Handicap: The most misunderstood topic in golf
?Today I would like to talk about the most misunderstood topic in golf, the golf handicap.
The golf handicap is designed to level the playing field, or the course. There are aspects of the USGA handicap system that I wish to bring to your attention in order to help all players understand the system and exactly what makes the system work.
First, golf handicaps are based on potential. The system uses the best 10 scores of your last 20, which becomes the basis of your handicap.
Logically speaking, using the best 10 of your last 20 shows your potential. Golf handicaps are not an average score; they are an average of your best scores. That is why, very often, people rarely shoot or match their handicap.
They are not reaching their potential. In essence, when you play with or against someone that does not have a handicap, the best way to assign a handicap is to ask the question “what are your best three scores this year?” as opposed to seeking an average score.
Second, handicaps are meant to make life on the golf course fair. If you have an 18 handicap and your opponent is a 16 handicap, you should receive six strokes in the match. You should be able to deduct one shot on the hardest six holes on the golf course being played. The system is designed to level the field and make players of different levels able to compete against each other fairly and equitably.
Finally, I wish to talk about fairness of handicaps.
If you are using the handicap system the way it was meant to be used, you will have difficulty matching or beating your handicap. In other words, if you are a 12 and you break 84 on a par 72 course, regularly, your handicap is wrong.
Here are a few interesting numbers about handicaps. According to an interesting scenario presented by Dean Knuth, former head of USGA Handicaps, “You should average about three shots higher than your handicap. For example, a player with a Course Handicap of 16 on a course with a USGA Course Rating of 71.2 should average about 90, not 87. The USGA Handicap System is based on 96 percent of the best 10 differentials (corrected for Course and Slope Rating) of his last 20 rounds. More than half of your scores should be within three strokes of three over your handicap (87 to 93 in our example).
Most golfers will beat their handicap (87 or better in our example) 20 per cent of the time and beat it by three strokes one out of every 20 rounds. For this player to break 80 (beat his handicap by eight), the odds are 1,138 to 1 that his handicap is correct. Do that twice and it would take the average golfer to play over 700 years of golf to accomplish it “fairly”. Do you know anyone that has done this feat? If you do, I certainly hope that you are not playing this person for any substantial wager, because you are in trouble because your opponent is playing with the wrong handicap.
I do not bring this math up to bog everyone down, but I did want to say that handicaps are designed to make the game fun and enjoyable and equitable. They also give us reason to practice. Please respect the handicap system so we can all play fairly and improve and compete on a level playing field.
Rich Conwell is the PGA Head Golf Professional at Uniontown Country Club. Rich enjoys teaching players of all ability levels as well as helping junior players to reach their potential. Rich can be reached at rconwell@uniontowncc.com.