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Show FACTS and FANCIES! Golf handicaps are the great equalizers. They help ensure an exciting and enjoyable en-joyable round of golf when a scratch amateur and a Sunday afternoon hack team on the links. Dick Tiddy, head professional profes-sional at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Fla., credits the golf course rating system with maintaining the credibility of handicaps. "An eight handicap on a 6,300-yard course with few bunkers will not hold up on a course like Bay Hill. Without the rating system," he said, "the eight handi-capper handi-capper from the 6,300-yard course would lose his shirt playing even against the eight handicapper from a course such as Bay Hill." The Bay Hill course, Tiddy continued, is rated by the Florida State Golf Association Asso-ciation at 73.7 or 2.7 strokes over the suggested par of 71. That means an eight handicapper handi-capper from a course rated even with its suggested par would receive an additional , two or three handicap strokes when playing Bay Hill. According to Bill Carey, president of the Florida State Golf Association, Bay Hill is rated at 73.7 because of its length and the large number of bunkers and water hazards that come into in-to play. |