What Is Your Anti-Handicap?

[hawkeye]

what is this?

i read a couple of posts in "Goals 2008" where people have mentioned it.

[Shindig]

what is this?

Compute your handicap, but use the ten worst of the last twenty instead of the ten best. This is your anti-handicap. The closer it is to your handicap, the more consistent of a player you are, the theory goes.

[hawkeye]

sounds interesting.

is it any use apart from a statistic on consistency?

[n3xt]

If you want an even greater discussion of the anti handicap, check out Dean Knuth's informative website www.popeofslope.com . Dean was instrumental in the defining of the USGA handicap system and offers a great insight into hadicap theory as well as history and practice.

DC

[hawkeye]

Compute your handicap, but use the ten worst of the last twenty instead of the ten best. This is your anti-handicap. The closer it is to your handicap, the more consistent of a player you are, the theory goes.

Is that how you work out your handicap? 10 best of last 20 scores? if I did that my handicap would be 4.1 and my anti-handicap would be 7.2 thanks for the info again!

If you want an even greater discussion of the anti handicap, check out Dean Knuth's informative website

Thanks - this is very interesting! Found this:

Anti-handicap addresses the shakiness quotient.

thought that was a nice way of describing it!

USGA is very different to R&A; over here - i'd say my handicap would be a couple shots lower if I used USGA methods all the time.

[Eore]

another fun consistancy drill is worst ball.

jst a question...what is the difference between handicap and index?

[Shindig]

Is that how you work out your handicap? 10 best of last 20 scores?

That isn't quite how it works - there's a .96 factor in there somewhere. That's why I use a handicapping service instead of hand-computing it. But it's roughly correct. We also have slope ratings, which I understand are absent from the R&A; system. A course rating of X denotes a scratch player having an expected score there of X ; this is a point (0,X) on a line representing (handicap, expected score) - the slope rating / 113 (or 117, I forget which) is the slope of the line.

[n3xt]

Eore,
From (an old) USGA handicap book:

Handicap Index is the USGA's service mark used to indicate a measurement of a player's potential ability on a course of standard playing difficulty. It is expressed as a number taken to one decimal place, and is used for conversion to a Course Handicap

Course Handicap is the USGA's mark that indicates the number of handicap strokes a player receives from a specific set of tees at the course being played to adjust his scoring ability to a level of scratch or 0-handicap golf. For a player with a plus Course Handicap, it is the number of handicap strokes the player gives to adjust his scoring ability to the level of scratch or 0-handicap golf. A Course Handicap is determined by applying the player's USGA Handicap Index to a Course Handicap Table or Course Handicap Formula. A player's course Handicap is expressed as a whole number of strokes.

The way to calculate your Course Handicap (H) from your Handicap index for a certain set of tees is to take your Handicap Index (i) multiplied by the slope of the tees you are playing from (s) and divided by 113 (avg slope).

H = (i * s / 113)

So if I have a Handicap Index of 27.3 and if the Blue Tees for the course I am playing on have a slope of 125. My course Handicap would be:

27.3 * 125 / 113 = 30 strokes for 18 holes.


Hope that helps,

DC

[iacas]

Compute your handicap, but use the ten worst of the last twenty instead of the ten best. This is your anti-handicap. The closer it is to your handicap, the more consistent of a player you are, the theory goes.

I feel compelled to point out that your anti-handicap is one of the many statistics

Scorecard can calculate for you. Click the ads on this forum to learn how to save 20%. Hurry, too, as the offer ends... around the end of February.

[DBake]

I feel compelled to point out that your anti-handicap is one of the many statistics

lol, nice plug....

[hawkeye]

yeah i read the 0.96 multiplier and also the slope rating. Interesting way of doing things.

Instead of "slope" we have a "standard scratch" - if standard scratch is 70 and I shoot 69 nett - i lose 0.1 (being category 1, handicap <5). If I don't play in a competition I use the standard scratch on the card (all cards have it, it's determined by sample rounds when the course is opened, perhaps by pro's?)

If I play in a competition - the standard scratch is determined by the top 30 nett scores and some average of that is taken.

It's good because if the course conditions are difficult (rain, wind etc) the standard scratch reflects that.

I'm going to keep track of my anti-handicap now to see if I can improve my consistency.

thanks guys

[MrSandman]

Couple of questions for people regarding anti-handicap:

1. What is your handicap;
2. What is your anti-handicap;
3. How long have you been at your current handicap (or around that mark);
4. Have you made any significant improvements in your handicap recently.


And somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think that the way to calculate the anti-handicap is to look at your ghin page, take your 10 non-* scores, find the average diff., and multiply by 0.96. (Or you can use that scorecard program)


And for those who follow anti-handicaps, what is your view as to the desired difference between handicap and anti-handicap? Obviously you want it as close as possible, so your bad rounds are not far off from your good rounds. But what would you consider to be a large gap between handicap and anti-handicap? At what point would you label a player as "inconsistent at their handicap" or "average for their handicap" or "very consistent at their handicap"?

[Fourputt]

Couple of questions for people regarding anti-handicap:

USGA handicap index is 11.5 (home course handicap 12)

Anti-Handicap (by this formula) is 13.9 (home course handicap 15) This is the first I've ever heard of this, but if your formula is right (and it should be close enough for a good comparison), then my anti handicap is 3 strokes higher than my real one. My stroke average for anti is 87.4, average for handicap is 82.5, and the average for all 20 scores is 84.9 (highest score is 91, lowest is 78). The only discrepancy I can see is that in figuring the anti-handicap this way, you don't take into consideration the slope and rating of the various courses you've played. Mine would be a bit closer if the entire handicap formula was applied to the anti scores as well. I used the course rating for my home course for the differential in my calculation as the results were quite skewed when I just used par 72.

[MrSandman]

The GHIN takes into account the slope rating in their diff. category on your handicap page.

So I think that would make you a very consistent 11.5 handicap. Your anti-handicap is actually lower than my anti-handicap, but my actual handicap is almost 4 strokes lower than your handicap.

How long have you been an 11? My theory is that people who have a quality anti-handicap compared to their actual handicap have been playing at their handicap for a while. They are consistent at that number, their normal rounds don't vary too much from good to bad, but their good rounds don't necessarily go low. As opposed to somebody who has made a jump in their handicap, and their good rounds are now better, but they still have some inconsistencies that cause them to play like their old handicap.

[iacas]

1. Handicap: 2.9
2. Anti-handicap: 6.0
3. How long: About a year or two
4. Improvements: No. Went up 0.5 or so.

And yes, when calculating your differentials, the slope and course rating are used. Also yes, Scorecard tracks your anti-handicap.

[Fourputt]

The GHIN takes into account the slope rating in their diff. category on your handicap page.

My cap has been fairly stable since about midsummer last year 13.2 high and 11.5 low). At 11.5 it's the lowest it's been in about 12 years, but I went through some injury problems that ballooned it to over 18 for several years. Now I just struggle to keep it in the 12-13 range as my body starts to show its age (61).

[meenman]

1. handicap is currently 32.7
2. anti-handicap is 36.9
3. Slowly dropping with every new update every 2 weeks
4. Started with a 40.4L the first of the year and it has gone down every new update and will continue to at least through the next update.

[doublesuited77]

mine's a bit further apart-- 3.9 vs. 10.4.

however alot of my anti-handicap rounds are ones where I am not playing "smart" golf. Often, i'll be playing match play or skins against friends where i am giving up a ton of strokes and play much more aggressively than i would if it were stroke play.