The Great Equalizer
By Teresa Saponaro, Manager of handicap
administration for the USGA.
If you were to receive only one handicap stroke against an
opponent, where would you want it? Envision the course you play
most often and pick the hole where you want that one stroke.
You're probably picturing the hole you mess up on the most.
We all equate a big score, like an 8 or a 9, with the hole where
we want the stroke. It might not occur to us that where we
actually need the stroke is at a hole where we experience far
fewer problems.
Many golfers assume that the No. 1 handicapped hole means it is
the most difficult. Yet the hole that is toughest for all players
is not likely to be the toughest for high-handicap players. They
need their strokes to equalize an opponent in match play, the
game's most prevalent form at the club level. The emphasis on
handicap stroke allocation should be on where strokes will erase
unequal abilities, whether the lesser-skilled player receives one
stroke or 30.
Let's compare a scratch player and a bogey player on two
holes. The first is 435 yards and has several greenside bunkers.
The scratch player's medium-iron shot of 185 yards often
misses the green, resulting in an average score of around 5. The
bogey golfer comes up 65 yards short of the green in two, also
meaning an average of around 5. Although they both consider the
hole difficult, they generally walk off the green halving the
hole.
The next hole is 365 yards and is perceived as much easier. The
scratch player's second shots average 115 yards but the
approach for the bogey player is from 165. The scratch player,
often putting for 3, holds an advantage over the bogey player,
who frequently misses the green. The disparity in ability is more
apparent here, as is the need for the handicap stroke. That would
run counter to the intuition of most players.
The USGA suggests comparing scratch and bogey players because it
is easier to see the gaps in ability. Even though we are
comparing extremes, this concept still applies when players are
separated by a single handicap stroke in a round.
Section 17 of the USGA Handicap System manual provides guidelines
on the computation of handicap stroke allocations. A handicap
committee begins the process by collecting about 500 scorecards
from play over the most commonly used set of tees. It then culls
out for study the players who fall into two distinct groups:
low-handicappers (ideally those with course handicaps of 8 or
below) and players 15 to 20 strokes higher than the average of
the first group.
Next, the committee crunches the individual scores to determine
each group's average hole score. It then computes the
difference in the average score for each group on each hole, and
ranks the holes with the greatest average score difference first.
Finally, in order to equalize the distribution of strokes over 18
holes, odd-numbered handicap strokes are assigned to the front
nine and even-numbered ones to the back nine. Throughout the
process, the committee should review its mathematical results and
make sure they reflect actual playing conditions.
While the USGA provides recommendations for how to allocate
handicap strokes, the final decision belongs to a club's
handicap committee. There are no set rules, but the committee
should work the math for men and women every five years or after
widespread renovations to the course. There again are no
absolutes, but the committee will probably notice a pattern of
allocation with the long par-5s ranked as the lowest stroke holes
to the par-3s ranked as the highest.
Handicaps allow the worst golfers to play on an equal basis
against the best - and against everyone in between. The key to
allocating strokes is erasing the margin in scoring difference,
whether a player gets 30 strokes or needs just one.
Click here for a searchable version of the
Handicap System manual
.