Can you have practice rounds when establishing a handicap?

[itching4scratch]

From what I understand, the best 5 scores of your last 20 rounds would establish your handicap.  Do you HAVE to use your last 20 rounds? What if I want to play a practice rounds? Do I have to count the score for those rounds towards my handicap?

[Shindig]

Your last 20 rounds played under the rules of golf, I believe. Now, this is a loose meaning -- if you take gimmes in some reasonable distance (e.g., you pick up instead of tapping in), this is fine, because you're posting the score you're likely to have achieved. I had to look this up when someone goaltended me a few years ago on the final hole. My suggestion: declare before you tee off on #1 whether you're playing rules of golf or a practice round. There's a temptation to decide you're practicing if the first few holes go poorly, but this will give you an artificially low handicap that you won't be able to play to when you need to. So no, if you're not playing by the rules, or even a reasonable approximation thereof, you don't post the score.

[i-Guy]

Originally Posted by itching4scratch

From what I understand, the best 5 scores of your last 20 rounds would establish your handicap.  Do you HAVE to use your last 20 rounds? What if I want to play a practice rounds? Do I have to count the score for those rounds towards my handicap?

Your handicap index is actually calculated by taking the average of your 10 best indexes from your most current 20 indexes and then mulitplying that by .96...I know because I calcuate my own and compare it to GHIN

In refernce to practice rounds, I ilke the idea in the post before mine...I think it is only being fair to yourself to acknowlegde on the first tee if this is a round you will post for score or is it a practice round...otherwise you are padding your handicap and that doesn't really tell you where your game is or where it is headed.  I don't play many practice rounds but if I do it is when I have been working on soemthing on the range and want to test it for say 9 holes to see if it is ready for the golf course...I will usually have two balls going as I am trying to find it on the course.

[Double Bogey]

Originally Posted by Shindig

Your last 20 rounds played under the rules of golf, I believe. Now, this is a loose meaning -- if you take gimmes in some reasonable distance (e.g., you pick up instead of tapping in), this is fine, because you're posting the score you're likely to have achieved. I had to look this up when someone goaltended me a few years ago on the final hole.

My suggestion: declare before you tee off on #1 whether you're playing rules of golf or a practice round. There's a temptation to decide you're practicing if the first few holes go poorly, but this will give you an artificially low handicap that you won't be able to play to when you need to.

So no, if you're not playing by the rules, or even a reasonable approximation thereof, you don't post the score.

+1  You get no better explanation then this.  Well said

[04v8s4]

If you don't play in any sanctioned leagues...can you calculate your handicap yourself based on the explanation above?

Are there any sites to help you do this?

Thanks!

[EverythingGolf]

Originally Posted by itching4scratch

From what I understand, the best 5 scores of your last 20 rounds would establish your handicap.  Do you HAVE to use your last 20 rounds? What if I want to play a practice rounds? Do I have to count the score for those rounds towards my handicap?

To get a true index it should be the last 20 rounds you played, practice or not.

Here is how to do it.

Golf Handicap Calculation - Step 1

A minimum of five scores and a maximum of 20 is required to get started. Remember, when posting scores for handicaps, you must your adjusted gross

scores . For each score, the USGA Course Rating and Slope Rating for the courses played are also required. Using those figures, calculate the handicap

differential for each round entered using this formula:

(Score - Course Rating) x 113 / Slope Rating

For example, let's say the score is 85, the course rating 72.2, the slope 131. The formula would be (85 - 72.2) x 113 / 131.

This differential is calculated for each round entered.

(Note: The number 113 represents the slope rating of a golf course of average difficulty, as set by the USGA.)

Golf Handicap Calculation - Step 2

Figure out how many differentials are being used. Not every differential that results from Step 1 will be used in the next step. If only five rounds are

entered, only the lowest differential will be used. If 20 rounds are entered, only the 10 lowest differentials are used. A chart at the bottom of this page

shows how many differentials are used based on the number of rounds entered.

Golf Handicap Calculation - Step 3

Get an average of the differentials used by adding them together and dividing by the number used (i.e., if five differentials are used, add them up and

divide by five).

Multiply the result by .96 (96-percent). Drop all the digits after the tenths (do not round off) and the result is handicap index.

Number of Differentials Used

Rounds Entered Differentials Used

5-6      1 lowest

7-8      2 lowest

9-10    3 lowest

11-12  4 lowest

13-14  5 lowest

15-16  6 lowest

17       7 lowest

18       8 lowest

19       9 lowest

20      10 lowest

[jamo]

If, before the round, you establish that the round that you are playing is just for practice (ie. you play a several balls, take gimmies, don't follow the rules), you're fine.

EDIT: Shindig beat me to it.