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The GHIN Soft Cap

bkuehn1952 said:
Amateur tennis rates players and assign levels (NTRP). I competitions players of similar ratings play each other. I think most bowling leagues use a sort of handicap based on average score. You are correct that team sports don’t use any real system in an attempt to level the playing field.
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I was wondering about bowling. I also thought about tennis, but as I understand it, tennis has numerical rankings, such as 3, 4, 5, etc. and you get grouped into a numerical range when you play in a tournament, However, you still play straight up against the opponent. To me, this would be similar to flights in golf, where you still play gross within your particular flight.
 
BigMac said:
I'll be joining the ranks of the soft capped tonight, as soon as today's round posts.
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Episode 4 Nbc GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
 
Tenputt said:
I got soft capped a couple of years ago. It made it impossible to compete in net events. I may be there again this year because I went on a golf road trip back in October and got really hot, posting three great scores on difficult courses and I have not played like that since.

The entire handicapping thing is much easier to apply in theory than in practice. Take my situation as an example. I play at 4200 feet elevation. Hence, I hit the ball further, relative to my club speed than the majority of golfers playing at lower elevations. Then, I go play in some golf event at sea level. Nobody can tell me that somebody going from driving the ball 275 or 280 yards to 255 yards is going to shoot the same scores, everything else being equal. Thus, for golf away from my home area, I am saddled with an artificially low index. I have no idea how to measure the difference, but I think it is real.

I don’t know how many other competitive sports use handicaps and gross/net scoring, but I doubt that there are very many.
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Nearly all pool leagues are handicapped as well as some tournaments. There is a monthly handicapped tournament in Alabama for pros and amateurs in which the winner can win between 50k and 100k. Beyond that there are a million ways to handicap gambling matches
 
Tenputt said:
... Take my situation as an example. I play at 4200 feet elevation. Hence, I hit the ball further, relative to my club speed than the majority of golfers playing at lower elevations. Then, I go play in some golf event at sea level. Nobody can tell me that somebody going from driving the ball 275 or 280 yards to 255 yards is going to shoot the same scores, everything else being equal. Thus, for golf away from my home area, I am saddled with an artificially low index. I have no idea how to measure the difference, but I think it is real.
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Your example of elevation differences intrigued me. I asked a couple of people seriously involved in the USGA course rating process. The simple response was that "effective playing length" is always considered when rating courses. Courses at elevation are effectively shorter than courses at sea level. Given the same yardage, a course at sea level will have a course rating 2-3 shots more difficult. All other things being equal, a player from Colorado will typically shoot 2-3 shots worse in Myrtle Beach and someone from Myrtle Beach will shoot 2-3 shots better in Colorado.

The course rating number is primarily driven by course length. Slope is typically driven by the effect of obstacles/penalty areas on "bogey golfers."

Example:
CommonGround GC in Colorado is 7,229 yards from the back tees and rates out at 73.0/131. The whites are 6,365/68.9/119.
Whispering Woods in Erie, PA, rates out at 74.0/145 from 6,804. The whites are 6,052/70.3/137 in Erie.
 
bkuehn1952 said:
Your example of elevation differences intrigued me. I asked a couple of people seriously involved in the USGA course rating process. The simple response was that "effective playing length" is always considered when rating courses. Courses at elevation are effectively shorter than courses at sea level. Given the same yardage, a course at sea level will have a course rating 2-3 shots more difficult. All other things being equal, a player from Colorado will typically shoot 2-3 shots worse in Myrtle Beach and someone from Myrtle Beach will shoot 2-3 shots better in Colorado.

The course rating number is primarily driven by course length. Slope is typically driven by the effect of obstacles/penalty areas on "bogey golfers."

Example:
CommonGround GC in Colorado is 7,229 yards from the back tees and rates out at 73.0/131. The whites are 6,365/68.9/119.
Whispering Woods in Erie, PA, rates out at 74.0/145 from 6,804. The whites are 6,052/70.3/137 in Erie.
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That is interesting information. I just know that I have a really difficult time shooting my number at lower elevation courses.
 
Still soft capped, but after yesterday's round, my own personal Excel calculator of what it SHOULD BE thinks I dropped 0.1 points (18.8 to 18.7). 🔥 :ROFLMAO:
 
I was soft capped from October until I posted a few low rounds in Arizona last month.
 
I shot a low enough round last Friday to pull me out of soft cap, but today's took it back up just a bit. Still not bumping the cap again yet, though.
 
Still soft capped, but have posted enough bad rounds now that it did bump me up 0.4 to 18.4, though my calculator says 19.5 (ugh).
 
I broke free of the soft cap!!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOO!
 
Mine has actually gone down since the start of the season. Poor strategy with an event upcoming.
 
I am no longer soft-capped. Handicap is as high as it's been in a while. I blame my silly hard home course for that.
 
Getting close... luckily, I don't have anything dropping off for a good little bit.

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gym fail GIF


Why to they call it soft when it's like this?
 
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