Pebble Beach Golf Links - scorecard help.

knightintosh · Post by **knightintosh** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:27 pm

I've finally, after getting my S-Video and audio leads, been able to get down to some serious 3DO-ing on my time off work. I've become completely addicted to Pebble Beach Golf Links, a game I had back in the day, staying up to 2am last night and now playing again this afternoon.

I do love it, but obviously either the manual assumes you know golf or I'm being a bit slow. Answers on a postcard.

Here's my scorecard from Day 2 of the Pebble Beach Open:

Yes I'm doing shit, languishing in last place due to soon spectacular fails during day one. Hey gimme a break, I haven't played it in 15 years and only practiced 1 hole before starting the Open lol.

Anyway, I've got 2 questions:

How are handicaps worked out and how are they used?
What is the column with the figures in red? I can't find a correlation between them and the par/shots taken, unless it's got to do with handicap as well...?

Thanks in advance for any help! I love this game but I've never liked playing or watching real golf so not up to speed on these coupla points.

Cheers!

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:21 pm

owned this game forever and still havent played it on any platform, i tend to stay away from all golf games with the circle to control your shots (pga tour fan here, because of the straight line)

i guess it has to do with the handicapping. havent played a game with handicaps either ... lol
maybe there is a handicap formula thats secret
well maybe after playing alot you can figure it out

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:10 am

The "HDCP" column is the handicap of the hole, not your own individual handicap. The handicap of a hole ranks its difficulty in comparison to other holes on the course. HDCP 1 is the hardest hole on the course, 18 is the easiest.

The red numbers don't seem to be directly related to your score. I'd be very surprised if the game was tracking your handicap, but that'd be pretty cool. More likely, it's tracking a different stat. Some golfers track the number of putts they take on each hole. Do those number look right in that regard? (Though you have an awful lot of one-putts. If it is tracking putts, then either you're an excellent putter, or you're doing lots of chipping and ending up with short putts.)

knightintosh · Post by **knightintosh** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:52 pm

Mobius wrote:The "HDCP" column is the handicap of the hole, not your own individual handicap. The handicap of a hole ranks its difficulty in comparison to other holes on the course. HDCP 1 is the hardest hole on the course, 18 is the easiest.

The red numbers don't seem to be directly related to your score. I'd be very surprised if the game was tracking your handicap, but that'd be pretty cool. More likely, it's tracking a different stat. Some golfers track the number of putts they take on each hole. Do those number look right in that regard? (Though you have an awful lot of one-putts. If it is tracking putts, then either you're an excellent putter, or you're doing lots of chipping and ending up with short putts.)

Hey Mobius, thanks very much for your help!

I never even noticed the HDCP numbers were all different, making it obvious it's a ranking of some sort. Which does mean I parred the hardest hole on the course! But also screwed up the 12th most difficult lol! Thanks for that!

I wouldn't think those numbers are related to my putts as I'm sure I screwed up some putting on that run through, however I'll keep an eye on it next time I'm playing. Saying that the manual does say this:

"Players who have not completed a round in Pebble Beach Open and Tournament Play will automatically be assigned a handicap of 36. As players complete rounds in Pebble Beach Open and Tournament Play, True Golf Classics will update their handicaps to reflect their actual skill levels."

So, after reading your response I think this may actually be that... of course I don't actually know what a golf handicap actually does...? Do you?

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 4:48 pm

So it does track your handicap! That's pretty cool.

Handicap is a calculation that lets people of different skill levels compete against one another by adjusting their scores. There's a fairly complicated process for calculating your handicap, but the end result is a number that basically says how you should expect to score in relation to par.

So if you start with a handicap of 36 (which is a huge handicap, btw), then the game expects you to shoot 36 over par. Or, essentially, it expects you to double bogey every hole. At the end of the round, you take your total score, subtract your handicap, and get your net score. So if you have a really average day for you, then your net score should be right about par.

But all that said, I'm still having trouble deciphering the red numbers. There are ways to calculate your adjusted score on a hole by hole basis, but I'm not seeing the numbers I would expect. Do you know what your handicap was at the time you played this round? What did your numbers end up being for the last three holes?

knightintosh · Post by **knightintosh** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 9:53 am

Mobius wrote:So it does track your handicap! That's pretty cool.

Handicap is a calculation that lets people of different skill levels compete against one another by adjusting their scores. There's a fairly complicated process for calculating your handicap, but the end result is a number that basically says how you should expect to score in relation to par.

So if you start with a handicap of 36 (which is a huge handicap, btw), then the game expects you to shoot 36 over par. Or, essentially, it expects you to double bogey every hole. At the end of the round, you take your total score, subtract your handicap, and get your net score. So if you have a really average day for you, then your net score should be right about par.

But all that said, I'm still having trouble deciphering the red numbers. There are ways to calculate your adjusted score on a hole by hole basis, but I'm not seeing the numbers I would expect. Do you know what your handicap was at the time you played this round? What did your numbers end up being for the last three holes?

Thanks very much Mobius! That definitely makes a lot of sense now, I'm guessing T&E Soft just assumed everyone buying this game would know a bit about golf.

I'll keep an eye on the red numbers as I play through it next time to see if I can make head-nor-tail of it. I'm not sure what my handicap was at the time of playing this round, I'd already played two days worth of the Open and this was my 2nd say of my 2nd attempt. I'll maybe wipe the save game and start again from scratch so that I know my handicap is 36 and see what happens by the end of the first "day".