Is the USGA Getting Picky Who Uses Its Handicap Formula?

[Ringworld]

Amazing what you can find on Google.  I can explain why the USGA is clamping down on the use of Handicap, Slope, Rating and other benchmarks.

In answer to your question, yes, the USGA owns patents, trademarks on the whole lot.  Actually they have been enforcing the licensing aggressively since 2004.  Several websites that claimed to offer a USGA handicap, actually did not.  Those guys were sued and sued well by the USGA. A whole slew of others were honest and took pains to say this was NOT a USGA handicap.  According to the USGA that isn't enouggh.

The reason the USGA is aggressively enforcing their patents on folks like Yahoo.com, Loopr.com, oobgolf.com and the like to prevent "confusion."  According to the USGA there can only be on Handicap, One Rating, One Slope, and that is provided by the USGA and their affiliates.  Sounds like a pathetic reason to me but hey it still is a reason.  One thing I remember from reading articles regarding the USGA stance on this -- one quote stands out the most.  "We are not here to grow the game of golf, we are here to maintain the traditions and rules of golf," That from a USGA Spokesperson.  If that isn't a good enough reason to go on a litigation rampage I don't know what is.

$25 per year per player for a USGA handicap may not seem like a lot but how many golfers with handicaps are there?  In an article I read six California Golf associations joined GHIN last year.  They represent 230,000 golfers in more than 1,700 golf clubs.  Doing the math, just a little under $6M per year in dues at $25/head, and that is just a portion of California.  What more if you add 49 states and the rest of California.  That is a sizable chunk of change not to mention the endorsements they get for sponsoring events.  Now consider that 10% of those golfers suddenly decide NOT to renew their handicap and instead choose to defect to a different system.  That could hurt the USGA big time.

There is no way around it.  A well written patent is vague enough to be broad yet specific enough to be awarded a patent.  If you look at the formulas, it is a statistical shortcut using a small sampling of your golf scores.  They just formalized the formula so to speak and patented the process.

I know it's inconvenient but the only way you will even get close to a USGA like handicap is to use a large enough sampling of all your scores and then average them out.  But then that leaves you trying to figure out how to evaluate each golf course you play.  That is where the USGA has you by the white globes so to speak.  Try to figure out how you're going to evaluate every golf course in the US or the world for that matter.  Oh yeah it's already done, the USGA has that handled here in the States with Course Rating and Course Slope.

Personally I like the CDF format determining your handicap.  Do I use it?  Not in the way it was intended.  Like Mapa said earlier, I use it for the stats tracking.  I use it to figure out the weaknesses in my game.  I have a metric I use to evaluate my game versus where I want to be. So I guess it comes down to what is important to you. Sure it's a little inconvenient. If you don't like it then you can certainly pay your $25/year and get peer reviewed.

[luu5]

In EGA countries, course is required to have CR and Slope for HC eligible rounds. So USGA practices are spreading to the "world".

Originally Posted by Ringworld

Try to figure out how you're going to evaluate every golf course in the US or the world for that matter.  Oh yeah it's already done, the USGA has that handled here in the States with Course Rating and Course Slope.