Handicap Index not dropping as expected?

[IanM]

Hmmm ... I think I'll just have to take your word for it

Any time the resultant HI is a suprise, it's always best to just smile and shrug.

 

[backwoodsman]

The saving grace is that I've now just sneaked out of the soft cap restrictions - so any future cuts (and there will be many, oh yes) will be fully as expected.

 

[Swango1980]

Hmmm ... I think I'll just have to take your word for it

Basically, we'd also need to know how your Low Handicap Index changed between having one Index, and then from when you submitted another score in which you are trying to predict how your final Index would change. Because, if that Low Index also changed, then that will also impact your final Index.

For example, in your 1st score on the list your LHI was 15.3 and final Index was 19.5. Your soft cap kicked in at 18.3, so as your final Index is 19.5, that would suggest you actual average of Top 8 would be around 20.7 at that time.

You said that the new score you submitted at this time was 6.2 better than the one it replaced. This would indicate your average beforehand would have been about 21.5. If your LHI was still 15.3 at this time, your Index at that time would have been around 19.9. So, your new score would have given you a 0.4 drop.

However, you noted it was only a 0.2 drop, so you must have been 19.7 previously, not 19.9? So, assuming your actual average initially was 21.5, your final Index was 1.8 lower than this, which would imply your soft cap limit would be 17.9, and thus your low Index was 14.9

So, we obviously don't have all the numbers making up your best 8 and LHI each time (before and after submission of a score you are comparing). However, by trying to go through the maths of what you have given us, and forgetting any rounding issues that might make the numbers a bit different, I suspect the answer to your 1st example is that your LHI WAS 14.9. You then submitted a better score, that gave you a better average of your Top 8. BUT, your LHI probably also increased from 14.9 to 15.3 in the calculation of the new handicap, thus your Index did not drop as much as you'd think by only looking at the score in isolation, in comparison to what it replaced.

 

[backwoodsman]

Like I said to WJM, I'll have to take you word for it. Not sure I can follow (ie understand) the above ...

But if it makes any difference, both the HI and the LHI I quoted were the values prior to playing the round - ie Hi was 'X' and LHI was 'Y' - then i played the good round - which turned out to be 'Z' better than the existing 8th best of 20.

But I accept I may not have provided the all necessary info to allow the full & proper answer to be given.

 

[louise_a]

Yep, the soft cap kicked in, so increases were only half of what they would otherwise have been. But I dont know if decreases are affected in same way. But in any case, the cuts were less than half of what 'straight maths' would

If your low index was 15.3 and your HI was 19.5, then without the 50% reduction over your soft cap, your real handicap index would have been 20.7. so 6.2 difference would work out at .7 to .8 reduction in handicap, bringing the 20.7 to around 20.0, which is above your low cap by 1.7, so halving that would 8.5 which would give a new HI of around 19.2, obviously without knowing all the exact numbers this is an approximation but would seem to show your actual new HI to be correct. Hope that makes sense

 

[backwoodsman]

If your low index was 15.3 and your HI was 19.5, then without the 50% reduction over your soft cap, your real handicap index would have been 20.7. so 6.2 difference would work out at .7 to .8 reduction in handicap, bringing the 20.7 to around 20.0, which is above your low cap by 1.7, so halving that would 8.5 which would give a new HI of around 19.2, obviously without knowing all the exact numbers this is an approximation but would seem to show your actual new HI to be correct. Hope that makes sense

At last - an explanation i actually understand! (no disrespect to other posters, it's just that I am a bear of little brain ...)