Re: Golf question for casual golfers

to the highest score he could record "for handicap purposes". Ye Olde Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews says that for handicap purposes, the highest score that can be recorded is par plus two strokes, PLUS the players handicap strokes on the hole.

Example: You are a 20 handicapper, playing a tough par 3 that is rated the 2nd hardest hole on your course. (I use this because it happened to me once in a tournament.) You would be allotted two handicap strokes on this hole, meaning that the highest score you could record for handicap would be 3+2-2 = 7. That is actually a QUADRUPLE bogey, but because you were getting two strokes on the difficult hole, it would not be considered an outlier.

My experience in one of our club tournaments was the opposite. I was shooting in the high 80's many years ago, starting out in golf, and had a 20 handicap. (Our course was rated 68.5 for 18 holes.) I hit a 5 wood onto the green, and sunk a bending 30 foot putt for a birdie, Net ZERO on the hole. It was a two man partner member-member, my partner was thrilled, our opposition, not so much.

mpercy®

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Feb 24, 2023, 9:13 AM

One reason why my buddy and I always played a match. If someone blows up a hole, concede pick up and move on. No reason to card a 15 on one hole in a match. Plus, in a match, it's perfectly legal to concede a hole at any point, and the overall score doesn't matter.

For handicap purposes, there is a thing called Equitable Stroke Control. If you're a casual golfer and do not maintain a handicap, then this does not apply (but your group may play as if it does, so go with it).

For handicap purposes, the maximum hole score for each player will be limited to a Net Double Bogey. So if the hole is a par 5, and you get two strokes, then you should enter your score into the computer as if you had an upper limit of 9 on the hole.

It works the other way around too. If your opponent concedes, you should enter (for handicap purposes) the score you likely would have made. So say you lie 6 with a 2-foot putt left, your opponent is sitting at 8 and concedes. You should write down 7 for handicap purposes. But if your drive clears the water and lands just off the green on some par 3, and you opponent hit 3 into the water and concedes, you should not write down 2; you should write down your expected gross score (so 4 if you get one stroke on the par 3 hole).

But how you really keep score should be done appropriately for whatever you're playing for. Like I said, for a match, you win or lose a hole, strokes don't really matter after the hole is won. You can write down your per-hole score based on the ESC limit to make it easier later.

If you're playing by yourself or with other people against whom you are *not* competing, again, you should (for pace of play and everyone's sanity) pick up and stop at the ESC limit, and write that down for the hole.

If you're playing some sort of friendly stroke play wager, figure out what the rule is going to be before you start. Most groups I've been in let it slide at some point, because pace-of-play and once you've already lost, why pile on the humiliation. Also, a lot of friendly wager games are strucuted so that one blown-up hole doesn't even matter, e.g., a better-ball Nassau where your 13 one a hole would be meaningless to anyone but you once your partner made a 5--and if your partner's in with a 5 and you're sitting at 7 already why keep wasting everyone's time?

Of course, in any *actual* stroke play competition, keep counting until you hole out.

Chances are that unless you're playing in an actual competition or with a very unforgiving group of gamblers, a lot of people with handicaps who understand ESC will pick up and move on.

Technically, they should keep playing until they hole out, write down the 13 (for a total of, say 106), then adjust it to a 7 (or whatever) for ESC purposes before they enter the round into the handicap computer (as ESC adjusted score of 100). But again, that's a waste of everyone's time on the course.

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Golf question for casual golfers

I haven't. What you score is what you score. If I'm at

Re: I haven't. What you score is what you score. If I'm at

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Re: I haven't. What you score is what you score. If I'm at

it's an outlier

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Re: USGA Handicap