What You Must Know Before Handicapping the Holes of Your Course

The United States Golf Association describes in its Handicap System Manual two methods you can use to determine the handicap number for each hole of your golf course.

These are on pages 74-77 of the USGA Handicap System manual.

You can purchase a copy of this from the USGA at 800-336-4446.

The most important thing you need to know before assigning a number to each hole is the reasoning for doing so, and that might surprise you.

The #1 handicap hole at your course is not necessarily the most difficult hole.

Rather, the number one handicap hole is where you need to get a shot from a person who has a handicap one shot lower than yours. And, logically, the #18 handicap stroke goes to the hole where you least need a shot from any golfer.

The number one handicap hole is where a 16 course-handicapper needs to get a shot from a "15" to gain a half. The hole where a one-handicap golfer gets a shot from the scratch golfer might be different. That’s why you sometimes see hole handicaps for more than one set of tees.

You can develop hole allocation plans for as many sets of tees as you can fit on your scorecard. At the very least, however, you should have one set of hole allocations for men and one for women, using the most often played tees (perhaps white for men and red for women) as the reference point.

The USGA suggests (but does not require) that you allocate the first stroke to a hole on the front nine and the second stroke to a hole on the back nine. Go back and forth until you have done all 18 holes. It’s done this way to equalize the number of shots a player gets on each nine.

Obviously, this method ignores the possibility that all the holes where you might need to receive shots are on one nine. However, if you decide you would like to get more shots on your course’s back nine, you might consider allocating the odd-numbered strokes to the back nine instead of the front nine.

Without deviating too much from the above suggestions, you should also avoid allocating low hole handicap numbers to the last couple of holes on each nine.

Why? Players who are to receive strokes need them before they lose a match due to lack of shots. It would be nice to spread out those shots, nice for the player who gives them and for the player who gets them.

Similarly, you should try to avoid allocating low handicap numbers to the first or second holes of a course so handicap shots do not come into play during a sudden-death play-off. But, again, this is only a USGA suggestion.

Allocation of Handicap Strokes

In general, the handicap stroke allocation that appears on a scorecard indicates the ranking of holes in which a higher handicapped player most needs a stroke or strokes to obtain a half in a singles or four-ball match play event. 

A common misconception is that the handicap stroke allocation is a ranking of the degree of difficulty of holes on the course, but it is not. A handicap stroke should be an equalizer and should be available on a hole where it would most likely be needed by a higher handicapped player. 

The USGA has two recommendations for determining the allocation of strokes based on a match play format outlined Section 17-2 of  “The USGA Handicap System” manual, the comparison method and the regression method. 

Each method uses scores collected by the Handicap Committee to develop a mathematical relationship between high and low handicap players, not necessarily in relation to the difficulty of the hole or par of the hole. In other words, a hole may be a difficult for both the high and low handicap players, meaning it would not rank numerically low for handicap stroke allocation.

These methods look for the disparity in scores versus Course Handicap to determine lowest to highest ranking. Since no mathematical formula can evaluate the varying conditions from course to course, it is important for the Handicap Committee to review the results and customize the rankings to their golf course using the suggestions provided in Section 17-1 of “The USGA Handicap System” manual.

Good judgment is of prime importance because no formula can cover conditions on every golf course.

For stroke play competitions in which the allocation of handicap strokes is relevant (e.g., Four-Ball, Best-Ball-of-Four, Skins, and Stableford competitions) the Handicap Committee may decide to develop an allocation table that ranks holes according to their difficulty in relation to par. (See Section 17-5.)  

The procedure for determining the allocation of handicap strokes can be found in Section 17 of  “The USGA Handicap System” manual, which is available to view online at http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/manual/manual.html  

If you have any questions, contact Michael Dann HERE.