GUI chief says there’s a culture of tolerating handicap cheating

AT the beginning of each new year usually in January or February, the American President delivers a speech to congress entitled the “State of the Union” which usually outlines the state of the nation and his plans going forward for the year ahead, hence the name.

“What has this got to do with golf?” I hear you ask. Well, in the past week, the CEO of the Golfing Union of Ireland Pat Finn sat down with the GUI’s Communications Manager Alan Kelly for a “State of the Golfing Union” interview that threw up some very interesting facts and points of view.

I’ve cherry-picked a few points that I found of interest but there is a lot of reading in the interview which would take up several pages of this newspaper were I to mention them all.

First off, Mr Finn eluded to a “handicap cheating culture” when asked what the GUI can do to stop the spread of handicap banditry.

“There is a culture of tolerating handicap cheating which isn’t the case for other forms of cheating with golf,” said Mr Finn. “The finger seems to be pointed at the GUI or the branches of the GUI or indeed to club committees to deal with this problem. I don’t think it can be. It is endemic and the only real way of tackling it is at member-to-member level where everybody takes a pro-active approach in dealing with the issue and calling out fellow members on their behaviour and saying it is not going to be tolerated anymore.”

I must say that I agree with him on that statement and he has a serious point. My views on handicap building are well documented in this publication in the past. If the majority of us saw a playing partner teeing up a ball in the rough, dropping another ball or recording an incorrect score on a card we would immediately pull them on it, yet we see people who are clearly not trying and are quite happy to sign their scorecards in order for them to gain a point one.

We’ve all seen it happen over the years but none of us have done anything about it. Having said that, however, it’s not an easy thing to say to one of your playing partners coming off the course “I’m not signing your card because you’re a handicap builder”.

Personally, I think the old way that I grew up with was the best. You played all season long, put in cards for every competition and could only get an increase from an annual handicap review at the end of the year.

The “point one” in my opinion is the single most destructive thing in amateur golf and it’s not just individuals that benefit from it as some clubs encourage it to build teams.

Anyway, back to Pat Finn’s interview and the controversial golfnet website was the next item that caught my eye. I’ve seen so much negative comment on it since its introduction and in fairness it is rather difficult to navigate. When asked if the site would be made more user friendly Mr Finn said: “When we combined the ILGU, GUI and also included the GUI branches and ILGU district websites into one site we then had an awful lot of information in a very small place. If we had the chance to start again, we’d have done it a different way. As we move forward, in 2-3 years’ time, the likelihood is that you will see a splitting out of the website into two sides, one for the club golfer who simply wants to see club listings, open fixtures and their handicap, and another for the person who is really interested in amateur golf and wants to delve a little deeper,” he added, so a bit of good news there but a two to three year wait for improvement is a long time.

One other really interesting question put to Mr Finn was “would the GUI consider a back-door system for teams beaten in the first round of the Cups & Shields?” to which he replied: “No, if you’re beaten in the first round, you’re gone”.

Again, I find myself agreeing with him as I am not a fan of the back-door in GAA and would hate to see it introduced to golf.

Mr Finn also reckons that one golfing body to encompass both the GUI and ILGU could come into being as early as 2018 as talks are ongoing.

He also feels that the GUI might be open to amending the handicap of possibly the Jimmy Bruen Shield rather than the Junior Cup to allow lower handicappers in the 2-4 range to become involved, which is indeed a very interesting point of view.

At present the guys in the 2-4 bracket in many clubs (except in Kerry) are in limbo as they are too high to make their Senior Cup and Barton Shield teams but too low to play Junior Cup which, of course, has a bottom limit of 5.

Personally, I would lower the Junior Cup to maybe 3 but I wouldn’t interfere with the Jimmy Bruen Shield, which is for players in the 6-11 bracket. I think if this was lowered it would then affect the players at the high end of the range, which would in turn see changes having to be made in the Pierce Purcell to accommodate them and there would be a knock-on effect.

Dropping the limit of the Junior Cup from 5 to 3 wouldn’t really make a difference to a lot of clubs except maybe here in Kerry, where many clubs cannot even field a Senior Cup or Barton Shield team so it may in fact strengthen a few clubs’ Junior Cup sides.

Anyway, it’s all hypothetical as Mr Finn didn’t say it would happen but that the GUI might be open to it happening, and as we all know, there’s a lot of red tape to go through as well as four provincial unions before anything like that can happen.

Overall I think the interview was very enlightening and informative and I look forward to the next one as communication is very important.

The vast majority of club golfers rarely get to see or hear how the GUI operates and interviews like this are most helpful.