I don’t know how many golfers are out there in Doperland, but I thought I’d toss this out there and see if anyone can shed light on this:
So, my husband golfed a lot when he was a teenager (back when the Earth was still cooling). He’s talking to a guy at work who has a 74 handicap, which I understand is a very good golfer. The guy says because he’s so good, he’s not allowed to take more than a 7.5 on any hole. Supposedly, this is to keep him from sandbagging and winning against lesser golfers or something. He had a bad hole and would have taken an 8 on it, but because of this supposed rule, he actually can only score a 7.5 (which would allow him to win the hole even if he shot crappier than another golfer).
Does this sound legit? Is this a new rule? I know “this much” (holds fingers a millimeter apart) about golf. It just sounds fishy to me. Anyone??
Well, his handicap is most certainly not 74. He may shoot an average of 74; but a handicap, very roughly speaking, is the number of strokes a golfer needs to shave off to play near par. This guy’s handicap would probably be 3. I shoot in the mid-80s or so, and my handicap is around 17.
There is something called Equitable Stroke Control that limits how many strokes you can take on a single hole. It prevents one’s handicap from being thrown off by a really, really bad hole. For example, lets say I had a really bad day on a really tough course, and I hit a whole bunch of balls into the water on two holes, shooting 12 on both of them. Those two bad holes could raise my handicap to 18 or 19, which would give me an advantage against my opponents next time I play (gross score minus handicap equals net score – an “artificially high” handicap means lower net scores).
But to answer your question, here’s the chart.
Course Handicap Maximum Score
0-9 Double Bogey
10-19 7
20-29 8
30-39 9
40 or more 10
Thanks, Ravenman! I appreciate your concise explanation to someone who only watches when Tiger is playing, and then only if it’s the last hole with inevitable sudden death!
These days, of course, no one has a “handicap.” They have a handicap “index,” which can mean a different handicap depending upon the course played and the tees played from. Small technical detail of no importance to the issue of equitable stroke control.
The other thing is that Stroke Control only applies when entering scores for handicapping purposes, not when comparing scores on the course. If he took 9 strokes, then he’s sucking it up and taking a 9 when he and your hubby compare scores at the end of the game. He’ll only enter a 7 (or whatever) when he records the score in the computer in the clubhouse, but that doesn’t give him a free pass on the course.
As Ravenman pointed out, the purpose of Stroke Control is to keep you from artificially raising your handicap, not to make it easier for you to win. And the purpose of handicapping, of course, is to let players of different skill compete on a relatively level playing field. If he’s using Stroke Control on the course to lower his scores, he’s cheating. He may not be doing so intentionally, but he’s taking an unfair advantage.
This is different from using handicap to modify scores on the course. If I have a handicap of 21 and you have a 3, then I get 18 strokes, one per hole. On each hole, I’ll reduce my final total by one. This makes handicaps applicable in both stroke and match play.
