[Bignose]

There is actually a fairly simple solution, at least in reporting handicaps that would take into account recent changes, and that is to include a standard deviation when reporting the handicap. That is, you would read your index as 15.6 +- 4.3 where the 4.3 is the deviation about the average index. If you are consistently playing to your index, the deviation would be small, 1 or 2, but if you are bouncing around a lot, the deviation would be high, 5 or 6 or maybe even 7 or 8. The deviation could reflect a recent injury or swing change much faster than just the index itself, because the index may change much until a lot of rounds are entered, but the deviation will change. Just one suggestion to address the good points brought up by this thread.

Edit. I forgot to add the best part about using a deviation calculation: the time between rounds can be factored directly in. That is, the player who only reports 20 rounds a year will always have a higher deviation than the player who reports twice a week. I used to play on a chess server several years ago, and that was how they reported their ratings -- a rating and a deviation and the deviation was both a factor of the variability of play and the times between games. I.e. the players who played 30 games a day always had lower deviations than the players who only played once a week or so.

Finally, applying a deviation calculation can help with Jeff's point. Because, if the deviation is high (either due to variability of play or time between rounds) the index itself can change more quickly. For example, using the cases in this thread, someone is out for several months after a surgery, during which time the deviation slowly increases (as more time pases). Well, when they do finally get some rounds in, the index changes quickly because the deviation is large. Once they get a lot of rounds in, the deviation will be smaller to reflect that, or in other words, the index will be more honed in to reflect the current skill of that player.