Golfing Handicap Systems

For newbie competition play, golfers normally receive a golfing handicap based on the last 10 scores they received changed for the issue of the courses, put simply, the USGA Handicapping System. This works really well for competitions that attract newbies who play regularly, but what about smaller competitions for golfers who don't play frequently enough to be meticulously handicapped in the common way? There are many systems that address this question .

The second choice System

The USGA has authorized a system that's called the second Best Score System or the second Best Handicap. This does not imply the system is second choice, but the second choice score sets the player's golfing handicap.

The player provides his 3 best scores from the year in rounds played on regulation courses with a par of 68 or more. The council mixes them with any scores from prior competitions and selects the second best score minus seventy for men and 73 for ladies as the handicap for the existing competition.

For new players who can only provide a single score, the system subtracts 74 strokes for a man and 77 for a woman to get the golf handicap. In any case, a score for a 9-hole round is doubled first.

The Peoria System

A golf handicap doesn't have to be set prior to the tournament. Using the Peoria System means giving the players their handicaps according to the way they play during the tournament. The committee secretly selects six holes before the playing begins.

There is a par-3, par-4 and par-5 hole each from the front and back nine holes. After the round is played, the golfer's over par strokes (up to three on the par-3s and par-4s and 4 on the par-5s) on those six holes are multiplied by 2.8. The result is subtracted from the round's total as the handicap.

The Callaway System

The Callaway system is a worst holes system that works according to a chart. The golfer plays one round and compares score to the chart. If his score is 70 or above, he will receive a deduction based on the worst score in the round and/ or a set adjustment.

Depending on how many strokes he made, a player could be given a golfing handicap of 1/2 the number of strokes on his worst hole to the total of the 6 worst holes and the adjustment of -2 to +2 to up to fifty strokes. The chart makes this much easier than it sounds and since this system is reliant on a game that all players played in the same weather conditions, it works out extremely reasonably.