There is a huge amount of confusion over handicaps, not least because England Golf offer two ways of working out a playing handicap.
There is a casual way of working them out, which is what you see on the handicap charts at golf clubs up and down the land, and a ‘proper’ way of working them out, which involves some complex mathematics. The complex way is used for competitions and is what we use. The PGS database works all these things out, for both men and women.
The exact rules are here: England Golf Rules of Handicapping.
But the relevant section is: G6.2a Playing Handicap Calculation: Whenever Playing Handicaps are calculated via machine (Computer, App, Spreadsheet etc) the calculation must use the full calculated Course Handicap. The Playing Handicap will be rounded at the end of the calculation (see examples in Appendix I of this document). Note that if the calculation is being done manually, players can use the rounded Course Handicap to calculated Playing Handicaps (e.g. a casual 4-Ball match play round).
A real example
This is a real example of a PGS member who played at West Herts, which has a slope rating of 125 off the white tees, and a course rating of 70.1. The 113 figure is what England Golf has determined is the ‘average’ slope of a golf course.
The WHS index of the player was 8.7.
You first calculate the slope: 8.7 x 125/113 = 9.62
You then adjust that for the course rating: 9.62-1.9 = 7.72
(the course rating ‘par’ is 72, so you add or subtract the difference between that and the actual course rating. In this case West Herts is 70.1, which is 1.9 less than 72, so that is deducted. For a course with a course rating of, say, 74.0, you would add 2.0)
Singles stableford competitions are played off 95 per cent of handicap, so you then work that out: 7.72 x 0.95 = 7.33.
At that point, you round to the nearest whole number which, in this case, is 7.
You then deduct any PGS penalty the player has which, in this case, was 1.
So you arrive at a playing handicap of 6.
Foursomes and greensomes
Foursomes handicaps are easy to work out. The pair has half the combined playing handicaps of the two players.
Greensomes handicaps are more complex. The pair take 60 per cent of the lower playing handicap and add that to 40 per cent of the higher playing handicap to arrive at their team handicap.