What is a Handicap? How we calculate it & why!!

I thought I would add this section to the website just to clear up any misunderstandings about handicapping within the HFRS Golf Society.

As a Society it is important that all our events are played on a level playing field for all competitors, the problem arises within the society when we have club members & non club members competing in our events.

To try to overcome this problem the Society maintains handicap records in accordance with CONGU (The Council of National Golf Unions) guidelines. Therefore we have always adopted a policy of playing off of the lower of the two handicaps. An explanation & examples of this are below

What is a Handicap?

The purpose of the Congu Unified Handicapping System (UHS) is to enable all golfers of different abilities to compete on a fair & equitable basis.

How is it Calculated

Click Here for an explanation on how initial handicaps are calculated

Handicaps are not just based on players performances at their home clubs off the white tees. Handicaps can be adjusted from any 'Handicap Qualifying Competition'. To enable a competition to be deemed as 'Qualifying' it must be played at an affiliated club, (most are) on a correctly measured course, (white yellow or red tees) & must have a correctly calculated SSS (Standard Scratch Score)

Once the above criteria has been met, the SSS can be adjusted after a competition to take into consideration varying weather conditions. The SSS can be adjusted within the range of -1 to +3, this will then give us the CSS (Competition Scratch Scores)

Once the CSS has been calculated we (HFRS Golf Society) then make the necessary adjustments to your Society Handicaps.

My Club Handicap is 12 my Society Handicap is 11. What do I do now?

If your Society handicap is 11, that is the handicap you will be expected to play off in all Society events. If this scenario arises it has happened because your Society performances have been good enough to warrant the cut!!
It is your responsibility to inform your club if you have performed well in an event away from your home club.
If you wish to inform your club of your performance we can provide you with your card from the competition, the CSS calculation & a copy of the overall result for them to take into consideration.

My Club Handicap is 11 my Society Handicap is 12. What do I do now?

If your Club Handicap falls below your Society Handicap it is your responsibility to inform the Society. If this happens your Society Handicap will be adjusted to fall into line with your Club Handicap & all further Society calculations will be based on that & so the cycle continues.

Your Club Handicap will always be your official handicap but your Society Handicap is a reflection of your Society performances & is maintained to keep a level playing field between non club & club members within the Society.

In effect there should never be much of a discrepancy between the two handicaps if the player follows his/her responsibility by informing their club/society of any changes. However, this is not always practical because handicaps can go up or down by the odd point after every qualifying round & generally players only become aware of it when their 'playing handicap' is altered.

A Couple of Examples of why we do it.

Let's assume player 'A' is a club member with an official handicap of 14.6, playing handicap 15

Player 'B' is a Society member with the same society handicap of 14.6 playing handicap 15

Players 'A' & 'B' both play in a society event & come first & second. After the CSS has been calculated it shows that both players warrant a .3 cut to their handicaps, giving them a new handicap of 14.3, playing handicap of 14. If player 'A' doesn't inform his club of his performance & insists on playing off his club handicap at the next Society event is that fair to player 'B'?

Another more extreme example; I (Carlos) am not a member of a club, my Society handicap is 9 (just been raised!!). I could go & join a Club tomorrow, put 3 cards in & due to the way I have been playing this year end up with a Club Handicap of 12. Would it then be fair for me to play off of my 'Official Club Handicap' at the next society event? I think not!!!!

I hope that this has gone some way to explaining how & why we issue & maintain a Society Handicap to our members. As a Society we can put forward players for National Competitions & therefore it is essential that the qualifying process can be as fair as possible to all of our members.

If you have any further queries on this matter please don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers

Carl