2020 Update: Although most of the information here is still valid, But we have published a new content about "Golf Handicap Score Submission" on Deemples and you can read about the latest version here.
Mike: “Hi John, nice to meet you. Looking forward to play with you today.”
John: “Hi Mike, looking forward to our game too! What’s your golf handicap?”
“I’m a 18-20”
“Ooh, I’m about the same, we can get a small game in with a small wager!”
“Sure, I’m down for it. How about $10 per hole?”
“I’m game!”
“Thanks for the game, John.”
“HOW DO YOU PLAY 80 when you said your golf handicap was 18???”
“Haha today was a good day. Most of the time I play about 85-90”
“Then how is your handicap 18??”
“Well sometimes I play bad at 18 too”
“How did you even calculate the 18? Who maintains your handicap?”
“Oh I submit it at the club that I’m a member at”
“When is the last time you submitted any scores?”
“Probably about a year ago”
“Then how is 18 still valid? Did anyone verify on that?”
“Er..no…Thanks for your $180”
The Problem
When the scenario above happens, it annoys this shit out of people, especially those whom fairly state their handicaps. Golf is an honorable game, but the rise of cheaters of golf handicap (or sometimes they just don’t know how to calculate it because there’s no education around it) make it impossible for golf tournaments to take any declared handicaps seriously anymore.
So, if you’re honest, you will never win a golf tournament.
Current Solutions
Submission to a golf club
Only if you are a member of a golf club would you be able to submit your scores to them. Your scores are validated by a fellow member/friend, but no enforcement is taken by the clubs if there is any collusion on scoring.
Golf Handicap Apps
If you don’t have a golf club membership, there are many apps out there for you to input your scores, and the app calculates your handicap for you. However, no one verifies these scores so when someone shows you their handicap on their app, it’s hard to trust.
Manual Spreadsheet
For those who know the formulas behind golf handicap calculation, they take matters into their own hands to put it into a spreadsheet and calculate it themselves. Again, no verification from a third party.
The Objective of Golf Handicap on Deemples
Education:
Most people just don’t know how golf handicaps are calculated. We at Deemples want to make this our responsibility to help people understand the variables and formulas behind your handicap, and what it means.
Fairness:
We want all golfers to be able to play on a level playing field. That’s what handicapping was for in the first place. Lack of tools, honesty, verification, enforcement by golf associations made it difficult for any handicap to be trusted today. But with the technologies available today, we want to make handicapping fair again for everyone.
Golf tournaments can now rely on this data to ensure that the participants have accurate handicapping, and smaller games can use this as a benchmark if they want to take on a small wager.
Self Improvement:
And if none of the above, it’s a great way for you as a golfer to improve on your own, and let other golfers verify your playing ability as you go along.
How it works
Deemples users are already used to rating their playing partners at the end of the game. At the same time, they now input the Adjusted Gross Scores of their playing partners.
At the end of the game, go to that game in MY GAMES>PREVIOUS GAMES, you will see this:
Click on the "Rate & Score" button, then key in "Course Rating" and "Slope Rating" of the tee box that most of your playing partners played from.
In addition to rating, you now click on the + button at the scoring section to input your playing partner's score.
The Course and Slope rating will already be pre-filled, but if one of your playing partners played from a different tee, make sure you key in the course and the slope rating of the tee box that they played off from.
These scores are then calculated and after you have 5 verified scores inputted by your playing partners, you will then have an accurate handicap index. This handicap index will always be revised as you input more scores, to reflect your latest golfing ability.
Why can’t you rate yourself?
We want your golf handicap to be trusted by everyone. You not able to input anything on your own, just means that all these scores were inputted by other golfers playing with you on Deemples. Now since most of the people you’d be playing with on Deemples would be new, they have no incentive to help you cheat. Hence creating the most trustworthy handicap that you can be proud of.
You can't score yourself, so make sure you get your playing partners to score you!
How your golf handicap is calculated
It’ll be too much to explain here. So this is a link to the USGA handicap calculator: http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/handicapping/handicap-manual.html#!rule-14367
There are a few variables that are needed to calculate your golf handicap:
-
- Adjusted gross score
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- Course rating
- Slope rating
What is course rating, slope rating, handicap index?
Course rating
is a number, close to par for the course, and is expressed with a single decimal digit. For example: If par for a course is 72, it's Course Rating might be 71.4. Rating values go up with difficulty.
Slope rating
is computed from the difference between the bogey rating and the course rating. A golf course of standard playing difficulty has a slope rating of 113, and slope ratings range from a minimum of 55 (very easy) to a maximum of 155 (extremely difficult).
Handicap Index
is a number that indicates a player's skill and is taken to one decimal place (ex., 10.4). Convert your handicap index to a course handicap by multiplying the slope rating of the course, then dividing it by 113.
What is the Course Handicap?
Is the handicap that you will be using for that golf course.
“I’m a 17 at Seri Selangor Golf Course”, doesn’t mean you’re a 17 at another golf course. It depends on the slope rating of that course!
What is Adjusted Gross Score?
One or 2 really bad holes don’t affect your handicap very much. Also prevents a lot of cheating.
A good but cheating player might maintain his handicap at 24 by making pars on all 17 holes, then on the 18th hole, he decides to hit 24 shots over par to maintain his 24 handicaps.
Adjusted gross score prevents him from doing that. The maximum possible score per hole for someone who has a course handicap 9 and below is 2 over par. So if it was a Par 4, and he hit 28 shots, the score that he should submit for that hole is still 6.
Which scores are taken for calculation for handicap?
There’s a whole table for this. Generally, you need a minimum of 5 scores submitted to get your first handicap. The system takes the best handicap differential from the 5 scores submitted to calculate your handicap index. Once you accumulate 20 scores, the system will take the lowest 10 differentials from your most recent 20 scores to calculate your handicap.
That’s why in most cases, your handicap will almost reflect your best scores in the last 20 rounds. The rounds that you had almost will never be calculated for handicapping purposes.
What’s the difference between the Handicap Index and Course Handicap?
Handicap Index is not your course handicap for the day. It’s an index which you need to multiply with the slope rating of the tees of that course you’re playing off, divided by 113, to get your course handicap for the day.
COURSE HANDICAP = (Slope Rating / 113) * your handicap index
When do people ask what is your handicap, what is the right answer?
“My index is 14.2.” or “My handicap is 17 from the blue tees here at Seri Selangor”
Ultimately, if you’re a player that wants to improve, handicapping would be a way to measure your improvement. If you’re a newbie, it’s OK to start learning and understand the different variables that are used to calculate your handicap.
High handicaps are fine, lying about it isn’t.
#deemplesetiquette #deemplesmotivation #deemplesrules
Deemples is a golf app that golfers use to find other golfers to golf with. Find your playing partners by downloading the Deemples Golf App today. The Deemples Scoring and Handicap functions are now available. There will still be some bugs and errors here and there. Please feel free to reach out to us at hello@deemples.com if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, feedback. Thanks!
