Question about Handicaps

[44ark]

Hi all

Just started playing golf about 2-3 months ago with some friends and have caught the bug.

At the moment we only play the local par 35 9 hole course down the road about 2 -3 times a week.

I started hitting it about 62-64 and have now got down to 49-53 on the last 3 outings.

What im asking is how you work out the handicap and what is the max handicap i thought it was 28 but on some forums i see people with handicaps of 35!!!.

Also the way i thought you worked it out was to take 3 cards and throw away the highest and work the average ove the 2.

I.e i scored 49 been a par 35 thats 14 over so would have a handicap of 28.

Please correct me if im wrong as at the moment ive just got better than one of my mates and the other is around the 44-46 mark on the same course.

We play of net score so would be nice to beat him as last time he beat me by 1 but should have a lower handicap then me i think.

Please let me know how this works as we have been having some arguments over the matter.

Thanks

Mark

 

[time_vans]

i'm new to golf too but had a look at how to work your handicap out. officially i think you need to be a member of a club and play three rounds with a member. i think this is to keep you on the straight and narrow regarding rules and penalty strokes etc.
anyway i think max handicap is 28 for men but more for juniors or ladies.
to work out your handicap albeit unofficial you need to know which of 4 categories you fall into and like myself it would be 4
take your score for 18 holes and reduce your score on any hole where you scored more than double bogey down to double bogey.
ie par 5 maximum score is 7 even if you took 10
par 4 is 6 etc
you then have a gross adjusted score from which you deduct your handicap (28)
if your net score is less than par for the course you multiply how many below par you are by a factor of .4 which is for category 4 players it differs for each category.
if your net score is higher than par then your handicap remains the same
so in a nut shell my lad shot 102 on a par 71 on sunday his handicap is 28 so after adjusting his score down he scored 97 take away 28 equals 69. this is 2 below par so 2 multiplied by .4 equals .8 so handicap is reduced to 27.2

i've probaby got it all wrong but thats my understanding of it

hope this helps !!!!!!

 

[forefortheday]

Welcome 44!

Max handicap for a man is 28 not sure for a woman

Handicap is based on a maximum score of double bogey ie you score 10 on a par 5 handicap commitee marks it as a 7.

There is more to it than that but someone of far more experience will fill you in on the finer details I'm sure!

 

[44ark]

thanks for that

 

[USER1999]

Unless you play in Turkey, where mens handicaps go up to 50.

 

[viscount17]

Check this out, it should get you started (or confused):

http://www.handicapmaster.org/handicaps/Unified_Handicapping_System_Contents.php