Is it time to change how we play matchplay?

This is a follow up from my column of last month.

For the February edition of Golfer Pacific I wrote about the stroke indexes that are attached to each hole on a golf course.

Golf courses around the world are encouraged to make the stroke indexes even numbers for one nine and odd numbers for the other nine. That’s a manipulation.

Golf courses around the world are also encouraged not to have the No 1 stroke hole amongst the last two or three holes. That’s a manipulation.

Not having the No 1 stroke index amongst the last few holes is to avoid the situation where that shot is not used because the match has already been concluded.

Let’s go through that situation. Your are on an eight handicap and I am on a nine handicap. In other words you give me one shot in a matchplay event and that will be on the stroke one hole.

The question I ask is why do you give me a shot on what is supposedly the hardest hole on the course?

The answer is that is how it has probably been done for decades and it probably originated in Scotland or England.

I suggest it’s time for a change.

I reckon if you are on an eight handicap and I am on a nine handicap, you should concede your one shot on the hole that carries a stroke index of nine.

That’s exactly what happens in a stableford competition which I think works well enough.

The only difference in a stableford-similar sustem is that if you score a nine on a hole and I score a 10, you still win the hole. Under a stableford format the hole would be halved because we both scored no stableford points.

If we adopted this stableford-similiar system it would not matter if the last hole carried the stroke one index.

If we were all square going to the last hole, you would not have to concede me one shot on what really is the hardest hole on the course.

That makes sense to me and stroke indexes could truly be an indication of how hard each hole is. There wouldn’t have to be a manipulation.