Team Handicap

[mardukes]

The other day we played a better-ball, four ball match.  Getting a little warmed up for the Ryder Cup.

Those two guys said we two guys had to give them strokes.  I said the official two-man handicap is 65% of the lower handicap PLUS 35% of the other's.  I started searching the web for this formula and I can't find it anywhere.  USGA site has a foursome match formula where each handicap is normalized down to the lowest of the four and each player gets 90% individually.  But no team formula.

I did find the formula for a two-man scramble team -- 35/15 -- and am wondering if I am imagining the foursome formula.

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I did just find this for greensomes on bunkered.co.uk:

How do handicaps work in Greensomes?

To calculate a handicap in Greensomes, the Council of National Golf Unions (CONGU) recommends it should be 0.6 of the lower player’s handicap and 0.4 of the higher player’s. If both handicaps are equal, it should be half the combined total.

So, if Team One’s handicaps are four and eight and Team Two’s six and 11, the amount of shots given to Team Two would be worked out as follows:

Team One: (0.6 x 4) and (0.4 x 8 ) = 2.4 + 3.2 = 5.6

Team Two: (0.6 x 6) and (0.4 x 11) = 3.6 + 4.4 = 8

The difference is 2.4 so, rounding down, Team One would give Team Two two shots.

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by mardukes

[DaveP043]

I'm not sure what you mean by a "team match", you describe what is a fourball match play.  Fourball match play pits one two-player side against the other.  Each player plays his own ball into the hole, and the Side's score is the better score of the two partners.  And you have it right, the Playing Handicaps should be 90%of the Course Handicaps, with the lowest handicap player in the match getting zero strokes.

Perhaps if you ell us just how you play your match we can help you figure out the handicapping, fourball and foursomes are specific formats defined in the RoG (Sections 22 and 23 if I remember right), so its important to use these words considering their meanings within the rules.

[mardukes]

Yes, I fixed it to four ball yesterday.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever seen the 65/35 formula somewhere.  A "side" handicap like the greensome or two-man scramble.  Much easier than putting pops all over 3 players.

As the analysis states, the handicap allowance is sensitive to the size of the field and two teams is the lower limit -- highest sensitivity?

[DaveP043]

8 minutes ago, mardukes said:

Yes, I fixed it to four ball yesterday.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever seen the 65/35 formula somewhere.  A "side" handicap like the greensome or two-man scramble.  Much easier than putting pops all over 3 players.

As the analysis states, the handicap allowance is sensitive to the size of the field and two teams is the lower limit -- highest sensitivity?

So its fourball, meaning every player plays his own ball into the hole, and its match play.  Because each player plays his ball, each player should receive his handicap strokes, not some "weighted average" of his and his partner's handicaps.  Consider a team with a scratch and a 12, do you think they should take their low gross score and apply 6 strokes?  No, the scratch should get none, and the 12 should get 11.  Sure, you need to put dots on THREE lines of the scorecard, but that's the way its supposed to work.

I've never seen the 65/35 recommendation anywhere, not for any format.  Oh, and a small correction, Appendix C of the World Handicap System presents Handicap Allocations for a wide variety of formats, CONGU simply uses these recommendations.  They might recommend different numbers for some formats, I'm not sure.

As for the size of the field, its match play, there are only two sides in a match.  The size of the field only has an impact for a Stroke Play competition.

[mardukes]

E.g. (for explanation, not statistically significant)

In the actual match using the two "side" pops top two won 4 & 2; refiguring using the "per man" normalized numbers it came out 3 & 2.  But, again, much easier

 

[DaveP043]

19 minutes ago, mardukes said:

E.g. (for explanation, not statistically significant)

In the actual match using the two "side" pops top two won 4 & 2; refiguring using the "per man" normalized numbers it came out 3 & 2.  But, again, much easier

 

Easier, perhaps, but also wrong.  And maybe not easier, you've done a second round of computation in order to save the effort of putting a total of 6 dots on the scorecard.  To me its easier to simply apply the handicaps for each player.  The various handicap authorities had millions of rounds to study before making their recommendations as to how handicaps should be applied, I trust that they've got it as right as it can be..  

Edited September 6, 2023 by DaveP043

[mardukes]

The wife says all handicapping is wrong but, the merits of having one is for a different discussion.