Big jump in my handicap?

[Soup Fan]

My handicap has been mid 30s all season, which is as long as I have been attempting to calculate it. I play 9 hole rounds almost all the time and my current index is based on 8 rounds of 9 holes and 1 round of 18, which totals up to the minimum 5 rounds needed to calculate. Until today, I was at 34.7. After my round today (I shot a 48 on the front 9 which is very low for me), it is telling me that my handicap is 24. 10.7 seems like an awful big drop after one 9 hole round, so I was wondering for your feedback. Is this just an anomaly or can one good round take a significant bite out of it?

[Akers]

Was 34.7 a 9 or 18 hole handicap? If it was a nine hole one it would be correct.

[TinCupTampa]

My handicap has been mid 30s all season, which is as long as I have been attempting to calculate it. I play 9 hole rounds almost all the time and my current index is based on 8 rounds of 9 holes and 1 round of 18, which totals up to the minimum 5 rounds needed to calculate. Until today, I was at 34.7. After my round today (I shot a 48 on the front 9 which is very low for me), it is telling me that my handicap is 24. 10.7 seems like an awful big drop after one 9 hole round, so I was wondering for your feedback. Is this just an anomaly or can one good round take a significant bite out of it?

Basically your handicap has combined the 8 9-hole rounds to 4 full rounds. When only 5-6 scores are used the handicap uses only one lowest score to calculate it. I am guessing you have another 9-hole score in there that is comparable to the 48 you shot today. It could possibly jump again either up or down depending on your next round scored.

A handicap uses scores in the following manner: > 20 scores entered - 10 lowest rounds used 19 scores entered - 9 lowest rounds used 18 scores entered - 8 lowest rounds used 17 scores entered - 7 lowest rounds used 15-16 scores entered - 6 lowest rounds used 13-14 scores entered - 5 lowest rounds used 11-12 scores entered - 4 lowest rounds used 9-10 scores entered - 3 lowest rounds used 7-8 scores entered - 2 lowest rounds used 5-6 scores entered - 1 lowest rounds used I hope this helps you understand why it jumped the way it did.