The New Australian Men's & Women's Handicap System

From 9 April 2010 your exact handicap will be the average of the best 10 "played to" of your 20 most recent valid scores, the result of which is multiplied by 0.96. 

  1st Most Recent Round              85    68    17          

  2nd Most Recent Round             85    68    17

  3rd Most Recent Round              92   68    24

  4th Most Recent Round              87   68    19

  5th Most Recent Round              90   68    22

  6th Most Recent Round              80   68    12

The example to the left shows a golfer's last 20 scores with the best 10 "Played To" differentials highlighted in bold type. To calculate this player’s handicap we average out those 10 differentials (average of 17, 17, 12, 15, 13, 18, 13, 15, 18, 13) which gives us a value of 15.1. This is then multiplied by 0.96 (the bonus for excellence) to give 14.496. Finally any numbers after the 1st decimal point are deleted to arrive at an exact handicap of 14.4. This in turn is rounded to a playing handicap of 14.

  7th Most Recent Round              83   68    15

  8th Most Recent Round              91   68    23

  9th Most Recent Round              88   68    20

10th Most Recent Round              87   68    19

11th Most Recent Round              81   68    13

12th Most Recent Round              86   68    18

13th Most Recent Round              92   68    24

14th Most Recent Round             88    68    20

15th Most Recent Round             81    68    13

16th Most Recent Round             83    68    15

17th Most Recent Round             86   68     18

18th Most Recent Round             87   68     19

19th Most Recent Round             88   68     20

 20th Most Recent Round            81   68     13

          
Suppose your next two rounds are an 88 (play to 20) followed by a blinder of a round of 74 (played to 6).

 Under the old system you would have gone out 0.1 to 15 (14.5) after the first round, and then down 2.7 back to 12 (11.8) a loss of 3 shots!  

But what happens now??

1. Your 88 (20) becomes your most recent round and round 20 when you played to 13 now drops off. So your best 10 scores now include a 19 (round 4), making your average 15.7 x 0.96 = 15.0. So your new handicap is now 15.

Under the “old” system of handicapping you would only go out 0.1 to 14.6 – but now you have gone out 0.6!

2. Your round of 74 (6) now becomes your 1^st most recent round, and the 88/20 now drops off your 20 recent scores list. So your 10 best scores now includes this round 74 (6) and replaces the worst of the previous best 10 i.e. the round when you played to 19. Now your 10 best scores total 144, giving you an average of 14.4 x 0.96 = 13.8, playing off a new handicap of 14!

Under the “old” system you would have lost 2.7 shots (playing off 11.9 = 12) because you played so far under your handicap. So you would have lost three shots, but now you have only lost 1shot.

So this system does seem fairer for you as it averages out your ups and downs, making huge handicap swings less likely.

(The above is an example only. Our Nambour AMCR is 66 at the moment, and will possibly change when the course is rated, probably next year some time. You can check out your handicap through our website. Go through Member Suite and then “My Current Handicap” .

Useful hint: When your handicap record appears, click on the down arrow beneath Played To and the program will order your  best 10 scores in descending order!

 Read more: http://www.golflink.com.au/handicapchangesqanda.aspx#ixzz0lbR4m6NX