TGC Tour Handicap Calculation

[ProTee United]

How is your TGC Tour Handicap Index Calculated

Your TGC Tour Handicap is calculated based on the official USGA Handicap Formula.

Step 1: Calculate the Differentials
Using your adjusted gross scores, the course ratings and slope ratings, Step 1 is calculating the handicap differential for each round entered using this formula:

(Score - Course Rating) x 113 / Slope Rating

The sum of that calculation is called your "handicap differential." This differential is calculated for each round entered (minimum of five, maximum of 20).

Note: The number 113 is a constant and represents the slope rating of a golf course of average difficulty.

Step 2: Determine How Many Differentials To Use
Not every differential that results from Step 1 will be used in the next step. If only five rounds are entered, only the lowest of your five differentials will be used in the following step. If 20 rounds are entered, only the 10 lowest differentials are used. Use this chart to determine how many differentials to use in your handicap calculation.

Number of Differentials Used

The number of rounds you are reporting for handicap purposes determines the number of differentials used in the USGA handicap calculation, as follows:

Rounds Entered	Differentials Used
5-6 rounds	Use 1 lowest differential
7-8 rounds	Use 2 lowest differential
9-10 rounds	Use 3 lowest differential
11-12 rounds	Use 4 lowest differential
13-14 rounds	Use 5 lowest differential
15-16 rounds	Use 6 lowest differential
17 rounds	Use 7 lowest differential
18 rounds	Use 8 lowest differential
19 rounds	Use 9 lowest differential
20 rounds	Use 10 lowest differential

Step 3: Average Your Differentials
Get an average of the differentials used by adding them together and dividing by the number used (i.e., if five differentials are used, add them up and divide by five).

Step 4: Calculating Your Handicap Index
And the final step is to take the number that results from Step 3 and multiply the result by 0.96 (96-percent). The result is TGC Tour Handicap Index.

Handicap Committee
The handicap committee currently consists of mthunt, keither5150 and bubba22. They are also the tournament committee. The committee picks and rates the courses. Slope rating 113 will be used when a course has not been rated. The committee will monitor scores, handicaps and game play.

[Cklguy2013]

Do people prefer having an online fantasy that is much lower then their IRL handicap or would they prefer having an online handicap that more roughly approximates their irl handicap?

[Ironstrokes]

Do people prefer having an online fantasy that is much lower then their IRL handicap or would they prefer having an online handicap that more roughly approximates their irl handicap?

I'm sure many would say they would want it roughly the same. That's why we all got into this simulator business, for the accuracy it gives us while still playing it at home. For me personally at least I know I want it to represent my actual game as much a possible

[Cklguy2013]

Me too... I would be nice to know if you were a scratch on here, you'd be scratch in real life... or a 10 or whatever one aspires to.

[Vincent_Vega]

I'm a +2.4 IRL and +1.5 on the sim tour. The gimmies and perfect lie do help a lot but I also find that I don't make near as many intermediate length putts in sim golf as real life along with my wedge game being 10 times better in real life than in TGC. I don't know if it's not having that true depth perception or what, but I can't get consistent results 100 yards and in on TGC. So everything kind of evens out. In the Optishot league, I was pissed if I didn't shoot 7 or 8 under. So I'm obviously thrilled with how much closer Skytrak and TGC matches my real game.

[Brace33]

Ok so my handicap was at 30.6 after I played my five rounds so I set it to 9 because if I look at my stats my average was 9 over par. Does this work? also will it keep adjusting after each round?

[mthunt]

It'll keep,adjusting.

[Cklguy2013]

Hey guys, I think the tournaments and handicapping are great, a big improvement from when I was last on here. I have a few thoughts though regarding further refining the handicapping system to get our caps more in line with our IRL handicaps. If the powers that be on here are interested in my input and assistance please let me know. Cheers, and keep up the great work!

[Fieldygolf]

Does your handicap ever go up??

[Cklguy2013]

By up do you mean your handicap on here vs real life?

[Fieldygolf]

I mean on here as I'm not use to he usga system. I'm used to the congu handicap system where if you don't shoot your handicap nett score you go up 0.1

[mthunt]

Hey guys, I think the tournaments and handicapping are great, a big improvement from when I was last on here. I have a few thoughts though regarding further refining the handicapping system to get our caps more in line with our IRL handicaps. If the powers that be on here are interested in my input and assistance please let me know. Cheers, and keep up the great work!

What do you have in mind? Keep in mind Sim handicaps should be lower.

[Fieldygolf]

I understand that, I'm just playing bad at the moment and my handicap doesn't seem to go up lol. Here in there uk if you don't shoot level your handicap you go up after each round depending on what category you are in.

[mthunt]

Does your handicap ever go up??

Your handicap will go up or down based on the formula on page one.

[Cklguy2013]

Sim handicaps are lower because the course ratings are too high, if course ratings were lowered then sim handicaps could come close to IRL handicaps, more to it then that obviously, but that's a an overview.

[Cklguy2013]

For example, something like this:

Course	Yards	Par	Rating		Slope
The Oaks at Weschester blue tees	6543	72	69.6		124
Whistling Straits blue tees	6627	72	68.4		113
Merion East Ardmore Pa (Protee)	6182	72	66.8		120
Monarch Montreal Protee	6573	70	66.0		113
Winter Flathead Country Club	6380	72	66.4		120
Pine Valley White tees	6035	70	69.0		147
Tobo GolfKlub Protee #2	6173	72	65.4		135
Double Black Course at Christina Pines	6705	72	66.2		138
Tomahawk Golf Club	6886	71	67.8		147

NGLA	6514	72	[I		122
Oceanic Athletic Club	6777	72			147

[Godfather]

I've thought of back-computing simulator course ratings and slopes based on scores posted in the tournament and the history of players who played relative to performance on other courses. Par for course rating and 113 for slope would be the starting point and adjust up or down based on some type of low and high handicap normalized results.

The USGA rates courses based on effective yardage, landing zone and hazards at common distances, remaining hazards, length, etc. so copying it the real way isn't really possible.

[Cklguy2013]

Yes but you could start with basic yardage then adjust up or down based on real scoring. Pine Valley about is a perfect example above, only 6,035 yards, but go back and look at the scores.

[mthunt]

Sim handicaps are lower because the course ratings are too high, if course ratings were lowered then sim handicaps could come close to IRL handicaps, more to it then that obviously, but that's a an overview.

We are actually looking at this and trying to determine more accurate course ratings. We actually went from a really bad system to this and decided to have 3 set ratings. It's a huge improvement.

Sim handicaps should always be lower. Not as low as yours but that will fix itself. There's no wind, no rough, no sand and perfect lies plus the game reads the greens and gives you 6 foot putts. TGC, once your used to it, should have you 2-4 shots better than IRL IMO.

Rest assurd, we are looking at the course ratings for this tour. We can't do anything about the game thus we use a handicap system independent of the game. TGC and our tour has come a long way. It only gets better and that's great.

[Cklguy2013]

Oh I absolutely agree that it has come a long way, and Rome wasn't built in a day, so these things will come in time. Keep up the good work and if you need some assistance I'd be more than happy to help out.

[FaultyClubs]

Sim handicaps should always be lower. Not as low as yours but that will fix itself. There's no wind, no rough, no sand and perfect lies plus the game reads the greens and gives you 6 foot putts. TGC, once your used to it, should have you 2-4 shots better than IRL IMO.

I'm not disagreeing since you have good points, but real life scoring is strongly affected by the short game and putting, both I find significantly harder on a SIM. Especially when switching regularly between SIM and real golf. I don't know the answer but to me it isn't a given that SIM handicaps *should* be 2-4 shots better than IRL. If they were the same it wouldn't be obviously wrong IMO.