On the score card, what is the purpose of the handicap on each hole?

Question

How is this number used in determining a player's net score? I understand how to determine a player's course handicap without an established USGA handicap, but I don't understand the handicap per hole.

Answer 1

Handicapping the holes indicates on which holes you would receive a stroke.  Then when playing against someone with a different handicap in match play or best ball, you can determine if you won or lost that hole.  If you are playing total score, then it does not matter (you just subtract your handicap from your total score to get your net score).  But if you are an 12 handicap playing against an 8 handicap - you will get a stroke on the handicap rated holes 1 thru 12 and your opponent only gets strokes on handicap rated holes 1 thru 8.  So on the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th hardest holes, you get a stroke and he does not.  Another methodology is to just give the "differential" - so the 8 handicap gives you 4 strokes (12-8 = 4) and you would be getting a stroke on the 4 hardes holes only.  These numbers really come into play for tournaments and for betting on matches to even out the competition.

Answer 2

The HCP for each hole is to define the difficulty of each hole, 1 being the most difficult and 18 being the easiest.  So if a person has a 15 handicap, he would take one stroke off each hole from hole marked having 1 to 15 handicap and gets no stroke from hole marked having 16 to 18 handicap.

This is really not that important if you're not playing skins, just note down your total score and take 15 off of the total score to give you net score.

But 110 is a bad score anyway you look at it.

Answer 3

ESC is a mandatory process. If your handicap is between 1 and 9 then you can take no more than a 6. If it is 10-19 you can take no more than a 7. If it is 20-29 you can take no more than an 8. If it is between 30-39 than you can take no more than a 9. Finally if you are a 40 or higher you can take no more than a 10. Once you are done playing look at all the scores that are higher than you can take according to your handicap and subtract them which gives you your net score.

Answer 4

I'm not a big fan of it.  Don't get rattled by those #'s.

You could tell that Pat B below me gets rattled by these #'s.

This is a prime example of what I'm talking about.  You still have to play your game.

Answer 5

The holes are ranked from 1 to 18.  1 being the hole that a lesser player would most likely need a stroke to compete with a better player, and so on.  Contrary to belief, it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the hole.  Usually long par 5s and par 4s are ranked  with low numbers and par 3s are with high numbers.  So if for example, a 2 handicap played a 5 handicap, the 5 handicap would receive a stroke on the holes ranked 1, 2, and 3.

Answer 6

It is rated 1-18, where 1 is essentially the most difficult hole to shoot par, while 18 is the easiest.