How often in a year should you play to your handicap?

[Smiffy]

If I play a pretty average round I'll play to handicap.. For a good round I'd expect to be 5-6 shots under my handicap.

Hate to say it Pull, but that sounds like the onset of "banditus horribilus"....remind me not to play you for money.
Anyone who stands on the tee and expects to score 36 points every time they go out is a bandit. 36 is what we are hoping for, to expect it everytime is wrong in my eyes.
To me, scoring 30 (or thereabouts) points is a reasonable game, 36 is a bonus, anything more than that I am elated. If I shot 5-6 shots under my handicap I would certainly consider that to be better than "a good" game.
Nothing worse than playing out of your boots, having a good round and coming in having played to your handicap and one of your playing partners is moaning like mad because they "only" scored 41 points. Not saying you do this, but I've played with guys that have.

 

[Imurg]

if you are supposed to play to your handicap only 1 in four rounds then that would be an increase of 0.3 every 4 rounds ! how often are you supposed to better it, and better it by enough to get a substantial cut? this sounds like a recipe for handicap limbo !

I think most people are in a kind of handicap limbo. Unless you are improving quickly - due to lessons/purple patch - you shouldn't be expecting a "substantial" cut.
If you play 4 times a month, you get 3x0.1's back + maybe playing to handicap or shooting one or 2 below and getting a 0.4/0.6 cut.
Having your handicap dropping by that amount leads to a cut of a couple of shots over the year. That's not unreasonable is it?
Believe me, my handicap was virtually halved last Autumn and it makes life extremely tricky.
36 points should be a target not an expectation.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

I was told that you're likely to play to or better than your handicap no more than 4 times a year. All this barring any significant improvement as most players will have good run of games.

I expect to score 36pts most weeks because thats the standard I believe I can play too, that said my scores reflect otherwise!

 

[User20205]

agree with Smiffy. If 36 points is the norm then your handicap is too high. I came down from 11 to 9 last year my typical round was probably 32-34 points or 2-4 over my handicap. The reason I came down was i had 3-4 rounds over 4 months significantly under my handicap.

i have heard the 1 in 4 figure mentioned when playing to handicap, but I'm not sure if this takes into account different courses/comps/social rounds.

For me playing to handcap is my aim. if I beat it I'm chuffed. If I'm in the buffer that's OK.

 

[markyjee]

Checked comp results from last season on HDID, only played 8 counting comps a got a cut in 2, buffer in 3 and up 0.1 in 3.
Don't think h/cap should be best you can achieve as some have said, should reflect a decent round to achieve buffer, if you play well get a cut, if you play poor then you go up.

 

[garyinderry]

maybe my view on this is skewed! last yr i rapidly dropped frm 16-11 and finished the year at 11.5! i believe i was mn the way dwn further but ran out of competitions. i have improved my game over the break and feel its only a matter of time b4 more cuts.

this is in contrast to the year b4 where i remained at 16 all summer in limbo rising to 17 then back to 16.

im expecting big scores frm the 1st wave of comps this year as people improve.there was sum silly scores during the winter sunday society.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

your point being? A club ignoring rules...doesn't bother me in the slightest.

It should.

Looks like SSS off your yellows is 69 against a par of 72. I suspect CSS is usually 68. This doesn't mean you have to shoot 5 under handicap, it means handicap is 40pts.

It's a common misconception that 36 points is playing to your h'cap but that is only true if par = sss and css is usually = to sss.

If par is 72 and sss is 71 with css usually equal to sss then in a stableford comp 37points is playing to your h'cap.

A comp can only be reductions only if CSS calculates more than 3 over SSS, you can't make a comp reductions only.

There are enough complaints about the handicapping system as it is so we really don't need clubs abusing the system. You might not care, but you should

 

[User20205]

maybe my view on this is skewed! last yr i rapidly dropped frm 16-11 and finished the year at 11.5! i believe i was mn the way dwn further but ran out of competitions. i have improved my game over the break and feel its only a matter of time b4 more cuts.

If you are rapidly improving as you seem to be then beating handicap should be the target. At some stage though your improvement will level off then you may have to manage your expectations unfortunately

everyone will go though a stage of coming down rapidly, the key is learning to play to the lower one as quick as possible.

 

[JezzE]

I would think it depends on your handicap and wether its appropriate to your ability at the time. Its been a while since I've not shot my handicap or better, but not enough below it to get a cut in winter(we need to shoot 5 better to get cut in winter).

5 better than what? I assume you're talking par here, which is nothing to do with handicaps, and your course's SSS (against which handicaps are assessed) is well below par?

 

[JezzE]

It should.

Looks like SSS off your yellows is 69 against a par of 72. I suspect CSS is usually 68. This doesn't mean you have to shoot 5 under handicap, it means handicap is 40pts.

It's a common misconception that 36 points is playing to your h'cap but that is only true if par = sss and css is usually = to sss.

If par is 72 and sss is 71 with css usually equal to sss then in a stableford comp 37points is playing to your h'cap.

A comp can only be reductions only if CSS calculates more than 3 over SSS, you can't make a comp reductions only.

There are enough complaints about the handicapping system as it is so we really don't need clubs abusing the system. You might not care, but you should

Spot on

 

[JezzE]

looking at my comp scores from last year, I played 8 times. I played over my handicap twice, to my handicap once and better than my handicap 5 times - and due to course ratings I never dropped a single 0.1 only went up...

That can only mean you haven't actually played to your handicap once. What are you assessing your scores against - par or SSS/CSS? If it's the former and your course's SSS is lower than par, then that would explain all the +0.1s

 

[JezzE]

agree with Smiffy. If 36 points is the norm then your handicap is too high.

Need to be a bit careful there. At some clubs 40 points might be playing to handicap, at others it might be 34 (or even more or less depending on the par to SSS relationships). 36 points is only relevant when par = SSS

 

[User20205]

Need to be a bit careful there. At some clubs 40 points might be playing to handicap, at others it might be 34 (or even more or less depending on the par to SSS relationships). 36 points is only relevant when par = SSS

ahh you see I'm simple minded, you'll confuse me if you start throwing in variables like ss and css


but I take your point

 

[garyinderry]

my course will always play to a handicap of +36 points in the good weather. you usually have to post a +42 to win.

 

[rosecott]

if you are supposed to play to your handicap only 1 in four rounds then that would be an increase of 0.3 every 4 rounds ! how often are you supposed to better it, and better it by enough to get a substantial cut? this sounds like a recipe for handicap limbo !

It's not playing to your handicap, it's playing to your buffer zone which, for Cat 3 players is 3 more than CSS.

 

[Jezzer777]

I heard it your handicap is the average of your top 50 percent of scores - more or less - so approx 25th percentile.

 

[Grumps]

I play better than it during the winter as it's a much shorter course because we play off winter tees but in the summer I'll maybe only beat it a couple of times

 

[eltub1]

Personally i target 32pts a round, if i better it iv had a good day if i dont achieve it i have had a bad day. I play off 7 so shooting 5-6 under for me is not likely to happen more than once twice a year especially on my course. I think the lower h/cap you are the less chance you have of shooting 38+ points because you get less room for error, a player of a high h/cap on his way down can have poor holes and still pull it back and shoot 38+ but there is less chance a low h/cap golfer will pull it back just hopefully play damage limitation and shoot as best he/she can. Im also of the opinion that i take an instant dislike to golfers who keep saying in conversation that i had 40+ points three times this week and twice last week.... el bandito im afraid your only cheating yourself and making yourself look like a complete to*$er to real golfers.....in the past if iv been playing well and not been able to play in comps iv requested a voluntary drop with proof of the cards that iv scored..

 

[Region3]

I've just checked mine. Last year I played in 24 qualifiers. Got cut in 7 of them, 5 buffers and 12 x 0.1's back.
So that's better than hc 1 in 3.5 times. Last year was an improving year for me though so I won't expect the same again this year.

Not that I think about scores before I play, but thinking about it now I'd say I'd consider anything up to 4 over hc to be a decent round even though I need +2 for buffer.

 

[Pro_V_wan_kenobi]

Oh dear Oh dear, what a lot of opinions. I have come to the conclusion that 4o points in stableford is OK as long as your first instinct is to apologize for unbelievably good fortune on that particular round.
The whole issue is blurred by a myriad of factors not least of which is honesty and followed closely by honour.