Differential vs Course Handicap

[xrayvizhen]

I'm the commissioner of a golf league and am often asked about why someone's handicap is this or that or why it's going down or why it's not going up. Those kinds of questions can easily explain but this one has me struggling to come up with a logical answer. I understand the formulas to calculate the course differential for individual rounds, the handicap index that results after averaging the best 8 differentials of the most recent 20 rounds and finding the course handicap for an individual round. What I don’t understand is the logic. Here’s an example:

Suppose a golfer plays the same course all the time. Let’s say it’s a Par-4, the Course Index is 68.4 and the Slope is 124. If someone shoots an 82, assuming no adjustment, the differential for that round would be (82-68.4) X (113/124) =12.4.

Let’s further assume the average differential of his best 8 rounds is also 12.4.

Now, if he goes back to that same golf course, his Course Handicap will be 12.4 X (124/113)+(68.4-72) = 10.

I understand the math...that's pretty simple. I don’t understand the logic. Why aren’t they the same?

[iacas]

Because of the 68.4-72 part. If he shoots 10 over par (his course handicap), he will have shot his index.

You don't factor par in when you calculate the differential, but you do when you calculate the course handicap. That's where the difference comes in.

It works symmetrically: guy shoots 82 and gets a 12.4. Guy plays off a 12.4 and… has to shoot 82.

[DaveP043]

10 hours ago, xrayvizhen said:

I'm the commissioner of a golf league and am often asked about why someone's handicap is this or that or why it's going down or why it's not going up. Those kinds of questions can easily explain but this one has me struggling to come up with a logical answer. I understand the formulas to calculate the course differential for individual rounds, the handicap index that results after averaging the best 8 differentials of the most recent 20 rounds and finding the course handicap for an individual round. What I don’t understand is the logic. Here’s an example:

Suppose a golfer plays the same course all the time. Let’s say it’s a Par-4, the Course Index is 68.4 and the Slope is 124. If someone shoots an 82, assuming no adjustment, the differential for that round would be (82-68.4) X (113/124) =12.4.

Let’s further assume the average differential of his best 8 rounds is also 12.4.

Now, if he goes back to that same golf course, his Course Handicap will be 12.4 X (124/113)+(68.4-72) = 10.

I understand the math...that's pretty simple. I don’t understand the logic. Why aren’t they the same?

In the old days, pre-2020, "playing to your handicap" meant a net score about equal to the Course Rating.  that led to problems when people played against each other from different tees, people playing tees with a lower CR would generally shoot lower scores.  Course Handicaps were adjusted for each competition to make it even, usually lowering the course handicap for the "forward tee" players. So now if you "play to your handicap", the (68.4-72) term means your score will be even par, no matter which tees you play from.  No adjustment needed for people playing from different tees.  Look at your example, the guy shoots 82 every time, his Course Handicap of 10 gives him an even par net score every time.

[xrayvizhen]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

Because of the 68.4-72 part. If he shoots 10 over par (his course handicap), he will have shot his index.

You don't factor par in when you calculate the differential, but you do when you calculate the course handicap. That's where the difference comes in.

It works symmetrically: guy shoots 82 and gets a 12.4. Guy plays off a 12.4 and… has to shoot 82.

Telling guys who don't carry "official" handicaps, who have never even looked at the USGA website, that the number they see from the league is their "Index" and not really the number of strokes they get for any particular round and instead, it's the number used to calculate the number of strokes they get, it just makes their eyes glaze over and then they complain to me, "that doesn't make any sense." These are not dumbbells either. (Well, some are.) For the most part they run insurance agencies, they're accountants, doctors, lawyers, etc. I'm just trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.  

Maybe I'll just give them the formula and have them figure it out on their own so they know why their "handicap" was what it was on a round just completed and what it will be next week. Either that and just not mention anything about the "Index" and just give them their course handicaps, both for the current round and for the round that follows.

 

 

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, xrayvizhen said:

Telling guys who don't carry "official" handicaps, who have never even looked at the USGA website, that the number they see from the league is their "Index" and not really the number of strokes they get for any particular round and instead, it's the number used to calculate the number of strokes they get, it just makes their eyes glaze over and then they complain to me, "that doesn't make any sense."

Okay, so… what do you want then? The explanations from both Dave and I are accurate.

3 minutes ago, xrayvizhen said:

These are not dumbbells either. (Well, some are.) For the most part they run insurance agencies, they're accountants, doctors, lawyers, etc. I'm just trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.

I find that the truth is generally the best explanation. Or, if everyone plays the same tees, just post the course handicap.

If they're not dumbbells, give them the info. Educate them a little. They can take it — they're adults.

[saevel25]

Some people learn in different ways. I am a big visual learner. I like to see it, work with it, figure stuff out myself. 

If people are upset, odds are they are not going to listen or be in the mental state to learn the facts. It might be something left as an email or meeting on a different day. 

[GolfLug]

2 hours ago, xrayvizhen said:

 I'm just trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.  

Tell them they get full handicap strokes only if CR for their tees is same as par. For easier tees (CR lower than par), they get less than their handicap and vice versa. Those are the rules and apply to everone. Unless they are total dumbbells, that's about as simple as it gets.

[Carl3]

20 minutes ago, GolfLug said:

Tell them they get full handicap strokes only if CR for their tees is same as par. For easier tees (CR lower than par), they get less than their handicap and vice versa. Those are the rules and apply to everone. Unless they are total dumbbells, that's about as simple as it gets.

Yes, I have seen this from the older crowd that play the 4,700 yard tees and want to know why they get less strokes from there. Always trying to game the system 🤣

[Ty_Webb]

23 hours ago, xrayvizhen said:

Telling guys who don't carry "official" handicaps, who have never even looked at the USGA website, that the number they see from the league is their "Index" and not really the number of strokes they get for any particular round and instead, it's the number used to calculate the number of strokes they get, it just makes their eyes glaze over and then they complain to me, "that doesn't make any sense." These are not dumbbells either. (Well, some are.) For the most part they run insurance agencies, they're accountants, doctors, lawyers, etc. I'm just trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.  

Maybe I'll just give them the formula and have them figure it out on their own so they know why their "handicap" was what it was on a round just completed and what it will be next week. Either that and just not mention anything about the "Index" and just give them their course handicaps, both for the current round and for the round that follows.

I might be inclined to try to figure out what is bothering them. Is it that their index is 12 but they're only getting 10 strokes? If that's the case then I think I would just point out that their handicap is being adjusted for the difference between par and the course rating. It's adjusting for this course being easier than typical for the par. Course rating being roughly what a scratch should shoot on a good day and par being the sum of the numbers on the card.

The whole concoction (which Erik and Dave explained already) is simply a way to get everyone to play on an even playing field. So if everyone plays to their handicap, then they'll all have the same net score. The adjustments are there mainly for those instances where something more complicated is happening like playing different sets of tees, but still apply otherwise. It's also easiest to say "your handicap index is 12.4, which means you should shoot 10 over par to play to your handicap" rather than "your handicap index is 12.4, which means you should shoot 12.4 over the course rating after adjusting for the slope", which is a whole lot of gobbledygook to people who don't know how the system works.

[iacas]

6 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

I might be inclined to try to figure out what is bothering them. Is it that their index is 12 but they're only getting 10 strokes? If that's the case then I think I would just point out that their handicap is being adjusted for the difference between par and the course rating. It's adjusting for this course being easier than typical for the par. Course rating being roughly what a scratch should shoot on a good day and par being the sum of the numbers on the card.

The whole concoction (which Erik and Dave explained already) is simply a way to get everyone to play on an even playing field. So if everyone plays to their handicap, then they'll all have the same net score. The adjustments are there mainly for those instances where something more complicated is happening like playing different sets of tees, but still apply otherwise. It's also easiest to say "your handicap index is 12.4, which means you should shoot 10 over par to play to your handicap" rather than "your handicap index is 12.4, which means you should shoot 12.4 over the course rating after adjusting for the slope", which is a whole lot of gobbledygook to people who don't know how the system works.

Heck, to add on to that, point out to them that a scratch golfer has to shoot 68 to stay a scratch golfer, and their course handicap is +4!

[xrayvizhen]

Of course, what I also should have asked is "what handicap should be used in a league? The "Course Handicap" or the "Playing Handicap" and if the latter, what allowance should be made for non-elite stroke play competition? (95% of C.H.? 90%? or forget about the playing handicap altogether?

[iacas]

1 hour ago, xrayvizhen said:

Of course, what I also should have asked is "what handicap should be used in a league? The "Course Handicap" or the "Playing Handicap" and if the latter, what allowance should be made for non-elite stroke play competition? (95% of C.H.? 90%? or forget about the playing handicap altogether?

https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/handicapping/world-handicap-system/world-handicap-system-usga-golf-faqs/faqs---calculate-course-handicap-and-playing-handicap.html

That's up to you and the league. You can do a percentage, or just do 100%.

If they're already salty about a 12.4 becoming a 10… I don't know that docking it to an 8 with 80% will go over all that well.

---

If the higher handicaps are winning way too often, a percentage is often warranted. It affects them more than the low handicappers (22 x .2 = 4.4, 2.2 x .2 = 0.44).

[Maroon88]

On 7/27/2025 at 12:53 PM, xrayvizhen said:

Telling guys who don't carry "official" handicaps, who have never even looked at the USGA website, that the number they see from the league is their "Index" and not really the number of strokes they get for any particular round and instead, it's the number used to calculate the number of strokes they get, it just makes their eyes glaze over and then they complain to me, "that doesn't make any sense." These are not dumbbells either. (Well, some are.) For the most part they run insurance agencies, they're accountants, doctors, lawyers, etc. I'm just trying to come up with the simplest explanation possible.  

Maybe I'll just give them the formula and have them figure it out on their own so they know why their "handicap" was what it was on a round just completed and what it will be next week. Either that and just not mention anything about the "Index" and just give them their course handicaps, both for the current round and for the round that follows.

 

 

I tell these "non-dumbells" their index is used to determine their course Handicap.  Then ask them "wouldn't you expect to shoot better from closer tees than farther back/harder tees?"  Then tell them that is why it's different.  Some guys get it, most don't.

[RickK]

I was president of a golf league for 20+ years (yes I was that stupid) during which time the WHS came into play.  Both before and after WHS, "why is my handicap today this?" was a common question.  In a lot of cases, they knew the answer, just did not like it.  We also were a co-ed league thus we not only had people under 55 playing from one set of tees, guys over 55 playing from another set, and women playing from yet a different set of tees.  

I think WHS made it a lot easier to explain but the question still arose frequently.  I think every explanation given on this thread has been on point.  My canned answer became, we do handicaps based upon USGA rules for handicapping.  We play all events based upon USGA Rules of Golf and we utilize USGA handicaps.  We never used a percentage of a player's handicap.  Always their full course handicap.  Our membership has been pretty consistent so the handicap complaints are not as often as they used to be.  The biggest gripe these days is when they have their handicap for the tees being played and for whatever reason the golf course has moved the tee markers closer to the next tee box back thus lengthening many holes and in a way distorting what their handicap should be.  In one event recently, 8 of 18 tee boxes were not where the scorecard and course rating indicated they should be.  The complaints from the Seniors was loud but we don't know how the course is setup before we tee off.  

 

[M2R]

I did handicap for a league for a short time but eventually we just required everyone to have a GHIN account/handicap.

This is how I think of the system, although maybe not simple in my brain at least it seems clear.

---

Handicap index is a universal and portable number, because ever posted score is indexed (standardized) as if were shot from a theoretical standard course instead of the actual tees used.

If the actual tees played were more difficult than the "standard", the score gets adjusted down. And the reverse if actual tees were easier, score gets adjusted up.

And extreme example, two scores of 81, one from the back tees at Bethpage Black and one from my local course front tees. For index purposes the Bethpage 81 gets adjusted down to a "standard" course score of 73.16. My local course 81 by contrast gets adjusted up to an 84.95 standardized score. 

To look at it another way the indexing process exposes the true scoring difference (score differential) between their 81 and my 81. Their 81 was in reality 11.79 strokes better than my 81.

To get a course handicap, the "standardization" applied in the index process is reversed. The index number is converted back into a tee specific number by giving back or taking away strokes taken or added by the indexing process.

Same example as above but this time assuming 10 index players instead of 10 over par scores. Bethpage player course handicap becomes 21 and my local course handicap becomes 6.

[boil3rmak3r]

Yeah, most golfers have no understanding of how golf is truly handicapped.

I am a 6.9 hdcp and play from tees that are rated at 70.8/126.  I have seniors that are 20 hdcps and they want to do a money game with me giving them 13 strokes.  Their tees rate 64/106.  So, even though our hdcps are 13 strokes different, the tee ratings are 7 strokes different.  So, they will never play for money if I only give them the appropriate 6 strokes.

[xrayvizhen]

The league golf season is now over, and we were able to successfully navigate this whole Handicap vs Index confusion successfully. Several explanations, emanating from some of the posts in this thread,  were published in the league newsletter explaining that what people think is their "Handicap" is really their "Index" and the number of strokes they get each week, their "Course Handicap", is based on the index and slope numbers printed on the scorecards - those numbers reflecting the relative difficulty of the several courses we play. The course handicap formula was also listed with the advice that everyone should calculate their own course handicap before each round. I don't know how many actually bothered to do this but after that, I didn't hear any more complaints or questions.  A nice byproduct of this system is that we were able to allow those 70+ to play from the senior tees without worrying about anyone having an unfair advantage or disadvantage. The fact that we do the calculation ourselves from only league scores and don't use GHIN makes this even more fair.

[wacker]

What we need is a combination of new and old. I like the fact a golfer's handicap can change from course to course based on difficulty, and I quite like the fact a handicap can drop fairly quickly because it indicates a golfer's potential ability. However, what I don't like is that a handicap can rise so quickly based on a short spell of bad form. Earlier in the year I went 18 on the course to 22 in a period of about 5 weeks after putting in about 15 cards casual play. I got through the poor spell, yet it took me months to get my handicap back down, and I am now playing off of 17. Perhaps if the existing system remained for decreasing handicaps, but like the old system the most it can drop is 0.1 would be better.