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How does handicapping work in the US?

giorgiokaan

giorgiokaan

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I never understood handicapping in the US, in Europe the only way is an EGA handicap which can only be altered with official tournament rounds, thus making it wayyy harder to lower, plus it is not based on average strokes but you start at 36 and lower it every tournament you play under net par. Initially it is lowered by 0,5 then 0,4, 0,3 , 0,2 and finally 0,1 for every stroke under net par and for every competition above net par you go up, initially by 0,2 and then 0,1.

How does it work for you guys???


Tapping from my IPhone
 
giorgiokaan said:
I never understood handicapping in the US, in Europe the only way is an EGA handicap which can only be altered with official tournament rounds, thus making it wayyy harder to lower, plus it is not based on average strokes but you start at 36 and lower it every tournament you play under net par. Initially it is lowered by 0,5 then 0,4, 0,3 , 0,2 and finally 0,1 for every stroke under net par and for every competition above net par you go up, initially by 0,2 and then 0,1.

How does it work for you guys???


Tapping from my IPhone
Click to expand...

There are a bunch of rules in there, but here's the simple explanation.

10 best rounds of your last 20, assuming you have that many.

Your score is put through a calcualtion that factors in the difficulty of the course and you get what they call a differential for each round. Those are averaged up and you have an index.
 
Hawk said:
There are a bunch of rules in there, but here's the simple explanation.

10 best rounds of your last 20, assuming you have that many.

Your score is put through a calcualtion that factors in the difficulty of the course and you get what they call a differential for each round. Those are averaged up and you have an index.
Click to expand...

Thanks hawk,

Wow it is much easier for you guys


Tapping from my IPhone
 
Here's the calculation...

cad3497f492646cf1dc1b6f3be5f6a2d.png


ESC is your score, but depending on your skill level, you are limited to what you can record for each hole (for handicapping purposes). This prevents people from blowing up a hole intentionally to sandbag.
 
Thanks guys, but I still wonder, why does the US have to have different systems to the rest of the world


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For the same reason they changed the spelling of so many English words. Because they can.
 
Im pretty sure that is the same system we use here in NZ.
 
giorgiokaan said:
I never understood handicapping in the US,
How does it work for you guys???
Click to expand...

We can tell you but then we'd have to kill you :)
But really its quite simple secret for most of us. We just make it up as we go along. Ignore half the rules, count only what we want, complain about pace, give ourselves an egotistical 7 cap while drinking 7 beers afterwards, and when a compettiton comes about the 7 is some how a 17. And there you have it.
 
My god these generalizations.

I think it makes more sense to count every round.
 
TexasHacker34 said:
Ours makes much more sense. I agree Ryan
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It has some weak points, but I think its a decent measure. Hell, I wouldn't even qualify for an index if we had to rely on medal rounds, nor would a huge number of players. Seems like it would make it tough to play against others in money games or friendly competition.

Weakest point (imo) is the slope/rating system. I think it's too reliant on subjective opinions and I've seen some pretty questionable calls around here.
 
giorgiokaan said:
Thanks guys, but I still wonder, why does the US have to have different systems to the rest of the world
Tapping from my IPhone
Click to expand...
To account for our use of belly putters (joking)
 
Hawk said:
It has some weak points, but I think its a decent measure. Hell, I wouldn't even qualify for an index if we had to rely on medal rounds, nor would a huge number of players. Seems like it would make it tough to play against others in money games or friendly competition.

Weakest point (imo) is the slope/rating system. I think it's too reliant on subjective opinions and I've seen some pretty questionable calls around here.
Click to expand...

We mainly use stableford, plus a system called CBA which adjusts "the neutral zone" depending on how the rest of the field plays, to give you a fair handicap raise/decrease


Tapping from my IPhone
 
Giorgio we are the same in Scotland, I think it does make it a lot harder to lower or even maintain our handicap as we have to play consistant every medal game, if we enter a medal and don't complete the round we go up 0.1 straight away is this the same in the States?

We get a buffer zone which is 3 over net score but we base our handicap adjustments against the Course standard Scratch which is the average score of every player in the field and have seen it as low as 2 under par but is capped at 3 over par.
 
chuggz221 said:
Giorgio we are the same in Scotland, I think it does make it a lot harder to lower or even maintain our handicap as we have to play consistant every medal game, if we enter a medal and don't complete the round we go up 0.1 straight away is this the same in the States?

We get a buffer zone which is 3 over net score but we base our handicap adjustments against the Course standard Scratch which is the average score of every player in the field and have seen it as low as 2 under par but is capped at 3 over par.
Click to expand...


No. Every round is counted in the USGA system. Indexes are revised every 15 days or so. Since it's the top ten of your last 20 rounds, some will always drop off at revision time (assuming you are playing regularly).
 
giorgiokaan said:
We mainly use stableford, plus a system called CBA which adjusts "the neutral zone" depending on how the rest of the field plays, to give you a fair handicap raise/decrease


Tapping from my IPhone
Click to expand...

Seems overly complicated to me. Also, what about those not playing in tournaments?
 
It seems really weird that you would only count tournament rounds, seems like that would prevent the majority of people from ever establishing a handicap.
 
There's lots of other little rules to make it interesting too. For example you don't have to play all 18 holes. You can quit after 15 or 16 and make a "reasonable guess" as to what your score would have been on the other holes. You can also pay for a service like ushandicap.com and enter your scores yourself online.

So technically someone could lie and make their handicap a scratch and sign up for a US Open qualifier. However, once they see how bad you are they will remove you from competition after a few holes, and they can ban you from signing up for USGA tournaments for life if they want.
 
tequila4kapp said:
It seems really weird that you would only count tournament rounds, seems like that would prevent the majority of people from ever establishing a handicap.
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To Gain a handicap in the UK you have to submit 3 cards, 1 from tournament play and 2 from normal everyday conditions, they take an average of all 3 scores and that is the handicap, the maximum you can score on a hole is reduced to 2 over for handicap counting, Then the only way after gaining the handicap is through tournament play.

Our handicap system is mainly based on stableford counting.
 
giorgiokaan said:
Thanks guys, but I still wonder, why does the US have to have different systems to the rest of the world
Click to expand...

For the same reason that we use decimal points instead of commas for .1; .2; .3; etc. A comma has a different meaning in numerical usage here.

Shook said:
There's lots of other little rules to make it interesting too. For example you don't have to play all 18 holes. You can quit after 15 or 16 and make a "reasonable guess" as to what your score would have been on the other holes. You can also pay for a service like ushandicap.com and enter your scores yourself online.
Click to expand...

The bold part is wrong. If you quit after 15 holes, your score for the unplayed holes is par plus any handicap strokes you are allowed for those holes, no guessing. If a hole is unfinished (as in a match and you lose the hole before putting out, or your opponent concedes the hole, or concedes a stroke), you make your best estimate as to what your probable score would have been from that point. That only applies if you have played part of the hole.
 
Fourputt said:
For the same reason that we use decimal points instead of commas for .1; .2; .3; etc. A comma has a different meaning in numerical usage here.



The bold part is wrong. If you quit after 15 holes, your score for the unplayed holes is par plus any handicap strokes you are allowed for those holes, no guessing. If a hole is unfinished (as in a match and you lose the hole before putting out, or your opponent concedes the hole, or concedes a stroke), you make your best estimate as to what your probable score would have been from that point. That only applies if you have played part of the hole.
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Haha oops. I had read the rule on partially finished holes and applied it to skipped holes. Thanks for clearing that up!
 
chuggz221 said:
Giorgio we are the same in Scotland, I think it does make it a lot harder to lower or even maintain our handicap as we have to play consistant every medal game, if we enter a medal and don't complete the round we go up 0.1 straight away is this the same in the States?

We get a buffer zone which is 3 over net score but we base our handicap adjustments against the Course standard Scratch which is the average score of every player in the field and have seen it as low as 2 under par but is capped at 3 over par.
Click to expand...

Yup same, I believe every country except USGA regulated countries don't use this system


Tapping from my IPhone
 
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