Handicap Question

[RemyM]

This gives you your USGA calculated differentials but in order to calculate your handicap in depends on how may scores you have but lets say you have the following 4 differentials = 16.9, 15.6, 16.5, 17.2...how your handicap would be calculated is as follows:

Nope, if you only have 4 differentials then you would not have a handicap index. You need at least 5 scores to get a USGA handicap index, when you have 5 then it would be based on your lowest differential multiplied by .96; the number of scores used to calculate your handicap index increases until you have 20 scores and then it's based on the average of the 10 best differentials from your last 20 scores multiplied by .96.

[tjy355]

Most courses I play at have a slope of around 120-130. On a average course with a slope of 113....& if you can avg a score of 90. What on average would a person's handicap be?

Once again, a handicap is not based on average score, rather an average of the better scores.

An average of 90 could be produced from a wide range of scores (between 80 and 100 for example) or a more consistent golfer might average 90 from a closer range of scores (85-95 for example). In the first example, the handicap might be a little lower because there are lower scores to factor in. A golfer who averages 90 would probably have a handicap in the range of 14-16.

[i-Guy]

Nope, if you only have 4 differentials then you would not have a handicap index. You need at least 5 scores to get a USGA handicap index, when you have 5 then it would be based on your lowest differential multiplied by .96; the number of scores used to calculate your handicap index increases until you have 20 scores and then it's based on the average of the 10 best differentials from your last 20 scores multiplied by .96.

Your right...I did not mean only 4 differentials but I meant the 4 lowest...which would mean you had at least 11 or 12 acceptable scores per the attached schedule from the USGA (section 10).

Attachment 1521

[juanrjackson]

Read page 68 in the current Golf Digest Magazine.....someone asks about the avg course slope rating beng 113.....the answer was:

"When the system was introduced 1982 the theoretical avg slope was 113....but the acutual avg course slope rating is 120. The majority of courses in coastal states have a slope of 121+....while public courses in mid-America is where a lot of < 118 slope rated courses are"

[i-Guy]

"When the system was introduced 1982 the theoretical avg slope was 113....but the acutual avg course slope rating is 120. The majority of courses in coastal states have a slope of 121+....while public courses in mid-America is where a lot of

Maybe they need to change the avg slope to somehting closer to 117...that would increase everyones handicap...

However, I read somehwere that despite all of this and all the equipment changes over the past 20 years that the average handciap in America for a male has not changed significantly and is around 16...wow! Can that be true? Not that it is 16 but that it is has not changed???

[iacas]

Maybe they need to change the avg slope to somehting closer to 117...that would increase everyones handicap...

That's beside the point.

The "slope" is just where a 1:1 relationship exists between handicap and the handicap index. At a 113-slope course, an 18.0 index player gets 18 strokes. I think it might have been beneficial to the USGA if they could have made that slope out at 100 (the math would be simpler), but that 1:1 relationship exists at 113. If they changed that 113 - which was never the "average," but rather "A golf course of standard playing difficulty" - they'd have to re-do the calculations for every golf course in the U.S. Right now, the slope is determined from a whole heck of a lot of math and values as determined by course raters (of which I am now one). Every one of those values would need to be tweaked and every course re-rated with the new system. That, or everyone's handicap index would be a lie. Even the course ratings manuals define the "bogey golfer" as a roughly a 20-handicap golfer because the average course rating is higher than 113... (A slope of 123 will get an 18.0 index 20 strokes).

[Fourputt]

That's beside the point.

Excellent post Erik.... and a great explanation of the basis for the slope numbers. Must be an interesting task to be on a rating team. That would be a fun and challenging job, I'd think.

[zeg]

If they changed that 113 - which was never the "average," but rather "A golf course of standard playing difficulty"

Or you could just use the same math for the course rating evaluation, and then multiply by 100/113 at the end. Since it's used multiplicatively in the handicap calculations, you'd just change the two formulas (handicap differential and course handicap) to use 100 instead of 113 and you'd be entirely consistent without any further tweaks, unless I'm missing something. You'd have to change the posted slope, but you wouldn't have to actually redo any difficult computation.

That said, most people would still have to use a calculator so there's no actual reason to worry about a bizarre factor of 113 I guess.