Handicaps....

1,088 Views | 8 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by CapCityAg89
ORAggieFan
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Do handicaps really provide an accurate representation of skill? I say this as I a bad golfer looking at my results. I'm a 23. I play most rounds from the whites (will move back if playing as a single and paired with people playing further back as distance is the least of my problems). All that said, being a 23, I have a single round of my last 20 below 95 (93). My average strokes above par is 30.

Just seems handicap is skewed to make golfers look better than they are. I realize the worse someone is the more variance the probably have. Anyone else think about this or am I just thinking too much into this?
boinger89
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AG
Handicap is your potential. I'm a 6,8 but still shoot in mid 80s every third round or so. No way I'm betting I shoot in the high 70s every round.
CapCityAg89
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AG
Check out www.popeofslope.com

It's a good review of handicap, slope and statistics. Handicap is not intended to arbitrarily measure how good you are, but to provide a basis to equalize a contest.

Best conversation is around beating handicap. As you mention, you normally shoot +30 with your 23HC. The site talks about how often you can expect to break that 23 - short version: don't expect it to be often.
jj9000
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AG
Generally speaking, you should shoot you HDCP in ~25% of the rounds you play.

As someone else already mentioned, its a measurement of potential. Individual course Slope/Rating (and different tee selections) have a direct impact on HDCP.
AgPrognosticator
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AG
So, the confusion here appears to lie within the usage of terms. Your handicap index (HCI) can be applied to any course with a USGA Slope and Rating, which will then give you a course handicap.

If your HCI is 23 and you are playing a difficult course, then it is very likely that your course handicap will be approximately 30. Although, your your average score should be slightly higher than your course handicap because the handicapping system does drop some of your highest scores.

Chipotlemonger
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AG
quote:
Handicap is your potential.
ORAggieFan
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I'm familiar with course handicap. I guess my issue is it seems course is almost always higher than index playing from white tees.

Thanks for the replies.
AgPrognosticator
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AG
quote:
I'm familiar with course handicap. I guess my issue is it seems course is almost always higher than index playing from white tees.

Thanks for the replies.
If you go play an easy muni from the forward tees then you'd probably see a course handicap very close to your HCI. You'd probably score a lot closer to your HCI as well.
DannyDuberstein
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AG
To the point above, I'd describe one's handicap as a measure of their skill on a good day. If handicap was based on the entire 20 rounds vs. the lowest 10 of the 20, then I'd say it was a great measure of overall skill. Also, I think the 96% multiplier is goofy.
CapCityAg89
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AG
The point is that it's supposed to be hard to shoot your handicap. From the site I referenced ...

The odds of scoring better than your handicap in any given round are one in five, according to Dean Knuth, the former USGA handicapping official who devised the Slope rating system and whose Web site, popeofslope.com , is a fount of fun facts about handicaps. The chances of beating your handicap by three strokes? One round in 20. By eight strokes? One round in 1,138. For most of us, that's once in a lifetime. Wall Street Journal,
"The Genius of Handicapping", November 1, 2008, by John P
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