How do I determine my golf handicap?

Question

I'm an 'old' beginning golfer, and have played about 20 rounds. I'd like to know what my handicap is. I usually play the same 18 hole course alone. Do i HAVE to count all my miss hits for my total score? I generally lose about 5 balls per 9 holes. I know, it sounds like I'm a horrible player but I just want to improve. Should I even be trying to calculate a handicap at this point?

Answer 1

Forget handicap. Find out how to play the game by taking a few lessons so that you have something which resembles a golf swing. If you lose 5 balls on 9 holes, either you are inattentive , slightly vision impaired or your course  has hazards galore. A solid golf swing comes from good hand-eye coordination. Work on that angle.

Answer 2

To find your handicap just take (for example) 5 rounds of 90 and divide that by 5. So (example) 90 x 5 divided by 5 you would have a handicap of 18 (72 +18 = 90)

This is just a way if you want to find out a social handicap.

Answer 3

The Webs Greatest Golf Toolkits  

Answer 4

There are several questions here.  

(1) Yes you do have to count ALL your hits, including your mis-hits, as long the swing was intended to strike the ball.  So if you addressed the ball, took a back swing, down swing, and missed the ball completely, technically that's 1 stroke.  If you lose a ball, it is a 1 stroke penalty and you re-hit your ball from your original spot (Stroke and Distance penalty).

(2) If all you want to do is keep track of your handicap for self-improvement, there are several free sites that will do that for you. All you have to do is enter the score of each round, course played and which tee you hit from.  These sites does not issue a USGA recognized handicap index, but they do use the same calculation method, so you can't use this handicap index for PGA sanctioned events.

These free sites are:

http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l/blh...

http://golf.sports.yahoo.com/

http://www.stracka.com/stracka.asp

Welcome to the game of golf.  At some point in time, it might not be a bad idea to take some lessons before any bad habits in your swing settles in.  As far as your mis-hits and lost balls, it'll get better as you play more.  We've all been there.

Answer 5

I know that in Australia, to get an official handicap (which enables you to play club competitions) you must submit five cards and these need to be signed by an officially handicaped playing partner. Usually you would need to be a member of a golf club to start this process but I believe that there are online 'golf clubs' that you can join that do the same thing (e.g. golflink australia, etc)

You do have to count all of your shots, but even if you have heaps of shots the absolute maximum handicap you can have (in Australia) is 27 for men and 36 for women. (individual golf clubs will allow higher internal handicaps such as 32 for men and 40 for women.)  

Ask the guys you see around your golf course for more locally relevant info. Happy golfing!

Answer 6

I hope this isn't rude, but if you are still having airshots I wouldn't worry about a handicap just yet. (Airshots count as a shot)

Have some lessons, practice your chipping and putting - let the rest take care of itself.

Don't take it too seriously and most of all - HAVE FUN!