Comments on: Explain the handicap line on a golf score card?

By: mbl

mbl — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:26:01 +0000

It DOES NOT measure the difficulty of the holes, contrary to popular belief. It is a measurement of what holes a higher handicapped player will most likely require a stroke against a low handicap player. This is why easy par 5’s are usually ranked “harder” than tough par 3’s. Typically the longer the hole, the more likely a good player is to beat a bad player. To answer your question, you don’t need the hole’s handicap unless it is a match play situation. If a 15 is playing a 20 in match play, the 20 will get a stroke on the holes ranked 1-5.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:43:58 +0000

How it works is the highest handicap a player can have is a 36 which would mean that they are essentially getting 2 strokes per hole. The only time you really need to worry about this handicap line is during match play. You take the higher handicap between you and your partner and subtract the lower one from it. This will decide how many strokes the higher handicapper will be given. If the difference is 5, the higher handicapper will get a stroke on the 1-5 handicap holes. If your handicap is a 20 and you are playing against a scratch golfer, they will be giving you two strokes on the 1 and 2 handicap holes, and 1 stroke on the rest.

Also, the above answer is correct in that the handicap of the hole is not based on a ranking of the difficulty of the hole.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:08:55 +0000

You could just do that if you were playing stroke play because its all final score. but if you are playing match play you need to know what holes you won on and lost on. and if you have a stroke and your apponent doesn’t its better for you.

By: John F

John F — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:07:57 +0000

The Mad Thumbs Downer strikes again.

Matt is right. If you’re playing a match against someone, you take the difference between your handicaps. The higher handicap gets a stroke on every handicap hole that has a handicap assignment less than or equal to that difference.

My club also uses it when we have a skins competition. In a skins competition, you have to figure each person’s net score on each hole. So, you have to know every hole where the player gets a stroke.

If it’s simple stroke play, then you can just subtract the course handicap from your total.