One of the great things about golf is that it allows skilled players to compete with not-so-skilled players on a level playing field, all through the wonderful handicap system. Through the miracle of mathematics, players enter scores into a computer and presto, they get a handicap index. Then, they turn that into strokes on the score card and everyone is happy.

Sounds simple, right? Not exactly. The USGA handicap system is extremely sophisticated and complex. If you’ve ever wondered what it all means - well, I can’t tell you what all of it means, but let’s cover some of the basics and get your understanding of handicaps up to scratch (sorry for the handicap pun).

Before we get into it, I want to mention that golf handicaps are serious business. The USGA handicap manual is the final word on the subject, and it should be consulted for the latest official rules and regulations. Click here to access it online.

Handicap Index

Let’s start with the most basic concept: the Handicap Index. According to the USGA:

A “Handicap Index” is the USGA’s service mark used to indicate a measurement of a player’s potential ability on a course of standard playing difficulty. It is expressed as a number taken to one decimal place (e.g., 10.4) and is used for conversion to a Course Handicap.

This is where it all begins. This is the number that the Golf Handicap and Information Network^® (GHIN^®) system spits out every two weeks after you’ve entered at least five scores. Once you have a handicap index, then you’re portable. You can go to any other course that has been rated and compete against another player with a handicap index.

To do that, you need to convert your Handicap Index into a Course Handicap. Each course is different, so there are a couple of pieces of information that go into the computation: The USGA Course Rating and the Slope Rating

USGA Course Rating

The USGA Course Rating is defined as:

A “USGA Course Rating” is the USGA’s mark that indicates the evaluation of the playing difficulty of a course for a scratch golfer under normal course and weather conditions. It is expressed as strokes taken to one decimal place, and is based on yardage and other obstacles to the extent that they affect the scoring ability of a scratch golfer.

What that means is that the USGA has come and evaluated a particular course to gauge the difficulty. Aside from yardage and obstacles, things like effective length are calculated. For instance, the prevailing wind or relative quickness of the fairways is considered.

It’s quite a comprehensive analysis of a course.

Less well known than the USGA Course Rating is the Bogey Rating. It’s like the Course Rating, but instead gauges the relative difficulty of a course for a bogey golfer instead of a scratch player.

Slope Rating

The other piece of required course-specific information is the Slope Rating. The Slope Rating is defined as:

A “Slope Rating” is the USGA’s mark that indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty of a course for players who are not scratch golfers compared to the USGA Course Rating (e.g., compared to the difficulty of a course for scratch golfers). A Slope Rating is computed from the difference between the Bogey Rating and the USGA Course Rating. The lowest Slope Rating is 55 and the highest is 155. A golf course of standard playing difficulty has a Slope Rating of 113.

For men, the Slope Rating is computed using the following formula: 5.381 x (Bogey Rating - USGA Course Rating). For women, the formula is: 4.24 x (Bogey Rating - USGA Course Rating).

Wow! That’s a lot of work to get a handicap!

The good news is, you don’t have to do any heavy math. The Course Rating and Slope Rating are done for you ahead of time. Your handicap index is calculated through a very complex formula. Now, you just need to turn that into strokes given or gotten.

Some courses have handicap charts where you just look up the Course Handicap in a big table. The other alternative is to compute it by hand.

To do that, you simply multiply your Handicap Index by the Slope Rating and divide by 113, then round to the nearest whole number. Let’s say your Handicap Index is 10.2 and your home course has a Slope Rating of 121, as mine does. That results in a Course Handicap of 11 strokes. That means you’d get 11 strokes when competing against a scratch player.

Applying The Course Handicap

Now, all that remains is to apply your handicap to your score. If you get 11 strokes, as in the example above, then you’d get one stroke back on each of the 11 most difficult holes. If you look at your scorecard, there’s a handicap listed for each hole (one for the men and one for the ladies). These are used to order the holes by relative difficulty. On each of the holes numbered 1 through 11, you’d adjust your gross score by subtracting a stroke.

That’s it! Welcome to the level playing field.

Equitable Stroke Control

Equitable Stroke Control is a mechanism that keeps handicaps from making huge swings as a result of blow-up holes. Handicaps are supposed to be representative of potential playing ability. Even a scratch player can have a bad hole now and again with a really high score. Without some protection in place, handicaps would fluctuate too drastically.

ESC is a cap placed on how large a score you can count for handicap purposes for an individual hole. For a scratch player, no score of higher than double bogey can be counted. For instance, say that a scratch player scores a 10 on a par-four hole during a round. For handicap purposes, the score would be adjusted before entering it into the handicap system. The score for the hole would be a 6, dropping 4 strokes from the final score.

Players with higher handicaps are allowed to post scores composed of hole scores higher than double bogey. Refer to the handicap manual for a table of ESC limits.

Criticism

The USGA has put a lot of effort into developing a robust handicap system. The question you might have: is it fair?

One of the criticisms I’ve heard is that low-handicappers are at a disadvantage when playing against high-handicappers. The reasoning behind that is that for a scratch player, scores don’t vary much. On the other hand, high-handicappers are much more likely to have wide swings in scores. It might be a 95 one day and 80 the next. In competition, a high handicapper is more likely to have a “round of a lifetime” and end up with something crazy like a net 60 score. A scratch amateur is less likely to do that.

That’s part of the reason that competitions use flights, so that there are several levels of players. That ensures that there isn’t too large a gap in skill levels.

Another issue that crops up is sand bagging, where players enter purposely inflated scores in hopes of getting a higher handicap and thus undeserved strokes. This isn’t really a weakness in the handicap system, though. Like golf itself, the integrity of handicaps relies on the integrity of the players. Cheating is cheating, and sand bagging is cheating.

There’s another class of pseudo-sandbaggers: players that keep honest scores, but who don’t really try as hard, and don’t score as well, during rounds that don’t count. These players may not intend to cheat the system, but the end result is the same: an inflated handicap.

In spite of the criticisms, my personal feeling is that the handicap system does a fairly good job of leveling the playing field for players of differing ability. It’s certainly better than negotiating strokes on the first tee, or not at all.

There’s So Much More

Believe it or not, this post barely scratches the surface of the handicap system. It really is that complex and extensive. There are caveats for tournament scores versus practice scores, nine-hole scores, unacceptable scores, and so much else.

The good news is, players only really need to know a few of the concepts, and I pretty much covered those above. Play honest rounds (by the rules), keep and accurate score, enter it with ESC applied and you’re doing your part. Your Handicap Index will be as valid as it can be.

As I said at the top, refer to the USGA website for all the details about the handicap system. If you’re interested in learning more, the online reference has more information than you probably want to know. Enjoy, and remember - keep accurate scores and post them all, or else I’m not giving you any strokes (I’ll take strokes, though).

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Further Reading:

USGA Handicap Information

Golf Handicap and Information Network^® and GHIN^® are registered trademarks of the United States Golf Association.

It’s been an interesting week. My swing went south, so it seemed like the perfect time to do something I’ve been meaning to do. I broke out the video camera for some analysis. I’d like to share the video here, but my technology is a little outdated, making it difficult to get the videos uploaded in a usable form, so we’ll just talk about it until I work that issue out.

My main goals were to see how I’m progressing with the one-plane swing and to see if I could figure out my swing problems. Over the last week, I haven’t been playing terribly, but I’ve been seeing the following symptoms:

• Contact with the ball has degraded slightly
• I’ve been smothering the ball, especially with the driver
• I’ve been blocking the driver way right

With those things in mind, I broke down the video this morning when I got home and took a lot of notes. I was very interested with what I saw. Some things were better than I thought, and some things were worse.

One positive thing I saw was that my swing plane on the back swing was pretty good. My perception was that I wasn’t quite on plane yet. However, my left arm was just about perfectly on plane. On some of my shots, the club was in good position, but sometimes it was getting on top of the plane.

Another positive I saw was that my posture is pretty decent. I’m bent over a little more at address, which is a fundamental of the one-plane swing. One thing I’d like to change is a little slumping in my shoulders, and I’d like to get my chin a little higher.

Also, one other good thing I noticed was a full 90-degree shoulder turn in the back swing. That’s right where it should be.

There weren’t a lot of notable positives beyond that. There were quite a few negatives, though.

One big one that I had perceived without the video is that my left wrist is not flat enough at the top of the back swing. Often, it was very cupped.

If you don’t understand what I mean by “cupped”, here’s what I’m talking about. Hold your arm out in front of you with your palm facing the floor. Bend your hand toward the ceiling without moving your arm. Your wrist is now cupped.

Doing that at the top of the back swing causes the club face to be very open. To get back to square, the hands need to be flipped closed near impact. This is a possible cause of some snap hooks I’ve been seeing.

The biggest problem I saw was a serious hip slide on the down swing. So much so, that my weight was getting to the outside of my left foot my impact. That’s causing me a whole slew of problems.

The one-plane swing is very rotational. The player’s head remains fairly steady during the swing, and the idea of “staying behind the ball” is not part of the one-plane swing philosophy. The player is encouraged to stay centered during the swing and turn the upper body hard through impact.

What I saw on video was the down swing starting with that lateral slide, starting a chain reaction of other problems. The club immediately got very steep (more vertical than the swing plane) as the down swing started. That forced me to get my head behind the ball and tilt my spine more to the right as I approached impact. This is a defense mechanism to keep me from smothering the ball. With my weight shifting so far left and the club getting so steep, it’s the only way to keep from coming right down on top of the ball. Obviously, I’m failing at times on the course and seeing some smothered shots.

Tweaks

The biggest tweaks coming up are going to be on the driving range.

By far, the most important thing I need to work on is conquering that lateral hip slide. That will help me iron out several of the problems I’m seeing. I also want to work on getting my left wrist flatter in the back swing.

Those two things are my immediate concern.

So, you went and did it. You decided to retool your golf swing. Now what? Jump in and change everything? Hang on and let’s step back for a second.

Hopefully, you decide to make wholesale changes with the help of a pro. That will make life so much easier. But what if you decide to tackle it yourself, as I’ve been doing? I’m planning on resuming my lessons shortly, but it’s true that I did start the process myself.

The best piece of advice I can give is to make the changes incrementally. Your golf pro would probably have the same philosophy with modifications to your swing.

Let’s consider my own swing. This winter, I decided to make a switch to a one-plane swing, specifically the version that Jim Hardy teaches. I read his Plane Truth for Golfers book and his Plane Truth for Golfers Master Class books.

After digesting all the information in there, I compared it to my swing and concluded that I needed to change the following:

• Widen my stance slightly at address
• Bend over a bit further at address
• Get used to a flatter back swing
• Have a much flatter left wrist during the back swing
• Get used to turning hard with the upper body through impact
• Get used to keeping my weight more centered through the back swing and down swing, with no right tilt to keep me behind the ball
• Have much more passive hands (that’s something I needed to improve in my old swing too)
• Get used to pulling my left arm across my chest in the back swing to keep me on one plane

And that’s just the big stuff!

Imagine if I showed up at the range and tried to start doing all that right out of the gates. It would be impossible to make any progress.

The better plan is to attack those changes incrementally. In my case, I decided to attack the big movements first.

At each range session or round, I decided to focus on one of the big changes. First, it was getting used to the flatter plane. Then, it was the flat left wrist in the back swing. Then it was keeping the weight centered. Then it was turning hard with the upper body. I would choose one thing and concentrate on that, while keeping the other things in mind.

To do this effectively, you have to be willing to accept poor shots while you’re adapting. Anyone who has ever had a series of lessons has probably had a pro ask that a drill be performed repeatedly without focusing on the outcome of each individual shot. The point is to commit the change to muscle memory, not to start hitting good golf shots right off the bat.

Incremental changes don’t just mean changing one piece of the golf swing at a time. It also means that you might make incremental changes to each of those pieces, so that no single change is too radical. You might find that you start to revert slightly in some areas, so you might need to make the same change several times before it sticks.

For instance, consider my situation with keeping my left wrist flatter in the back swing. When I set out to do that, I made a change, but it wasn’t the change. It was a move in the right direction. I’m going to have to visit each of the fundamentals multiple times so that the changes aren’t too drastic. Each time, I’ll get closer and closer to the final product.

In my case, I’m about 30-50% of the way there. I’m starting to make the movements, but often I have to use conscious thought. My swing thoughts are usually whatever key I want to work on that day, whether at the range or on the course. That helps me keep the fundamentals in mind without getting overly mechanical.

I’m going to continue isolating and working on individual pieces of the one-plane swing. Now that spring is here, I should be able to practice a lot more, and I hope that the changes will come much more quickly.

If you’re going to the trouble of making big changes in your swing and are set in the idea of doing it alone, then do yourself a favor and break down the changes and make them incrementally.

It’s over!

The Masters has concluded and Trevor Immelman has been awarded the green jacket as 2008 champion.  Congratulations to Trevor for a great victory.

That also means that the Life in the Rough birthday giveaway has concluded and a winner chosen at random from the comments.  The winner will recieve a dozen Callaway Tour ix golf balls.

Without further ado, the winner is….

…A.J. for his comment about Larry Mize’s win in 1987 over Greg Norman in a playoff.

Congratulations, A.J.  Hit ‘em long and straight.  I will be contacting you via e-mail shortly. 

It was a fun contest and there were some great moments shared.  To those that didn’t win, I thank you for your participation and appreciate the great moments that were shared.  I wish you better luck next time.

It looks like spring has finally arrived. We’ve had great temperatures lately, though a fair amount of rain also. Still, it has allowed me to start to get into more of a mid-season practice and play routine.

I’m off to a decent start already, mostly because I was able to play somewhat regularly throughout the winter. Not as much as I would have preferred, but I wasn’t forced to put away my clubs for months.

That has given me a head start this year. Looking at my statistics for this year so far (I’ll put them up on the stats page near the end of the month), I’m already better than I was at this time last year, but definitely not where I want to be.

I’m hitting a lot more fairways, more greens, and taking fewer putts. These are due to changes I’ve made with my swing and putting stroke, as well as the fact that I’m more sharp, with having been able to play sporadically throughout the winter.

If I had to point to a single reason why I’m not close to where I want to be, it’s physical conditioning. I haven’t dropped the weight that I expected to and am not in the physical condition I want to be in. However, I am making progress in those areas. Still, fatigue affects my golf game.

After putting up a not-terrible 42 on Thursday (with a triple-bogey blow-up hole), I followed up with a bad 46 on Saturday. I had done a range practice session a few hours before and was a little rubbery in the legs. Had I taken a cart, maybe I would have been more fresh, but that’s beside the point. I should be able to condition myself to practice and play without fatigue causing me to be so sloppy.

That aside, I hit some really good shot and my ball striking is coming around.

Tweaks

I’ve fallen behind in some of the planning activities I want to accomplish for the season, including developing my updated practice and exercise plans, so I need to get on top of that.

Obviously, I need to ratchet up my workouts, because I’m very disappointed with where I’m at.

It’s time for me to resume my lessons, as well. I’ve been waiting until the weather is decent, so I could make sure I’m able to do my post-lesson homework effectively. It doesn’t make much sense to get a lesson then be stuck not being able to practice for a long period.

All in all, in spite of several areas that need vast improvement, I think I’ve made a lot of progress and I think it’s going to show as the season gets going. I’m really looking forward to getting into a good groove.