New Rolling Average Handicapping Explained

New Rolling Average Handicapping Explained

In an effort to help players understand the new Rolling Average Handicapping System, we have put together some examples below to help you. The new system has a downwards bias initially which is intentional to aid us to bring down some of the higher handicaps quickly.

There is also a default differential added to the calculation to stop players from getting a large number of strokes added to their handicap in the first few weeks. Even after playing 20 rounds you should still find that your Sevens handicap is lower than your 18-hole handicap due to the relative ease of shooting better 9-hole scores than 18-hole scores.

At this stage we envisage, (although is not yet confirmed) that scoring and handicap history will be carried over from Season 09-10 to subsequent seasons, meaning that the downside bias evident at the beginning of this season will only affect newly registered players.

• Players with no current Golf Australia handicap will be given a Calloway adjusted handicap for their first round.
• Players with an official Golf Australia handicap will begin on their normal 18-hole Golf Australia handicap.
• Handicapping is performed based on every score entered.
• Player handicaps are calculated at the completion of each weekly round.

Handicapping system is as follows:

• The Differential is the number of strokes over or under par over an 18-hole course.
• Players are given a default differential equal to their initial handicap when first entered into the system.  This default is included as a 'Acceptable Score' in determining the number of differentials to be used.
• For the purposes of deriving a differential on which to base the calculation, it is assumed that the player has played to his or her handicap for a second nine holes. i.e. 9-hole score is not doubled to give an equivalent 18-hole score.
• Par score is 18 points for 9-holes.

For example:

Player A begins the Sevens competition with an initial handicap of 20. In his first game he scores 22pts. The score is 4pts better than the par score of 18pts, so he has played 4 strokes better than his handicap.

Player A’s Handicap Calculation looks like this:

Initial Handicap - +20 *This is the default differential equal to the initial handicap.

Round 1 (20 handicap) – 22pts = +16 *The differential for the first game is +16 (equivalent to an 18-hole game of 16 over par)

2 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 1 Differential = +16

Player A's Handicap is adjusted down to 16.

Player A plays two times the next week and shoots 23pts and 15pts.

Player A’s Handicap Calculation now looks like this:

Initial Handicap - +20

Round 1 (20 handicap) – 22pts = +16

Round 2 (16 handicap) – 23pts = +11

- 15pts = +19

4 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 1 Differential = +11

Player A’s handicap is adjusted down to 11.

Player A plays four times the next week and shoots 10pts, 12pts, 13pts, and 13pts.

Player A’s Handicap Calculation now looks like this:

Initial Handicap - +20

Round 1 (20 handicap) – 22pts = +16

Round 2 (16 handicap) – 23pts = +11

- 15pts = +19

Round 3 (11 handicap) - 10pts = +19

- 12pts = +17

- 13pts = +16

- 13pts = +16

8 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 2 Differentials = +27 (+11, +16)

Player A’s handicap is adjusted up to 14 (27 divided by 2 and rounded to nearest whole number).

Another Example:

Player B is given an initial handicap of 52 and her first score of 16pts is also entered.

Player B’s Handicap Calculation looks like this:

Initial Handicap - +52

Round 1 (52 handicap) – 16pts = +54

2 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 1 Differential = +52

Player B’s Handicap stays at 52 as the default differential is the lowest.

Player B plays four times the next week and shoots 14pts, 11pts, 12pts and 13pts.

Player B’s Handicap Calculation now looks like this:

Initial Handicap +52

Round 1 (52 handicap) – 16pts = +54

Round 2 (52 handicap) – 14pts = +58

- 11pts = +59

- 12pts = +58

- 13pts = +57

6 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 1 Differential = +52

Player B’s handicap stays at 52 as the default differential is the lowest.

Player B plays three times the next week and shoots 12pts, 13pts and 8pts.

Player B’s Handicap Calculation now looks like this:

Initial Handicap - +52

Round 1 (52 handicap) – 16pts = +54

Round 2 (52 handicap) – 14pts = +58

- 11pts = +59

- 12pts = +58

- 13pts = +57

Round 3 (52 handicap) - 12pts = +58

- 13pts = +57

- 8pts = +62

9 scores entered, therefore handicap = Lowest 3 Differentials = +163 (52+54+57)

Player B’s handicap is adjusted up 2 strokes to 54 (163 divided by 3 and rounded to nearest whole number).

Another Example:

Player C started playing Sevens Golf with an 8 handicap and has the following scoring history.

Initial Handicap - +8

Round 1 (8 handicap) - 23pts = +3

Handicap adjusted down to 3 (2 scores=Lowest 1 = 3)

Round 2 (3 handicap) - 21pts = 0

Handicap adjusted down to 0 (3 scores=Lowest 1 = 0)

Round 3 (0 handicap) - 18pts = 0

Handicap stays at 0 (4 scores=Lowest 1 = 0)

Round 4 (0 handicap) - 15pts = +3

- 21pts = -3

- 10pts = +8

- 12pts = +6

Handicap adjusted down to -2 (8 scores=Lowest 2 = -3, 0 = -3 divided by 2 = -1.5 rounded to nearest whole number)

Round 5 (-2 handicap) - 15pts = +1

- 13pts - +3

- 12pts = +4

- 12pts = +4

- 16pts = 0

- 14pts = +2

Handicap adjusted back up to 0 (14 scores=Lowest 5 = -3, 0, 0, 0, +1, +2 = 0 divided by 5)

Round 6 (0 handicap) - 18pts = 0

- 20pts = -2

- 16pts = +2

- 15pts = +3

- 22pts = -4

- 18pts = 0

- 16pts = +2

- 14pts = +4

- 13pts = +5

Total of 23 scores, however only the Last 20 are included.

Handicap stays at 0 (Last 20 scores=Lowest 10 = -4, -3, -2, 0, 0, 0, 0, +1, +2, +2 = -4 divided by 10 = -0.4, rounded to nearest whole number)

Note: The last example shows that the 0 differential from the third score has been omitted as only the last 20 scores are included in the handicap calculation.