League Handicaps

Handicaps in leagues are most argued about component of any league. Most of the arguments occur because the casual golfer doesn't understand how a league calculates their handicap. How many league managers have heard a league member say, "How my handicap go down when I shot a 50 last week?".

Handicaps can be very simple to fairly complicated. Below is a description of different components that leagues use to calculate handicaps.

Average Score times a percentage - League uses a set number of a golfers last rounds, take the average over par and multiplies it by a percentage.

Example:

Par is 35, Golfer shoots 6 rounds of 55. Percentage is 90%. Golfer's handicap is 9.

Drop Low and/or High Score - The best and or worst score of a golfers past few rounds is dropped.

Example:

Par is 35, Golfer shoots 4 rounds of 55, one round of 60 and one round of 54. We drop the 54 and 60 and only use the 4 rounds of 55.

A lot of the confusion happens when a league only uses a certain number of scores, for example the last 6. After the seventh round a score is dropped. If this score is well below or above average this score can dramatically impact a golfers handicap.