How to Handicap a 12 Member, With a Partner, Scramble League?

[edju1749]

We have 12 senior golfers, and we have a scramble league. You get a different partner each week. We have a 14-week season. We use senior tees. Our problem is finding a handicap, that will be acceptable. We've been at this for several years. How would you handicap this league?

[iacas]

A lot of groups just add the handicaps together and divide by two. Basically, your average handicap.

That doesn't always feel quite right, because theoretically if you have a scratch and an 18 playing together, that'd give them a 9… which the scratch player should be able to beat almost every time by himself. This can work if everyone's handicap is pretty close, but…

A better way is often to take 35% of the lower handicap and 15% of the higher handicap, then combine these to determine the team's overall handicap for the tournament.

You can also do things like require that each player's tee shot be used on at least three holes.

(Three holes assumes it's a nine-hole league. If it's 18 holes, maybe require it on 6 of the 18 holes.)

[edju1749]

12 hours ago, iacas said:

A lot of groups just add the handicaps together and divide by two. Basically, your average handicap.

That doesn't always feel quite right, because theoretically if you have a scratch and an 18 playing together, that'd give them a 9… which the scratch player should be able to beat almost every time by himself. This can work if everyone's handicap is pretty close, but…

A better way is often to take 35% of the lower handicap and 15% of the higher handicap, then combine these to determine the team's overall handicap for the tournament.

You can also do things like require that each player's tee shot be used on at least three holes.

(Three holes assumes it's a nine-hole league. If it's 18 holes, maybe require it on 6 of the 18 holes.)

Thank you iacas! Interesting take on 35% on Lower Hdcp and 15% on higher Hdcp. Two questions. Why did you choose 35% & 15%? What would I do with tied Hdcp? Right now I'm just adding the two Hdcp. and dividing by 2. We have just 2 golfers with a low Hdcp. The other 10 golfers are very similar. With what I'm doing now, the highest Hdcp. difference, in a match, is 8 once and 7 twice, Again, Thank you very much!

[iacas]

12 minutes ago, edju1749 said:

Thank you iacas! Interesting take on 35% on Lower Hdcp and 15% on higher Hdcp. Two questions. Why did you choose 35% & 15%? What would I do with tied Hdcp? Right now I'm just adding the two Hdcp. and dividing by 2. We have just 2 golfers with a low Hdcp. The other 10 golfers are very similar. With what I'm doing now, the highest Hdcp. difference, in a match, is 8 once and 7 twice, Again, Thank you very much!

If they have the same handicap it doesn't matter what you take 35% and 15% of.

If you have two low handicaps, averaging them is generally unwise as I said in my first response: a scratch and an 18 would get 9 strokes, which is silly given that one of the players is scratch.

[DaveP043]

On 4/23/2025 at 8:59 AM, edju1749 said:

Thank you iacas! Interesting take on 35% on Lower Hdcp and 15% on higher Hdcp. Two questions. Why did you choose 35% & 15%? What would I do with tied Hdcp? Right now I'm just adding the two Hdcp. and dividing by 2. We have just 2 golfers with a low Hdcp. The other 10 golfers are very similar. With what I'm doing now, the highest Hdcp. difference, in a match, is 8 once and 7 twice, Again, Thank you very much!

To add to @iacas , the 35/15 split is what the USGA and the World Handicap System recommend for 2-ball scrambles.  See Appendix C here:

Rules of Handicapping