why isnt my handicap going down?

[AlCzervik]

I enter every score I shoot, and the past 5 times i went out and golfed i shot 2-5 strokes lower than my usual scores, and my handicap still does not go down. Any bad days make my handicap jump a point. here is my oobgolf page if you want to see... I am not a good golfer, but improving.

http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/getsome

[Fishinjdb]

It might be that you are entering 9 hole scores, instead of 18 - a full round.

[kfowler]

Course Rating and Slope can have a huge impact on your change in index. If you shot two strokes better than your last round but the rating and slope were lower than the previous round then your handicap might not move or could even go higher.

[Finnstang]

I was going to say the same thing kfowler did. That Sugar Hill course only has a slope of 107.

[kfowler]

I played a fairly difficult mountain course earlier this year with a rating of 72.5/126. I shot a 102 which was bout 8-10 strokes higher than my average outing. My handicap actually went down by a couple tenths of a point.

[Zeph]

Strange system they use. They find the average of your 3 lowest, multiply it with 0.96 and that's your hcp.

Read more here: http://www.oobgolf.com/golfers/handicap.php?id=20511

[Finnstang]

Strange system they use. They find the average of your 3 lowest, multiply it with 0.96 and that's your hcp.

It's only the three lowest because he only has 10 scores there. If you scroll down on that page you linked, it shows how many scores are used based on the number of rounds entered.

[iacas]

Strange system they use. They find the average of your 3 lowest, multiply it with 0.96 and that's your hcp.

That's only because that person has only 9-10 scores posted. Scroll down and read the chart.

[Zeph]

Yea, I see it now. Never seen that way of calculating hcp before, is it commonly used?

I'm only used to one way of hcp adjustment.

Let's say you got a hcp of 20. For each point over 36 on a 18 hole round you drop 0.4. At hcp 36 you start going down 0.5 each point over 36, but it lowers as you progress.

So, say you got hcp 20 and score a 41 round, 5 under your par. 5x0.4 = 2 points down. New hcp is 18. If you score 33 (buffer zone) or lower you go up 0.1, regardless of how low you score.

[iacas]

Yea, I see it now. Never seen that way of calculating hcp before, is it commonly used?

It's the

only way in the U.S. under the USGA. The rules for handicapping in Norway are different than they are here.

[AlCzervik]

So the bottom line is that i just have to shoot better scores?

[mposter]

So the bottom line is that i just have to shoot better scores?

or the same scores at a "tougher" course

[M2R]

So the bottom line is that i just have to shoot better scores?

Sort of, for handicap purposes the differential is the number you are interested in not the score. Shoot better differentials.

A "Handicap Differential" is the difference between a player's adjusted gross score and the USGA Course Rating of the course on which the score was made, multiplied by 113, then divided by the Slope Rating from the tees played and rounded to the nearest tenth, e.g., 12.8.

[Zeph]

or the same scores at a "tougher" course

Same scores as in Stableford that is. Don't think about shots, the shots doesn't tell you anything unless you know the no. of shots you get on each course. It's the Stableford points you're after. You need higher scores. The more rounds you post, the more rounds the system will count on your avg and calculated hcp. If you play a couple of bad rounds and get up to 14-15 posted rounds, it will find the average by the 4-5 lowest scores. The higher your avg. is, the higher your hcp is.

If you play on 2 different courses, one with a high slope rating, one with low, you are supposed to use more shots on the more difficult one (high slope rating). Maybe you are supposed to use 46 on 9 holes on one course and 52 on the next, both having the same par.

[907golfer12]

Same scores as in Stableford that is. Don't think about shots, the shots doesn't tell you anything unless you know the no. of shots you get on each course. It's the Stableford points you're after. You need higher scores. The more rounds you post, the more rounds the system will count on your avg and calculated hcp. If you play a couple of bad rounds and get up to 14-15 posted rounds, it will find the average by the 4-5 lowest scores. The higher your avg. is, the higher your hcp is.

Huh?

Were talking about the USGA handicapping system, not the Norwegian handicapping system. Under the USGA we don't use stableford points to establish our handicap.

[Zeph]

How do you establish hcp then? You have to use the slope ratings in some way. Maybe not directly to Stableford, but it must be somewhat the same.

If someone got a good explanation, or link to a site which explains it easily, I'd like to read it.

[M2R]

How do you establish hcp then? You have to use the slope ratings in some way. Maybe not directly to Stableford, but it must be somewhat the same.

Step 1: Use the table below to determine the number of Handicap Differential(s) to use: Step 2: Determine Handicap Differential(s); Step 3: Average the Handicap Differential(s) being used; Step 4: Multiply the average by .96*; Step 5: Delete all numbers after the tenths' digit (truncate). Do not round to the nearest tenth.

The definition of handicap differential is explained above and the full manual can be found

here. We also use "Equitable Stroke Control" (ESC) to establish the adjusted gross score. There are lots of other more esoteric details but those are the major points.

[Zeph]

Let's see if I got this right.

Example:
Your USGA hcp is 20, and you are about to play a course with the following:
Par: 72, White Rating: 71.4/Slope 137 ; Yardage - 6,123

By using the USGA handicap calculator you find out that you are supposed to use 24 shots more than a par/one with 0 hcp. In order to play at your hcp you must use 96 shots. If you shoot less, you've played better than your hcp, if you shoot more, you play worse. When calculating the hcp, if your avg scores are below your current hcp, meaning you shoot less than the total shots you are supposed to you, you go down, if you shoot more, you go up.

You play a round where you have two holes where you shoot 9 shots, the rest is 8 or below. In total you shoot 99. From the ESC table you see that your cannot use more than 8 shots on any hole, so you subtract 2 from your score, giving you a new total of 97.

This seems a bit strange, I may be wrong, but from the ESC table, it looks like you can play maximum 3 over par on a par 5, and you can play 5 over par on a par 3.

Are the holes not ranked by difficulty? Meaning you don't have more shots on a difficult hole than a easy one. You just get a total amount of extra shots, after you've spent them, you better play good or end up over your handicap.