Golf -- What's in an Index? December 31, 2001
Golfers, wanna know a little more about that quirky number called your Index? For example, how it's handled in other countries? Here's a little primer.
Warning: If
you're not a golfer, move on now; this will be really boring. Even
if you are a golfer, this may be mind-numbing! Perhaps you'd rather check out some earlier
golf travelogues?
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Different countries, different handicap systems, different ways to calculate your Index. As you know (or should know) your Index determines your handicap at the course you're playing. This calculated number is based on your golf scores, and is a measure of your potential scoring ability (Oh, if only I could achieve my potential...) And if you're like most golfer's (always trying to improve your game, your swing, your everything,) your Index is also a reasonable indicator of how it's coming.
Index-calculating systems vary in complexity. In Germany your Index is determined based solely on tournament results. Do poorly, your Index immediately goes up by 0.1 points; do well, your Index immediately drops by 0.3 points; do real well and it can be lowered by as much as 2 full points. As you can see, it takes a long time to go up, a short time to come down. And you have to play competitions; otherwise no handicap!
Scotland, like Germany, uses the slow up, fast down system. Index changes occur biweekly, but competitions are not critical If you want to post a non-tournament score at home, you merely need to play with at least 2 other players, and sign up (e.g., in the locker room) before going out. The handicap chair reviews the cards and posts the scores.
In America, a relatively new system is used. It fine-tunes golf scores based on "slopes" and "ratings" -- indicators that measure course difficulty. This system has some advantages in terms of fairness, especially when golfers from different clubs with disparate skill levels compete, and it seems to be catching on. It's also rather complex, but here goes...
The slope is a number that indicates the difficulty of a particular course relative to an "average" course, which has been assigned a slope of 113. (I can just imagine the arguments used at the USGA when they decided on this curious, prime number as the slope "standard": "No one will ever figure out how we arrived at this, so they won't be second guessing us." Or, "It'll make handicap calculations so difficult, everyone will have to use our computers." Who knows?)
The (course) rating is a measure of the difficulty of a course for a scratch player under normal course and weather conditions. Ratings between 68 and 73 are common. Of course, you rarely play under "normal" conditions, but adjusting for weather is not yet part of the system. (Actually, it used to be part of the New Zealand system, but they recently dropped it.)
Indices are updated monthly under the USGA system and every round played counts, even if you play alone. And every player is responsible for posting every round's score into the computer, either at their home course or where the round was played. There's a USGA computer at almost all golf courses to facilitate this. This aspect of the system seems to lend itself to cheating, as I've seen players in tournaments consistently shoot exceptionally low scores; obviously they had failed to post some of their better scores into the computer, making their handicaps artificially high.
One annoying aspect of the USGA system is that scores are "adjusted." For most of us, our occasional moments of brilliance (or perhaps it's really just luck?) make us feel that it might actually be possible to play well, if one could only avoid or throw out those few bad holes. Well, the USGA system does just that, and more! Unfortunately, it's a rather unfavorable fix, should you aspire to actually play to your handicap.
Here's how it works: to post a score for a round, you must first "adjust" (read "lower") your score on any bad holes down to a more reasonable number. This reduced score is only used for handicap purposes, and regrettably garners NO benefits whatsoever. The maximum number of strokes per hole (the number you have to adjust your score to) is based on your current Index. For me, with my usual Index in the low teens, I had to adjust any score over a 7. Didn't matter if it was a par 3 or a par 5, seven was the most I could post on any hole. Thankfully, I didn't but have a very occasional adjust. Still, the adjust idea seems intrinsically flawed to me. I had those strokes, and I'm likely to have them again. Is it really fair to just make them disappear? Alas, the USGA hasn't called lately...
Now, just a bit more about calculating that Index. First post all your rounds, adjusting those bad holes to your maximum allowed score. Second, discard half of your last 20 games; thrown out the worst ones. Lastly, compare your 10 best scores (correcting for course difficulty) to how well a scratch golfer would play the course; average those comparisons; and then multiplied by 0.96 to calculate your Index. (Easy, huh?) Mercifully, the computer does it all. spitting out your Index (which can then be converted into your course handicap.) As you may have already noticed, the math ensures that you're usually unable to play to your handicap!
In
late-2000 New Zealand adopted the USGA slope and rating system, sort of.
The differences: handicaps are updated bi-weekly; another player must mark your score and sign your
cards, which your club secretary reviews and posts; and adjusts are done differently. I call them
Kiwi adjusts. Incredibly, they make it even harder to play to your
handicap.
The Kiwi adjust (the maximum number of strokes permitted per hole for handicap purposes) is more complicated than the US adjust. (I know it's hard to believe that anyone would want to, and actually could, further complicate the already intricate US system!) Instead of the simple "maximum score per hole," the Kiwi adjust is based on Stableford points. Once you know how to determine your Stableford score on a hole, your gross score is adjusted so you get at least one Stableford point. With this adjust system, the maximum score per hole varies depending on the hole's difficulty and the par rating of the hole. In simple terms, this equates to never taking no more than a net bogey on any hole. For me, this means that unless I get a stroke on a hole, the maximum score I can take on many holes is an actual bogey -- one over par!! Never more than a 4 on a par 3!
Well it's easy to figure out what happens next. Adjust all the bad holes using the Kiwi adjust (which seems to average between two and three strokes per round), enjoy the good holes, throw out the bad games, and I've end up with my lowest Index ever: an incredible 7.6!!!!! (Even lower than consistent Dick, with his 8.4 -- tee hee.)
In the end what it all comes down to is this: there's not much hope of my winning a prize should I enter a golf tournament. My handicap is simply too heavy a burden.
BUT, I am finally a single-digit handicapper -- something I've aspired to for many years. Go figure!