KEY POINTS:
We share the Anzac spirit, Closer Economic Relations and a love of the beach. We disagree over apples, the merits of Robbie Deans and how to run a golf handicap system.
Having a swag of Aussies in town for the New Zealand Seniors championships and the subsequent Seniors
test match this past week, both of which were comfortably won by them, highlighted the differences in how handicaps are calculated in the respective countries. The Senior events didn't involve handicap play but on paper, the Australians were supposedly two to three shots per round inferior to New Zealand's best. They were anything but.
The numbers suggest we are a nation of world-beating amateur golfers. Of 130,000 registered players, more than 250 are on handicaps of scratch or better.
Yet Australia, with 450,000 registered golfers, has only about 500 on scratch or below. An Australian is likely to play off a handicap three or four shots higher than a player of equivalent ability in this country.
This now matters because, socially, more golfers are playing handicap events in the other country, leaving New Zealanders seriously disadvantaged.
New Zealand Golf's system, based on the United States Golf Association method, is designed to find a player's potential scoring ability. Golf Australia says a handicap is determined by how a player actually scores and will score in future. The New Zealand system means a golfer will play to his or her handicap only about a quarter of the time.
In this country, a handicap is based on the best 10 of the last 20 rounds played, and is changed every two weeks. An Australian's handicap is adjusted after every scorecard is processed. Every score counts.
The exact formulae are far too complicated to explain here but they're based on a course's difficulty or rating. But there's a crucial difference. In New Zealand, a course rating stays the same in summer and winter, and on a windy or calm day. In Australia, the MCCR, the Men's Calculated Course Rating, is adjusted every day depending on the scores returned. This reflects the day's conditions. It's a system we used till 2000 and I believe is far more realistic than what we have now.
Then there is the vexed question of adjusted scores. Really bad scores on a hole are not allowed when calculating a handicap. In Australia every player is allowed at least a double bogey on every hole. In New Zealand we adjust more harshly and that's another reason our handicaps are lower.
The annual Holden Scramble is a massively popular event and New Zealand teams have competed in the Grand Final in Queensland since 2001. Last year a team from Taupo won, the first time New Zealand winner. More significantly, there was only one other New Zealand team in the top half of the field.
It's usually just not worthwhile to play Australians on handicap. And as social golf contact between the two countries increases, it's about time some transtasman uniformity of handicap system was introduced.
