• boost traffic – giving golfers the opportunity to post golf scores draws traffic to strategic areas of your club house
• simple – touch screen (or standard) makes posting golf scores a breeze
• convenience – multiple score posting locations provide convenience and eliminate waiting
• free up staff – players posting scores lifts the burden off club house staff
• easy access – players can view scoring history and course handicaps
• printing – players can print handicap cards

Easy Entry integrates with our Handicap System Web Edition to track and calculate USGA, RCGA or custom handicaps. Players can post scores with any Internet access.

Did you know that there are two numbers that are often called by the name “handicap”? One is portable, meaning you could go to any course and the number would remain the same. The second is not portable and it is dependent on the course and set of tees that you play. The first number is what the USGA calls an Index (in Canada it is your “Factor”). Our calculator spits out your Index for 18 holes based on your most recent scores on courses of 3,000 yards or longer. Once you calculate your Index, you can then calculate the second number which is called a Course Handicap.

You might vaguely know that your handicap is some sort of averaging of your scores. That is partially correct. If you’re curious about what exactly goes into figuring your Index and Course Handicap, see our plain English explanation. You will learn the secrets and remove the mystery of golf handicapping.

In its announcement Golf Canada says…

“The Royal Canadian Golf Association (operating as Golf Canada) has announced a notable change to the Canadian methodology for calculating a golf handicap as it relates to Equitable Stroke Control (ESC).

The RCGA Handicap & Course Rating Committee recently approved a change to the long-standing Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) method, bringing the Canadian methodology into equivalency with current ESC calculations employed by the United States Golf Association (USGA).”

The change will take effect on March 1, 2012.

The table below shows how the new Equitable Stroke control is different from the old.

   Did you know that the USGA website offers quizzes on the Rules of Golf?  The quizzes are available to take online or can be printed for later use.  You can choose your desired level of difficulty (Basic, Advanced or Random-mixed) as well as the length of your quiz.
   While you wait in line, you could take the shortest quiz of 10 questions.  If you have more time, 18 or 25 question quizzes are available.  It’s a great way to stay current with the rules. See how quickly you can complete a quiz… Try to stump your golfing friends!
   Not only does the online answer key tell which questions you answered correctly, it also provides a link to the rule in question, for each question.  It’s a great way to familarize yourself (or a newer golfer) with the rules of the game.  When it’s time to get those clubs back out, you’ll be ready for any situation on the course!

“The purpose of the USGA Handicap System is to make the game of golf more enjoyable by enabling players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. The System provides a fair Course Handicap for each player, regardless of ability…”

So a golf handicap is about fairness…about “leveling the playing field” so a really good player and a pretty bad player can have a fairly equal chance of winning. Think about some other sports. In a one-on-one game between an NBA player and, say, Curly from the Three Stooges, how would you level the playing field? Would you tie the NBA player’s dominant hand behind his back? Would you put the NBA player’s legs in a potato sack that he has to hold up? Maybe he has to shoot from outside a certain distance from the basket? There are any number of ways that you could attempt to even the game. The golf handicap, though, is much more precise and based on a ton of statistics.

There are basically two types of scoring in golf: match play and medal – or stroke – play. What is a golf handicap in relation to these two types of competition?

In match play golf you are essentially determining a winner and loser on each hole played and you count up who won the most holes when finished. You may have seen this type of play in the Ryder Cup competition between U.S. golfers and European golfers although no handicaps are used in this international tournament. In match play, the player with the higher handicap receives the difference between the two players’ handicaps in strokes. For example, if we have a match between a player with a course handicap of 3 and a player with a course handicap of 12, the player with a 12 handicap receives 9 strokes during the course of the match. Those 9 strokes are distributed to the player on the first 9 handicap stroke holes. How does this affect the winner of particular holes? Let’s say one of these 9 strokes is received by the 12 handicap player on the third hole and he shoots a 5 on the hole and the 3 handicap player also shoots a 5. Who wins the hole? The 12 handicapper has a stroke coming to him so that turns his 5 into a 4 compared to the 5 of his opponent. The 12 handicapper wins the hole.

In stroke play the handicap comes into play for a handicapped event after all hole strokes are totaled and the competition is typically against all other golfers in the field. If a player shoots a 92 and he’s a 15 handicap player, his net score total would be 92 minus 15, or 77.  Another player with a handicap of 5 might shoot an 83 for a net score total of 78. The 15 handicapper, in this case, finishes ahead of the 5 handicapper in the competition. It is theoretically possible for the “worst” golfer – the one with the highest handicap – to finish at the top in a handicapped event, whereas in a non-handicapped event that would be virtually impossible.

At this point you might be interested in exploring how the handicap is calculated. In this case, you will want to to learn or review what a USGA Index is and what a Course Handicap is, and how each is calculated. Our Handicap System (Web and Desktop Editions) calculates these two numbers and League Manager and Tournament Manager are equipped to use handicaps for competitions.

Golfers can post scores, view handicaps, and print their own handicap card at the clubhouse. After your golfers finish a round, they can walk up to the computer, type in their score, and review previous scores, too.

Administrators will appreciate its ease-of-use, improved announcement capabilites, and kiosk design. It’s compatible with a touch-screen or mouse & keyboard.

We’re in the beta version and are looking for some groups to help us fine tune the final product. Interested? Click here for sign up info.

Hole by hole score entry screen

Ever wish you could bounce between calculating an RCGA Handicap Factor and USGA Index? You can with our Handicap System Web Edition and Desktop Edition. The USGA Index and RCGA Handicap Factor are very similar in their calculation methods. Below is a table comparing the Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) for USGA Index and RCGA Factor calculation.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the calculations for the RCGA Handicap Factor and USGA Index (background color shows where the two are different):

As you see above, the only difference in calculating a USGA Index and RCGA Handicap Index is in Equitable Stroke Control (ESC).

Update: On March 1, 2012 the RCGA ESC will become the same as the USGA ESC.

“His passion for the game and his mathematical expertise triggered Dr. Scheid’s fascination with how golf handicaps were calculated. His many hours of research and his articles on the topic helped spur formation of the United States Golf Association’s Handicap Research Committee.”

The USGA, in honoring him upon his death, said in part:

“Dr. Scheid was instrumental in research that helped determine the USGA formulas for implementing SLOPE, the current USGA Course Rating System and numerous handicap allowances for various forms of team play. He spent 12 years as the mathematics department chairman at Boston University and later served as a consultant at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He created more than 100 television programs for the Harvard Commission on Extension Courses.“

Find out more about Dr. Scheid at the USGA.org website.

“hazards, natural features, vegetation, and playing conditions found on the golf course that make play harder or easier than a standard course with the same effective playing length.”

The USGA uses 10 of these obstacle factors. Quoting from the Handicap Manual these ten factors are:

1. Topography: the difficulty of stance in the fairway landing areas and any elevation change from the landing areas to the green;
2. Fairway: the effective width of the landing area, which can be reduced by a dogleg, trees, or fairway tilt;
3. Green Target: the size, firmness, shape, and slope of a green in relation to the length of the approach shot;
4. Recoverability and Rough: the existence of rough and other penalizing factors in the proximity of the landing area and around the green;
5. Bunkers: the existence of bunkers in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green;
6. Out of Bounds/Extreme Rough: the existence of out of bounds in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green, or the existence of extreme unmown rough that is similar in effect to out of bounds
7. Water Hazards: the existence of water hazards, particularly in the proximity of the landing areas and around the green
8. Trees: the strategic location, size, height, and density of trees – along with the probability of recovering from the trees;
9. Green Surface: the contour and normal speed of the putting surface;
10. Psychological: the mental effect on play created by the presence of a combination of difficult obstacles.

A rating team evaluates the effect each of these ten factors will have on both a scratch golfer and bogey golfer for every hole on a golf course. A number between 0 and 10 – inclusive – is assigned to each factor for all holes on the course. These numbers are totaled and massaged several different ways to derive the final slope rating.

The course slope rating in golf then becomes part of the formula to calculate an Index and Course Handicap. Where do you find the slope rating for a course? The scorecard should have it on their. If it doesn’t, ask in the club house. You can also look it up at the USGA.org website. Our Handicap System Web Edition and Desktop Edition do these calculations for you.

“While the USGA® develops the formula used in tabulating handicaps, it does not issue them directly to individual golfers. A USGA Handicap Index is issued through licensed golf clubs that follow all the procedures of the established USGA Handicap System™.”

“Licensed golf clubs,” then, are your ticket to establishing a golf handicap. You can join a club or create a club starting with a minimum 10 members. There are three types of clubs:

1. A club located at a specific golf course
2. A club based on affiliation such as business, fraternal, ethnic or social
3. A club largely made up of people who joined because of a solicitation through newspaper, Internet, etc. The newest of the clubs, the USGA calls this type “golf clubs without real estate.”

If you are unable or don’t want to join a club at a golf course, or are not part of an affiliation-based club, then you could find or form your own golf club without real estate by finding nine other like-minded golfers. You do have to follow established USGA procedures. So you wanted to know “how do I get a golf handicap?” Find and join or form a golf club! If you are curious about what your handicap is, you can view the steps to calculating your golf handicap.

Handicap System Web Edition is a tool appropriate for all three types of clubs. Golfers can post scores, view personal scores and handicap as well as view club members’ scores and handicaps.