2017 Mens Handicaps

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A new handicapping system is being adopted for 2017 which seeks to brink more equality to scoring. The new system is:


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  1. Upper handicap raised to 22. There are too many Titans around the 20 Mark (around 50% of the regulars have handicaps of 19 or 20)
  2. For competition purposes Handicaps will be rounded up. So if you have a handicap of 12.5 it will be rounded up to 13
  3. The penalty for winning will be a 1 shot cut. A 2nd place cut of 0.5 shot has also been introduced. At the end of the year half of these additional cuts will be added back. So assuming that by the end of the year if you have picked up an additional 2 shots cut during the year with one win and two second places, One of these cuts will be added back to your handicap. In this way we share around the pain of being at the top of the table in a competition, but that pain does not last as long as it currently does. Cuts on observation would not be affected. Those are permanent. NOTE that half the additional "winning" cuts suffered in the 2016 season be be added back prior to the start of the 2017 season.
  4. Introduce a Titans Scratch Score (TSS) and base handicaps adjustments upon that, whilst also allowing for a buffer zone. This is how CONGU system works but Titans are adopting a simpler version:
    1. The TSS would make adjustments for the difficulty of the course and the playing conditions on the day. The basic assumption is that the average score of the top 6 Titans on the day is averaged and rounded to the nearest full score. So if the top 6 scores were 37,34,33,33 30 and 29 then the average would be (196/6) 32.66 rounded to 33.
    2. Also introduce a buffer zone where adjustments to handicaps cannot be made. For those with playing handicaps (the rounded version) of 10 or less the buffer zone would be 0 to +1. In the above example if someone shot 37 points then they would be 4 shots over the TSS and therefore outside the buffer and would be cut. But if they shot 33 points then they would be within the buffer and handicap would remain as is. The proposed buffer for those 11 or above is 0 to +2
    3. Handicap adjustments, where players score higher than the buffer are made using an Adjustment factor of -0.1 per shot over the TSS for players with playing handicaps of 10 or less and 0.3 for those 11 or more.
    4. The Handicap adjustment, where players score lower than the buffer is +0.1
    5. When you have guest status, and you do not have an official club handicap, your handicap will be assessed by your playing partners. The above rules do not apply
    6. It is also possible that any player can be cut "on observation" but this is a rare occurrence.