Golf for dummies – What is Handicap?

Welcome to today’s video where we unravel the mystery of the handicap system in golf! Whether you’re new to the game or looking to understand this crucial aspect better, we’ve got you covered.

In This Video:

What is a golf handicap and why is it important?
How to calculate your golf handicap.
Tips for improving your handicap.
Common misconceptions about the handicap system.

scratch golf bogey golfer 7 handicap 9 handicap what does it all mean the unprofessional golf world is consumed by handicap talk and if you’re not familiar with any of the lingo you’re probably confused by all the talk so the question is what is a handicap and is it worth my time to learn about it the answer is yes and it’s definitely worth your time and answering the first part of the question will take a couple of minutes so stick around trust us it’s worth it so without further Ado we want to welcome you back to the golf Vault and we invite you to join us as we explore the world of [Music] handicaps I got my handicap which when I was vice president down to a six think you can do it that’s the biggest lie that he’s a six handicap of all I was an eight handicap yeah eight I’ve seen you swing I know you swing let not act like children president Trump we going to let’s not act like children what is a handicap it’s a great question and the answer is simple a handicap is The Benchmark average score for a golfer really it’s that simple but there are different ways to calculate it different variables that are taken into consideration different formulas that are used there’s not just one way to calculate a handicap different softwares or formulas can produce different results different countries employ different methods of calculating handicaps and it’s hard to compare handicaps globally however there’s no need to worry over all the complications we’ll go over how you can calculate your handicap later in the video and review all the aspects of such a seemingly confusing term what we want you to grasp right now is that a handicap is the average score for a golfer but it is not the traditional average you might be thinking about such as taking the cumulative score for say 20 rounds divided by 20 it’s more comparable to taking the average of the best 8 to 10 Rounds out of the last 20 and keeping a moving average as you play new rounds your handicap will always updating as you play if you record your scores and it can change for the better or the worse throughout your career on the golf course so let’s get down to what you want to know how can you calculate your handicap the traditional way to calculate and compute your handicap is by using a couple of complex formulas and your raw score data we’ll not be going over these formulas because realistically no one computes their handicap without software these days if you’re interested in calculating your handicap on paper with the formulas and keeping a detailed record the internet will have the answers you need for the majority of you many softwares apps and websites can help you compute your handicap and almost the entire Golf Community uses some sort of software to calculate their handicaps depending on your location there are different apps and websites that can help help you calculate a handicap most serious golfers will use their respective National Golf websites to determine where to calculate their handicap this might sound confusing so let me elaborate for a second the whhs is an acronym for the World handicap system before the whhs almost all countries seriously involved with golf had different ways of calculating handicaps to eliminate the differences between National handicaps the USGA and the R&A developed the World handicap system which became an industry standard way to compute a player’s handicap now to answer your question where might you find a place to calculate your handicap the whs website has an authorized Association list for every country involved in the program here you’ll be able to find your respective National Golf website and from there you’ll find the resources necessary to calculate your handicap it seems like a lot of work but remember the benefits a real handicap allows to play competitively against anyone regardless of skill differences you know how we talked about the authorized Association list featured on the whhs website if you were to look up the United States of America the USGA would come up as the authorized Association for the country through the USGA you will find the GHIN golf handicap Information Network the GHIN provides players the resources and software to compute and track their handicaps within the United States the ghn is an example of what each country aims to provide to their players if you’re in the United States the GH is where you go if you’re not in the United States then head over to the whhs website of find your country’s authorized Golf Association you completed the steps to getting a handicap now what you can outplay competitively and fairly across many countries and people as you want as long as they hold active handicaps picture this your forsome all have different skill levels but everyone has active handicaps player a has a handicap of Four B of six C of zero and D of one player C would be what we call a scratch golfer because their handicap is zero all other players shoot higher than player C so how could the game be fair well however many points each player is above the lowest handicap is how many strokes they receive so in our example player a receives four strokes B6 c0 because they are The Benchmark lowest for the group and D gets one stroke now all players except player c will have a Net score which is their gross score for the round minus The Strokes they received because of their handicap this is how handicaps can make the game fair and competitive between players of all different skill levels and why it’s crucial your playing Partners get a handicap there are a few other considerations that should be reviewed with handicaps because we want to make sure you have the full picture whole index X let’s assume you’re getting three Strokes in your round based on your handicap these Strokes will be designated to certain holes so which holes will it be well at the bottom of the scorecard under each hole would be a number this is the hole index these numbers range from 1 to 18 or however many holes are in your course the hole rated one is the hardest and the hole rated 18 is the easiest if you receive three Strokes per your handicap you get these Strokes on holes rated 1 two and three on the end deck this is important because let’s pretend you’re playing match play or stable for against your partners if you took your Strokes on the easiest holes it would give you an unfair Advantage because these holes are already more likely for pure competition whs variables there is an excellent chance that if you go out and get your handicap in 2024 it’ll be done through the whhs formula it’s important to note that this formula factors in a maximum score of net double bogey per hole when calculating your handicap the formula is also factor in course difficulty because all courses are difficulty rated before the scorecards are created so don’t be alarmed if your course is challenging compared to other courses your handicap will reflect it see that wasn’t too difficult was it handicaps could be a lot when you’re fresh into golf but we hope you feel more confident on the topic now but most importantly go out there and get yourself a handicap and start playing if if you enjoyed this video or learned something today smash that like button and make sure to subscribe for more golf content thanks for watching the golf Bol and we’ll see you next time happy golfing