(ESC) Equitable Stroke Control

[firegolfer]

It really ends up being realtively insignificant when you think about it. Your handicap is only the 10 best of your most recent 20 scores. On top of which, it is slightly better than you 10 best scores so that you are only supposed to shoot better than your handicap around 15-20 percent of the time. So those 1 or 2 times that you take one less stroke per round in a month don't typically amount to much unless you are a scratch golfer trying to pad your scores From what I've heard from my club pro, that is the biggest problem in amatuer golf in utah. We have a ton of great tournaments and good prizes so we have a lot of guys sandbagging to keep them in the win column. Oh well! It's still a great game.

[Dent]

It really ends up being realtively insignificant when you think about it. Your handicap is only the 10 best of your most recent 20 scores. On top of which, it is slightly better than you 10 best scores so that you are only supposed to shoot better than your handicap around 15-20 percent of the time. So those 1 or 2 times that you take one less stroke per round in a month don't typically amount to much

The handicap confuses me, I just get a number and go along with it

[sacm3bill]

I find it odd that the ESC guidelines for players between 10-19 is a max score of 7. It just seems inconsistent that you can make a quadruple bogey on a par 3, but only a double on a par 5.

See

http://www.popeofslope.com/guidelines/jury.html . The article there sheds some light on the old system (which was indeed based on par for each hole), the current system, and the rationale for changing. For example: "We studied several thousand line scores just to see what was happening on the par 3s and found that the scores on those holes have no effect on handicaps. If a golfer has high scores on the par 3s, chances are that score won't count as one of the low 10 of the last 20 anyway."

[iacas]

I think they make rules like "max of 7" so that people can remember the rules easily. They could have been a lot more complex.

[Dent]

I read that its judged based on your course handicap, and not your official handicap. I checked all my courses and each of them are under 9 with the highest being 8.5 so im safe with taking max of double bogey.

[2bGood]

Oh crap I am a sandbagger - I have never used ESC and I know my handicap would a good few strokes lower if I did. Not sure why my club never caught this???

The good news is ten rounds form now I suspect my handicap is going to take a nice dip - bad news is I have to work a bit harder in my money games.

[mdl]

Thanks for pointing out the sandbagging thing guys. I never understood why the hell you would give people strokes (especially ones like me who tend to play lots of pars, good number or bogeys, and a few explosions in a typical round) on their handicap. Makes sens that guys who play lots of local tourneys would want to put a few 9s on their rounds to keep the handicap up...

[MSchumacher]

Anyone know if keepmygolfscore.com uses esc automatically or not?

[Jackemy]

The current ESC is surely not as exact as the old system where your course handicap would determine how many double or triple bogeys you could post in a round for handicap purposes.

I did prefer the old system, but can understand that this system is probably better overall for ease of remembering and consistency when you play a bunch of different courses.