TheTommyD:
AvatarLee:
As a suggestion, I think that the method of determining the average should be changed, it needs to take more rounds into account, say 20 out of the last 30 (or even more!), and dropping both the highest 5 and lowest 5 rounds, not to mention placing a proper weighting on 9 hole rounds. I know this suggestion moves away from the 'typical' way to calculate a handicap, but some things do not and will never translate well from real life into a game scenario...
Right on Lee. I just saw this off a guys page who's winning one of tourneys right now. Is this what your referring to?
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Career Earnings
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7.68
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Stroke Play Tournaments Entered
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59
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Stroke Play Score Average
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107.52
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Stroke Play Top 10 Finishes
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9
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Stroke Play Top 100 Finishes
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18
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Total Ranked Rounds Played
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94
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Skill Challenge Tournaments Entered
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75
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Skill Challenge Top 10 Finishes
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15
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Skill Challenge Top 100 Finishes
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19
When I first came to WGT... oh.... way back... like, 3 and a half months ago... lol, I saw some of this kind of thing and thought, "What am I doing soooo wrong, that I can't score better than I am... I must be a really bad "virtual golfer"!" :(
There were sooo many, doing sooo much better, who hadn't even played as much as me. I discovered the forum, and was "illuminated" by reading about ways to decrease my scores, the "perils" of increasing throught the tiers too quickly, and the presence of sandbaggers.
Great reading, but nothing explained better, the ability to quickly ascend through, and take advantage of the tiers, than reading about players with multiple accounts.
Getting a bunch of experience as a player, then coming back as another explained it for me, hence giving me hope that I wasn't really that bad a player, I just needed more practice.
It's frowned-upon here at WGT to have multiple accounts, and justly so, IMHO. But in all fairness, let's consider this... are there legit reasons one would have to be forced to delete one's account, having to "restart" a "career"? Maybe there were problems with the Beta early-on, and things happened that I'm not aware of. But if that did happen, they would enter WGT with an "experienced" set of starter clubs.
Although I've not done an exhaustive search, if there's a way to preserve one's account, say... after an internet provider change... I've not seen it discussed in the FAQ, or here in the forum. Maybe some of the "oldtimers" here can post a link to a related discussion, to enlighten me and the other viewers of this thread.
Soooo... my point is this, it may not be so much the way the average is formulated... it works fine if the "perceived ability of a beginner" is used. The problem comes about when a "beginner" logs-in, and is able to shoot scores as low as a pro, or master. They'll have to address this if they decide to change the way averages (handicaps) are formulated.
TommyD, the stat's you posted show what I'm talking about, but with a twist... this person has used the ability to return to WGT, with a new account, and on top of that, sandbag, artificially keeping a high handicap, for the purpose of lining his virtual pockets, and filling the shelves in his virtual trophy case.
As someone else stated, I also think once you've won a tournament, or have placed in the top ten multiple times, your tier level and average should be weighted with the scores from these top-level finishes. Short of having two seperate averages, one "stroke-play", and one "tournament", this would at least have some effect on some's abilities to continue to sandbag.