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False Handicap?

MH

MH

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
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Location
Grande Prairie, Alberta
Handicap
6.4
With the Morgan Cup and Grandaddy experiences being handicapped events it got me thinking about my handicap.

If you play say 80% of your rounds on the same course and you keep an official handicap do you think that it translates to other courses?

For example with Covid last summer I joined the country club and played 95% of my rounds there and my handicap improved greatly from the start of the season. I got really comfortable on the course. Towards the end of the season I was able to go meet some buddies on a short trip within the province and played 4 different courses that I haven’t played before. I definitely didn’t score to my handicap and I’m wondering if my official handicap is actually a bit inflated due to the fact that most of my rounds come from one course. Got me thinking maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was! I realize your handicap is what you post and each course is rated so in reality your handicap should translate wherever you play but I have found familiarity definitely leads to lower scores for me. Is it just me?
 
No. You learn where you can miss and how to recover on your home course over many rounds. The advice I got from club pro was if you want to play handicap events, play lots of away courses that have a high slope, and play one tee longer than you would usually play. that would result in a reasonable away handicap on new courses.
 
MH said:
With the Morgan Cup and Grandaddy experiences being handicapped events it got me thinking about my handicap.

If you play say 80% of your rounds on the same course and you keep an official handicap do you think that it translates to other courses?

For example with Covid last summer I joined the country club and played 95% of my rounds there and my handicap improved greatly from the start of the season. I got really comfortable on the course. Towards the end of the season I was able to go meet some buddies on a short trip within the province and played 4 different courses that I haven’t played before. I definitely didn’t score to my handicap and I’m wondering if my official handicap is actually a bit inflated due to the fact that most of my rounds come from one course. Got me thinking maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was! I realize your handicap is what you post and each course is rated so in reality your handicap should translate wherever you play but I have found familiarity definitely leads to lower scores for me. Is it just me?
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It's not just you. 95+ percent of my rounds are at my home course, and my handicap doesn't travel well. Part of why I can score on that course is that I've played hundreds and hundreds of rounds there and am familiar with just about every square inch of it. I'm also mentally comfortable with it because it's so familiar (although sometimes that works against me because of the mental scars on some holes!) :LOL: I wouldn't call it a "false" handicap if you're scoring accurately and posting all your scores - it's a legit handicap, it's just not going to travel well.

I'd almost be willing to bet that, speaking in general terms, a person whose handicap is established playing multiple different courses travels better than somebody whose handicap is established playing mostly/exclusively the same course all the time.
 
I wouldn't say your handicap is false, per se. It just doesn't travel. Not uncommon. 🤷‍♂️
 
I'm planning on playing a lot of different courses this summer and seeing how well my cap travels. Hopefully it travels well since I will be in a very important event in December lol
 
My unofficial handicap travels decently well because our courses are very different. One favours the long hitter, while the other is more target golf with plenty of hazards. I do think though that my scores are generally a little lower at home than on the road.

It will be interesting to see what my official number is if I’m only submitting scores from my home course.
 
Familiarity plays a big role in some things. Likely to play better on a more familiar course. Doesn't make your cap false in any way though. Like others said, just means it might not travel well. And the reality is it's likely to travel well and not at different courses. It's like boxing matchups. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, styles, strategies, etc and they create matchups that are and aren't ideal.

Back home my cap was worse at my home course than just about anywhere else. It was short but tough to take advantage of with length, so it actually hurt my differentials vs. courses I could stretch out on, even though I knew every inch of it. And I still tend to travel better on courses I can use my tee game to greater benefit. It's always good for your game to play as many different courses as you can. Makes you a little more prepared for whatever you run into. You can strive to play close to cap on an away course, but don't beat yourself up about it if you don't. I've seen really good golfers get eaten alive on a given day by something they're not used to. The only people that give grief about it either don't get it, are tied to them in some comp/gambling way, or are just a-holes.
 
My league is all travel. We never play the same course twice. It's also a handicap flighted league. We've had guys join from years of playing at a country clubs where they played primarily there and really REALLY struggled to compete specifically because of what you describe. Travel golf and home golf are two very different things in competition.
 
There's a formula a golfer can apply to their handicap, that will adjust to different course ratings, or slopes. I just don't know what it is.

My handicap is pretty much based on my home course play. When I play an unfamiliar course, my scores are always higher. Maybe as much as 6-7 strokes. Most of those extra strokes are extra putts on the unfamiliar greens.

Now any tournaments I might play in are on my home course, so my handicap is accurate for those tournaments.
 
Muchmore18 said:
I'm planning on playing a lot of different courses this summer and seeing how well my cap travels. Hopefully it travels well since I will be in a very important event in December lol
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If you're playing a lot of different courses, it should adjust to reflect that and travel well to that very important event in December! ;) It might not be as low as you'd like it to be, but if I was playing competitive golf I'd definitely want to spread my rounds out over as many courses as possible so my handicap more accurately reflected how I play on "away" tracks.
 
One year about 15 years ago, I played 80 rounds on one course and my handicap got down to 9.x and it didn’t travel well at all. When I got back to 9.x last year, I was a much better golfer than years ago and played no course more than 5 times. Both handicaps were “real” but my current one travels much better. There are still courses where I struggle and my cap doesn’t always look legit.
 
Snowman said:
If you're playing a lot of different courses, it should adjust to reflect that and travel well to that very important event in December! ;) It might not be as low as you'd like it to be, but if I was playing competitive golf I'd definitely want to spread my rounds out over as many courses as possible so my handicap more accurately reflected how I play on "away" tracks.
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I mean I'm going to work hard to keep it low but all I care about honestly, is it being true. I don't want to be a detriment with a vanity cap and I don't want to be a bagger either. Just trying to keep the cap honest lol
 
I don’t put much stock in my HC at my home course. It’s easy despite its rating (72.0/130 from 6600 tipped). I can miss every FW and shoot even. I can hit every one and shoot a 95.

It’s not a bad design but there are 12 easy holes, 2 that are damn frustrating, and 4 that are difficult.

7/8 of my scores are from there. 4 from the end of last year when I decided to play about Par golf for a few rounds. I played another course, having never stepped foot on it and shot I think a 76. I just was in a decent zone the end of the year. That 76 woulda been a lot lower but that stupid course requires a draw about 10 times from the tee.

I mean I can hit them, but not @OldandStiff level and certainly not to @Snickerdog ’s expectations.

I couldn’t hit them that day, 🤣

Biggest thing, 49* in my hand I kicked ass those last few rounds. Seems like I had a tap in par most holes with a chance at birdie at a lot.
 
Familiarity with a course will always count for a few shots per round I would say, even more so if it is a course with blind shots or hidden hazards that can catch people out

Whenever I play a new course, I play to what I can see unless I am playing with someone who knows the course and can give information that helps me make decisions about how to play a hole
 
As far as I'm concerned, handicaps are really only accurate for the same course and the same tees. I'm currently about an 8, but the reality is I'm closer to a 5 on certain setups, and as bad as a 13-14 on others.

For example, one course around here is rated 74.1/135 from the back tees mostly because its almost 7100 yards long and has quite a bit of fescue you can hit it into. As a long hitter with high swing speed, I'm not bothered too much by either. I can comfortably reach every hole in regulation and don't have much of an issue about having to gouge a wedge / high iron out of the fescue. I could probably play close to a 5 on this setup.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's this short 70 course that's rated 68.6/122. It plays under 6000 yards, but has tons of narrow holes where missing will put you in trees filled with thick thorny underbrush - almost always resulting in a lost ball. To make it worse, most of these areas aren't even red staked so it's stroke + distance if you go in them. I'm more or less forced to hit irons off the tee but even then there will be a few errant shots that find the trees. I would honestly be lucky to be a 13-handicap on this course. Distance is my greatest strength and this course renders that skill completely useless on all but a few open holes.
 
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TheDoctor said:
Familiarity with a course will always count for a few shots per round I would say, even more so if it is a course with blind shots or hidden hazards that can catch people out

Whenever I play a new course, I play to what I can see unless I am playing with someone who knows the course and can give information that helps me make decisions about how to play a hole
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When I got back into golf after a 12-15 year hiatus, even familiar courses weren’t anymore. My home course back then, I played the front a lot more than the back. I lost at least 2 strokes on the back by hitting great shots-exactly where I “thought” they should go.
 
As others have mentioned, familiarity to me contributes more to me as part of my handicap. Rarely when I travel to other courses (approx 5-10% rounds annually) do I ever score better than my handicap. You just don’t know what exactly is over that hill, around the corner, etc, etc plus I think the excitement of a new course adds to me losing focus as I try to take everything in. I don’t get hung up too much in HC, just have fun and enjoy the game and help make the experience for your playing partners just as memorable.
 
YukonLiving said:
My unofficial handicap travels decently well because our courses are very different. One favours the long hitter, while the other is more target golf with plenty of hazards. I do think though that my scores are generally a little lower at home than on the road.

It will be interesting to see what my official number is if I’m only submitting scores from my home course.
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Would it be an official handicap if you aren’t submitting all of your scores? Not sure why one would do that?

WLG1952 said:
There's a formula a golfer can apply to their handicap, that will adjust to different course ratings, or slopes. I just don't know what it is.

My handicap is pretty much based on my home course play. When I play an unfamiliar course, my scores are always higher. Maybe as much as 6-7 strokes. Most of those extra strokes are extra putts on the unfamiliar greens.

Now any tournaments I might play in are on my home course, so my handicap is accurate for those tournaments.
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The formula you speak of is Course Handicap, but at the end of the day it’s based on your handicap. The formula is Course Handicap = Handicap Index × (Slope Rating ÷ 113) + (Course Rating – Par).

So to the OP, if your handicap is based on a familiar course, it will be deflated and as others have said, may not travel. IMO, play and submit scores for lots of different courses if possible. Variety is good and it will make that cap more reflective of your golf skills, regardless of course.
 
Your cap whatever it is adjusts as you play other places. You may be a 6 but if you tee it up at say Bethpage Black your 6 may adjust to 7 or 8. Ultimately, you play, you post.....The rest will work out. Home course play typically creates a favorable cap while playing elsewhere you don't have any local knowledge.
 
I think an unfamiliar setting will affect everyone when you get out on a course. You may not have been as far away from your handicap as you thought either. Some courses have significantly higher slope ratings than others. So a stroke at one course might be 1.23 strokes at another course.
 
Like many have said, you get comfortable on your course and learn how to play it. You play most of your rounds there so if you have a bad day on another course it isn’t the end of the world.
 
For THP events, I wouldn’t stress about hc. Show up, learn, eat 😀, engage (before, during, and after ;)), and have fun playing. The experience dwarfs numbers on a scorecard.

But, yes, I am with others in that hc can be biased some by playing the same course over and over. I try to play as many courses as I can —still a modest number — and enjoy seeing how my game travels. Some courses simply setup better for me than others.
 
Game travels. The middle of the fairway is the same everywhere.
 
MH said:
With the Morgan Cup and Grandaddy experiences being handicapped events it got me thinking about my handicap.

If you play say 80% of your rounds on the same course and you keep an official handicap do you think that it translates to other courses?

For example with Covid last summer I joined the country club and played 95% of my rounds there and my handicap improved greatly from the start of the season. I got really comfortable on the course. Towards the end of the season I was able to go meet some buddies on a short trip within the province and played 4 different courses that I haven’t played before. I definitely didn’t score to my handicap and I’m wondering if my official handicap is actually a bit inflated due to the fact that most of my rounds come from one course. Got me thinking maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was! I realize your handicap is what you post and each course is rated so in reality your handicap should translate wherever you play but I have found familiarity definitely leads to lower scores for me. Is it just me?
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The good news? Your cap is legit.
The bad news? It doesn't travel.

This is very common. No matter how tough your home course is eventually you get to the point where your body takes over and you miss in the correct spots, and you know the greens so well you don't even need to read them.

2 solutions:
1) cycle through the tee boxes at your home course.
2) play for money. Whatever amount makes you uncomfortable.

Playing away courses sometimes doesn't help because only your best 8/20 rounds even affect your cap. Odds are those will be from your home course.
 
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