Originally Posted by
BC MIST
The strategy that you use to play your game to score your best is your choice and I have no doubt that your factor was a true measure of your golfing potential. Now, if you used only a 5 iron off of every tee as your strategy, would your factor represent your true potential, if potential is considered what you would score if you played your best golf? Obviously, giving up 60 to 80 yards on every non par 3 hole is hugely disadvantageous and your factor would NOT reflect what you are capable of scoring. If you established your factor hitting 5 iron and then played a match against me using the driver, you would be cheating, and as chairman of the Handicap Committee, I would see to it that your handicap would be withdrawn.:)
The golfer in question established his factor by using his driver because IF he makes the fairway or even the rough, he is going to establish a factor that reflects his true scoring potential. What you guys are saying is that if he played 5 iron off of the tee that he would CONSISTENTLY score lower than if he used his driver and that this would reflect his true scoring potential.This just NOT true. Why do you allow yourself to use your driver to establish your potential, but you don't want the golfer in question to do the same. My point, which no-one wishes to acknowledge as being true, is that over a large number of games, playing shorter clubs, losing up to 80 yards in distance, will increase scores, not reduce them, and until this is considered, the guy is seen as a cheater.
Assuming that a golfer is an atrocious driver, but a reasonable iron player is a bit far fetched too, as a bad swing is a bad swing, regardless of what club is being used. And to also assume that by not hitting any woods that he is going to soundly beat me is also wrong. The RCGA recommends that in singles, match play, that the full difference in handicap strokes be given. From my experience the higher the number of strokes given, the greater is the chance of the higher handicap player winning the match. And it is not because of his strategy of using an iron off the tee, but because his "margin for improvement," far exceeds mine. It is a lot easier for the "bogey" golfer, (20 handicap - RCGA definition) to improve 5 strokes below his factor than it is for me to do the same. It is for this reason and the fact that I believe many golfers have inflated factors (some deliberately, some out of ignorance) that I avoid handicap events.
You are certainly justified in having the opinion that the golfer in question is cheating or manipulating the system, IF you continue to believe that using shorter clubs CONSISTENTLY results in lower scores. I don't. You do. So be it.