Would you lower your handicap if ....

[Mike_Young]

each green on your course had two holes and you could putt to the closest?  I really want to know.....I say no but from asking some higher handicaps they THINK..yes....

[Brent Hutto]

I think so but it would be a small enough effect to be almost unnoticeable. About once every other round on average I hit a shot that ends up really close (like inside four feet) and so that would probably happen twice as often with two holes. So what's that, maybe half a stroke difference?

That's for full shots. You also have to think about chipping and wedge shots. Every time you short-side yourself in the rough or something like that you could choose to go to the hole that gave you plenty of green to work with. Or maybe once in a while a bad chip or wedge shot would actually end up close to the other hole. But once again, hard to imagine any of that making more than half a stroke per round or so of difference.

So yes, it would probably knock my handicap down from 20 to 19 or something like that if I played that way every round. Not sure what they would buy me.

[jeffwarne]

each green on your course had two holes and you could put to the closest?  I really want to know.....I say no but from asking some higher handicaps they THINK..yes....

Absolutely your scores would go down-every skull or chunk would be closer than it would've been, avoiding 3 putts and causing more up and downs.
but your handicap wouldn't change as the conditions would be reflected in the course rating

[Mike_Young]

Jeff and Brent...do you think the 20 handicap and above would move?

[Mike_Trenham]

No change.  20 handicapper is really usually a poor putter or sprays the ball everywhere not both as 20 has some skills.

Rottella teaches the ball naturally goes to the spot most in your mind.  The sprayer will still be thinking about the bunker, the fescue or the H2O. 

A golfer with no touch or the yips will not benefit that much.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Mike Y:

Yes, without a shadow of doubt in my mind. Having the option to choose the shortest/easier line to the hole would save me a few strokes in every round. In my opinion, it would help reduce the number of times I three putt, and this would have a big impact on mid to high handicappers.

Dónal.

[Jim Sweeney]

If one did not change the rating system, then one would have to conclude that one's handicap would decrease somewhat,

However, the course rating system would be invalid.

[Ben Stephens]

Mike,

There is a game like what you said in the UK called Powerplay Golf - set up by Peter McEvoy's Sporting Concepts using a points system
you get more points going for the black flag (in a more difficult location on the green) and the normal flag.

Here is the link to the website 
http://www.powerplay-golf.com/

Personally I think it detracts what golf is really is! Maybe I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to golf! I just love the old game.
There also has been Golf Cross with an oval ball and posts. These concepts have a short lifespan - golf goes on forever.

Powerplay may be a good concept for people who are starting out the game of golf.

Cheers
Ben

[JSlonis]

Based on my experience of off season golf at my club, I would say yes, you can lower it.  At Tavistock, for winter play, we always have two holes in each green so the flagstick can be relocated to reduce wear.  Invariably, I always seem to hit closer to the hole that doesn't have the stick.

[jim_lewis]

It would sure help me a lot. My ball always seems to stop right next to yesterday's cup.

[Bill_McBride]

Based on my experience of off season golf at my club, I would say yes, you can lower it.  At Tavistock, for winter play, we always have two holes in each green so the flagstick can be relocated to reduce wear.  Invariably, I always seem to hit closer to the hole that doesn't have the stick.

The first time I played the New Course at St Andrews, I failed to note that there are two pins on the third green (which it shares with the 15th hole).  I hit a fairly long third shot about ten feet from the pin on the right, not noticing the pin way off to the left, and was now faced with a 100' putt!   

For 20 handicappers, two pins wouldn't make much difference.  For a scratch player, a few shots a round perhaps, he oculd play to the center of every green and still be reasonably close,. no need to risk a short side shot.

[Brent Hutto]

For 20 handicappers, two pins wouldn't make much difference.  For a scratch player, a few shots a round perhaps, he oculd play to the center of every green and still be reasonably close,. no need to risk a short side shot.

I think that's about right. Mike asked about 20+ handicappers, I still think it would just by blind luck save them a shot every round or two (unless they were so hopeless that they don't even make the majority of those "luck" 2, 3, 4 footers) but the better you are the more it could save.

It reminds me of that anecdote in one of the Bob Rotella books. About some sort of experiment with making the hole bigger to reduce the importance of chipping and putting. Not surprisingly, the best chippers and putts holed out even more often than with the four-inch hole. Same thing would apply here, elite players would eat it up as it removes all sort of "wasted" stroke opportunities.

[Kalen Braley]

As one who plays to around a 20 these days, I agree with the consensus...at least for my skill set.  Getting on the green is where I waste the vast majority of my stokes, as once I'm on I can 2 putt or better nearly every time.

[Tim Gavrich]

I think this would widely depend on the size of greens.  On courses with small greens, I think the difference would be much greater than on courses with huge greens.

[Brent Hutto]

Agreed, Tim.

The course I learned to play on had tiny greens with falloffs at the back or on the sides. I noticed some of the guys I played with reguarly didn't hit GIR much more often than I did yet they handicaps were 10 strokes lower. It was mostly because they had played there forever and knew how to miss in a spot that left them an easy (and typically none too long) uphill or flat putt. I was forever leaving myself snookered on those tiny, little greens.

Having two holes to choose from would make that really simple. If you put it in a terrible spot relative to one hole, that could very well be Position A relative to the other. On huge greens you'd end up 30 feet from one hole and 50 feet from the other as often as not, no big difference.

[Mike Benham]

I'd say there would be a fractional improvement only based on the statistics showing the % of putts made from certain distances.

A side-bar question would be similar but have the two holes and no flags ... hopefully inspiring the golfer to aim towards the middle of the green on each approach shot which should result in fewer missed greens ...