Just started playing golf again, how does handicap work?

On my first marked round since I was 14 (now 21) I hit a 91 on a par 69 so I would reckon if I had an other two rounds of 91 my handicap would be 22, however heard that this isn't the case I heard that it how many scoring holes you have in a round (not sure what this means), can someone explain how your handicap is measured please.

First of all they will usually take your best card, not the average of your 3 cards.

Then they compare against whatever the SSS (standard scratch score) for the tees you used. SSS may be 69 against the par of 69 so on your instance that would make you +23 not +22

Finally, they reduce any bad holes to (I think) net triple bogey. So if you had any 8s or 9s on your card (on par4s) those would be reduced to 7s for calculation purposes.

how is it +23? on score card both sss and par are 69, so 69+22=91. How has this extra shot been added on?

Sorry - that was a typo on my part. I was trying to say that the SSS *may* be 68

http://www.congu.com/obtaining.htm

This is a good outline, you do 3 cards, the maximum you can get on a given hole is +2, then its basically at the discretion of the HC committee.

kind of get it, cheers.

The Course Standard Scratch (CSS) is an index of the degree of difficulty of your course. In your case, the CSS is 69. So your handicap is calculated on the basis of your score minus the CSS. So your score was 91, therefore your handicap would be around 22.

However the committee will also take account of holes where you ran up a big number, because this will skew the handicap. So (by way of example) if you had 17 fives and one six, then your handicap will likely be 22. However if you had 10 fours and six fives and one ten and one eleven, then your handicap will be a good deal lower than 22 because (for handicap purposes only) the scores on the two holes where you accumulated ten and eleven will be changed to either 6 or 7, depending on the par and stroke index of the hole. So your corrected score will be about 83, and therefore your handicap will be 14.

The reason for this is that you have shown that you can generally play to a better standard than 22, and your handicap should reflect how well you play on a good day.

Other factors are also taken into account - so for example if you are returning to golf after an absence, and you used to play off a low handicap, then they'll likely give you a lower handicap than your score would indicate. Likewise after an injury.

George - CSS is Competition Standard Scratch and is calculated on a per-competition basis only.

What you are refering to (as I said earlier) is SSS (Standard Scratch Score) which is the "measure of course difficulty" in general. CSS is an on-the-day measure - SSS is overall

The SSS is what is shown of the course score card. CSS is published after a particular competition for that competition only

Sorry, yes, you are right.

Cheers guy got my Handicap, it's 24. And had my first eagle putt today missed but got my first birdy on a par 5

Raymond wrote:Cheers guy got my Handicap, it's 24. And had my first eagle putt today missed but got my first birdy on a par 5

In that case, I suspect you won't be on 24 for long

And I think it's generally written "birdie"

Just started playing, 24 handicap, eagle putts and birdies!?! This sounds a different game to the one i'm playing!!
Good work Raymond

MustPuttBetter wrote:Just started playing, 24 handicap, eagle putts and birdies!?! This sounds a different game to the one i'm playing!!
Good work Raymond

I'll not mention the rest of the round then ha.