The Need for Competition

Having a golf handicap is one thing, but for me there needs be plenty of opportunities to adjust it to a reasonable level. Since moving to England, I have noticed a different attitude towards golf handicaps from where I grew up in Scotland.

When I play with someone in Scotland, the first question is ‘What’s your handicap?’ In England, the first question is ‘What do you do for a living?’

I was surprised, and disappointed, with the number of days in which I could play for my handicap (qualifying days) in my current club.

One thing I need to acknowledge at this point is that a lot of people play golf for different reasons, and I accept that. There are broadly 4 categories;

Status; Those who never play on qualifying days, maybe play golf rarely or only in their regular group

Social; Those who only turn out on qualifying days when it’s a social event too

Keen; Those who regularly play on qualifying days but aren’t overly bothered about their handicap

Competitive; Those who ardently play on qualifying days and want to get their handicap as low as possible

After the 2008 season I did a comparison of my new and old clubs fixture calendars. Between April and September my previous club in Scotland had 84 qualifying days, my current club had 23 qualifying days. 23 qualifying days over a 6 month period is not enough to adjust a handicap if the playing ability of someone changes.

So I put a proposal to the board of my golf club to get more qualifying days, which was approved and in 2009 there were 47 days where a card could be put in for handicap adjustment.

A key element was that there was no mandate to put a scorecard in on any of these qualifying days, for Status and Social golfers they could continue playing golf as they always had, but the Keen and Competitive golfers were catered for much better. People like myself, who fall into the Competitive category (as if you hadn’t already noticed), could turn up every week and try and get their handicap a bit lower.

There is a direct correlation between handicap and willingness to submit qualifying cards. The graph above (you can click on any of the graphs to enlarge them) shows the handicap distribution of my golf club, with the purple area of each bar showing people who submitted at least 3 qualifying cards in 2009, and the cream area of each bar showing people who submitted less than 3 qualifying cards. The lower the handicap, the higher the percentage of purple in each line.

3 qualifying cards is an important boundary, as people who submit less than 3 qualifying cards in a year will have an inactive handicap, which will bar them from many competitions. It is seen as the boundary between a purely social golfer and a golfer with an element of ‘handicap pride’.

Grouping the percentages of players playing in 3 or more, and seeing what effect the additional qualifying days in 2009 had, is shown in the graph above.

It can clearly be seen that the higher the handicap, the lower percentage of people submit at least 3 qualifying cards. However, in all 3 handicap groupings, the percentage of players submitting 3 cards increased in 2009 due to the extra qualifying days put on.

The graph above shows the number of people by the number of qualifying cards they submitted during 2009.

The highest spike on this graph is the people who did not put in a qualifying card on any of the 47 qualifying days, although it is worth noting that this figure was down on 2008. The number of people submitting 11 or more qualifying cards increased dramatically during 2009.

Taking out the group who submitted no cards, and grouping the data to make it more readable, shows that the number of people submitting 1-6 qualifying cards reduced during 2009. On face value this looks disappointing, however the reason for this is that the people who were in these categories have moved into the categories of submitting 7 or more qualifying cards.

The last 2 graphs compare the variance by player, of the number of qualifying cards submitted in 2009 compared with 2008. The graph above includes everyone who submitted at least one card over 2008 and 2009. The number of people in green (who submitted at least 3 more qualifying cards in 2009 than 2008) is considerably higher than the number of people who reduced the number of qualifying cards.

Finally, let’s not forget that the purpose of having more qualifying days was to give the Keen and Competitive groups the opportunity to submit more scorecards. So by doing the same analysis on these groups only, the variance is even more apparent on the graph above. 53% of this group submitted at least 3 more cards in 2009 than in 2008, 37% submitted around the same number, and only 10% of the 248 people in these two categories submitted at least 3 less cards in 2009.

In 2009 the Status and Social golfers continued doing what they do, the Keen and Competitive golfers submitted more qualifying cards, there was no impact on the pace of play on the course on these days, and for the first time in years the club was competitive at County level, reaching the semi-final of the County team event for the first time in years, only missing the final by virtue of a play-off.

So you would consider this a success, no? Well, evidently not everyone sees it this way, as for 2010 the number of qualifying days has been reduced back down to 37. I don’t understand this short-sighted approach, fortunately I will be able to increase this number by playing in various competitions at other courses, but for the future it’s something I’ll have to bear in mind when looking at my renewal fees.