How long did it take you to get to your current Handicap?

[CyclistOK]

No offense, but that doesn't sound right. If you are averaging 12 over par, you would be more like a 6 or 8 handicap. The handicap is not a measure of your average, but a measure of your potential. Someone that averages 12 over par usually (because of score distribution) ends up with a single digit handicap.

Unless he plays on a course with a slope <113.

[David K]

No offense, but that doesn't sound right. If you are averaging 12 over par, you would be more like a 6 or 8 handicap. The handicap is not a measure of your average, but a measure of your potential. Someone that averages 12 over par usually (because of score distribution) ends up with a single digit handicap.

No offense taken, I'd like to figure out what my actual handicap is as well at the moment

. Well after typing in my last 15 score cards on this site http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l...dicapincal.htm . It told me I'm a 14 handicap... I don't know what else to tell you. My 18 hole scores usually end up in the mid 80s pretty consistently. Most of my rounds played are on a par 70 course but that site uses the USGA course and slope ratings so I guess it doesn't matter what the course calls par. The two courses I've been playing most are rated 66.4/114 slope and 68.5/121 slope I do count penalties but I can usually find my drives and punch out from the trees which always results in bogey or worse (rarely worse than double). I hardly ever lose my iron shots and my short game is what saves my scores most of the time. I practice short game shots for fun at home quite a bit where I have a 5 acre backyard so I've gotten pretty accurate from 50 yards and in.

[Harmonious]

A 14 handicap sounds about right for a mid-80's shooter with those course ratings & slopes. Course ratings are based on what a scratch player could be expected to shoot, and is based largely on distance. Slope is a measure of a course's difficulty for a bogey player, so is based more on hazards, trees, etc. with 113 being an "average" difficulty course.

[Kieran123]

1 year plus a month of golf I played when I was 15.

[David K]

A 14 handicap sounds about right for a mid-80's shooter with those course ratings & slopes. Course ratings are based on what a scratch player could be expected to shoot, and is based largely on distance. Slope is a measure of a course's difficulty for a bogey player, so is based more on hazards, trees, etc. with 113 being an "average" difficulty course.

Thanks, thats good to know. Both courses are pretty short but there are some severe dog legs on some holes. The course I play most often has very few bunkers and 90% of them aren't in play for my yardages so I usually end up with mid to low 80s there. The other course has quite a few bunkers/water in play for me which is always worth a few extra strokes per round. There is another course I like to play but I usually end up throwing those score cards out

. If you hit your ball more than 15ft off the fairway its in 3ft deep grass and I guarantee you'll never find the ball. If I played that course more often my handicap would be a bit higher.

[chspeed]

Thanks, thats good to know. Both courses are pretty short but there are some severe dog legs on some holes. The course I play most often has very few bunkers and 90% of them aren't in play for my yardages so I usually end up with mid to low 80s there. The other course has quite a few bunkers/water in play for me which is always worth a few extra strokes per round. There is another course I like to play but I usually end up throwing those score cards out

If you want the handicap to be useful when you play against friends or in a tournament, you should put in every score - even the really bad ones. It may not initally affect your handicap, beacuse it's a measure of potential so it chooses your best recent scores, but can definitely affect it the more you play harder courses. Good luck!

[The Recreational Golfer]

Either 50 years or four. I took a long break from golf raising a family and pursuing my career before I got back into the game.

[bwdial]

I've been working on this shiny sixteen for damn near twenty years. :/

[Fourputt]

I'm around a 15 (haven't gotten enough scores to post an official) and I've been playing golf since late may early june..

I honestly don't know quite how to answer the question. I played for about 15 years before I even thought about anything like a handicap. I've no idea really how much my game improved during that period. Once I started returning scores, it took about a year to go from my opening index at around 18 to around a 10, but most of that improvement happened in a 2½ month period in late summer of 1989. With normal fluctuations, I've been in the 10-13 range now for 21 years. But that is a bit misleading as I don't take lessons, I don't work on my swing, I only put in practice time on my short game, and not a lot of that. I most just play golf 2 or 3 days a week all summer long, and as much as the weather allows in the winter. I suppose it's possible that I could have done better with more dedication, but I'm not in the game to make a chore out of it. I like playing, but I hate hitting balls on the range, so I just play as much as I can.

[ezmorningrebel]

I've only been playing regularly now for a couple years and just started keeping mine in March so about 6 months.

[Fourputt]

No offense, but that doesn't sound right. If you are averaging 12 over par, you would be more like a 6 or 8 handicap. The handicap is not a measure of your average, but a measure of your potential. Someone that averages 12 over par usually (because of score distribution) ends up with a single digit handicap.

Not sure how you came to this conclusion. My average for my last 20 scores is 13 over par (85.25 strokes per 18 holes at par 72) and my index is 11.7 (all information straight from the GHIN site). And yes, I

do know how to count penalty strokes....

[The Recreational Golfer]

If Fourputt shoots near to the same score every time out, his handicap would be that close to his average score. One thing the USGA handicap doesn't do very well is equalize play between players who are quite consistent and players who have big swings in the scores they turn in.

http://www.amstat.org/publications/c...nce%2014_1.pdf

[Fourputt]

If Fourputt shoots near to the same score every time out, his handicap would be that close to his average score. One thing the USGA handicap doesn't do very well is equalize play between players who are quite consistent and players who have big swings in the scores they turn in.

Actually believe it or not, my lowest score of the last 20 is 77 and the highest is 97.

The ones that figure into my index right now are: 85, 82, 84, 82, 81, 84, 83, 81, 83, 77