Handicaps could liven up a number of sports
To all sports lovers
Iplayed golf with my brother-in-law and two mates on Saturday and it got me thinking. We are a motley crew of wannabe golfers, with handicaps ranging from 12 to 23. There was a smattering of acceptable golf among what was generally a sad excuse for the game. That aside, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.
But here is my point: Because of the handicap system, we had a competitive match, with the winning two-ball (of which I was not a part, by the way) wrapping things up on the 17th hole. And that is one of the wonderful things about the game.
No matter how good or bad you are, you will find someone with whom you can have a competitive match.
My thoughts then turned to the English Premier League and my beloved Arsenal. They look in a sorry state this season and I got to wondering why handicap systems are not introduced in all sporting codes.
Chelsea, as defending champions, would play off scratch. Those that qualified for the Champions League would be one handicaps, Europa League teams two handicaps, and so on.
That way, when Arsenal, off their two handicap, played Chelsea, off scratch, The Gunners would start the match a couple of goals to the good.
My playing partners on Saturday would probably vehemently disagree, but that’s only because two of them are Manchester United fans and under my system they would have to concede a goal to Arsenal before kick-off.
But just imagine how much more interesting it would make watching sport, from F1 (where the top guys would be penalised a pre-determined number of seconds for each race depending on their handicap) to swimming (where you could have a staggered start depending on handicaps). I use these two as an example because they are two sports I am convinced, under the current format, are sure-fire cures for insomnia.
The handicap system could even be introduced to darts and pool, which I know a lot of you don’t regard as real sporting codes. The champion would be restricted to two darts instead of the usual three and the whipping boys would get four or five, depending on their degree of uselessness. And in pool, four of the pockets could be blocked off every time the top seed stepped up to play a shot and only the strugglers would get to aim at all 10.
But then I got to thinking about Bafana Bafana and their two disastrous World Cup qualifiers against Cape Verde (they lost both 2-1), a team a distant 48 places below Stuart Baxter’s boys in the Fifa rankings.
Under my handicap system, Cape Verde probably would have gone into those matches two or three goals to the good, meaning they would have recorded resounding victories over Bafana.