Can I play at lower handicap?

[RIduffer]

The last few years, my handicap has blown up to a 9 or 10 early in the season, and then I've started shooting scores more to my potential (74-78) during Member tournaments and league playoffs. Works out great, but I don't want to be the club sandbagger. Can I just have them play me at a lower handicap based on what seems fair? My league and tournament partner has no problem with this.

[RickK]

I would imagine your club has a handicap committee.  You should discuss the situation with them.  If you have been shooting below your handicap, you should already be on their radar.

[Rulesman]

The last few years, my handicap has blown up to a 9 or 10 early in the season, and then I've started shooting scores more to my potential (74-78) during Member tournaments and league playoffs.

Works out great, but I don't want to be the club sandbagger. Can I just have them play me at a lower handicap based on what seems fair? My league and tournament partner has no problem with this.

There is no penalty for declaring a lower handicap than you are entitled to. Just write a low figure on your card.

[imsys0042]

Handicaps come down pretty quickly since they are revised twice per month.   Does your place take your handicap from an earlier time?   Like when the sign-up for tournaments is closed?

Or are you basically just starting to shoot those scores after the latest handicap revision and that happens to be when these tournaments start?   And are tourney rounds being posted as such?   I think tournament rounds stay longer, so last year's should keep your's down a bit.

But yeah, discuss with the handicap committee if you are worried.   But I wouldn't declare something lower.   What happens if you have a late start for a year?   Or can't play as much?   Post your true scores and let the handicap system work out is my opinion.   You clearly shot the scores earlier in the year to raise it.

[DaveP043]

I think tournament rounds stay longer, so last year's should keep your's down a bit.

But yeah, discuss with the handicap committee if you are worried.   But I wouldn't declare something lower.   What happens if you have a late start for a year?   Or can't play as much?   Post your true scores and let the handicap system work out is my opinion.   You clearly shot the scores earlier in the year to raise it.

A quick clarification, tournament rounds stay in the system for a year, but they're not necessarily used to compute your index.  The system compares your two best tournament scores (the "differential", at least) to your index, and if they're too far below your current index, the system adjusts the index downward.  If the tournament scores aren't too far out of line, they'll have no bearing on your current handicap, other than those within the last 20 scores.

I agree with the suggestion, if you're concerned, talk it over with your local handicap committee.  In my memory, I've never been asked to declare a handicap, the competition has simply taken it from the computer records, which are available for anyone to see.  I know in our area (Virginia) we post scores year round.  Playing through the colder months causes many of us to have a higher handicap in early spring, and we see handicaps go down through the summer.  The two-week revision period keeps handicaps pretty current, in my mind.

[imsys0042]

A quick clarification, tournament rounds stay in the system for a year, but they're not necessarily used to compute your index.  The system compares your two best tournament scores (the "differential", at least) to your index, and if they're too far below your current index, the system adjusts the index downward.  If the tournament scores aren't too far out of line, they'll have no bearing on your current handicap, other than those within the last 20 scores.

That's very good to know, and I don't think a lot of people realize that.   That's actually very smart because it helps to curb sand-bagging,

[RIduffer]

Thanks for the feedback. I am expecting my handicap to drop down in a couple days at the next revision for MGA. I did shoot a 77 in our club championship qualifier last Sat (entered as Tournament score) so it sounds like that may be significant in adjusting my hcp. My club does use most current hcp for tournaments so hopefully this will work itself out. The member-member is last weekend of July. If my hcp doesn't drop to a 7 or lower, I will talk to the committee.

[rkim291968]

Nice to see a post like this after seeing a bit of sandbagging going on with my club members.   Good luck with future tournaments!

[Dormie1360]

Some minutia if you're interested.

When your handicap is computed every two weeks it also looks at your two lowest tournament differentials in the proceeding 12 months.  Specifically, it looks at the higher of the two.  If that differential is more than 3.5 lower than your current computed handicap it preforms another calculation to see if your handicap index should be reduced.  If it is, you will see "R" after your index.  The reduction formula also takes into consideration how many tournament scores you have posted in the past 12 months.  The more you have, the less of a chance that your will get reduced.

It does help curb sandbagging but it also can hurt you if you start playing badly and your handicap index goes up a lot.  So even if your tournament scores weren't that out of line with your handicap when you made them, if your cap subsequently gets more than 3.5 differential higher than the second lowest, say 10 months later because you're playing like crap, you can still get reduced.  Normally you have to play a lot of rounds per year for something like this to happen. This has happened to me more than once.

[DaveP043]

Some minutia if you're interested.

When your handicap is computed every two weeks it also looks at your two lowest tournament differentials in the proceeding 12 months.  Specifically, it looks at the higher of the two.  If that differential is more than 3.5 lower than your current computed handicap it preforms another calculation to see if your handicap index should be reduced.  If it is, you will see "R" after your index.  The reduction formula also takes into consideration how many tournament scores you have posted in the past 12 months.  The more you have, the less of a chance that your will get reduced.

It does help curb sandbagging but it also can hurt you if you start playing badly and your handicap index goes up a lot.  So even if your tournament scores weren't that out of line with your handicap when you made them, if your cap subsequently gets more than 3.5 differential higher than the second lowest, say 10 months later because you're playing like crap, you can still get reduced.  Normally you have to play a lot of rounds per year for something like this to happen. This has happened to me more than once.

A very minor correction, if the second lowest differential is 3.0 (not 3.5)or more lower than the index, the review continues.  The average of the two best tournament differentials has to be lower than your index by at least 4 (more if you play more tournament rounds overall) to trigger a reduction to the index.  This can all be found in Section 10-3 of the Handicap Manual (http://usga.org/Rule-Books/Handicap-System-Manual/Rule-10/)

I agree with the second paragraph, and we see it pretty commonly around here.  We post year-round, but conditions through the winter can be pretty difficult, leading to higher scores and increasing handicaps.  Its not uncommon for a handicap to rise high enough by March to trigger a reduction due to tournaments played during the best conditions of the previous summer.