Do you feel your handicap accurately reflects your ability?

[Texasbrons]

There is some confusion in how people are interpreting the word. Some people are using the word "Ability" as a synonym for "Potential". If you take up golf today and are willing to spend money to go get fit for clubs that fit you, spend time at the range putting, chipping and hitting irons and woods, and get lessons, then practice what you've learned in those lessons, then get new equipment as your game improves you have to POTENTIAL to be better than your handicap is today. In all likelihood you will and the ability is within you, you just have to find a way to extract it. That doesn't change the fact that the "ability that is within you" is nothing more than potential. As Rollin said, he's parred or birdied every hole, which many of us have over the course of years. The potential is there, but the actual ability to string it all together in one round is improbable to do it once and even more unlikely to do it often enough to say you are a scratch or + handicap golfer.
So, that being said, I believe that if you are honest with yourself when you keep track of your score, and when you file your scores for your handicap rating, it will accurately indicate what your ABILITY is. If you don't, then it won't. It will not indicate what your potential is. As to the OP, it will also not indicate where your problems lie that are keeping you from having a lower handicap. Maybe you are good enough with your long and mid range irons to play players irons and you can shape the ball to flight it how you need to for various reasons, but you duff or skull your chips and that's where you need to improve. Or you can always count on having at least three or four 3 putts which cause you to play near 80 as opposed to near scratch. The handicap system has no way to indicate that. It looks at course rating, slope, and how many strokes it took you to put the ball into 18 different holes. It doesn't know if those extra strokes came from penalties and hitting 3 off the tee, wayward drives and playing safe, duffed chips, multiple strokes to get out of a bunker, or you putting from all over the green.
If you want some indication of where you need to improve, you'll need to keep track of strokes, fairways/left/right/short/long, GIR, penalties, and sand shots/sand saves. Once you tabulate all of that, you will have a very clear picture of where you can take strokes off of your game and you can practice with a purpose. There are many apps these days that will do all of that for you.
Many of you have the potential to be scratch golfers, but you do not have the ability (yet). I do not have the potential to be a scratch golfer. Why? I'm not willing to spend the money on the amount of lessons it would take, and I'm not going to sacrifice the other aspects of my life to go to the range and practice as much as I would need to get there. Therefore, the potential for me to get there is drastically reduced and today I don't have the ability to get there. I will have to rely on gradual, slow improvement from just getting out there once to twice a week when I play with my buds, which makes it very unlikely that I will ever be scratch, but very likely that I can become a solid golfer that can play in the mid 80's. Right now my ability is to generally shoot in the 90's with an occasion peek into the 80's and to not so occasional regression back in the 100s. I would put my handicap at about 23 and I would say that accurately indicates my ability. My potential is to have a handicap of about 13 with my current level of dedication. I still love the game though.

 

[Floor-is]

I can officially say "no it does not". Played a match today with the best of our course.
Shot a 77 for 39 stableford, only two players shot less strokes then me and they both have a better handicap. A 17HCP player shot 40 stableford (83) to win the match.

I did win the longest drive (284 yards), shot an eagle on that hole and another two birdies. But I also had three double bogeys that I feel bad about.
Putter was on fire, chipping was quite good, approaches not very good.

I'm down to 10.6 handicap from 11.2

 

[tpluff]

It really depends on the day for me. I can play really good golf like I have been recently, then something clicks off and I can play bogey golf. Usually I see a little bit of both during a given round, but limiting, or even getting rid of the bad stuff, makes me play to my handicap. It's going down at a rate I really like, but I'm also a little scared it may be a product of playing where I do all the time.

 

[Erky]

I am changing my answer. After today's round, my handicap is totally insufficient. I should be a 36.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk.

 

[Floor-is]

I am changing my answer. After today's round, my handicap is totally insufficient. I should be a 36.

I feel for you..

tpluff: somehow you're not playing much bogey golf I'm guessing as it doesn't show in the (reported) handicap

 

[Pendragon63]

Curious as to everyone's thoughts on this. I hear a lot of people say things on the internet like "I am a mid/higher handicapper but have players irons because my iron game isn't the issue". Do you feel you handicap is a decent indicator of your ability. What holds you back from a lower index? Can you really be a high handicap golfer but have the iron play of a scratch golfer?

As long as you're posting accurately, your index should be a true indicator of the state of your game. To one of your points, their is no way that someone could have the iron play of a scratch golfer and have a high handicap. That makes no sense...unless you take four or five putts on every green. It's true that most of us give away more strokes on and around the green and from 100 yards in than we do elsewhere, but that only goes so far.
Also, many golfers think that they should play to their course handicap in most of the rounds they play. In reality, you probably wouldn't play to or lower than your handicap more than one out of every 3 or 4 rounds.

 

[rollin]

. It's true that most of us give away more strokes on and around the green and from 100 yards in than we do elsewhere, .

I agree, however I also think this depends on ones HC lol.
What I mean is that generally speaking the better one is at golf the less errant tee and approach shots he/she would probably have. They simply possess the ability to keep the ball in play with decent success.
Higher cappers tend to have very many poor tee and approaches resulting in piled up strokes just getting from the tees to near the greens to begin with. In fact many times may even be losing more strokes on those parts of the game vs the shorter stuff. But once one is decent enough at ball striking then yes I would say your statement is accurate.

 

[Barberakb]

I apologize up front if this sounds mean. With due respect there is no other way to say it without sounding a bit harsh but its not my true intent. So generally speaking here goes it.
How can anyone have more ability than thier HC? In fact it actually reflects the better of ones current ability. I feel i have the ability to par every hole i play when I stand on the tee and i do have that ability. I have pared every single one of the holes at my frequented local home courses many times through the 20 something years. Probably birdied most of them numorous times. I've hit every single club in my bag great an unacountable amount of times through the years. Perfect drives and tee shots, perfect irons and approach shots, perfect pitches, chips, sandies, and putts. I too as does just about anyone have all the ability because we've done it but we dont do it enough and we dont string it together enough times in a row. No matter what the reasons we just dont posess that ability. If we did we would do it. Its like saying if the Queen had a pair she'd be Kiing but she doesnt so she is what she is. My current ability is not better than what my HC would indicate. It couldnt be because thats what it is. If i played and practiced more than i do I would be better but I dont or cant so I'm not better.
Its like i mention earlier when we might say a football team is better than thier record. "Oh if just this and just that didnt or did happen that way" they would be 9&7 instead of 7&9 because they are actually better than that. But truth is they are not. They are what the record indicates. Nothing more and nothing less. Its not a put down at all, its just reality. We are what our scores indicate. Its that simple imo. Hope this wasnt taken personally

Lets agree to disagree... Nothing personal taken.

The OP asked a ? and I answered it. You are not wrong and I am not wrong either.
There is no right answer.

I still stand by my statement. I play ALOT of sports. I like to play ALL of them.
I guarantee you that if I put my mind to it, and only played mostly golf, I could get down to at least a 5 HC. Maybe less.

But I love playing too many things. I have limited time as it is working 50-60 hrs a week in the military and taking care of my family.
So I would rather be decent at many sports than be really good at one. Basketball, softball, bowling, ping pong, golf, racquetball, foosball, soccer etc...

Again, the ? was Do you feel your handicap accurately reflects your ability? And IMO it doesn't.

 

[Tadashi70]

Lets agree to disagree... Nothing personal taken.

The OP asked a ? and I answered it. You are not wrong and I am not wrong either.
There is no right answer.

I still stand by my statement. I play ALOT of sports. I like to play ALL of them.
I guarantee you that if I put my mind to it, and only played mostly golf, I could get down to at least a 5 HC. Maybe less.

But I love playing too many things. I have limited time as it is working 50-60 hrs a week in the military and taking care of my family.
So I would rather be decent at many sports than be really good at one. Basketball, softball, bowling, ping pong, golf, racquetball, foosball, soccer etc...

Again, the ? was Do you feel your handicap accurately reflects your ability? And IMO it doesn't.

So at this time you are not playing like a 12.5 but more like a 5?! I'm confused. It doesn't ask if you practice really hard what could you get down to. It asks if your hdcp, I suspect current, match your ability

 

[Barberakb]

Ok again, it's my opinion. If you disagree that's fine.
But how are you confused?

Straight from dictionary.com
[h=2]a·bil·i·ty[/h] /əˈbɪl

ɪ

ti/ Show Spelled [uh-bil-i-tee] Show IPA noun, plural a·bil·i·ties. 1. power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally, financially, etc.

Capacity
4. actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand. The capacity of the oil well was 150 barrels a day. She has the capacity to go two days without sleep.

For ex: I used to could bench press 295 lbs. Right now I can only bench about 240 lbs.
Can I bench 295 lbs right now. nope.
Do I have the ABILITY to bench press 295 lbs? ABSOLUTELY.
I would have to work out more, eat healthier and train more often. But I have the ABILITY or CAPACITY to do it.

Make more sense?

 

[rbarthle17]

No, you don't have the ability or capacity to bench 295 right now. If you had that ability you'd be doing it. You have the ability and capacity for 240. You may still have the POTENTIAL to get back to 295 with a lot of hard work, but you do not have the ability or capacity to do so at this time.

The golf handicap looks at your recent history and extrapolates what you could REALISTICALLY accomplish. And in this case, you have the game to do no better than a 12.5 until you prove otherwise. Then it adjusts.

Sure you could have the round of your life and shoot what a 5 HDCP shoots one time. But that's an outlier, and not indicative of your current skill level based on hard data. Until you actually do it, and do it multiple times, your handicap won't reflect it. Rightfully so too. I am at a 17 right now. I know that I am working hard and am seeing a lot of improvements in my swing and my shotmaking. But if I go out tomorrow and shoot a 76 (never been under an 85), I would not expect my handicap to suddenly rocket down to a handicap indicative of that score if I only did it one time. ESC is in place to prevent anomalies like blowup holes from making a major dent in your handicap. I would expect that posting a single low score would also likely be taken with a grain of salt until it is backed up.

What you have is a BELIEF that you could shoot like a 5. Belief is a powerful thing and should not be taken lightly either. Your actual results say that you don't have that game right now. You currently do NOT have the ability to play like a 5, based on your actual game at this time. And handicap does not, and should not, be reflective of a person's unproven belief and the various "what if" scenarios that conjures up.

 

[Barberakb]

No, you don't have the ability or capacity to bench 295 right now. If you had that ability you'd be doing it. You have the ability and capacity for 240. You may still have the POTENTIAL to get back to 295 with a lot of hard work, but you do not have the ability or capacity to do so at this time.

The golf handicap looks at your recent history and extrapolates what you could REALISTICALLY accomplish. And in this case, you have the game to do no better than a 12.5 until you prove otherwise. Then it adjusts.

Sure you could have the round of your life and shoot what a 5 HDCP shoots one time. But that's an outlier, and not indicative of your current skill level based on hard data. Until you actually do it, and do it multiple times, your handicap won't reflect it. Rightfully so too. I am at a 17 right now. I know that I am working hard and am seeing a lot of improvements in my swing and my shotmaking. But if I go out tomorrow and shoot a 76 (never been under an 85), I would not expect my handicap to suddenly rocket down to a handicap indicative of that score if I only did it one time. ESC is in place to prevent anomalies like blowup holes from making a major dent in your handicap. I would expect that posting a single low score would also likely be taken with a grain of salt until it is backed up.

What you have is a BELIEF that you could shoot like a 5. Belief is a powerful thing and should not be taken lightly either. Your actual results say that you don't have that game right now. You currently do NOT have the ability to play like a 5, based on your actual game at this time. And handicap does not, and should not, be reflective of a person's unproven belief and the various "what if" scenarios that conjures up.

WOW, am I the only one that can read???

Again, from the dictionary...

[h=2]ca·pac·i·ty[/h] /kəˈpæs

ɪ

ti/ Show Spelled [kuh-pas-i-tee] Show IPA noun, plural ca·pac·i·ties. 1. the ability to receive or contain: This hotel has a large capacity.

2. the maximum amount or number that can be received or contained; cubic contents; volume: The inn is filled to capacity. The gasoline tank has a capacity of 20 gallons.

3. power of receiving impressions, knowledge, etc.; mental ability: the capacity to learn calculus.

4. actual or potential ability to perform, yield, or withstand




[h=2]po·ten·tial[/h] /pəˈtɛn

ʃəl/ Show Spelled [puh-ten-shuh

l] Show IPA adjective 1. possible, as opposed to actual: the potential uses of nuclear energy.

2. capable of being or becoming

 

[Elty McMillan]

Honestly, I think I have the short game of a 5 handicap and the long game of a 15 handicap. I think that I'm terrible off of the tee, and my short game and putting saves me more often than not. When I'm hitting it well off of the tee, good things can happen, but those days are few and far between right now. If I could ever get more accurate off of the tee and with my irons, my cap could drop even further.

This describes me to a T as well, if i could just find even a little consistency off the tee I know I could drop a few strokes of my handicap. #ijustwannahitfromthefairway

 

[c0ncept]

I say no to be honest. Putting has gotten so bad for me recently that I lose at least 8 shots a round inside of 5 feet.

 

[Philly Golf Guy]

I just posted a bunch of scores from the last few weeks and my handicap came back lower than what I feel it should be. I just have too many mis hits on the fairway and am pretty volatile, meaning I go out one day and shoot in the 80's then go out the next day and shoot 100. But I typically play tough courses, driving, putting and short game are strong (for me) and generally have figured out not to hemmorage too bad, so maybe it is a good reflection. I feel I'm close to breaking out though.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Rock28]

I have never officially calculated my handicap before. I downloaded an app and after 5 rounds this year it has me as a 8.3!

i have never broken 80, my rounds this year are 82,86,89,89 and 91. I typically play from the blue tees and haven't played the same course twice this year.

Do you believe this is an accurate gauge of my handicap? I wouldn't consider my self a single digit. I am sure more rounds will reflect a more accurate handicap but I am not sure how it is even calculated.

 

[Fourputt]

I have never officially calculated my handicap before. I downloaded an app and after 5 rounds this year it has me as a 8.3!

i have never broken 80, my rounds this year are 82,86,89,89 and 91. I typically play from the blue tees and haven't played the same course twice this year.

Do you believe this is an accurate gauge of my handicap? I wouldn't consider my self a single digit. I am sure more rounds will reflect a more accurate handicap but I am not sure how it is even calculated.

Yau can't base anything on only 5 rounds. The system only uses the lowest round when it has so few to choose from Even when you get to the full 20 rounds, it only uses the lowest 10. This is the chart which shows how it works:

 

[zeroputt]

Yes you can. If you have five rounds, you use the lowest round, just as the table you posted shows.

Yau can't base anything on only 5 rounds....

 

[Fourputt]

Yes you can. If you have five rounds, you use the lowest round, just as the table you posted shows.

Read the question. He said that he didn't think it accurately reflected his ability, and with only 5 scores that is true. If he had 20 scores, his index would be based on an average of scores which would inevitably be higher than his lowest score, and that is the best way to answer his question. When it's only based on one score, that score could be a personal best which doesn't accurately reflect his potential for handicap purposes.

When calculated on a single score, the index may be pretty close, or it may not even be in the ball park - the system is designed to try and prevent a player from potentially gaining an unfair advantage over players who have a full list of scores. If he gets to 20 scores and the average of the lowest 10 is 85, his handicap index is going to be around 11 or 12, not 8.3 like it is from that one returned score.

 

[Rock28]

Yau can't base anything on only 5 rounds. The system only uses the lowest round when it has so few to choose from Even when you get to the full 20 rounds, it only uses the lowest 10. This is the chart which shows how it works:

Thanks, that chart helps a lot.

 

[SaffaClint]

It reflects my ability at the moment but I know I can, and have played better. Until I begin doing so more regularly it'll stay close to where it is.

 

[Shanep10]

My current index has come down to 3.6 over summer but now winter has set in my index does take into account my winter playing. I only play once a week in winter in tougher conditions compared to summer where I play a few times during week after work on courses which are much more playable. Shame that the handicap system doesn't take into account how many rounds you are playing as my index will not move over winter as it will take too long for good scores to drop off and be replaced by realistic winter scoring. If you averaged my winter scores compared to summer scores for the last few years I would say summer would be 3-4 index and winter 7-8 index.

I play with lots of single figure golfers and think they have much better swings and seem to take the game much more serious than I do but somehow I am on same index and can compete with them. If I practiced more and took game more serious as opposed to just jumping on course straight from car each week I could maybe improve slightly but the amount of work to improve that little extra does not interest me at all.

 

[SaffaClint]

My current index has come down to 3.6 over summer but now winter has set in my index does take into account my winter playing. I only play once a week in winter in tougher conditions compared to summer where I play a few times during week after work on courses which are much more playable. Shame that the handicap system doesn't take into account how many rounds you are playing as my index will not move over winter as it will take too long for good scores to drop off and be replaced by realistic winter scoring. If you averaged my winter scores compared to summer scores for the last few years I would say summer would be 3-4 index and winter 7-8 index.

I play with lots of single figure golfers and think they have much better swings and seem to take the game much more serious than I do but somehow I am on same index and can compete with them. If I practiced more and took game more serious as opposed to just jumping on course straight from car each week I could maybe improve slightly but the amount of work to improve that little extra does not interest me at all.

I'm the same as you bud, I play once a week in winter if I'm lucky but still have no problem shooting even par rounds. I've never taken the game seriously and don't practice. My best friend says I'm the most average good golfer he knows, lol.

 

[Castor Hades]

My app shows my HCP to be 6.9, I suppose it counts all the rounds I've put in there, so it should be accurate, based on 200+ rounds. But my official handicap is 7.3 as I play a lot of rounds alone and there's no one to sign my cards.

If I select it to count USGA handicap it's 7.1.

 

[drp3434]

The point is that your index is doing what it's supposed to do, it's showing your potential. Clearly if you have 2 scores in the 70s, then you have the potential to score in the 70s. That is how the system is supposed to work.

Yau can't base anything on only 5 rounds. The system only uses the lowest round when it has so few to choose from Even when you get to the full 20 rounds, it only uses the lowest 10. This is the chart which shows how it works:

He has a round at 81, so he has the potential to shoot that, no? So his handicap is reflective of his potential...