General Information
HOGS Handicap
The HOGS handicap is our Society handicap which is often less than club handicap. Its purpose is to enable all members to have equal opportunities when competing in Society competitions.
All our Qualifying Competitions are used to assess and adjust HOGS handicaps using a HOGS Competition Scratch Score (CSS) and the usual CONGU (Council of National Golf Unions) formulae.
New HOGS members will normally be given a Society handicap of 2 less than their Club handicap.
Club Handicap
This is calculated using full CONGU CSS scoring, with club General Play and Annual Review adjustments. The aim is to ensure that players’ handicaps are consistent with their returns such that they occasionally (1 in 6 to 1 in 10 games?) play to their handicap. i.e. Comparisons are NOT made with peers and adjustments are made only where players are performing above or below their current handicap.
Reviews
HOGS hold annual General Play reviews, which broadly follow CONGU guidelines. These reviews are conducted by the committee aided by all available information. This includes competition results, players’ records, data from HandicapMaster (our laptop software) and general perceptions. Returns from non-qualifying games posted in the HOGS mailbox may also be considered.
Aim of reviews
The aims of these reviews are to achieve ‘a level playing field’ across our Society, such that all members have an equal opportunity for success. i.e. Comparisons ARE made with our peers and handicaps adjusted accordingly.
Conclusion
The HOGS Society handicaps and reviews are based on fair principles given our age and handicap profiles.
A Final Thought
Please don’t forget that it’s only a game!
HOGS Competition Scratch Score (CSS)
A CSS is used in order to take into account the difficulty of playing the course on a given day. We simplify the CONGU CSS calculation and use the average of the best 5 scores in HOGS Division 1 (playing handicaps up to 20).