Revenge of the Snowman (or, a proposed "Mercy Rule" for golf)

[MCirba]

We often talk about how frustrating the game can be for beginners, and how that fact and the subsequent time spent playing are factors driving folks from playing regularly.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a New Rule, which is something my wife has been doing for a few years.

Eight 8 shots MAX, once you reach the dreaded Snowman, you go ball in pocket and hope for better fortunes on the next hole.   

A ruling like this would work with any handicap system, and free time all around.   

Make Frosty happy.

[Tom_Doak]

We often talk about how frustrating the game can be for beginners, and how that fact and the subsequent time spent playing are factors driving folks from playing regularly.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest a New Rule, which is something my wife has been doing for a few years.

Eight 8 shots MAX, once you reach the dreaded Snowman, you go ball in pocket and hope for better fortunes on the next hole.   

A ruling like this would work with any handicap system, and free time all around.   

Make Frosty happy.

aka Stableford

[Pete_Pittock]

Mike,


Twelve days from now your wish will come true.  It will be Rule 21.2


Explanation for Rule Change for 2019
 “Maximum Score” Form of Stroke Play
 Current Rule: The Rules now recognize two main forms of stroke play:
  The basic form of stroke play where a player must hole out at every hole, or else is disqualified (Rule 3), and 

  The Stableford form of play where a point scoring system is used and a player who scores two or more than the fixed score or does not finish the hole simply gets zero points for that hole (Rule 32).
 
2019 Rule: “Maximum Score” will be a new, additional form of stroke play:

 A player’s score for each hole is capped at a maximum set by the Committee, which may be fixed (such as 6, 8, 10, etc.), related to par (such as two times par or triple bogey), or related to the player’s handicap (such as net double bogey).      A player who does not complete a hole (often referred to informally as “picking up”) will not be disqualified, but simply gets the maximum score for the hole.

 Reasons for Change: 
  The need to hole out on every hole in stroke play can have at least two downsides: (1) it often leads to a slow pace of play, and (2) it may discourage golfers who feel they no longer have a realistic chance to compete or to make a good score for the round once they get a very high score on one or two holes.
  Maximum Score will be an alternative form of play that addresses both concerns, by allowing a player to “pick up” when he or she scores at or above the maximum and by capping the player’s score for any hole at the maximum.   
  These are important reasons why Stableford is popular in various parts of the world; Maximum Score will create a similar form of stroke play, with the difference that scoring is by strokes rather than by number of points. 
  The Maximum Score form of play will be unlikely to be used for elite play, but it may be useful in many other contexts, such as for play by beginners or golfers who are less skilled or experienced and, more generally, for club level and day-to-day play when pace of play is a particular concern.

  Like Stableford, Maximum Score could be used in conjunction with handicap systems that set a maximum score

[MCirba]

Tom & Pete,

 

Good to see I've finally caught up with the USGA in my thinking. 

Either that or it's another sign of the impending apocalypse.

[Matthew Rose]

I think about the three 10s I made back in high school matches and wish this had existed then. 

[Christian Newton]

I've argued with my friends about Stableford. I love the format and play it often. They dislike that the format doesn't guarantee that a player walk away with total strokes on a card. I have argued that there is a way to play to Stabelford speed and yield a stroke score that still has good explanatory power (that is, that tracks with the actual skill of the player, over time): Make putting a reward. Make putting something that only happens when good play precedes it.

Putting is thrilling when it's for a birdie. Much less so for triple. And putting is where players consume a lot of time, executing lots of strokes. In my imagined format, a player only putts if they have made the green in regulation (net to their index) plus one stroke. If they have not accomplished that, they pick up and add three strokes to their current score.

This guarantees that putts are more often fun and removes the "death march" of a blow-up without imperiling stroke scores, handicaps, etc. And it produces stroke scores not too dissimilar from a "SROG" round.

My idea aside, if this new local rule is widely adopted everyone will benefit. Any muni or very busy course should communicate it!

[MCirba]

I like to think of it as a blood-relative cousin to "match play".

By the time you get to a certain number of strokes you're doing nothing but annoying your playing partners, slowing everyone on the course, and elevating your own blood pressure.   

You want to study the greens?   Watch your playing partners putt.

You need humbling, bloody, crawling on the knees over glass embarrassment?   I say the man's (or lady) suffered enough. 
 

[Mark Smolens]

They have a max triple rule on the Golfweek Senior Tour. It sucks. Very unsatisfying to watch a competitor dump two in the water, and then walk to the next tee posting a seven, and then going on to win by two - when he wasn’t making less than quintuple bogey at best

[Jeff Schley]

Mike,


Twelve days from now your wish will come true.  It will be Rule 21.2


Explanation for Rule Change for 2019
 “Maximum Score” Form of Stroke Play
 Current Rule: The Rules now recognize two main forms of stroke play:
  The basic form of stroke play where a player must hole out at every hole, or else is disqualified (Rule 3), and 

  The Stableford form of play where a point scoring system is used and a player who scores two or more than the fixed score or does not finish the hole simply gets zero points for that hole (Rule 32).
 
2019 Rule: “Maximum Score” will be a new, additional form of stroke play:

 A player’s score for each hole is capped at a maximum set by the Committee, which may be fixed (such as 6, 8, 10, etc.), related to par (such as two times par or triple bogey), or related to the player’s handicap (such as net double bogey).      A player who does not complete a hole (often referred to informally as “picking up”) will not be disqualified, but simply gets the maximum score for the hole.

 Reasons for Change: 
  The need to hole out on every hole in stroke play can have at least two downsides: (1) it often leads to a slow pace of play, and (2) it may discourage golfers who feel they no longer have a realistic chance to compete or to make a good score for the round once they get a very high score on one or two holes.
  Maximum Score will be an alternative form of play that addresses both concerns, by allowing a player to “pick up” when he or she scores at or above the maximum and by capping the player’s score for any hole at the maximum.   
  These are important reasons why Stableford is popular in various parts of the world; Maximum Score will create a similar form of stroke play, with the difference that scoring is by strokes rather than by number of points. 
  The Maximum Score form of play will be unlikely to be used for elite play, but it may be useful in many other contexts, such as for play by beginners or golfers who are less skilled or experienced and, more generally, for club level and day-to-day play when pace of play is a particular concern.

  Like Stableford, Maximum Score could be used in conjunction with handicap systems that set a maximum score

Maybe I missed something, but is this something for competitions as well that will be used for 2019 and beyond? I like Stableford, but also stroke play and the sheer test of having to stay in a hole mentally to think about your total 18 score. 

[Pete_Pittock]

Jeff,
I think the penultimate sentence is your answer.

[Jeff Schley]

Jeff,
I think the penultimate sentence is your answer.

At the discretion of each tournament committee at your club as an option is how I'm reading this.  So it is giving a tournament committee an option to add this for some of their events?

[Pete_Pittock]

Our club is semi-private. I can imagine starters suggesting non-members use this for speed of play. Some forward tee players, too.