FORE Magazine

Top Menu

  • About Me
  • Contact Us
  • Home

Main Menu

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Sustainability
  • Travel
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Public Affairs
  • scga.org
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login

logo

FORE Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Sustainability
  • Travel
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Public Affairs
  • scga.org
Handicap HintsWinter 2023
Home›Handicap Hints›New Year’s Daze: Looking Forward and Looking Back at your Handicap

New Year’s Daze: Looking Forward and Looking Back at your Handicap

By Kevin O'Connor
February 7, 2023
569
0
Share:

With the new year, many resolutions are made, including trying to improve our golf games (and our Handicap Indexes®). Unfortunately, “out with the old and in with the new” does not apply to your scoring record for handicap purposes.

First off, the definition of a scoring record for handicap purposes starts with the following:

A history of a player’s acceptable scores
along with:
▪ The player’s current Handicap Index
▪ The player’s Low Handicap Index™

The word history is important. Scores made in 2022 don’t magically disappear. They are part of your history, and if they are part of your most recent 20 scores posted date-wise, they will be considered for the best eight of 20 calculation (based on Score Differential™). In other words, if a player posts three scores early in 2023, it’s likely that the calculation of a Handicap Index will start by picking the best eight from a composite of the three 2023 scores plus the seventeen most recent 2022 scores.

We receive questions with some frequency regarding a player who posts a few poor scores (and resulting Score Differentials) and then expresses concern that the Handicap Index has not changed. The reference to the eight best of the most recent 20 in the preceding paragraph is most important. If those three 2023 scores to date are all “bad” scores, this still leaves 17 others to be considered, and if the best eight of 20 from prior to the entry of three scores remains the same, the Handicap Index is likely to remain the same.

People like to look back at their records and statistics. On both GHIN.com and the GHIN Mobile App, one can review more than the 20 most recent scores that are included in the most recent revision. There are filters in both the Scores and Statistics categories (both accessed initially from the Stats heading) that allow for filtering by 2021, 2022 and 2023 to date, along with by courses, certain score types, etc.

The year-specific filters will include round counts for the particular year. Also, recognizing that there are many reasons to enter scores hole by hole (including letting the products adjust/ calculate for net double-bogey maximums automatically,) those hole-by-hole entries also provide a scoring summary that can be analyzed in relation to how one does on holes with different pars. Those who take an additional step and enter “Advanced Stats” in their hole-by-hole entries have additional statistics about putting, approach-shot accuracy and driving accuracy at their disposal.

One other topic that comes up at this time of year is playing golf in various parts of the country (or even the world) and understanding whether the score made is acceptable for handicap purposes. We will focus on the U.S. for our example. Allied golf associations (such as the SCGA) determine whether something called an inactive season for score posting purposes in a region applies. This determination is made under the belief that conditions during a certain time of year aren’t likely to match those of mid-season conditions when golf courses in the region are regularly maintained in a consistent manner, so the difficulty of the courses are probably quite different and unlikely to match the issued Course Rating™ and Slope Rating™.

The system does not want these different conditions to impact the Handicap Index. As an example, scores made in the state of Oregon are not acceptable for handicap purposes from December 1 through the end of February, as determined by the Oregon Golf Association (not the course). The state of Massachusetts has an inactive season from November 15 through the end of March. These dates do not mean you cannot play golf in this time window, but you cannot post a score for handicap purposes during those periods. When you use GHIN tools to try to post a score during these windows in regions observing an inactive season a message will appear that says, “Date played is outside the active score posting season, for this golf course.”

You may be lucky enough to enjoy a January round at Bandon Dunes, but that score is not acceptable for handicap purposes.

Previous Article

Grass by Design: Pure Research Yields New ...

Next Article

Changing of the Guard: New Galleri Classic ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Kevin O'Connor

Kevin joined the SCGA in August of 2012, and will oversee utilization of the USGA Handicap System by SCGA members and member clubs, including utilization of the GHIN service. Having worked at the Northern California Golf Association in a similar role, and then more recently in a senior management role with the United States Golf Association, his experience positions him to assist the SCGA and its members in continued successful implementation of these core programs.

Related articles More from author

  • Handicap Hints

    The Truth Behind those Tournament Scores

    January 1, 2014
    By Kevin O'Connor
  • Handicap HintsSpring 2022

    Keeping You Informed: GHIN Push Notifications on your Mobile Phones

    April 20, 2022
    By Kevin O'Connor
  • Public AffairsWinter 2023

    Grass by Design: Pure Research Yields New Strains of Drought-Tolerant Grass

    February 7, 2023
    By Craig Kessler
  • Handicap HintsWinter 2016

    USGA Releases Changes To The Handicap System

    January 1, 2016
    By Kevin O'Connor
  • FeaturedHandicap HintsSpring 2023

    Playing Conditions Calculation: Were There Outstanding Conditions The Day You Played?

    April 23, 2023
    By Kevin O'Connor
  • Handicap HintsSpring 2021

    Handicap Index Caps

    April 26, 2021
    By Kevin O'Connor

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • FeaturedProfilesSpring 2023

    A Witness to History: Sportscaster Ted Sobel’s Firsthand Stories Of Greatness

  • FeaturedFoundationSpring 2023

    Creating A Legacy: With A Bold Vision, LACC, The SCGA And The USGA Have Come Together To Invest In The Future Of The Game In Southern California

  • FeaturedSCGA JuniorSpring 2023

    Playday: 36 SCGA Juniors Found Willing Mentors at Storied LACC

  • EquipmentFeaturedSpring 2023

    A New Way of Seeing: ODIN Golf Is Redefining How Golf Ball Brands Interact With Their Customers

  • FeaturedProfilesSpring 2023

    Full Circle: Mike Kelly Takes The Reins

FeaturedSpring 2023State of the Game

Big Is Beautiful: How Much More Distance Can We Expect in a Driver?

Four hundred: That’s how far I should be hitting my drives. Take my baseline 230-yarder from 15 or so years ago, add the gain promised annually with every best, better, ...
  • Word Play: “Playing Golf” VS “Golfing”

    By Tina Mickelson
    April 23, 2023
  • Club Spotlight: Los Compas GC

    By SCGA Staff
    April 23, 2023
  • Simple Twist of Fate: A Chance Encounter With An NFL Great Changed Michael Herrera’s Life

    By Tod Leonard
    April 23, 2023
  • Full Swing: Half Empty? A Contrarian View

    By David Weiss
    April 23, 2023
© 2016 FORE Magazine About Us | Contact Us | Advertise