Corner
By Eric Lahman, USGA Manager, Handicapping & Course Rating
number. It is NOT how your net score relates to
par.
How often should a player do this?
Recognize that your worst scores are not truly
utilized in the calculation of a Handicap Index;
only the best 10 scores are utilized and the
worst 10 are disregarded, then the best 10 are
averaged. This ratio tells us playing to a handicap
happens less than half of the time. Including all
of the handicap formula, the resulting probability
is that playing to your handicap happens only
once out of four to five rounds. The USGA isn’t
out to discourage you, but in order to maintain
a semblance of equitable competition for players
with differing skills in varying formats, we have
determined this probability as the best choice for
our formula. If we used all scores, those players
with higher handicaps would see their values
increase significantly, while those with lower
values would not increase as much. This would tip
the balance of the system heavily toward higher
handicap players. We believe there should be an
incentive toward improving one’s game.
We can’t all be scratch golfers, but we can
set a target to strive for to play to our handicap and we can determine what that means. And don’t
get discouraged if you only play to your handicap
20-25 percent of the time.