The Loop

Jack Nicholson and ESC (really)

December 05, 2007

How do you get from Jack Nicholson to Equitable Stroke Control? I'm not sure, but reader Tim Fulton of Davie, Florida managed to do it and ask a good question at the same time:

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The recent interview with Jack Nicholson was wonderful. It showed him to be the marvelous character in real life that he has portrayed so often in his career. His private rules for golf, which he "doesn't always observe but uses for amusement", are fun and all us weekend hackers understand the reason for them. I was appalled, but not surprised, when you listed him as tied for #47 on Hollywoodâ¿¿s top 100. In the very page before he admits to taking liberty with the rules of golf and yet you recognize his handicap. The reason I wasn't surprised is because the current USGA handicap system, as defined by the "Dean Knuth baloney of golf", is nothing more than a license to cheat with their Equitable Stroke Control system....

Equitable Stroke Control, most of you know, limits the score you can record for handicap purposes on any given hole:

0-9 Course Handicap has a max score of double bogey.

10-19 has a max score of 7 on any hole

20-29 max of 8

Tim isn't buying. And raises an interesting point:

Potential does not always mean good; a person has the potential to do bad also.... Are so called blow-up holes not part of the game? Everybody has them on occasion. If we follow that false logic, shouldn't "exceptional" holes also be adjusted? Eagles and hole in ones are in essence blow-up holes and shoul d be adjusted upward.....