Stroke index stalemate

So if the last sentence of my last post wasn't tempting fate, I don't know what was. Today I turned in a net 77. Grr!

On the positive side, I found out that I had been cut for general play by 1. I think hearing that before I went out added to my expectations, though, and doomed me from the beginning.

So my handicap bouncing up and down by one shot over the course of the year has meant there's one specific hole where I sometimes do and sometimes don't get a shot - the thirteenth. This has been bothering me for ages, but the stroke index on 13 is weird. It's not a particularly difficult hole. Not especially long, no water, no bunkers. The sixteenth, on the other hand, is longer, has got both water and bunkers, but has a higher stroke index. In an informal survey this month (I asked some of the people I was sitting with at lunch today) it turns out that everyone agrees with me - the sixteenth is much harder than the thirteenth!

One lady told me that this odd stroke index rating is because of stroke play. Since the course I play is harder at the end (back 9 harder than the front 9, and 15-16-17-18 harder than 10-11-12-13), a match could be over before the higher handicapper has had any of their shots.

On the other hand, no-one actually agrees with the stroke index in the context of our general play. The thing is, no-one is sure how to change it. One theory is that County has to approve the SIs. The more common theory is that we can set it ourselves. I think I'm going to propose to the Committee that we have a look at this issue. What that really means is that the Committee will argue for days about it, probably without reaching any consensus, and most likely nothing will happen at all.

The photo is from last month's committee meeting, via ernop's flickr photostream.

Red Tees not necessarily red. Or for women.

I don't know a lot about golf.

I just play golf. A lot. Not especially well. Just frequently.
I know enough to know when I don't know and need to ask. The learning curve isn't as steep now as in my first year, but there's still a lot I don't know about golf.

That's ok, I can live with that. That's one of the things I like about golf actually - you're always learning.

However, one of life's certainties is that women play off the red tees. The red tees, which are further forward than the men's yellows, which are further forward than the men's competition whites. Ok, so the colours might vary (I've never seen it, but I don't play a lot of courses) and there might be extra tees (like the 'Tiger' tees, or junior tees), but basically, women play off the reds.

So the discovery that out there in the universe there are places where this isn't the case has come as a bit of a shock. It's a whole different thing out there. I've discovered that in America, women can choose which tees they want to play from. Initially I thought that meant they could choose to play from the men's tees. But further investigation uncovers the fact that men can also choose which tees they want to play from. And that there might be five colours to choose from! Here, take a look at this example. How mental is that??

My information is that there are sometimes indications about which tees are suitable for which handicaps, but not always. So I suppose you just pick from the yardage.

This throws up a whole host of problems to my mind, but if that's the way they run it over there I can only assume it works. Still, I'm happy knowing where I stand, and that's in between the two red pegs.

(Photo courtesy of foxypar4's photostream)