Golf Forums - Confusing Stats on Scorecards

Hi,

The handicapping system in golf is a great way of levelling the field and enabling people of all different levels to play together competitively

What I really struggle to understand though is why you would factor in your handicap when reporting stats. This is exactly what TSG does. An example of what I mean is the reporting of what is a Par, Bogey, etc. TSG scorecards show how many Net Pars, Net Bogeys, etc. that you get, not how many actual Pars, bogeys, etc. This means that if your handicap allows you 1 shot on a Par 4 and you score 5, TSG will show that as a Par.

Fair enough if you think this is useful but I think it is a pointless stat. Even worse though is the GIR (Green In Regulation) stat. The same principle is applied here; so on a par 4, you would normally be given a GIR if you get on the green in 2 shots but in TSG, if your handicap allows you a shot on that hole and you get on the green in 3, you will be given a GIR.

I understand the whole "I had a Net Par" approach when scoring but surely the whole point of stats is to show how you are improving (or not). If you factor in your handicap to these stats it can't possibly show you this.

Here is an example of why it doesn't work. Lets say your handicap is 9 so you get a shot on holes where the stroke index is 1 to 9. You play a round and on SI 1-8, you get a gross par and on SI 9-18 you get a gross bogey. If you have 2-putted every green that means you will have actually hit 8 greens in regulation but TSG will report that you have hit 9 because, even though you reached the green in one more than you should, your handicap allowed you a shot. You then play the next week but in that week you have played well and your handicap has come down to 8. You shoot exactly the same round on the same course. In reality, you have hit the same number of greens in regulation (8) but TSG now also reports 8 because you were not allowed the shot you got the previous week on SI 9.

In 2 weeks you have hit the same number of greens in regulation (8) but one week, TSG reports 50% and the next it reports 44% so it looks like you are getting worse but in fact you are not.

I would like the scorecards to be changed to report stats based on gross scores although I'm sure that plenty of people will want to keep it the way it is so can we at least have some way of flicking between the 2 views please?

Dave - I completely agree with you on this and, must admit, was a bit surprised at how it worked when I started putting scores on the TSG system.

I'm not really a 'stat' person, but also think comparisons with others should be on a 'gross' basis.   As our handicaps are constantly changing, it would also be more useful when considering changes in game over a period of time.   In professional tornaments, G I R numbers are often quoted, so it would be good to compare our performance with the top players.

When playing and on the rare occasion I make a birdie, I never think of it as a 'net' eagle and don't think many other golfers do.  An eagle is, and should always be a very rare bird indeed!

Throughout August, in the month of Golf Against Cancer, much was spoken of  'chip-in' birdies.   Trevor had 5, and there were only 3 others, but who knows how many were net eagles, and who really cares?

Having said all this, I think it will be difficult for hard pressed management of TSG to implement any changes very quickly, so we'll have to carry on as we are for now!

Agreed. Is that the same for the 'average score' stat? I have always wondered why my average score was around 79 when I have only got there once!

Hi Dave,

Thats a good point and one that we hadnt really spent much time thinking about before!

Alas, this was the system that we inherited but it is a fair point and one that we should look into.

We dont have any plans for further site upgrades until the New Year now but rest assured we'll add this to the list along with the 'available for a game' request (although this didn't work as it should either, so will require some tweaking) amongst many others requests and we'll then consider the priorities.

Thanks for the feedback - its much appreciated.

Ian & The TSG Team
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Thanks Ian.