Forum Profile Handicap Indices....

[David in FL]

We seem to have a lot of posters who don't maintain a real handicap.  I'm curious as to why.....  I'm not talking about the guy that just started golf this year, or someone like Fourputt who's on something of a forced sabbatical, but rather the guys who play when they can and are serious/interested enough in the game to actually spend time on this forum.

While the purpose of a handicap is to allow for golfers of differing abilities to compete against each other on a relatively level playing field, for those of us interested in improving our game (everyone on this forum presumably) it also provides a method by which we can track our progress.  Additionally, advice provided on the forum is often customized for the specific individual and an accurate handicap can provide some useful insight as to the perspective of someone seeking advice.....

Having said that, a couple of questions.

-  Is the handicap as shown in your profile current .....say at least within the last 2 15-day revisions?

-  Is it correct and "official", or some form of guess/estimate/self-calculation?

-  If it's not current, correct, and official, why not?

-  If it's not correct and official, do you know how a handicap is actually calculated?  How are you calculating yours?

Just to start....  Probably no surprise since I started the thread, but mine is correct, official, and current.  I try to remember to update with each revision if there's a change.  Unfortunately, it went up .2 on the 15th.

[TJBam]

Topic: FAvorite Golf Games.

TJB: We like to play shambles.

Response:

Originally Posted by David in FL

I assume you don't post any of those scores for handicap?

Originally Posted by TJBam

Of course I do.  It's golf.  We also take 4 mulligans per side and gimmes within 6 feet (I usually make them anyways).  Who are you to tell me how to play by the rules!

Hope you could tell that my post was dripping with sarcasm.  In addition to the following post where I claimed to post HCP scores from charity scrambles.

[David in FL]

Originally Posted by TJBam

Topic: FAvorite Golf Games.

TJB: We like to play shambles.

Response:

Hope you could tell that my post was dripping with sarcasm.  In addition to the following post where I claimed to post HCP scores from charity scrambles.

LOL.  Crap.....I actually thought about that when I hit the send button!  I got the sarcasm.  Was NOT directed at you!

[kw purp]

Its current, but I just take what my average score is over par. This year my average score is 82.2, so 10 is the handicap I say. I havent played a course that wasnt part 72 yet this year. I dont know the formula or care enough to really go through it all. 10 is a good enough display of my playing ability.

[McMullenCPA]

Mine's official and current. It doesn't mean I'm happy or proud of it. I don't compete in tournaments yet so for right now I guess I just use it as a measuring stick of my game. I haven't done this yet, but I might try today. Instead of playing to the course par, I'm going to play to beat my course handicap, basically beat bogey golf. Might help me make better course management decisions and put less strain on this knot in my back that won't go away (if I am not swinging as hard as I can every time).

[geauxforbroke]

Mine is obviously not current or official. Hopefully everyone gets the Pi reference.

To be honest, I haven't been playing often or regularly enough to even establish a handicap. I played twice in October, then didn't touch a club again until April. I work between 60 and 70 hours a week in the spring and travel about 75% of the time.

Now that things are slowing down at work, I'm trying to play more often so that I can establish a handicap. I have a spreadsheet with the last 7 rounds I played. Once I get up to 10, I'm going to plug it into a handicap calculator so I have a better idea.

Edit: Out of curiousity, I plugged my last 7 rounds into a calculator I found online. It said 2.7, so I'm at least in the right ballpark.

[Golfingdad]

Mine's current ... however ... as I'm improving I will update that thing immediately, but if I'm going the other direction, I'm not as excited or quick to change it.  My last revision actually went up 1/10 to 6.9, but as you can see, I haven't changed it yet.  Hoping my round last Sunday, and my rounds this weekend will bring it down again. ;)

[Meltdwhiskey]

Is the handicap as shown in your profile current .....say at least within the last 2 15-day revisions?

It is. I update it about once a month.  And today since you reminded me.

Is it correct and "official", or some form of guess/estimate/self-calculation?

It is.  Through the GSGA

Quote:

Originally Posted by kw purp

Its current, but I just take what my average score is over par. This year my average score is 82.2, so 10 is the handicap I say. I havent played a course that wasnt part 72 yet this year. I dont know the formula or care enough to really go through it all. 10 is a good enough display of my playing ability.

Unless that is an easy course - I'd bet you are several strokes better than that.  I am a 16.x, but I definitely do not average that. I'd say you are better than you think.

[trackster]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Having said that, a couple of questions.

-  Is the handicap as shown in your profile current.....say at least within the last 2 15-day revisions?

-  Is it correct and "official", or some form of guess/estimate/self-calculation?

-  If it's not current, correct, and official, why not?

-  If it's not correct and official, do you know how a handicap is actually calculated?  How are you calculating yours?

1.  Yes

2.  Why is it not official if I calculate it myself?  I use an online handicap calculator.

3.  I calculate it myself because I don't need to pay $40 dollars to have a computer calculate a number that I can calculate myself

4.  It's not like I have to sit down with paper and pencil and do it.  There are a million free online handicap calculators.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by kw purp

Its current, but I just take what my average score is over par. This year my average score is 82.2, so 10 is the handicap I say. I havent played a course that wasnt part 72 yet this year. I dont know the formula or care enough to really go through it all. 10 is a good enough display of my playing ability.

Originally Posted by Meltdwhiskey

Unless that is an easy course - I'd bet you are several strokes better than that.  I am a 16.x, but I definitely do not average that. I'd say you are better than you think.

Agreed.  I just averaged my last 20 rounds and it comes out to 81.8.  The courses I play are usually in the 6400-6500 range, so I'd guess that the average rating/slope would be something like 70.5/128.

There is a good chance that you are close on your guesstimate ... but at the same time, if you play courses that are a little bit more difficult, you could easily be down closer to a 7, or even less if you play the tips at hard courses.

Also, how do you produce your average?  Not mathematically, duh, everybody knows that, but I mean, how are your scores.  Are they 82,81,83,82 etc, or are they more like 87,77,82,90,74, etc??  That would also make a giant difference in your handicap.

[McMullenCPA]

Originally Posted by trackster

1.  Yes

2.  Why is it not official if I calculate it myself?  I use an online handicap calculator.

3.  I calculate it myself because I don't need to pay $40 dollars to have a computer calculate a number that I can calculate myself

4.  It's not like I have to sit down with paper and pencil and do it.  There are a million free online handicap calculators.

Why do auditors have to come and check out the accounting books when I know I did them right

I have the same sentiment as you though, I had been calculating them myself and I just signed up to make it official in case I wanted to compete in tournaments and make millions going pro

[Motown88]

Mine used to be my official handicap but I haven't updated it in some time. My work computer is horrible and won't let me edit it and I never come on here at home so I have just let it be. My handicap is closer to 11.5 right now, I'm to lazy to actually go look it up since I know I can't change it on my profile! If it becomes considerably different from what I have shown I'll edit it on my home laptop. So in other words if my downward spiral continues I'll update it when my handicap gets to 12+.

[Lash]

Mine obviously isn't official, I don't figure I am good enough to mess with an official one yet and I don't play tournaments or ever use my handicap for matches. It's really just for me to track progress and out of curiosity.

I do believe it is correct though. I have a spreadsheet where I keep my scores along with rating and slope, and then have the formula plugged in to figure the differential using those. I also have a formula to figure my handicap based on the lowest scores, which right now is about 6 rounds I think because I have about 15 rounds plugged in. I just did some reading online and I think I am doing it correctly, don't guess it matters much as high as it is.

However, it was encouraging that my last few rounds have been much better than the others. My differential was hanging around 45 for most rounds this past winter, and the last few have been low 30s and one even at 28.

I know these are sad numbers, but I have improved my handicap by about 6-7 points over the last month or two and each round has been lower than the last so it's interesting to see. I've also been playing new courses almost every time. I am excited to play a course this saturday that I have played a lot before and see if I can improve even more with a familiar course.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by David in FL

-  Is it correct and "official", or some form of guess/estimate/self-calculation?

It is 2 out of 3: Correct and self-calculated, but not "official" in the sense that I'm not currently a member of an official club/organization that tracks it. For my first few years I was, and entered my scores in the computer after every round.  But after playing a couple tournaments I decided that, as good as the handicap system is, I don't like having to give or get strokes, and decided I wouldn't play in tournaments again unless I got good enough to play in the unhandicapped flights. So now I just track my handicap (and other stats) in a spreadsheet.

I keep the handicap in my profile current for the most part, but only update it if it swings more than a stroke one way or the other from what it currently shows. (Although like GD, I'm more likely to update it if it moves 0.7 down than if it moves 0.9 up... )

[trackster]

Originally Posted by McMullenCPA

Why do auditors have to come and check out the accounting books when I know I did them right

I have the same sentiment as you though, I had been calculating them myself and I just signed up to make it official in case I wanted to compete in tournaments and make millions going pro

Yeah, but the thing with handicaps is that they are official if you pay for them to be official.  That is it.  It is still you keeping your own score and you entering your own scores into the computer.

[jamo]

My official handicap is 1.4, the one in my profile says 1.5. I haven't submitted any rounds this year (because I've only played 3 rounds, and they were all casual practice), so I just haven't updated it. Before last year (when I got an official handicap for the first time), I just submitted all of my rounds to Scorecard and used that number.

[Meltdwhiskey]

Originally Posted by Lash

However, it was encouraging that my last few rounds have been much better than the others. My differential was hanging around 45 for most rounds this past winter, and the last few have been low 30s and one even at 28.

I know these are sad numbers, but I have improved my handicap by about 6-7 points over the last month or two and each round has been lower than the last so it's interesting to see. I've also been playing new courses almost every time. I am excited to play a course this saturday that I have played a lot before and see if I can improve even more with a familiar course.

As long as these numbers are real, there is nothing sad about them.  Golf is f-ing hard.  What's sad is numbers that don't actually reflect what went on at the course - mulligans, creative scoring, forgotten strokes, fluffed lies, etc. More people score like this than you would think.  I see it all the time.  They just don't have your courage when talking about them.  Glad to hear it is improving. It is fun to watch the numbers go down.

[David in FL]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

I keep the handicap in my profile current for the most part, but only update it if it swings more than a stroke one way or the other from what it currently shows. (Although like GD, I'm more likely to update it if it moves 0.7 down than if it moves 0.9 up... )

Yeah, I've been known to "forget" to update my profile if there was an upward tick.....  That's why I put in the qualifier of two revisions.