Handicap HELP!!!

[Hackin_Away]

Ok ill try to keep this as short as possible.

First off, my buddies and I decided to finally form a small league after talkin bout it every season. The course is not too tough if you don't screw up, haha, but most of us do, some more then others. Slope = 117, Rating = 68.7 (18). Our league is 9 holes due to not being able to start til 6pm.

The problem is we need handicaps. We have people who shoot in mid to upper 40s and a guy who shoots mid 60s, lol. Yesterday was our first round, and I shot TERRIBLE, worst round in recent memory. As much as i dont wanna say score I will for example purposes...a 58 on 9, LOL. Now the guy I play next week shot a 49. On a regular day I shoot mid 40s to upper 40s. Two weeks ago on this courses front 9 i shot a 45 with a 10 on the first hole, lol (2 in water). Well, we don't have any handicaps established at all, none of us. So if we just used this weeks scores to figure one out, this guy would owe me 8-9 strokes. And chances of me playing that bad 2 weeks in a row is slim. So its basically a guranteed loss for him, which sucks.

One suggestion we debated was waiting til week 3 is over. Developing a handicap using those 3 weeks, then going back through and using that determine the winners from weeks 1-3. Then from week 4 on we just use our best 3 or 4 rounds to calc handicaps. We are not SERIOOOOUS golfers with big money on the line. We just want it to be fair.

But I was just reading online that you can use the max index for men which is 36.4 to establish handicaps for those who don't have one. What is this though? Is this = rating? Like our rating for 9 would be 34ish, but since we dont have handicaps I could just use 36.4 to figure it out for weeks 1-3 or so. And by using the 36.4 I could use the equitable stroke control to make the numbers at least somewhat more realistic? Then on week 4 I could figure out our REAL handicaps? OR should we just do the wait 3 weeks thing, figure it out and go back and adjust scores to determine the past win/loss.

If i use the max index...would it look something like this:

(ADJUSTED GROSS SCORE - 36.4) * (117/100) = Differential.

I know using 3 or 4 rounds may not be USGA protocol. However this is just me and 7 buddies who are only using handicaps to level out the field a little. By the way total rounds = 12.

Thanks for the help, not sure which way to go with this to be the most fair on a whole!

 

[FATC1TY]

Sounds fair enough for what you intend to do. So long as everyone is trying to play to their ability and not sandbag the 3 holes to get more strokes.. Then again, I'm not so sure I'd be excited to tell someone I shot 55 in 9 holes on a 117 slope course, for any reason!

 

[SilverUberXeno]

Use four rounds. Discard the best and worst score, then take the average of the remaining two. Your course rating is sub 69, so that would normally affect a handicap #. However, if you're all using the same system, there is no disadvantge to not adjusting because everybody will have the same error.

If par is 36, and you shot: 40, 46, 50, 58, you'd eliminate the 40 and the 58, then take the average of the 46 and the 50-- 48. Your handicap would be 12 stroke for 9 holes.

That is not USGA protocol, but for your purposes I think it's swell. Also, if you really want to keep things fair, adjust every week. Always use the most recent 4 scores, and the same system to decide weekly handicaps.

If you shot a 42 next round, your numbers would be (40), 46, 50, 58, 42. The 40 is outdated and not useable. 42 and 58 are the high and low, so they're gone. You'd end up wth the same handicap using these numbers.

That'll keep it fair even when some guys start to get hot and shoot better rounds later in the season.

 

[Hackin_Away]

K, well either way i think it COULD be fair, but if i was to use the USGA max index...of 36.4...then would i figure out the handicaps using that....then go back and using that figure out the adjusted gross scores....siigh, lol... Also by using the ESC (equitable stroke control)....no one can sandbag...its designed to keep ppl from doing that. If you are a 12 handicap, then you the MAX you could have on a hole would be say a 8. Though our league cap is a 10. This keeps ppl from limiting out on purpose to raise handicap. Tho an 8 is still pretty high. Lower your cap, lower the total u can write down on scorecard on a blow up hole.

So basically you could only shoot a 72 on 9 holes, but with dropping the first and worst, thatd just be gone anyhow. And you'd ultimately lose that week vs. opponent.

 

[Augster]

The max handicap is 36.4 for 18 holes for any male golfer. It doesn't have anything to do with the course being played. It is the maximum handicap one can hold. Though, if you are keeping the handicaps yourself, there is no limit to it. It is just a math equation.

If everyone keeps a legit handicap, the USGA handicap system works beautifully. The system gets VERY accurate when you give it a larger database of scores to pull from. i.e. best 10 of your last 20 rounds.

I would say to just keep the caps by USGA rules. There will be some swings in handicap based on the small amount of data you are feeding the formulas. But as more scores are "entered", the more accurate the cap will be.

Since you are doing 9-hole scores, and if each 9 of your course doesn't have an individual rating, then just halve the rating. 68.7/2=34.4. Slope stays the same.

Remember to ESC any scores BEFORE you put them into the formula. Your 58 and his 49 I will assume, for explanation's sake, that those scores have already been ESC'd.

58 (your ESC'd score)- 34.4 (9-hole course rating)= 23.6

23.6 * 113 (average course slope) / 117 (course slope)=22.8

22.8 would be 45.6 for 18 which is WAY over the 36.4 allowable. So you could either, for the time being, just put yourself at 18.2 (half of 36.4) instead of 22.8, or just let it ride with the 22.8.

Your pal's 49 would generate: 14.1 handicap index for 9 holes.

Then based on the ONE score, you would take 96% of your index and that will be your playing cap...
22.8 * .96=21.9

14.1* .96=13.5

He would have to give you 8 shots the next time you played 9 together.

In the USGA system, you wouldn't start averaging until you get to 7 rounds. Up until that point, your handicap index is simply your best index as figured above.

The handicap system is designed to even things out between players. Making it a semi-level playing field. Next week, when you shoot 45 getting 8 shots, he's going to have to post a 37 to tie. Most likely you will win. Then, after two weeks, your record against each other is 1-1. Even.

In week 3 though, if he doesn't better his 49 from week 1, and you shoot 45 as above, your index is now 9.8 after the 96% is taken off. So a 10. In week 3, you are giving HIM 4 shots. AND you'll have to play to that 10 the week after that, and the week after that and etc. etc. Until you get to 7 rounds to average the lowest two.

The handicap system is NOT supposed to be an average of your scores. It is supposed to be a snapshot of what you CAN shoot from time to time so anyone in a match/bet with you isn't surprised. You are really only supposed to shoot your cap about 25% of the time once you get to best 10 of last 20 rounds.

I hope that helps. Any more questions, just fire away. It is your thread afterall. LMAO!

 

[Hackin_Away]

Well thats the thing. Those arent adjusted totals. Thats what we actually shot, lol. But in order to use ESC..i have to have a handicap in order to use the lil chart of what the MAX score on a hole you can shoot is with your current handicap.

So i didnt know first off what the 36.4 USGA thing was...i thought i needed to plug that into where my 34.4 in my 9 hole handicap equation....then figure out the handicap using that, THEN using that find my designated ESC and adjust my 58 accordingly....then use the NEW score to find my handicap using the standard method. But it would just be way out of whack for me, because i rarely shoot over a 52-53 been below 51 in pretty much every other 9 ive played this yr......this was just a blow up after bad luck after blow up day, lol. Why it really isnt fair for him to give me 8 strokes. Would i be better off to just wait out 4 weeks, find the handicaps then using the best 2 scores....then go back and adjust everyones scores with ESC once i have somewhat better handicaps. Then from then on just update the caps as needed. < ---As of right now this is what we were planning to do, with the exception we had a 10 shot LIMIT on any hole. But then we were wondering about sandbagging, this is where the ESC will help.

Thanks for the help btw all. I mean I wish this wasn't an issue, but we didnt have a chance to go play 4-5 9s here. I play a lot more then most of them, and doin this league at all was just a good chance for them to plan on golfin every week. That was the ultimate goal. But the fairness factor came in, and hence the caps. Most of us could play heads up and it would prolly be close most weeks, but cpl guys are quite worse then the rest.

 

[Augster]

The ESC chart is in Section 4 of the Handicap Manual:

USGA: Handicap Manual

ESC is only used for handicap computation. The max someone with an index of 40 or more (on 18) can take is 10 on a hole for computation purposes. A 30-39 handicap golfer can take a max of 9.

When throwing your scores into the formula, just make sure you ESC first. The ESC bands are 10 strokes wide, so you should just be able to guess about where your 18 hole handicap would fall and just ESC to the number provided in that band.

Example, lets say your last 3 full rounds you shot 110, 107 and 95. An average of 104. On a par 72, that's 32 over par. That would roughly put you in the 30-39 band of the ESC chart. So for handicap purposes, you would ESC your scores to a max of 9 on any hole. You can do this just for starters. After you start keeping a "real", only league, handicap it will figure itself out quickly.