• Welcome To ShotTalk.com!

    We are one of the oldest and largest Golf forums on the internet with golfers from around the world sharing tips, photos and planning golf outings.

    Registering is free and easy! Hope to see you on the forums soon!

Do you always play with ESC?

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
62
Country
United States United States
Cool, thanks for the answers.

Since you guys are in an answering mood, what do the hole handicap numbers on the scorecard mean? On my usual course (scorecard here) some of them are huge numbers, and I have no idea what they're for.
They are used in competition to determine the difficulty of the hole. The lower the number the hard the hole. So if you were giving someone say 3 strokes, it would be on handicap holes 1, 2, and 3. If you were giving 21 strokes, it would be on all holes and 2 for the 1, 2, and 3 handicapped holes.

So in your example, 5, 17 and 3 are the 3 hardest rated holes. You will also notice though they stagger them odd~even on the front and back, so concievably 3 could be harder than 17. 17 is the hardest on the back.
 

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
62
Country
United States United States
... and yeah, I have seen people that knowingly will not use the ESC to gain an advantage for competition, although if people wish to intentionally cheat, they will always find a way. So like any golf rule, it is up to the integrity of the player as to whether they choose to follow the rule, and what separates this sport from others. They could just as easily use an eraser and pencil
 

kidzwitgunz

Jn 15:13 Ductus Exemplo
Jun 25, 2009
43
0
Actually, by you not using the ESC and playing in competition, you would be the one being dishonest, even if it was unknowingly.

WOW learn something everyday then, although I do not remember my local courses saying anything about this for some local yokel tourney's I was in recently...........?

Tho to be fair I didn't get anywhere near needing to use the ESC but that is good to know. Been outta the competitive loop for a while ....
 
OP
B

BrandonM7

Well-Known Member
Nov 23, 2007
1,156
2
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #20
They are used in competition to determine the difficulty of the hole. The lower the number the hard the hole. So if you were giving someone say 3 strokes, it would be on handicap holes 1, 2, and 3. If you were giving 21 strokes, it would be on all holes and 2 for the 1, 2, and 3 handicapped holes.

So in your example, 5, 17 and 3 are the 3 hardest rated holes. You will also notice though they stagger them odd~even on the front and back, so concievably 3 could be harder than 17. 17 is the hardest on the back.


Ahhhh, okay. I hadn't noticed that they were numbered like that - I was thinking it was some measure of their difficulty in relation to some unknown standard, rather than in relation to each other. That makes a lot more sense now. Thanks again.
 

Pa Jayhawk

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2005
7,196
62
Country
United States United States
WOW learn something everyday then, although I do not remember my local courses saying anything about this for some local yokel tourney's I was in recently...........?

Tho to be fair I didn't get anywhere near needing to use the ESC but that is good to know. Been outta the competitive loop for a while ....
Also after rereading my prior comment, I hope I didn't come off the wrong way. It was more meant from a logical and informative point of view to explain how the only way it could be used to knowingly cheat, is to not use the adjustment. From my experience, the ESC is one of the least know "rules so to speak" by the USGA, also very confusing at times. Plus many of the USGA rules are confusing and complex, so did not want to come off that if you don't use it, even unknowingly, it would be dishonest. I know alot of the rules, but learn more through each competition, as do most any golfer.

Actually as mentioned in the earlier thread, I used to impose my own method of ESC because I only used index to track my progress. Shortly after that time, I decided to start playing more competitively and started following it strictly as the method I would use actually would only hurt me in competition. Although I still believe that the ESC was not very well thought out and mainly target the single digit index.
 

ezra76

Well-Known Member
Feb 5, 2006
12,412
16
I just write down the score with a slash then the ESC score next to it. I played with the chairman of the handicap committee last week and that's how he showed me to do it. I can't put in anything higher than a double-bogey for my handicap. I sat out a hole and just put the double the other day when we were playing a 16 man match. You get no points for anything over a bogey and I hit back to back drives hooked OB on a par 5. On the previous hole I also hooked one OB but came back and birdied my provisional for a bogey. I think it made it not only faster but was easier to deal with mentally just to not finish the hole and take the double. Not really any point in playing it out to try to make par for 9.

Just to add. It is far, far worse to not use ESC when you enter your scores for a legit cap. That makes you a sandbagger which equals a cheater. At my club they'd probably attempt to revoke my membership if I did that and played for $$ or in the club comps.
 

Augster

Rules Nerd
Supporting Member
Mar 9, 2005
1,473
23
The handicap system, with ESC, flat-out works if everyone scores their rounds correctly and inputs them correctly. It is truly a fair, equitable system.

As said before, the ESC is only usable for handicap posting purposes. That's it.

Sometimes when my friends and I play money games, we institute a "triple bogey max" rule just to keep the money games close. Taking a 7 on a par 4 instead of the 10 you most likely would have taken makes it a lot easier to stay in contention in the nassau.

We are all single caps, so the max for actual posting is a double. But a double is too low for betting purposes when in actuality the player would have taken a quad or a quin. A triple bogey still penalizes the player severely, but keeps him in semi-contention for the money.

For your money games, you can do whatever scoring system you like. Overseas, from mostly what I read on here, most informal money-matches are points-based stablefords. Most points wins the money and a double hurts your score the same as a quin or a quad. The stableford system rewards good holes with more points, but doesn't destroy your score as a huge number in medal play would.

Just be sure you understand what scoring system the money will be based on before you tee off at the first.
 

indacup

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Jun 1, 2007
1,519
37
Iowa
IMO your buddie is inadvertently Cheating".....the ESC is for handicapping purposes...not competitive play.

How many times have we seen someone in a PGA tournament have a blow up hole? Can we remember Johnny Miller announcing that "even though he shot an 11 on that par 4, we're gonna score it as a 6 and move on....
 

kidzwitgunz

Jn 15:13 Ductus Exemplo
Jun 25, 2009
43
0
Ahh okay I'm tracking now I was confusing medal play with money play, cuz I was gonna go ask my golf pro bout this saturday lol....

In the end since I don't play for money though only in "semi"-formal medal type matches I'm not gonna worry that much, especially when I don't keep my handicap anyway!
 

JEFF4i

She lives!
Supporting Member
Jul 3, 2006
13,545
95
I prefer to leave the ESC key on my keyboard, rather than take it with my golfing.

:) I've not used it in a while, but then again, I've not played in a while.
 

VtDivot

SLIGHTERED
Supporting Member
Apr 16, 2005
7,154
32
:) I've not used it in a while, but then again, I've not played in a while.

That's good, that means you're not making any triples then. I don't get to use the ESC often, maybe a hole every 3 or 4 rounds, but I definitely employ it when required.
 

Esox

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Aug 6, 2008
860
7
I enter my scores hole by hole into the computer machine in the pro shop at my club. The little man inside the computer machine handles the rest. He makes the triple bogeys into double bogeys when he adds them all up.

Kevin
 

Clugnut

Gimme some roombas!
Aug 13, 2006
3,423
1
Yup, use it at the end only. It would be easy to just pick up the ball when you reach a double sometimes, though. I was playing my regular 2 some, and my pards was 3 or 4 over going into 14. He made a 10 on a par 3. His swing just left him. It was a real shame. He ended up with a 90 that ESC down to an 85.

I think ESC is a good system, because of situations like this.
 

fisher

Well-Known Member
Nov 16, 2008
1,263
0
According to ESC I would never have to put more than a double bogey on my card. How Kool is that. Playing that way I could shoot under 106 with my eyes closed literally.

Just kidding. Put your real scores on the score card, no matter how bad. You only use ESC when you enter the scores in the handicap system. To adjust your final score for a match with your buddy you use your handicap not ESC.
 

🔥 Latest posts

Top