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Playing to your handicap?

OldandStiff said:
Just had a thought.

So a golfer was supposed to play to their cap every 4 or 5 rounds before, typically. Right? Now with the new system using only 8 scores and our potential being better (better caps), has anyone noticed it being any tougher to play to your cap?

Today I played to mine for the 4th time this year. Out of 21 rounds. I've come real close a bunch of other times, but not quite. I've been playing WELL, and it seems with only using 8 my cap kind of improves faster than my ability to play to it.


So how often are you playing to your cap this year, and do you feel it's any different than years past?
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I'm definitely struggling this year so far, but I have a feeling it's going to come together soon. I doubt I've played to my handicap even once this year, but if I did it was by the skin of my teeth. Last summer, I hit a stretch where I may have played at or below my handicap 7-8 times in 20 rounds, but that was short lived.
 
I kept track of this few years ago. This was long before the new handicap format was introduced. At the time, I was hitting my number 23% of the time during a year's worth of playing for a score. I assume this was a decent percentage, and showed some consistency in my game

It's been a while so correct me as needed, but playing to one's handicap involves adding the handicap number to the course rating. Example would be a 15 capper, playing a 70 rated course would have a target score of 85. Is this correct?

If/when I ever get to start playing again on a regular basis, I will do it again using my new format number.
 
WLG1952 said:
I kept track of this few years ago. This was long before the new handicap format was introduced. At the time, I was hitting my number 23% of the time during a year's worth of playing for a score. I assume this was a decent percentage, and showed some consistency in my game

It's been a while so correct me as needed, but playing to one's handicap involves adding the handicap number to the course rating. Example would be a 15 capper, playing a 70 rated course would have a target score of 85. Is this correct?

If/when I ever get to start playing again on a regular basis, I will do it again using my new format number.
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Something like that, but I think there's more that goes into it.
 
This early in the season and no practice available, I am nowhere near playing to my cap.
I did notice yesterday that my handicap dropped from 4.9 at the end of last year, to 4.6.
How can that happen when I haven't posted a score close to my cap yet this year?
 
I have played to my cap 3 of 8 times this year.
 
Drumdog said:
This early in the season and no practice available, I am nowhere near playing to my cap.
I did notice yesterday that my handicap dropped from 4.9 at the end of last year, to 4.6.
How can that happen when I haven't posted a score close to my cap yet this year?
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8 scores instead of 10.
 
OldandStiff said:
Ya. I feel like I have to flirt with a PB to do it on some days.
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Honest question here, why is that? Is that because the lower (higher) your handicap gets, the less fluctuation there is in the differentials and one stroke off a PB might not even be at the level of your handicap?
 
I don’t know how many rounds I have played this year, because I play by myself quite a bit and those rounds are not recorded. However, of my last 20 recorded scores, I have played to or bettered my index 4 times. That seems about right, given that 8 scores are used. If 4 are below and 4 are above, it should average to about where your index is. If I don’t make some drastic improvement soon, I will be playing above my index and I mean way above.
 
OGputtnfool said:
Honest question here, why is that? Is that because the lower (higher) your handicap gets, the less fluctuation there is in the differentials and one stroke off a PB might not even be at the level of your handicap?
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I honestly don't know. Kind of, yeah. I've just started pondering some of this. I think it's similar to how people talk about it getting harder and harder to improve your cap as it gets lower. About a week or two ago my cap was a number I had only shot a better differential than 3 times since I started playing again I think, at that time. And only once this actual year. So it doesn't feel like 'potential' as much as 'at my absolute best'. I still get plenty of fluctuation in differentials. I had a positive one about 4 rounds ago, and an 8 point swing within a few, but my cap just feels pressed against the ceiling. I've mostly stopped worrying about even trying to play to it, and am just pleasantly surprised when I do. Keeps going down (up) though, so :confused2:.
 
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Your handicap has never been indicative of you average score it has always been indicative of good golf. The combination using your 8 (formally 10) best and taking 96% of the differential results in your handicap being lower than your average score. With the change to 8 rounds instead of 10 it gets a bit more difficult. You always had to play well to play to your handicap and now you have to play a bit better.

Better golfers play to their handicap more often than higher handicap golfers this is due to there generally being less fluctuation in their scores.
 
OldandStiff said:
I honestly don't know. Kind of, yeah. I've just started pondering some of this. I think it's similar to how people talk about it getting harder and harder to improve your cap as it gets lower. About a week or two ago my cap was a number I had only shot a better differential than 3 times since I started playing again I think, at that time. And only once this actual year. So it doesn't feel like 'potential' as much as 'at my absolute best'. I still get plenty of fluctuation in differentials. I had a positive one about 4 rounds ago, and an 8 point swing within a few, but my cap just feels pressed against the ceiling. I've mostly stopped worrying about even trying to play to it, and am just pleasantly surprised when I do. Keeps going down (up) though, so :confused2:.
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That makes a whole bunch of sense. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts instead of snark and giphys like some like to do. o_O:eek:
 
In truth GHIN was never meant for you to shot your handicap most of time. You only used the best 10 of 20 so if you shot your handicap it too would go down, now you only use the best 8 pretty tough to consistently hit it.
 
One important point is that you are referring to your course handicap and not your index. My home course is a 73.1/144 and talking about course handicap is quite different than index.
At a 5.4, I think I am a course 8. Shooting 77 is way different for me than shooting 80!
 
When they had the cups raised I was playing better than my cap on almost every round. Now they are back to being upside down and my scores reflect this.


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OldandStiff said:
efore, typically. Right? Now with the new system using only 8 scores and our potential being better (better caps), has anyone noticed it being any tougher to play to your cap?

Today I played to mine for the 4th time this year. Out of 21 round
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I think it's a little harder to shoot my cap than it was before. But my cap is going up up and away...so it's slowly getting easier again.
 
Drumdog said:
This early in the season and no practice available, I am nowhere near playing to my cap.
I did notice yesterday that my handicap dropped from 4.9 at the end of last year, to 4.6.
How can that happen when I haven't posted a score close to my cap yet this year?
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because the new system is going to drop caps (especially more so for mid to high ones).
Imo one the main reason the whole thing was done was to help the sandbagging and also to get more winners from the lower HC pools. As a result what it has done or will be doing is drop caps and especially make the mid and higher caps much too difficult by dropping them down too much.
Were it not for the virus I was anticipating many more rounds for most folks and perhaps by now seeing the caps of mid and higher cappers drop significantly enough even though the play has stayed similar,
 
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