on how much worse a hypothetical 20-handicap
"bogey golfer" would score compared to the "scratch
golfer". The average Slope Rating of all USGA-rated courses as of 2012 is
113, which also factors into the Differential computation.
The most recent Differentials are logged, up to 20 of them,
and then the best of these are selected,
averaged, multiplied by .96, and truncated to the tenths place to produce the
"Handicap Index". Additional calculations can be used to place higher
significance on a player's recent tournament scores. A player's Handicap Index
is then multiplied by the Slope Rating of the course to be played, divided by
the average Slope Rating of 113, then rounded to the nearest integer to produce
the player's Course Handicap.
Once calculated, the Course Handicap is applied in stroke
play by simply reducing the player's gross score by the handicap, to produce a
net score. So, a gross score of 96 with a handicap of 22 would produce a net
score of 74. In match play, the lower handicap is subtracted from the higher
handicap, and the resulting handicap strokes are awarded to the higher
handicapper by distributing them among the holes according to each hole's
difficulty; holes are ranked on the scorecard from 1 to 18, and one stroke is
applied to each hole from the most difficult to the least difficult. So, if one
player has a 9 handicap and another has a 25 handicap, the 25-handicap player
receives one handicap stroke on each of the most difficult 16 holes . If the
25-handicapper were playing against a "scratch golfer", all 25
strokes would be distributed, first by applying one stroke to each hole, then
applying the remaining strokes, one each, to the most difficult 7 holes; so,
the handicap player would subtract 2 strokes from each of the most difficult 7
holes, and 1 each from the remaining 11.
Handicap systems have potential for abuse by players who may
intentionally play badly to increase their handicap before playing to their potential at an
important event with a valuable prize. For this reason, professional golf
associations do not use them, but they can be calculated and used along with
other criteria to determine the relative strengths of various professional
players. Touring professionals, being the best of the best, often have negative
handicaps; they can be expected, on average, to score lower than the Course
Rating on any course.
Tipster Street.
No comments:
Post a Comment