Points for Stableford

[Affo]

Purely a suggestion/question.

Stableford works best with Handicaps, if everyone is playing effectively off scratch, it is basically lowest round score will win. Yes, if you slip in a Double or Triple bogey,you only lose 2 points to par, but in general, shoot lowest over 4 rounds and you win.

The suggestion is to spice it up a bit:

Bogey or worse = 0

Par = 1

Birdie = 3

Eagle = 6

Albatross = 10

Some holes are risk/reward with going for a At 5 in 2 or a Par 4 in one could reap an Eagle and 6 pts, but get it off line and you are staring at a Bogey for nothing...do you go for it???

Like I said, just a suggestion, but would I think add an interesting twist and again something different to this already fine site.

Andy

[OnyxCarp]

Yes, I could certainly do with a revised points system; I also feel that the current scoretable underrates a made birdie or better.
Andy's suggestion would be a good improvement.

[MiMiC]

We are actively going to consider the idea, and I agree it would certainly improve the risk/reward element.

We are currently rounding off some work to get the Alternate 9 up and running and it is on the list to be looked at straight after that.

Thanks for the suggestions Andy, and support John. Keep them coming!


Mike

[Seasider47]

Before creating greater points scoring for the most skillful members it's important that you get the right balance so that less skillful do not get left out. The 1 point for bogey and the 2 points for par are very important to the lesser group because it keeps them in the game. increasing points for the higher scoring player must be balanced out with the knowledge that you are weakening the ability of lower players. There must be a balance otherwise players will simply not take part. just as with Club golf not every player as the ability to hit long balls and so take on the par 5s achieving Birdies and eagles at will. These players relly on getting the job done by carefully making par, The higher the top end scores the bigger the gap becomes and the more unable to compete this may seem.

[IanD]

I agree Paul... I do start the Tournament and look at the LeaderBoard with an aim of making 18pts for each 9 holes. Ultimately, I would be aiming to make a minimum of 72pts for the Tournament, with a hope of breaking 80 some day...

If you want something different regarding scores.... consider this :

Par = 2pts
Bogie = 3pts
Dbl Bogie = 4ts
Birdie = 1pt
Eagle = 0pts (Zero)

It now becomes reversed...

Currently, after playing 36 holes, I hope to achieve 72pts... almost a par numerical value.
So... why change something we're all familiar with ?
Working it backwards, means, you are now trying to break the numerical value of Par....

We'll all never achieve 0pts on each hole...so, the best round of 9 holes you are likely to achieve is around -9/-11 on stroke score if you successfully putt every ball on the green first time. This would offer a score around 7-9pts. Multiply this by four rounds, and you'd have a score of 28-36pts. I seriously doubt anyone would achieve this... but aiming to break the 50pt barrier would become a challenge...

[Affo]

I do understand your point of view Paul, like I said, just a suggestion as currently it is effectively gross golf with points (unless you score a triple or worse!) unless you incorporate handicaps..not sure if that is on Mike and Mark's radar, then you're playing realistic stableford.

Suggestion was meant for discussion. In the pursuit of those birdies and eagles, the so called better players may well end up with nothing and the less skilled members going around in par suddenly are in it? In this week's PGA 9 holer, I was going for an all out win and found myself +3 after 5 holes, thank goodness I birdied the last 4. Anyone who shot 7 pars and 2 birdies would have beaten my score or indeed 1 eagle, 1 birdie, 4 pars and a couple of bogies would have done so too (using above method).

[Seasider47]

A really good discussion, I can see see both sides of the discussion and it might be advantages of adding a little bit extra to Eagles and and albatross without weakening the boggies and Pars that are the life blood of the average players game.Theres something very satisfying about coming in with a 19-20pt round when you know that you achieved that score despite a one on a hole.

Certainly something to look into.

[MiMiC]

I don't want to get directly involved in what is a good debate and what will form the basis of any considerations we make.

I will, however, say that handicaps are on the radar, though not immediately, and the preferred form of handicap I would like would not penalize scratch and better golfers. It would be an asymmetrical handicap which would have no handicap applied to require a better player to shoot below par on a number of holes to simply achieve par on the card. I find the idea of penalizing players who have greater mastery of the game frankly a very crass way to try to make a sanitized form of competition when in real life it would never apply like that. By limiting handicap application to those below scratch golfer level, it would help golfers who have a legitimate handicap, thus moving them into the midfield in terms of scoring.

[ergo76prop]

For a stableford I would like to see something like the modified stableford the US PGA Tour has used although appreciate that 0 being a good score for a round is difficult to get your head round and might put people off. So the scoring would be like this,

Double or worse = -3
Bogey = -1
Par = 0
Birdie = 2
Eagle = 5
Albatross = 8

Maybe it could be somehow adjusted up so an all par round still gives 18pts.

[Seasider47]

My Round is mainly consisting of pars with if i'm playing well a few birds and unfortunately the odd bogey, why would I enjoyed a game where I would not score on many holes, what incentive would there be, I would consistently be pushing for bigger hits which would not be in my interest. Sorry I would certainly not be happy with a game that could give me very little satisfaction. By all means give more rewards to high scores but please allow some pleasure to those lesser mortals lol