Dear Linda,
At our course we play a lot of net tournaments where three different sets of tees are in use. The men play from the White tees, the senior men from the Gold tees, and the women from the Red tees. There is some disagreement as to how to fairly set the handicaps, with some people insisting that we use only each player’s course handicap, and others suggesting that we also have to take the course rating into consideration. Is there a set procedure for assigning handicaps to players of both genders playing from different tees?
Lulu and Lou Lou
Dear Lulu and Lou Lou,
One of the beauties of golf is that players of both sexes and any playing ability can compete fairly. In order to level the playing field in a net tournament, you must take into account both the player’s Course Handicap® and the Course Rating®.
I am going to skip the philosophy lesson and take you straight to the solution.
Step 1: Look up each player’s Course Handicap (CH). Remember that you have players on three different sets of tees, each of which has a different slope rating, so be sure that you find each player’s Course Handicap for the particular set of tees from which he or she is playing. If there is no chart at your golf course, you can find a Course Handicap Table online at usga.org. Paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/calculator/course_handicap_calculator.asp
If you want to do the math yourself, here is the formula to find a player’s CH:
Handicap Index x Slope Rating of tees played, and then divide by 113. Round the result to a whole number (.5 or more rounds up; .4 or less rounds down).
Step 2: If the competition is a team tournament, then the Committee in charge of the competition may determine that men will play to 90% of their CH, and women to 95%. You would apply that reduction in this step. Remember to round the result to a whole number.
Step 3: Now that you have established a CH for each player (which is based on the slope rating from each set of tees), you must next take into account the other measure of difficulty, which is the course rating. (If the White tees, for example, are rated 68.5/118, the 118 represents the slope rating and the 68.5 represents the course rating). Compute the difference in the course rating from one tee to another (remember to round), and then add the extra handicap strokes to the player playing from the higher rated set of tees. Alternately, you can subtract the difference in handicap strokes from the player playing from the lower rated set of tees.
When you have three sets of tees, you have to choose one set to serve as your standard tee, and then add or subtract strokes to players on the other sets of tees based on whether their course rating is higher or lower.
All of this may be easier to understand if I provide an example. Let’s use the following ratings:
White tees: 70.2/121
Gold tees: 68.4/114
Red tees: 71.5/124
I am going to choose the White tees for my standard tee, since the rating from the Red tees is a little harder and the rating from the Gold tees is easier. [You may choose any tee to serve as your standard tee.]
My imaginary tournament will be an individual (not a team) tournament. Players should get their full handicap in an individual tournament, so I am not applying a handicap allowance and will skip Step 2.
Step 1: Look up each player’s Course Handicap using the slope rating for his or her assigned tees.
Step 2: Skip this step in an individual tournament.
Step 3:
• All men playing from the White tees (my standard tee) receive their full Course Handicap.
• For men playing from the Gold tees, subtract 2 points from each player’s Course Handicap (70.2 – 68.4 = 1.8 rounded to 2).
• For women playing from the Reds, add 1 point to each player’s Course Handicap
(71.5 – 70.2 = 1.3 rounded to 1).
Here is how it would work for three players with the same handicap index playing from the three tees on my imaginary course, using the White tees as the standard:
• Bill, with a Handicap Index of 15.3, playing from the White tees where his Course Handicap is 16, will have a handicap for this tournament of 16 (no adjustment for the difference in course rating, since the White tees are the standard tees in this tournament).
• Jack, with a Handicap Index of 15.3, playing from the Gold tees where his Course Handicap is 15, will have a handicap for this tournament of 13 (the course rating from the Gold tees is two strokes easier than the course rating from the White tees.)
• Amy, with a Handicap Index of 15.3, playing from the Red tees where her Course Handicap is 17, will have a handicap for this tournament of 18 (the course rating from the Red tees is one stroke harder than the course rating from the White tees.)
For a more detailed explanation of how to adjust the handicaps for players competing from different tees, or for men and women competing from the same tees, you can read Section 3-5 in The USGA Handicap System manual which is available online at the USGA website. Paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/manual/manual.html
Click on Section 3 (The Player) on the left side, and then click on Section 3-5 on the right side.
If you take the time to accurately adjust each player’s handicap, you should have a fair and equitable tournament for everyone. Remember, it’s at least a two step process. You must first establish each player’s Course Handicap, and you must then add the difference in Course Rating to the Course Handicap of the players playing from the higher rated set of tees (or subtract the difference in Course Rating from the Course Handicap of the players playing from the lower rated set of tees). With three sets of tees, there is the possibility that both addition and subtraction will be involved.
I hope you were paying attention in school when they taught you how to add and subtract decimals!
Linda
Copyright © 2008 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
