Your golf handicap is a way of measuring yourself, not just against other golfers, but against the course you're playing. A handicap is simply a total of the number of strokes you can remove from your score at the end of your round. A player with a 10 handicap who shoots an 85 could say that he finished with a 75, while a player with a 12 handicap who shoots an 85 could claim victory with an adjusted score of 73. It can be a little confusing, but the idea is to have a means whereby highly skilled golfers can have competitive rounds with those who are less skilled.
Calculating Your Handicap
Your golf handicap is determined through a mathematical formula that takes into account your most recent raw golf scores, the course ratings where those rounds were played and the slope ratings of those courses. The course and slope ratings are easily available at the pro shops at those courses and should be included on the scorecards. Online calculators allow you to plug in the data and receive your handicap or you can do a little math on your own. Start by taking the scores from the last five rounds, of 18 holes, that you played. Look up the rating and slope of the course for each of the scores. Subtract the course rating from the score you earned on that course and multiply that number by 113. Then divide that number by the slope of the course. This number is the differential. Take the lowest of your five differentials and multiply that total by 0.96 for your handicap.
A Good Handicap
Having no handicap, a status few golfers outside the pro tour achieve, means you are a "scratch" golfer. That means you should expect to shoot an average score of 72 for a par-72 course. Many golfers would be happy with an 18-handicap, which means you can take 18 strokes off a round of 18 holes or play what's known as "bogey golf." It means you essentially need one extra stroke per hole to play par golf. But the goal for many golfers is to get their handicaps down to a single digit, which is not easy. The usual normal maximum handicaps are 28 for men, 36 for women and anywhere from 29 to 54 for juniors.
How to Improve Your Handicap
Practice hitting a variety of shots. Your scores will improve more dramatically if you work on chipping and putting more than hitting monster tee shots. Try to cut your putting down from an average of three putts per green to two. But with any shot, take your time and focus on your swing and the targets at which you are aiming, whether you are playing in a competition or just practicing on the driving range. Take notes of problem areas or challenges in your game and consider lessons, even if you're an advanced player, to work on things that may be limiting your improvement.
Strategizing With Your Handicap
Your handicap only really matters when you're in a competition, whether it's with yourself to lower your handicap or in a singles or team match. If you're paired with another player, your team's handicap will be determined by adding the two handicaps and dividing by two. So if you have a high handicap, you may want to be paired with someone else with a high handicap. The resulting average is still high, affording you greater a greater margin of error as you start collecting strokes during your round.
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