Dear Golfer,
This month, we’re focusing on helping you better understand the Registered Rounds Percentage (RRP) and its importance in maintaining the integrity of your Handicap Index®.
We’re also diving into the debate of golf’s greatest of all time, exploring Bobby Jones’ incredible legacy and how his career continues to shape the way we evaluate golfing greatness.
HANDICAP NEWS
Understanding Registered Rounds Percentage (RRP)
The Registered Rounds Percentage (RRP) is a measure of how many of a golfer’s last 20 scores were properly registered before play. To have a round registered, it must be opened before teeing off. Rounds that are not registered beforehand are counted as non-registered.
To register a round, you can visit the pro shop before your round, present your handicap card, and request the attendant to register your round. If this option is unavailable, you can register the round yourself using the HNA Handicaps & Tournament App or a handicap terminal at the club. The responsibility for ensuring a round is registered lies with the golfer.
The RRP is calculated at the end of each day, using your most recent 20 scores.
It is also important to note that your RRP does not affect your Handicap Index. It is simply a way of indicating how often you follow the correct process to register your rounds. Keeping a high RRP reflects adherence to the handicap system’s guidelines and fair play principles.
FEATURE: THE JONES PRINCIPLE
As we approach the year’s end, many golfers’ thoughts will start to turn to the Majors ‘season’ in 2025, and with Tiger Woods’ chances of adding to his total fading with every operation, the inevitable questions about who is golf’s GOAT (greatest of all time) can be expected to surface.
Cross generation comparisons are generally ill informed, and of little real value – which is true of all sports, and in golf, Tiger Woods is currently 2nd on the all-time Majors’ list, with only Nicklaus, on 18 wins, ahead of him.
Significantly, and unless someone ‘lights up’ over the next few seasons, there are no ‘active’ players, within touching distance to Woods, who have a realistic chance of winning enough Majors, to offer any immediate threat to his position.
The most valid question might be, should Nicklaus or Woods, or indeed any player in the current top ten, be considered the ‘best’ in any respect, and if so by what criteria should their achievements be judged?
To attempt to answer this, it needs to be understood that the current system of evaluating a player’s career, at the highest level, is based upon performance in golf’s 4 ‘Majors’.
These are, in no particular order; the Open Championship, which is now often referred to as the British Open to differentiate it from its US namesake.
The Masters, which is the youngest of the Majors and originally an invitational and therefore not an ‘Open’, which is still the case, although there are automatic qualifiers of various sorts, and from various codes, tours and nations.
The United States Professional Golfers Association’s (USPGA) Championship, which is therefore also not an ‘Open’, in that amateur golfers are excluded.
This is not peculiar to the US event, and is true for all the other PGAs, whose championships are expressly for professionals.
The US Open, which is chronologically the second oldest of the Majors.
Are there any other challengers to Nicklaus’ supremacy on the lists?
Bobby Jones won 7 of the currently acknowledged professional Majors as an amateur.
As an amateur golfer, Jones could not play in the USPGA, then a match play event (it was only changed to medal scoring in 1958), which was, incidentally, a format in which he excelled.
At Jones’ career’s height, there was of course no Masters Tournament, as Jones himself would go on to create this event, and only play in a handful of them, after what is seen, by most, as his official retirement from competitive golf in 1930.
To go with his 7 ‘pro’ Majors, Jones did however win amateur Majors in the form of 6 US and British amateur titles – 13 majors?
To affect a ‘fair’ comparison with Jones’ record, let’s focus on the current top three, and their records and revise them on the ‘Jones Principle – version 1’.
With this formula, we can include wins in the US and British Amateur Championships, which were originally considered as Majors, and therefore allow into Nicklaus’ career record his two US Amateur titles. However, if we do then we must remove from that record any USPGA and Masters titles, which leaves a revised tally of 9: 3 Open Championships, 2 US Amateur titles and 4 US Opens.
Tiger gets to bank 3 US Amateur Championships, 2 Opens and 2 US Opens – 7.
Hagen is the biggest loser, as he won 5 USPGA’s, and no amateur championships, and therefore goes back from a career total of 11 to only 6 – 4 Opens and 2 US Opens.
OK…. I can hear your comment – the amateur titles are unfair, so that to stay with the Jones Principle, we should only use the professional Major titles that were around, either when Jones was playing pre-1930, or in which he was eligible to play.
This change would leave only the National Opens of Britain and the United States in the frame.
Re-calculating Major wins using the ‘Jones Principle – version 2’, which counts only Open and US Open wins, the log, in alphabetical order, would then look like this –
Bobby Jones – 7
Jack Nicklaus – 7
Harry Vardon – 7
Walter Hagen – 6
Tom Watson – 6
James Braid – 5
Ben Hogan – 5
John Taylor -5
Peter Thomson -5
How golf arrived at its Four Majors is an interesting story in itself, and one which unfortunately we do not have the space to pursue here, but there is some balance, and an almost poetic justice in a list which leaves only results in the British and US Opens, as the benchmark for golfing immortality.
In all of this, and to the casual observer, even one with the most limited grasp of geography, there will appear to be a distinct anomaly, in that 3 of the 4 championships are in the United States, and not one ‘Major’ is held in the Southern Hemisphere.
This is true, so if we were to introduce results in a ‘5th Major (or a 3rd, depending upon your viewpoint on the Jones Principle and or how ‘open’ a Major should be) – there would be a strong lobby in some sectors for it to be the South African Open.
After all, the SA Open is the world’s second oldest national open championship, and would also be the first Major in the Southern Hemisphere.
The presence, in the Majors’ roster, of another ‘Open’ would be good, and the fact that it is an old event should keep the traditionalists ‘happy’, and its being in the Southern Hemisphere, would introduce some balance to counter the current northern hemisphere / US bias in terms of golf’s Majors.
Needless to say, with the SA Open in the Majors’ fold, then Gary Player with 13 and Bobby Locke with 9 wins apiece would charge to the top of any list – Go Bokke!
GOLF NEWS AND TIPS
- 8 golf moments I’m thankful for in 2024
- Woods announces he will not play in the Hero World Challenge next month
- Report: Greg Norman to be replaced as LIV Golf CEO by business executive
- Crunching the numbers: Bryson DeChambeau’s Hole-in-One Challenge
- Increase your attack angle to hit longer drives. Here’s how
ADVERTORIAL: WHAT IS THE NBBC (National Betterball Golf Championship)?
The first and most obvious question will be – what is the NBBC (National Betterball Golf Championship)?
Well let’s first be sure what it is not, and that is that it is not complicated, because it has been designed specifically for the average club golfer.
To this end, the NBBC uses better ball (the most popular playing format in club golf), stableford points, because this is the most forgiving scoring format that we have in golf, and then allows teams to enter scores from any officially run better ball comp at any time, on any date, and anywhere in South Africa!
And – teams can also enter as many scores as they like, during and up to the end of the qualifying period, which will conclude at the end of February 2025.
In total, there are over R 350 000.00 worth of prizes to be won, making this a tournament where everyone is a winner before they have even teed off, so, the only remaining question you might have should be – what am I waiting for?
Click here to listen to the event podcast, and if you still have any questions, please call John Cockayne for more information on 073 896 7931.
EQUIPMENT GOLF GEAR AND APPAREL NEWS
Combining revolutionary technology with meticulous craftsmanship, Srixon’s all-new ZXi Woods feature the company’s exclusive i-FLEX technology and bring tour-inspired performance to every tee and fairway.
Quote of the Month
“I look into eyes, shake their hand, pat their back, and wish them luck, but I am thinking, I am going to bury you.” – Seve Ballesteros
Swing easy!
The Handicaps Team
