EWGA stronly encourages all of its members to establish an official golf handicap. It's a measure of your golfing ability and a tool to help you gauge your improvement. Handicaps are especially important for outings and competitions because they allow us to pair you up with players of similar ability. They also level the playing field and make competition fairer.
If you have a handicap of 40, for example, you can still compete against someone with a handicap of 10. How? When the competition is over, officials calculate a "net" score: Your raw score minus your handicap. Maybe your final raw score was 110. Your net score would be 110 - 40 or 70. Let's say your partner with the 10 handicap scores a 95. Her net score = 95 - 10 or 85. You would win in the "low net" competition.
A handicap is a number that represents your skill level and potential scoring ability. Generally speaking, your handicap value is representative of how you should expect to score in relation to par. It's actually a little more complicated than that because other factors are considered such as which tees you play from and how difficult the course is. It is also weighted such that it's more representative of what you'd expect to score on a good day rather than on an average day.
Having a handicap gives you the the ability to compete with golfers of other skill levels on an equitable basis on any course, from any tees. It also provides an objective way to measure golf skill improvement.
An official handicap is required to compete in some of our competitive tournaments. This can be any USGA approved handicap. You do not have to maintain a GHIN and a GLMS handicap, one or the other is fine.
Here is one really important reason to establish a handicap:
For 2008, to participate in the Chapter Championship competitive play, you must post at least 3, 18-hole scores or 6, 9-hole scores in 2008.
Have a question about Handicaps? Please send an email to our Handicap Chair,
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Last Updated ( Monday, April 21, 2008 )
Golf Life Management System (GLMS)
Your EWGA membership and your affiliation with EWGA of Greater Philadelphia includes access to the EWGA Golf Life Management System. This is an easy-to-use system where you can establish and maintain your handicap. Here you can:
Post scores
Access 20,000+ golf course profiles
Track personal game statistics
Obtain an official USGA or RCGA Handicap
Print a handicap card
View your scoring history
Attest scores for other members
And stay in touch with the world of golf!
After every 9- or 18-hole round, log in to the Golf Life Management System and enter your score. It's as easy as that!
Absolutely not! Having a handicap as a beginner gives you an excellent measurement of how you are improving. Nearly everyone starts out with a 40+ handicap, then slowly, but surely, as you enter each score, you can watch that handicap drop. It's gratifying to see your own progress and it gives you incentive to practice and play more often.
Knowing your handicap also might boost your golf ego! Let’s say you're playing a par 4 with your buddies and the entire group bogeys the hole. Rather than feeling disappointed, you know your high handicap gives you two strokes on the hole. You can walk away feeling victorious since you shot a birdie! How good will that feel?
Don't wait, get your handicap today!
Last Updated ( Saturday, February 09, 2008 )
How do I Establish a Handicap?
The first step is activating your free EWGA Golf Life Management System (GLMS) account. You can read about it here. Then you can start posting your scores. You must first add your course from the list available in GLMS. If your course is not in GLMS, you may enter it manually.
Enter your scores hole-by-hole or just enter your final raw score, minus any strokes that were above your Equitable Stroke Control on particular holes. You may also choose to enter your score as an "attested" score, which means another player vouches for you and says your score is correct.
Post your score as soon as you can after you finish playing. Your handicap will not be computed until you have posted at least five 18-hole scores or ten 9-hole scores.
If you are having difficulties, take a look at the demo here.
Nearly every golf course has a slope and rating to tell you how difficult the course is. The rating is a number close to par that tells you how hard the course is for an expert, or "par" player. The slope is a two- or three-digit number that shows you how difficult the course is for an average or "bogey" player. The average slope rating is 113, so anything less than 113 is an easier course; anything above 113 is a more difficult course.
These numbers differ depending on which tees you use. They are also different for men and women, so be sure you are using the slope and rating for women golfers. It is often easy to make a mistake on this, because courses might publish a slope and rating for men playing from the "women's" tees. If you want to be sure, check with the official USGA course ratings.
Course Handicap
What? Another handicap? Relax. Because all courses are not equal in difficulty, your course handicap tells you how many strokes you get on each hole for a specific course. If you are using the Golf Life Management System (GLMS) to maintain your handicap, this number is automatically calculated for you. GLMS takes the difficulty of the course into consideration when it generates your handicap.
Golf is a game of honor, particularly in regard to handicaps. To ensure that handicapping is fair and honest, all players must post every eligible score accurately. "Sandbagging" -- only posting your high scores to give yourself an unfair advantage in competitions -- is contemptuous in golf. Likewise, only posting one's good scores gives a false and deceiving portrait of your skills.
To keep everyone honest, handicaps are subject to peer review. Anyone can verify the handicap of another golfer. You can do so on the USGA web site or through our Golf Life Management system. These sites publish a player's scoring records so that one can reasonable support or dispute a score. To learn more about peer review, visit the USGA Handicap System Reference Guide.
Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) is an adjustment of individual hole scores (for handicap purposes) in order to make handicaps more representative of a player's potential ability.
ESC is applied after the round and is only used when the actual score or the most likely score exceeds a player’s maximum number. ESC sets a limit to the number of strokes a player can take on a hole depending on Course Handicap. Apply ESC to all scores, including tournament scores.
The table below shows the maximum number of strokes a player can take:
For 2008, to participate in the Chapter Championship competitive play, you must post at least 3, 18-hole scores or 6, 9-hole scores in 2008.