Handicap Hub: The Other 25 Percent
By Kelly Neely, Sr. Dir., Handicapping & Course Rating
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The Other 25 Percent
I’m going to toss out a wild guess that if I polled OGA members with a boring question like – “What percentage of the World Handicap System is made up of formulas?” I would get a range of answers such as –
- 100%
- 99%
- Who cares, I hate math
Reasonable responses, all (and the last one is especially amusing and dear to my heart). My own assumption would be that a 25% makeup of formulas within the WHS is actually closer to the correct percentage, hence the title of this article. You might ask “Only 25%? What the heck is the rest of it about?” I know you are just chomping at the bit for answers to these compelling questions, but sadly you will have to wait until next month’s article to find out. Please cope by playing more golf.
For now, I will highlight at least a portion of the 25%, but primarily focusing on those where the values might not be immediately apparent or obvious to the player. So, let’s become handicapping and course rating archaeologists and do some excavating.
Calculation of a Handicap Index When There are Six or Fewer Scores in the Record
Most players have caught on very well that a Handicap Index in the WHS is based on a calculation of the eight lowest scores from their recent 20 scores (in the old USGA Handicap System it was 10 out of 20). But there are a lot of golfers out there who are just establishing their Indexes, with far fewer rounds in their record. How is the calculation different for them?
While it’s common for those new to this handicapping thing to be surprised and contact me with comments like “I just got my new handicap and it’s wrong”, this type of response comes up even more since the launch of the WHS. Completely understandable. An improvement from the system of old, a Handicap Index is now established after only three rounds (or 54 holes of golf – any combination of 9-or 18-hole scores). This speaks to a main objective of the WHS – to encourage as many golfers as possible to obtain and maintain a Handicap Index.
However, due to the smaller pool of data in which to crunch the numbers, the WHS will base the new handicap on the lowest score differential of the three and will subtract two strokes from that number. With four scores in the record, again the lowest differential is used, and again an adjustment is made – this time one stroke. For five scores, there is no reduction in the Index from the single score used. But, once the player has half a dozen rounds in, the number of scores used jumps to two – yet we are back to a one stroke reduction. No punishment intended! The reductions simply act as safeguards to “protect the field” until the player’s Index is well-established with more data.
For those golfers with 7 – 20 scores in their records, it’s smooth sailing. Unless you get an Exceptional Score Reduction or a Cap, that is.
Playing Conditions Calculation (PCC)
You’ve no doubt heard of this interesting new feature more than once or have even had a PCC applied to one (or more) of your scores. Of all the shiny new baubles of the WHS, this one seems to be kindling the most curiosity, even though it doesn’t happen very often. The PCC also represents the only formula in the system that is undisclosed, which makes it kind of mysterious and cool. So, while I will not be digging into the actual calculation because I can’t, I will explain something that I’ve run into repeatedly since the WHS launched. “Why does a plus PCC make your score differential go down and a negative PCC make your score differential go up?”
The PCC can result in a score differential adjustment of -1.0 - +3.0. Here’s what the values represent –
- A 0.0 adjustment means the course played as expected
- A -1.0 adjustment means the course played easier than normal
- A +1.0, +2.0 or +3.0 adjustment means the course played more difficult, way more difficult and Holy Heck!
If you see a plus PCC in your scoring record, the differential will be adjusted downward. And conversely with a minus PCC, you will see an upward adjustment. Wait, WHAT? It might help to think of it in Course Rating concepts: When you play a tee with a relatively higher Course Rating / Slope Rating, what happens to your score differential? It goes down! This is because that score represents a better performance – even though it might be higher – than the same score on an easier tee.
Or, a better way to say it (as taken from the Rules of Handicapping, Rule 5.6) - “The purpose of the PCC within the handicap calculation is to recognize that an average score submitted in harder playing conditions may be better than a good score submitted in easier playing conditions.”
Capping Procedure
For the very first time in the Handicap System, there exists an automated provision to limit the upward movement of a Handicap Index, called capping (Rule 5.8). To me, this represents a long-time-coming-flash-of-brilliance on the part of the architects of the WHS. And it’s not because I’m Little Miss Blackheart (though I kind of am). It’s just that I’m a big fan of the Handicap System being improved upon by modern, common sense computerized features that reduce the workload of Handicap Committees and increase the likelihood of equity in handicapping.
When a player’s Handicap Index undergoes a cap, a little exclamation point indicator will appear next to it. The important thing to observe here – and this is something that is slowly being noticed by players – is the Low HI (Low Handicap Index) displayed below it. This value is key to understanding capping and serves as the baseline or anchor point upon how / when a cap is triggered.
There are two types of caps –
Soft Cap – This is triggered when the difference between a player’s newly calculated Handicap Index and their Low HI is greater than 3.0 strokes
Hard Cap – This cap triggers to restrict the amount by which a player’s Handicap Index can increase, after application of the soft cap, to no more than 5.0 strokes above their Low HI.
To keep with our theme of digging into “hidden figures” note that there is a zone of 2.0 strokes between the Soft Cap and the Hard Cap. This means your handicap can fluctuate and float gently like a jellyfish in this Soft Cap zone before it slams into the bottom of the boat (i.e., the ceiling of a Hard Cap). Free Advice: Pay close attention to your Low HI, endeavor to keep your handicap from going more than 5 strokes above it and don’t swim with sharks.
Bogey Rating
Most golfers have heard the term Course Rating and Slope Rating, and recognize the numbers, but have you heard the term (or actually ever seen) a Bogey Rating? While Course Rating is based on the expected performance of the scratch player, Bogey Rating is the expected performance of the bogey player. You need both to calculate Slope Rating. Confused yet?
Simply put, if you plot both Course Rating and Bogey Rating on a graph, and draw a line between the two, that’s where you get the term “Slope” (nope, has nothing to do with topography). Slope indicates the relative difficulty between the higher and lower handicapped golfers. In the WHS, scratch gets a lot of attention – par is based on scratch, course rating is based on scratch, your Course Handicap gets you to scratch, etc., etc. But it’s all irrelevant without the indispensable Bogey Rating. How nice to see the bogey get its due.
What exactly is a bogey player?
According to the Rules of Handicapping Definitions, it is a player with a Handicap Index of approximately 20.0 for men and approximately 24.0 for women.
For Course Rating purposes, our ideal bogey male golfer averages 200 off the tee, and 170 on his second and subsequent shots. Our ideal bogey female golfer averages 150 off the tee, and 130 on her second and additional shots.
Of course, we all know golfers who hit it shorter or longer but who still fit the above definition. Rest assured that the USGA continues to research thousands and thousands of rounds that confirm the validity of these values. Shot lengths of bogey players are crucial in calculating the obstacle values (penalty areas, bunkers, trees, etc.) that are used in deriving the end result – the Course Rating numbers.
While you may never notice the Bogey Rating values, it is one of the three necessary sides of the triangle (don’t all good things come in threes?) – the other two being Course Rating and Slope Rating. It makes your Handicap Index relative to the tee and course you are playing, which makes it personal to each player.
