Handicap adjustments based on Stableford scores/CSS

Brewster

Folks, played in my first ever competition yesterday. It was an away competition with a competition SS of 73. I have checked my golfnet.ie and their is a record of my round. I scored 28 stableford points off my 24 handicap. The golfnet says I still have a handicap of 24. My question is what is used to determine if your handicap changes? Do you use your stableford score or do you need to use the CSS as I know courses vary in difficulty so 28 points on a hard course might be considered better than 30 points on a course with a CSS of 68?

Also, on the golfnet site, there is a Gross differential for my round of 31 and a net differential of 7. I suspect the net is my gross less my handicap of 24. Can anyone tell me what the gross differential is?

Sorry for these basic questions, my enjoyment will improve as a result of a better understanding of these issues.

Swingguru

If your handicap had been set at 24.0, as a result of yesterday it should have gone to 24.1 as the differential between standard scratch and your 28 points was too great. Basically you get 0.1 back every time you are over your handicap. Once you get to 24.5 you will be up to an offical handicap of 25 (assuming you continue to shoot scores more than handicap!). I would just concentrate on hitting around 36 points and more so that you can begin to move down the way. I wouldn't get too worried about gross differences etc. at the moment (the lower you get the more interested you will become in the stats).

PhilipMarlowe

http://www.congu.com/template2.asp?pid=51&parent=33&parent2=51
This link has all the info.

Firstly, simplify things by assuming that par and the SSS and the CSS are all the same (72).Your handicap is 24, so you're a category 4 golfer.
You take 96 shots for your round and score 36 points.
Your handicap doesn't change.
Now, since you're in category 4, you have 4 shots of a buffer zone so you could take 100 shots or score 32 points and your handicap wouldn't change.
If you get 31 or worse then your handicap will increase by 0.1 - it doesn't matter how bad, just goes up by 0.1 per round.
If you score 37 or better then you'll get cut by 0.4 per shot so a score of 38 points is 2 better than the CSS so you'd reduce by 2 x 0.4 = 0.8
This reduction continues until your handicap drops into category 3 when your allowed buffer would tighten to 3 shots and your handicap would reduce by 0.3 per shot.

Now the moveable feast here is the CSS which gets calculated based on the scores returned so our course above could be playing easy and CSS could be 37 points or it could be off the back stakes on a windy day and be 34 points. You handicap will always be adjusted based on the CSS that day.

In your case, the CSS was 73 so effectively 31-35 points was what you were "supposed" to shoot. Your net differential was 7 which is the difference between what you scored (28pts) and the CSS (35pts).
If your net differential was 0 to +4 then your handicap wouldn't change.
Higher than +4 and you go up by 0.1, lower than 0 and you get cut as explained above.

Brewster

Licksy wrote: »

http://www.congu.com/template2.asp?pid=51&parent=33&parent2=51
This link has all the info.

Firstly, simplify things by assuming that par and the SSS and the CSS are all the same (72).Your handicap is 24, so you're a category 4 golfer.
You take 96 shots for your round and score 36 points.
Your handicap doesn't change.
Now, since you're in category 4, you have 4 shots of a buffer zone so you could take 100 shots or score 32 points and your handicap wouldn't change.
If you get 31 or worse then your handicap will increase by 0.1 - it doesn't matter how bad, just goes up by 0.1 per round.
If you score 37 or better then you'll get cut by 0.4 per shot so a score of 38 points is 2 better than the CSS so you'd reduce by 2 x 0.4 = 0.8
This reduction continues until your handicap drops into category 3 when your allowed buffer would tighten to 3 shots and your handicap would reduce by 0.3 per shot.

Now the moveable feast here is the CSS which gets calculated based on the scores returned so our course above could be playing easy and CSS could be 37 points or it could be off the back stakes on a windy day and be 34 points. You handicap will always be adjusted based on the CSS that day.

In your case, the CSS was 73 so effectively 31-35 points was what you were "supposed" to shoot. Your net differential was 7 which is the difference between what you scored (28pts) and the CSS (35pts).
If your net differential was 0 to +4 then your handicap wouldn't change.
Higher than +4 and you go up by 0.1, lower than 0 and you get cut as explained above.

Thanks Licksy, yes clear in my mind now. 31 points yesterday and I would not have got back the 0.1 back due to buffer.

Final question, does it take a few days for golfnet gui website to update your handicap, in which is my case it should be an exact handicap of 24.1 instead of 24 for me?

And finally finally, am I obliged to tell my home club my score or as score was entered on GUI database is this not considered necessary?

f22

Brewster wrote: »

Thanks Licksy, yes clear in my mind now. 31 points yesterday and I would not have got back the 0.1 back due to buffer.

Final question, does it take a few days for golfnet gui website to update your handicap, in which is my case it should be an exact handicap of 24.1 instead of 24 for me?

And finally finally, am I obliged to tell my home club my score or as score was entered on GUI database is this not considered necessary?

Some clubs are quicker than others in uploading results to the Golfnet database, generally a week would be the maximum for away scores. If you know that you have been cut it is up to you to play to your correct handicap for your next game regardless.

Once you have entered scores on the away computer there is no need to notify your club.

PhilipMarlowe

You should report your scores anyway to your home club (but it will most likely be taken care of automatically).
Golfnet can take some time to be up to date, particularly with 'away' competitions. Probably your result gets uploaded by the away club, then downloaded by the home club and then uploaded again by your home club before you'll notice any change on golfnet... after a few days when you check it again the HA column will show 0.1 instead of 0 and 24.1 instead of 24.0 in the REH column.
Regardless of what golfnet tells you, your handicap is whatever is on your home club's computer unless you shoot a score that would warrant a cut. You must cut yourself if that is the case before you compete again, even though it hasn't gone through the system yet (let's say you had a good score yesterday and wanted to play in another comp today.)
However, you can't increase your handicap yourself.. you have to wait for the process.

Brewster

Licksy wrote: »

You should report your scores anyway to your home club (but it will most likely be taken care of automatically).
Golfnet can take some time to be up to date, particularly with 'away' competitions. Probably your result gets uploaded by the away club, then downloaded by the home club and then uploaded again by your home club before you'll notice any change on golfnet... after a few days when you check it again the HA column will show 0.1 instead of 0 and 24.1 instead of 24.0 in the REH column.
Regardless of what golfnet tells you, your handicap is whatever is on your home club's computer unless you shoot a score that would warrant a cut. You must cut yourself if that is the case before you compete again, even though it hasn't gone through the system yet (let's say you had a good score yesterday and wanted to play in another comp today.)
However, you can't increase your handicap yourself.. you have to wait for the process.

Thanks.

Fully briefed now! Now for the difficult bit to start getting my scores from 28 points to 38 points! Thanks for advice Licksy!

Webbs

Just a quick point - was the round a qualifying competition? - if it says NSA in the TYP column of golfnet then your handicap wont get changed

Brewster

Webbs wrote: »

Just a quick point - was the round a qualifying competition? - if it says NSA in the TYP column of golfnet then your handicap wont get changed

Yes, was a home qualifying competition I think.

FlutterinBantam

Was there any kind of 'preferred lies' in operation.

As far as I am aware that situation would not lead to h/c adjustments, if it was in place.

Whyner

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Was there any kind of 'preferred lies' in operation.

As far as I am aware that situation would not lead to h/c adjustments, if it was in place.

Apparently not, I got cut yesterday after we had placing on the fairway. Made very little if any difference

PhilipMarlowe

Placing on the fairway only doesn't affect a competition being qualifying or not.
It's when you are allowed to lift, clean & drop in the rough (or place in the rough) that it can't be qualifying.
And for the newbies, a "qualifying" competition means that your handicap can be cut or can increase (or stay still) based on your score. Non-qualifying competitions are usually run in the winter and regardless of your score, your handicap won't be adjusted directly.

On golfnet, if you click on event identifier you'll see all the codes and what they mean.
They appear in the TYP column and the most common are:
QSH Qualifying Stableford Home
QZH Qualifying Strokeplay Home
QSA Qualifying Stableford Away
QZA Qualifying Strokeplay Away
NZH Non-Qualifying Strokeplay Home
NSH Non-Qualifying Stableford Home
NSA Non-Qualifying Stableford Away
NZA Non-Qualifying Strokeplay Away

ankles

Obvious question, but do casual golf cards affect your handicap? I have played a few out of competition rounds recently, not very well, but put the cards in the box. But so far they don't seem to have turned up on golfnet, or affected my handicap. Do competitive rounds only count

sector

ankles wrote: »

Obvious question, but do casual golf cards affect your handicap? I have played a few out of competition rounds recently, not very well, but put the cards in the box. But so far they don't seem to have turned up on golfnet, or affected my handicap. Do competitive rounds only count

No they have to be qualifying competitions.

bigtimecharlie

From all of the above, am I correct with the following?

After a stableford competition, you enter your score on each hole on the club computer and this info is used to:

1, compute your stableford points for that competition.

2, make adjustments to your handicap.

Just trying to make a link between stableford and the CSS/SS.

Daithio9

bigtimecharlie wrote: »

From all of the above, am I correct with the following?

After a stableford competition, you enter your score on each hole on the club computer and this info is used to:

1, compute your stableford points for that competition.

2, make adjustments to your handicap.

Just trying to make a link between stableford and the CSS/SS.

Correct on both counts, and it's also used to determine the CSS

sambo555

Hi, I am trying to understand how golf handicaps work and I think I understand now but I have one question. Given that the adjusted score (nothing higher that par + 2 strokes) is used in the calculation, is it possible that you could have terrible gross score and still get cut? EG. 14 pars and 4 12's on an 18 handicap. I hope that makes sense. Thanks.

dan_ep82

sambo555 wrote: »

Hi, I am trying to understand how golf handicaps work and I think I understand now but I have one question. Given that the adjusted score (nothing higher that par + 2 strokes) is used in the calculation, is it possible that you could have terrible gross score and still get cut? EG. 14 pars and 4 12's on an 18 handicap. I hope that makes sense. Thanks.

You can scratch some holes and still get enough points to get a cut if you score well enough yes.

Senna

sambo555 wrote: »

Hi, I am trying to understand how golf handicaps work and I think I understand now but I have one question. Given that the adjusted score (nothing higher that par + 2 strokes) is used in the calculation, is it possible that you could have terrible gross score and still get cut? EG. 14 pars and 4 12's on an 18 handicap. I hope that makes sense. Thanks.

Was this a comp? That's 42 points, more than enough for a cut in any Stableford comp.