Let me guess - the SSS at your course is too low as well

A club I played at recently have flown in the face of golfing fashion and actually shortened their course.

Strange, I know, even when it turns out that it's only one hole that's been chopped and the reasons for doing so are both sound and logical.

The hole in question runs parallel to the one before it and the back tee of the former was fairly tight against the green of the latter.

On competition days, this proximity was inevitably leading to delays - not to mention the danger of a wayward approach taking out the group in front.

What's more, a pair of large trees some 280 yards from the back tee makes an aggressive drive if not impossible then certainly foolhardy, so it's not as though trimming 30 yards or so from its previously 400-yard-plus length was going to ruin the hole.

So far so good. I understand the club in question did look into any possible ramifications when it came to their standard scratch score (SSS) and were told they'd be OK.

But having made the change official and had their course re-measured, they were shocked to be informed by the English Golf Union (EGU) that their SSS would be going down a shot as a result.

Cue: lots of disgruntled members.

Now, I'm not about to delve into the murky world of how SSSs are set or adjusted. (Though I would say that, in my experience, the slope rating system devised by the United States Golf Association (USGA) that is their equivalent to standard scratch seems to result in American handicaps being a good couple of shots more generous than ours. I think a 10-handicap over there is more like a 13 or 14 by our standards.)

But I couldn't help thinking that this was a refrain I'd heard before at other courses where par exceeds the standard scratch by at least a couple of shots.

Because everyone believes their standard scratch is too low. And there's always a club down the road where one of their mates plays.

Here, they'd have you believe, generosity knows no bounds and the standard scratch is more like a couple over par despite being a much easier track.

If we all played there, they say, we'd all be off at least a couple of shots lower.

Of course they would.

Everyone believes their own course is more fiendish than any other. Yes, it might be shorter than some, they concede (hence the low SSS), but what about the out-of-bounds that comes into play on six holes? What about the 10th having eight bunkers? Or the 12th green with contours so subtle that even after 30 years they're impossible to read?

Not to mention the greenkeeper who doesn't seem to believe in cutting rough and the fact it's particularly exposed so wind is more of factor. And so on.

Occasionally, the members may have a point. There are, no doubt, more than a few courses scattered about where an extra shot really should be added.

But that, surely, is what the Competition Standard Scratch (CSS) is for, isn't it? To reflect that scores on a given day have generally been higher or usual than normal.

And if they're still not convinced, I'd like to see them try maintaining a handicap at somewhere like Carnoustie, routinely regarded as the hardest course in these isles and one of a very select band where the SSS is set at three over par.

Let me put it this way. I sincerely doubt the handicap they currently maintain at a 6,200-yard parkland haven would be lower when they finally returned home.

As for the course with its shortened hole and subsequent SSS reduction, maybe they were just too honest.

Maybe they should simply have stuck the white pots next to the yellows for regular medals and the knockouts, using the back tee in question only a couple of times a year in scratch competitions.

No-one would have been any the wiser, would they? Or would the standard scratch police have sent a crack unit to expose and punish such devious chicanery...

by Dan Murphy

What Michelle should do next

Ladies' European Tour star Becky Brewerton offers her advice to schoolgirl sensation Michelle Wie IT'S tough at the top you know.

I faced an agonising decision to give LPGA Qualifying School a miss this year, despite thinking for much of 2006 that it was my No. 1 target.

But things change and, as I've explained in the past few weeks, it was not going to be the best thing for my career.

It's been a difficult time for me in that respect with all kinds of thoughts going through my head. So I can empathise very much with what Michelle Wie is going through right now.

Before I go any further, let me say that I believe Michelle has the ability to be the greatest player the ladies' game has ever seen.

Her talent is not in question and her swing, certainly as it was at the start of the year, is one anyone on the tour men or women would like to be the owner of.

She is as talented a player as I have seen in the flesh, and I've seen some pretty impressive ones in my career to date.

But, and I think you could tell there was a 'but' coming, I believe she needs to reassess her priorities for the sake of her short-term career. And, maybe, her long-term career too.

I get the impression she kind of feels the same way, judging by one or two of the things she's said after her last two tournaments.

Things seem to have got a bit on top of her and there is no shame in that.

She's a schoolgirl trying to do well in her lessons and at the same time try to compete alongside the best male players in the world.

Both aspects are pretty scary to me! Try doing them together and you've got a task which is pretty much Mission: Impossible.

We can all remember how difficult it was getting good grades and not allowing yourself to be sidelined by non-golfing distractions. Imagine if those distractions were flying to Switzerland to play in a tour event? And that's before you get to consider the distraction of playing a practice round with Sergio Garcia and then the first two rounds proper with Nick Dougherty!

Somehow, algebra or the poetry of Keats wouldn't be all that appetising after those four hours or so...

So, it is a tough assignment in anybody's book. Given we are talking about a teenager yet to reach 18 and I just think it's asking too much.

It's worth making the point about her age. Think what you were doing aged 17 and then imagine facing the world's press and cameras, playing against Sergio and Paul Casey and having everything you say and do analysed to death.

As I said, it's scary. I can't imagine how I'd have coped. And there was me worrying endlessly about how to get into the Wales side at the same age...

But do you know what will be making everything ten times harder to cope with right now? Not the maths or the photos or the press conferences. Her ball-striking. It's the be all and end all for golfers. If you're playing well, you're happy. You can cope with most things. Probably anything in fact.

If you're not swinging it as you want to, suddenly every little other thing that's not right becomes a huge issue.

And most people agree that Michelle is not swinging it like she can at the moment. She spent loads of time with David Leadbetter at the Women's British Open this summer working assiduously on the range.

From what I hear, she couldn't quite manage to make that work count on the course. She got it round, and all credit to her, but she was almost a mere mortal. Not someone with the world at her feet.

Try taking that kind of form into tournaments on the European and US men's tours and you've got no chance. It's actually cruel because you know from the outset that you're going to play poorly and end up last. Horrible.

The solution? Hard with work with 'Lead' on the range and get your swing and ball-striking back to where it was when you finished in the top three of nearly every Major in which you played.

Then, a reassessment of your schedule. Let the boys play among themselves for a while as you get your confidence back. Maybe make a promise to steer clear of them until you've won a ladies' tour event.

And concentrate on doing just that. Because doing that is not easy. The competition is fierce, and it's getting better by the year.

The good news? At you're best, you're probably the best lady golfer in the world. Go and enjoy proving that that is the case.