Stroke Indices v Difficulty
Whether or not the stroke index of a hole is accurate is often the subject of debate. Some believe that order of difficulty alone determines stroke index of a hole, but this is not the case. For example you will find that most 18th's have a central stroke index regardless of difficulty, because if they had a low stroke index, many matches would not reach the point for the stroke there to be used. There are lots of variables for deciding stroke index, and I have even heard of one school of thought that they should work in exactly the opposite way to make things fairer ie. strokes should be taken at the easiest rather than the most difficult holes, and some say it simply doesn't matter where you take them!
Anyway, this week I have accessed a report of hole difficulty from our handicaps system. The data is from all scores that have been entered onto the computer during and after 2010, a total of 312101 holes played! The computer knows the average score over par each hole has played, and I thought you may be interested to know which the most difficult holes are, and which holes played most like, and most unlike their stroke index. These results ignore NR's.
Click here to view the result. As you can see the ranking of the first few holes in order of difficulty is fairly predictable. Two holes ranking of difficulty is exactly the same as their stroke index, these being the 1st and the 13th. The 14th hole (pictured below), ranked as easiest is 7 places lower than its stroke index of 11 would suggest. On the other hand the 4th hole is the most difficult compared to its stroke index, being the 12th most difficult hole with an index of 17.
We know there is more to stroke indexes than just difficulty, but a comparison is interesting. With the holes on Reddish Vale being so varied I think ours must be one the more difficult courses to assess.
Inclusion in 'The Confidential Guide' to golf courses
'The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses' is an eagerly awaited update to an earlier and highly influential book by one of the world's leading golf architects and biographer of Alister MacKenzie, Tom Doak.
The first volume, covering the British Isles, has just been published and I am delighted to report that Reddish Vale is the only course in Greater Manchester which has been deemed worthy of inclusion.
Reddish Vale has been given a rating of 5 by Tom Doak himself based on a visit in 2000 when he visited the course, and a 6 by Ran Morrissett who was our guest last year. The 'Doak Scale' is explained here.
Basically, these guys are mad on course layout and design. They know what they are looking for and assess according to how interesting a course is, and to the quality of strategic design. To give you an idea Sherwood Forest is included with a rating of 3!
Read the extract in the book by clicking here, where we are on the same page as Royal Birkdale and Royal Liverpool. It is interesting that Tom Doak comments on how we could make further improvements by removing the trees to the left of the 4th and 5th, opening up the view of the valley below.
Hybrids
At this time of year the ground is wetter and that vital clean contact between club and ball is all the more important. Long irons digging into wet ground, mud in your eyebrows and shots which lack precious distance and accuracy make this very noticeable.
Hybrids are more rounded, better weighted and won't dig in like a long iron. Such a design will sweep the ball off the ground when a long iron would dig in, resulting in better shots with the same swing. If you haven't yet discovered these yet or found the right one there is no better time than now. Once the right hybrid is found, many players swear by it and add others to match as they love them so much.
I have many hybrids in store, take the new PING G30 and see a massive improvement, the club sits great and will give you added confidence in your long game.
Skycaddies - know your yardages
Two units remaining at clearance prices as follows;
1x Aire - a hand held device which is smaller than a phone and gives you yardages to the front middle and back of the green - £99
1x watch - compact design also with yardages to front, middle and back of green - £149
Each unit also includes 1 year's free subscription worth £20
Saturday's 3 Man Texas Scramble was kinder than usual, with 5 drives each leaving 3 spare. The weather was horrible and looked like it would be called off but with a break from the rain, the course remained playable. Only 23 teams entered this week. The winning trio with a 63-4=59 was Paul Wheelton, Mike Radcliffe and Colin Barr. Second this week was John Ford, Crispion Logue and Mike Short with 67-7.8=59.2 and third was Ryan Jackson, Gary Hill and Andy Hutchison with 62-2.4=59.6. Prizes went down to third.
There were 7 two's, at £3.28 each which is good for this format.
John Devenney won Sunday's Pro's Stableford with 38 points in a round that included two blobs. Second was John Kuehl with 37 points, beating Ian Doyle, John Lloyd and Dave Barrett on a countback. Prizes went down to fifth this week. There were seven two's each worth £8.14.
Adam Stott won Wednesday's Pro's stableford with 33 points; he also had the only two, taking the whole 2's pot worth £19.00.
Click here to see all the results.
Alan Finney will be hosting this year's Wednesday Section AGM, as chairman of the Wednesday section. Alan has done a great job in charge of the section and I am sure he will have a good night in store for all this evening.