How does your club deal with a questionable index?

[EdgewoodJones]

I play in a traveling club and recent events have led some members to call in to question the validity of the index of one of our members. Here is the situation. Feel free to share your thoughts:

 

We recently completed our 7th tournament of the year. In this tournament, the player took 1st place with a net 65. This was his second tournament of the year. In the July tournament and his first of the year, he shot a net 70 to take second place.

 

So back to back tournaments within 30 days and the first tournaments that he played in 2015, he shot a net 70 and a net 65. Naturally, members of his flight that finished near or below him were on the alert.

 

After looking at his index info for 2015, some were surprised to see that he had only posted two rounds prior to the July tournament. Both of those rounds were posted on the same day in March in which he would have scored a net 73 and a net 85.

 

Upon further inspection, it was noted by some that he only posted 3 times in 2014 and three times in 2013. This led some to further question the validity of the index based on the fact that the golfer in question lives less than 1 mile from 3 different courses.

 

My advice to the club has been this: The index for our tournaments should be ran in several different ways. Current index is one method. How about T-scores from the past year or two years.

 

This is the type of thing that can ruin a club, but at the same time, how can you call a player out for a questionable index without actual proof?

 

Thanks and I appreciate your comments.

[NJPhil]

I played in a men's league in the past and the director created his own handicapping system that only used scores from the league and also tightened ESC so people could not sandbag late in rounds when they were clearly not in contention. For new members to the league a handicap was issued on their USGA index or avg. score, but that was closely monitored as well until their league handicap was established.

IMO, it is difficult to have a league that depends on USGA handicaps unless most members are aware of the other scores posted by their competitors.

[mneumann]

The club I joined this year has an extremely complicated system they made up which seemed like overkill to me but seems to work well.

Everything is based off the number of prior club tourney rounds you have played in the last rolling 12 months.

0 rounds - you get 75% of your index. You also can't win your flight, you get 2nd if you win

1 round - 90% of your index or your 1 round t-score differential, whichever is lower.

2+ rounds - full index or average of best 2 of last 4 t-score differentials, whichever is lower.

You also can't win a major tourney unless you have played 5 tourney rounds in the last 12 months.

There are approximately 24 tourneys a year plus a match play with 1-7 rounds if you play, so there is plenty of opportunity to play twice a year to get a valid tourney index or 5 times a year to win a major if you are active.

Would have to adjust if less tourneys are played in a year.

[EdgewoodJones]

great responses. thanks

[Matt J]

[quote name='NJPhil' timestamp='1440596082' post='12211196']
I played in a men's league in the past and the director created his own handicapping system that only used scores from the league and also tightened ESC so people could not sandbag late in rounds when they were clearly not in contention. For new members to the league a handicap was issued on their USGA index or avg. score, but that was closely monitored as well until their league handicap was established.

IMO, it is difficult to have a league that depends on USGA handicaps unless most members are aware of the other scores posted by their competitors.
[/quote]

I like it.

I think a great move would be to heavily weigh tournament rounds after you went back and added ESC into the score.

[awr_84]

I've been playing golf at a local course on and off for 18 years. 2015 was the first year I decided to join their Men's Club. I thought it would be a good chance to network and play in competitive tournaments twice a month. Man, was I wrong!

To start, most of the members have developed their own clicks. They play casual rounds together and always want to play in the club events together. It's almost like they don't want to leave their comfort zone. As for networking, that never happened.

That club uses the most recent Index from the USGA and it's complete bullxxxx. A few months back a 18 handicapper shot a gross 37/42 for a net 61. While we were socializing in the bar after the tournament I spoke up and questioned his index, brought up the fact that he plays the same course 99% of the time and posts high 80's to low 90's during casual rounds but come game day he's a mid-single digit golfer. He got in my face and gave me his two cents about how every dog has his day.

If I were on the board it suggest to start every club member at a 0.0 Club Tournament Index. For the first month or so, plan the tournaments around the purpose of getting the club members acquainted and setting the standard for the upcoming year. Have low gross prizes so everyone is on their A-Game. Over that time store the members scores and equate a tournament index. Continue that formula throughout the year. That way when it comes to the Club Championship you're using your tournament index, not USGA.

To comment on your co-members lack of posts, it works both ways.......on one hand you have guys that thrive to win club events so they don't post low scores, they keep their Index high so they get as many pops as possible. On the other hand you have guys that only post their best scores. For example, the U.S. Amateur Qualifier Requirement is for a player to have less than a 2.4 or 2.7 Index (not sure the exact number) I was checking the local qualifier results and saw a player shot well over +30 during the 36 hole tournament. I looked up his stats and he was using 2 posts from 2015, 8 from 2014 and 10 from 2013. That raises a red flag in my opinion.

To sum this up, there's no way to control the Index issues that come up on a daily basis. Unfortunately, not all players are honest and it ruins it for everyone who's out their to enjoy honest/competitive completion. I ended up walking away from my Men's Club last month because of the sand bagging.