Monthly Archives: January 2020 - 5. page

The new blue/white and white/gold combo tees are now available for posting in the My Handicap app on our website. And you will now see your course handicap displayed on that page from all six tee sets, including those combo tees.

Also, we added new courses from throughout the local area: Vidanta, Flamingos, Vista Vallarta, Marina Vallarta, Litibu, and Punta Mita. So you can now post scores from a total of 10 local courses!

I got the information from the courses’ own websites where I could, but some don’t have their scorecards online. For those I found another online source, but I’m a little concerned about their accuracy, so I’m asking a favor: If you play at any of these local courses, please bring back a scorecard and give it to me, or if you prefer, just take a photo of it and email that to me at duane.bender@gmail.com. Thanks.

Gerard Gregoire has made the changes to our My Handicap and Live Scoring apps required by the new World Handicap System. The first thing you will notice about My Handicap is the wide range of course handicaps you’ll have for our 6 tee sets. And what will be most alarming for some is how low their handicaps are from the forward tees. Let’s look at why this is.

In the past, the USGA defined course handicap as the number of strokes a player needs to play down to the course rating. So under that system, “playing to your handicap” meant shooting a net score of 67-68 from the golds, 69-70 from the whites, etc. Under the WHS, course handicap has been redefined as the number of strokes a player needs to play down to par. So now playing to your handicap (from any tees at El Tigre) means shooting a net score of 72. Obviously it takes fewer handicap strokes to get your net score down to 72 than to 68.

Your main concern about handicaps should be the number of strokes you give or receive in a game against an opponent. If you and your opponent are on the same tees, the decreased handicaps don’t make any difference because your handicaps were decreased by the same amount. And if you’re playing against a player on a different set of tees, you will no longer have to adjust your handicap by the difference in course ratings as we did before, because your WHS handicap has already been adjusted. So let’s say that 15.0 index player plays from the golds against a 12.0 index playing from the whites. Under the old system, the gold tee player had a 15 course handicap from the golds, and the white tee player had a 13 course handicap from the whites. After adjusting for the 2.2 stroke difference in course ratings, they play even. Under WHS, the white tee player is an 11 and the gold tee player is an 11, so they still play even.

Gerard and I tested the system yesterday, and we think we ironed out all the kinks, but if something doesn’t seem right to you, please send us an email describing what you saw to duane.bender@gmail.com and gerard.gregoire@conseilslg.com.

As you know, when you post a score, you enter your Adjusted Gross Score, after reducing any excessively high hole scores to the maximum allowed for handicap purposes. One of the WHS changes, as I explained in a previous post, is to that maximum hole score. Under the old rules, a 10-19 handicap could take a 7, a 20-29 handicap could take an 8, and so on. Under WHS, everyone can take a net double bogey. This will become second-nature to you soon, but initially you may have to think about it. It is the sum of three numbers: Par for the hole, 2, and strokes you receive on the hole. Or another way to think of it is double bogey plus handicap strokes. You know that a double bogey on a par 4 is 6. If you get 2 strokes on a par 4, your maximum score would be 8. Here’s a chart that shows all the possibilities:

As I said above, Gerard has updated the Live Scoring app, and it will automatically post an Adjusted Gross Score into the handicap system for you.

Note: This post has been edited to update the White/Gold combos to the latest version.

Our Director of Golf, Steve Johnson, has developed two new sets of tees for men to use here at El Tigre. They are the Blue/White Combos and the White/Gold Combos. When we update the My Handicap app this Saturday, you will be able to post from both these new tee sets, and the system will calculate and display your course handicaps from them. Here are the scorecards:

As I explained in an earlier post here, the golf world changed yesterday to the new World Handicap System. This necessitated changes to the My Handicap program on our website. Gérard Grégoire has completed the software changes to comply with the WHS, and he will be installing them this Saturday, January 4th. The My Handicap app will be offline for some time Saturday for installation and testing. So….

• Before Saturday morning: You may post scores as normal. The course handicaps calculated during this period will not be correct, but scores posted will be recalculated and updated on Saturday.
• Saturday morning: While we’re installing and testing the new software, you will not have access to the My Handicap page. Write down your scores and post them after the update has completed.
• After Saturday morning: The new system will be active, and you may post scores and see your new WHS-complaint course handicaps.
  

The biggest difference you will notice is that your handicaps from the different tees will be markedly different. Under the old system, which did not take course rating into account in calculating course handicaps, your course handicaps were about the same (+/- 1 stroke) from all the tees. Under the WHS, which adjusts course handicaps to account for course ratings, your handicaps will be much different for each tee. For women, your handicap from the gold tees will be 3-4 strokes higher than from the red tees. For men, your handicap from the black tees will be 7-8 strokes higher than from the golds. The good news is that, no matter what tees you play from, and no matter what tees your opponents play from, you will use the displayed course handicap for your tees. No more subtracting 2 strokes when you play from the golds in Mens League, for example.