Handicap calculation for MatchPlay

[jfrain2004]

Played a doubles matchplay yesterday ( My first time ) and was amused by how the 2 opponents calculated what the handicaps should be at the start.
I'm off 8 at the moment and my partner is a 24 Hcp, and our 2 opponents were 13 & 15.
So they calculated the handicaps as 3/4 of 24+8 and 3/4 of 13+15 which worked out as 24 for us and 21 for them thus giving us an extra shot on Indexes 1,2 & 3.
Now this befuddled me, here was a 13 handicapper telling me ( 5 shots lower than him ) that they were going to give us 3 shots. He explained it again to me and I eventually got my head around it and said to myself, happy days. So playing some average golf we had it sown up on the 12th ... :)
Now, what I'd like to know is, is this a standard way of calculating handicaps for a matchplay? Say a 1 hcp & 27 Hcp paring are playing a 14 & 14 pairing they will end up playing off the same handicap.
Surely the fairest way of playing a matchplay is the lowest handicaper goes off scratch and everyone else gets their shots based on that?

[Fourputt]

When we play a fourball match we will wheel off the lowest handicap. In that case you would get no strokes, the 13 would get 5, the 15 gets 7 and your 24 handicap partner gets 16. Although for partner matches we also use just 90% of course handicap so the caps would be reduced somewhat, that is the general idea anyway.

Never heard of it being done the way you describe.

Edit: If it was a foursomes match (alternate shot), then I don't know... never played a foursomes with handicaps. Maybe then what you describe would work.

[double_j]

The easiest way is as you described for a better ball scenario. The lowest player is set as scratch and everyone else gets strokes based on that. Strokes have to be calculated and assigned at the individual level and cannot be applied at the team level. The teams should be looking at the lowest net score for each person when figuring out which to take as the team score.

In an alternate shot match, averaging the handicaps makes sense. Ditto for a team total game.