Way too good to be true, what am I missing?

[finitesoup]

Hey all,

The coronavirus got me back into golf after a long break. I've been playing nine holes almost every evening since May.

I mostly play alone, so I have been using my handicap from when I last played and I've been keeping strict score.

I just entered my last 20 rounds into a World Handicap System calculator and it's saying my index is 11.7, which is way better than I ever was before. Have I made a mistake somewhere? Would love an extra set of eyes or two on this.

Golf Handicap Calculator

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Two free calculators for computing a golf player's course handicap and the player's World Handicap System (WHS) handicap index based on their past scores. In addition, explore hundreds of other calculators addressing...

is the site where I've entered my scores.

Cheers.

 

[Vinsk]

@DaveP043.....

[DaveP043]

It looks to me that the website you're using is treating your 9-hole scores as 18s, and averaging the best 8 differentials.  You might try it by manually adding the scores to make nine 18-hole totals and see what you come up with.

[colin007]

Yeah my 9 hole caps, if extrapolated to 18, would result in a much lower cap. I can shoot low (for me) 9 hole rounds, but it's much harder to string them together for 18.

Edited June 23, 2020 by colin007

[Darkfrog]

Something similar happened to me two years ago. I played frequent 9 hole rounds after work in summer, and was scoring between 40-45. When I played 18, I was regularly shooting in the 90-100 range. Over that summer, I think my handicap dropped from around 23 to 18. Once winter came around and I didn't have daylight after work to play, my handicap slowly returned to the low 20s.

[Cantankerish]

I use that website to track my handicap.  (It does not account for playing conditions or ESC) But beyond that, I analyzed it up and down and independently checked with a phone app in early 2019.  It is accurate as far as I can tell.  But I never play 9 holes.  I recommend taking Dave’s idea.

[Club Rat]

  On 6/23/2020 at 3:03 PM, finitesoup said:

Have I made a mistake somewhere?

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No Mistake, here is your link showing the Average Differential.
Basically, I see the rating and slope being very low.
Is this an Executive Course ?  Also, what is Par for the Nine holes you are playing.
If you play an 18 hole course, the rating is different for the front and back.
And, I'm not sure if the new software "Combines 9 hole Scores anymore" It used to.  

As an example, I changed the Rating and Slope to a more difficult rated course, which shows a Diff "7" on a score of 44.

[DaveP043]

  On 6/23/2020 at 10:53 PM, Club Rat said:

No Mistake, here is your link showing the Average Differential.
Basically, I see the rating and slope being very low.
Is this an Executive Course ?  Also, what is Par for the Nine holes you are playing.
If you play an 18 hole course, the rating is different for the front and back.
And, I'm not sure if the new software "Combines 9 hole Scores anymore" It used to.  

Expand  

I took this to be a moderately easy 9-hole course, and the scores were each for 9 holes.  The resulting handicap is for 9 holes.  Double the number, and you'd get 23.4 for 18.  The new USGA systems (GHIN or any other) do combine 9-hole scores in the order in which they are played, but I'm not sure that online calculator recognizes them as 9-hole scores.

[Club Rat]

  On 6/23/2020 at 11:13 PM, DaveP043 said:

but I'm not sure that online calculator recognizes them as 9-hole scores.

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Interesting, Never even crossed my mind it would calculate an index for only 9 holes.

I'll go into the calculator and enter either combined scores or several 18 hole scores similar to his scores and check the outcome.
Guess I could copy his scores to another calculator and see if it come up with the similar results.

[billchao]

  On 6/23/2020 at 10:53 PM, Club Rat said:

No Mistake, here is your link showing the Average Differential.
Basically, I see the rating and slope being very low.
Is this an Executive Course ?  Also, what is Par for the Nine holes you are playing.
If you play an 18 hole course, the rating is different for the front and back.
And, I'm not sure if the new software "Combines 9 hole Scores anymore" It used to.  

As an example, I changed the Rating and Slope to a more difficult rated course, which shows a Diff "7" on a score of 44.

Expand  

I think you've misunderstood the OP. @finitesoup is wondering why his handicap is so low, and the reason is because it's a 9-hole handicap calculation.

  On 6/23/2020 at 3:03 PM, finitesoup said:

Hey all,

The coronavirus got me back into golf after a long break. I've been playing nine holes almost every evening since May.

I mostly play alone, so I have been using my handicap from when I last played and I've been keeping strict score.

I just entered my last 20 rounds into a World Handicap System calculator and it's saying my index is 11.7, which is way better than I ever was before. Have I made a mistake somewhere? Would love an extra set of eyes or two on this.

Golf Handicap Calculator

---

Two free calculators for computing a golf player's course handicap and the player's World Handicap System (WHS) handicap index based on their past scores. In addition, explore hundreds of other calculators addressing...

is the site where I've entered my scores.

Cheers.

 

Expand  

This handicap calculator is bad. Or out of date. I combined your 9-hole rounds into 18-hole rounds and used it to calculate your index, which gave me 27.8... but that's because it's using the average of the lowest 8 differentials, which is incorrect. There are 10 18-hole differentials, which means your index is calculated based on the average of the lowest 3 differentials, which is 24.4.

[Used2PlayALot]

His average round for 9 holes is 48.  Par is 36.  So, he is averaging +12.

If you take the 10 best of his last 20, average round is 45, which is +9.

+11 handicap seems right in the correct range.

Not seeing what the issue is, and it's certainly not anywhere near 100% off 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Used2PlayALot

[billchao]

  On 6/24/2020 at 2:18 AM, Used2PlayALot said:

His average round for 9 holes is 48.  Par is 36.  So, he is averaging +12.

If you take the 10 best of his last 20, average round is 45, which is +9.

+11 handicap seems right in the correct range.

Not seeing what the issue is, and it's certainly not anywhere near 100% off 

Expand  

That's not how to calculate a handicap index.

[finitesoup]

  On 6/23/2020 at 10:53 PM, Club Rat said:

Basically, I see the rating and slope being very low.
Is this an Executive Course ?  Also, what is Par for the Nine holes you are playing.

Expand  

It is the shorter/easier 9 hole course at our club. Not sure if it would be considered an Executive Course as it does have a par 5 and 4 par 4s. Par is 33. I was actually wondering why the calculator didn't ask for par as in my understanding it's necessary for the new WHS.

[Club Rat]

@finitesoup  here is another site to try - https://www.free-online-calculator-use.com/golf-handicap-calculator.html

Keep in mind you will need to make any necessary adjustment to scores over "Net - Double Bogey" when entering total scores.
Below I enter your scores and here is the result. Note scores were combined in the calculation.

Also, when playing at a nine hole course, you receive half of you Index for a course handicap.
I'm guessing in your OP, you thought the Index was an 18 hole Index? 

  On 6/23/2020 at 3:03 PM, finitesoup said:

it's saying my index is 11.7

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[finitesoup]

  On 6/24/2020 at 11:11 AM, Club Rat said:

@finitesoup  here is another site to try - https://www.free-online-calculator-use.com/golf-handicap-calculator.html

Keep in mind you will need to make any necessary adjustment to scores over "Net - Double Bogey" when entering total scores.
Below I enter your scores and here is the result. Note scores were combined in the calculation.

Also, when playing at a nine hole course, you receive half of you Index for a course handicap.
I'm guessing in your OP, you thought the Index was an 18 hole Index? 

 

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I did think it was an 18 hole index, makes much more sense that it's for 9 holes.

Thanks everyone for helping me figure it out.

[billchao]

  On 6/24/2020 at 4:41 AM, finitesoup said:

I was actually wondering why the calculator didn't ask for par as in my understanding it's necessary for the new WHS.

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The calculator you used was for calculating your handicap index. Par is only needed for calculating your course handicap.

[Used2PlayALot]

His average round for 9 holes is 48.  Par is 33.  So, he is averaging +15.
If you take the 10 best of his last 20, average round is 45, which is +12.
If you double that for 18 holes, he is around +24
 

[DaveP043]

  On 6/24/2020 at 3:14 PM, Used2PlayALot said:

His average round for 9 holes is 48.  Par is 33.  So, he is averaging +15.
If you take the 10 best of his last 20, average round is 45, which is +12.
If you double that for 18 holes, he is around +24
 

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Remember, under the current rules, we only use the best 8 of the last 20.  And we use Differentials, the raw score times 113/Slope.  But yeah, its somewhere around 24.