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A Simple Handicap Formula

• cobaltm 3,961 Posts

  Wed, Jan 22 2014 12:47 PM

  Kat, just re-read your last message to me......Uneven lies?.......Your on your own lady.......I tried them ONCE, when they first started.  Enough said.  Handicap them?  Have fun with that.....lol.............. 

• EdJaws 402 Posts

  Wed, Jan 22 2014 2:23 PM

  cobaltm:

  Kat, I may be tired and missing something but I think the -1 helps the high handicapper if my math is right.....Using your Example with -1.....67 -1= 66.00 or -6 handicap.....59 -1= 58.00 or +2 handicap.  This is an 8 shot difference where your .96 system is only a 7 shot.

  Worried about ties.....have a playoff.  That's what they do in the real world ain't it?  But, taking it to decimal points to decide does work.

  I'm not picking sides here but these are my calculations and conclusion with a base 60 index. What works for one person may not for another. I really do thank Cobalt and Kat for helping us mere mortals.
  
  
  Comparing 4 players and their avg.
  
  Player A avg 73
  Player B avg 67
  Player C avg 62
  Player D avg 59
  
  -1

            avg           handicap
  A    73-1=72         -12
  B    67-1=66         -6
  C    62-1=61         -1
  D    59-1=58         +2

  
  .96
                                             no rounding
  A    73*.96=70.08      -10      -10.08
  B    67*.96=64.32       -4       -4.32
  C    62*.96=59.52        0        +.48
  D    59*.96=56.64      +3       +3.36
  
  Let say you run a handicap tournament and everyone shoots their avg.
  
  -1
  
  A    73-12=61
  B    67-6=61
  C    62-1=61
  D    59+2=61
  
  .96
          rounded        not rounded
  A    73-10=63      73-10.08=62.92
  B    67-4=63        67-4.32=62.68
  C    62-0=62        62+.48=62.48
  D    59=3=62        59+3.36=62.36
  
  Seems the .96 adjustment does help the lower handicapper even when rounding.
  
  Playoffs on ties would be the real world thing to do but running a handicap tournament, for instance on Challonge, could drag out the process when you have to play 5 or 6 rounds.
  
  In the end I'm choosing to combine both Cobalt's and Kat's process for running a handicap tournament. That is: using weekly player of the month CC tournaments scores (minimum 5 weeks) and Kat's .96 adjustment for handicap. I'm also going to use Cobalt's suggestion of a rolling handicap, say last 9 PotM scores and dropping the 10th.
  
  

• DaddysKat 3,554 Posts

  Wed, Jan 22 2014 2:48 PM

  cobaltm:

  Kat, just re-read your last message to me......Uneven lies?.......Your on your own lady.......I tried them ONCE, when they first started.  Enough said.  Handicap them?  Have fun with that.....lol.............. 

  Dearest stubborn ol' jackass.  Since I haven't written a PM to you, I must assume you're talking about my latest post.  If you weren't blinded by the belief that a program doing the same thing as a manual operation is an abomination, you might have noticed I have 3 methods in calculating a handicap ... one that even suits your method. 

  Never mind, CB.  There's nothing I can say or do to convince you that a program can actually do what your doing manually faster and more accurately.  Continue booking your sales and collections to a ledger ... just remember, sales go on the right and collections go on the left!  And use ink!  Only use a pencil when footing columns!

  C-Ya Ebenezer!

• EdJaws 402 Posts

  Wed, Jan 22 2014 3:01 PM

  DaddysKat:

  Now that you've brought this up, several clubs use 9 hole games, and the handicap is determined for 18 hole games.  Let's say a player shoots a 32 on a 9 hole game with a 3 handicap.  If you are applying the handicap to the 9 hole game, an odd handicap will lose 1 stroke off their handicap.

  I think the best way to handle this is to keep the handicap rounded to at least 1 decimal place, and here's why:  If one player's calculated handicap is 2.9, and another player's handicap is 3.1 ... both are rounded to 3.  If you apply this rounded handicap to a score of 32, the net will round up to 31.  Now if you don't round until the final net score, you will get the player with the 2.9 handicap with a rounded 31 and the player with the 3.1 handicap with a 30.  Both of these net scores are arguably incorrect.

  To correct this, I think the best option would be to show the net score with the decimal places in tact.  Using the above example, a 32 with a 2.9 handicap would give you a net score of 30.55.  The 32 with a 3.1 handicap would give you a net score of 30.45.  This will also eliminate the possibility of a tie over an 8 game - 9 hole net tourney.

  I got really confused reading that until I realized you're doubling the score, subtracting the handicap, and dividing by 2 again.
  
  I don't wish to put words in his mouth, but in Cobalt's system, he uses player of the month for getting an average and calculating a handicap. And then running a handicap tournament but, I believe, not using the handicap tournament to further calculate handicaps.
  
  I do agree using decimal places is the way to go as we discussed before. And it's great, combined with the .96 adjustment to eliminate ties.
  
  I can also see, but tell me if I'm wrong, that it's not really necessary to double 9 hole rounds, subtract handicap, and dividing by 2 as long as you're just trying to get a winner of a round in a handicap tournament without using those rounds to further calculate a handicap.
  
  In other words, a 32 with a 3.1 handicap will always be the winner over a 32 with a 2.9 handicap, regardless if you double, subtract, and then divide.

• DaddysKat 3,554 Posts

  Wed, Jan 22 2014 9:09 PM

  EdJaws:

  I got really confused reading that until I realized you're doubling the score, subtracting the handicap, and dividing by 2 again.

  Actually, I divided the handicap by 2 then subtracted that from the score.  But the way you mention works too.

  EdJaws:

  I can also see, but tell me if I'm wrong, that it's not really necessary to double 9 hole rounds, subtract handicap, and dividing by 2 as long as you're just trying to get a winner of a round in a handicap tournament without using those rounds to further calculate a handicap.

  No, it's not necessary to double a 9 hole score, as shown above. The only reason to actually compute the net between games would be to show everyone playing how they are doing in the tourney.  If I were in an 8 round - 9 hole tournament, I'd want to know how I stood after 3 rounds; 4 rounds; etc.

  My current delay in releasing the tourney manager is because I would like to give you this capability ... and I want it to work for you as quickly and easily as possible.  Computing handicaps is the easy part.  Incorporating it to where you can create a fast and easy report showing the current tourney standings has been a bit more difficult.  If it's automated, it should be easy for you, the user, which makes it more difficult on me.

  I know to many of you the questions and comments I've made appear extremely stupid.  For that, I apologize.  But if you take in the whole picture, the questions asked and comments made will make the final product a possibility.  Why have the handicaps automated if you're not going to use them from the beginning to end of a tournament?  If you had an automated routine that would post every player's score and give you both gross and net scores for every player in a matter of minutes at any point during a multiround tournament, would you use it?  Do you think it would be beneficial to your members if they were able to know how they were doing after round 3, 4 or 5? That's my final goal ... not just a simple handicap calculator.

• oneeyedjohn 9,581 Posts

  Thu, Jan 23 2014 1:55 AM

  Absolutely kat, that is exactly what I want, and that is where the fun is in using ur Tourney manager.

  A progressive Handicapped leaderboard  - perfect

• DaddysKat 3,554 Posts

  Thu, Jan 23 2014 12:48 PM

  After playing around with my handicap calculator, I've decided to make changes.  I simply hate complicated when I'm doing mundane tasks!  Here's what I'm working on:

  

  I'm revising the CC Members Spreadsheet to only include these columns:

  1. Profile Name and Hyperlink to member's profile page
  2. Member's current handicap index
  3. Handicap revision date.

  Now, when you load the handicap calculator, the screen above will be shown.  The revision date will prefill with the last revision date used.  If this is the first time you've ran this, you will get the date 1 Jan 2014 (based on the person's default date format ... for me, it will show 01/01/2014.

  If a player does not have a handicap for this date, their profile name will be stored in the Member combobox.  If you change the handicap date to, say, 1 Feb 2014, all members that do not have the revision date 1 Feb 2014 will get loaded into the Member Name combobox field.

  When you select a member's profile name and click "Load Profile", the player's profile page will be loaded.  After you manually load the player's "scoring history" and copy it to the clipboard, you'll click on the "Load Scores" button.

  Once you've clicked this button, the scoring history will get stored in the "Temp Clipboard" spreadsheet, then all of the player's Front 9, Back 9 and Full 18 scores will get loaded into the Scoring History Listbox.  Below this listbox will be the calculation method that will be used.  Once you've selected or change one of these options, the default setting will change as well (so the next time you run the handicap calculator, you won't have to set this).

  If you select "Best 10 of 20 - no exclusions", you don't have to select any of the scores in the scoring history.  Only the last 20 scores will be used to determine the player's handicap, and from those 20 scores, only the best 10 of those 20 scores will be used.

  If you select "Best 10 of 20 - with exclusions", the scores you select in the scoring history listbox will be excluded from the last 20 scores.  Again, only the best 10 from the first 20 non-selected scores will be used to determine the player's handicap.

  If you select "Selected Rounds only", only the rounds you select from the player's scoring history will be used.  You must select a minimum of 5 scores if this option is selected.

  Below the calculation method is a field used to store the number of decimal places you can round the calculated handicap to.  The default will be 1, but you can change this to any number between 0 and 3.  If you change it, that value will get stored and will become the prefilled default from that point on.  Just Stay consistent.  Don't store some handicaps with 0 decimals, some with 1, some with 2, etc.  Pick a number and stick with it.

  There is also a "Final Revision" option, where you can adjust the calculated handicap.  If you select "Add" and enter a number, the number entered will be added to the calculated handicap.  If you select "Subtract", the number entered will be subtracted from the calculated handicap.  If you select "Multiply", the number entered will be multiplied by the calculated handicap to determine the revised handicap; and if you select "divide", the calculated handicap will be divided by the number entered to provide the revised handicap.  Please note, if you select divide and do not supply a number, the calculated handicap will remain untouched (divided by 1).

  When you click the "Calculate" button, it will make sure you've done the following:

   

  1. Entered a valid revision date
  2. Selected a member
  3. loaded the member's scoring history
  4. if "selected rounds only" have been selected, will make sure you've selected at least 5 rounds.
  5. entered a valid number of decimal places, from 0 to 3.
  6. Selected a final revision and entered a revision adjustment number.

   

  If all of these items check out, the handicap for the member will be calculated and next to the "calculate" button, the member's profile name along with their revised handicap will be displayed.  Also, the "Post Handicap" button will be enabled.

  When you click the "Post Handicap" button, the selected member's handicap will be posted to the CC Member's spreadsheet along with the revision date.  Afterward, the handicap calculator will reload, showing the revision date last entered; load all the members whose handicap have not been calculated in the Member combobox, clear the scores in the listbox, set the default handicap calculation method and number of decimals, then disable the "Calculate" and "Post Handicap" buttons.  You're now ready to calculate the next member's handicap.

   

  I feel this will make the handicap calculations as easy as possible.  While it would be nice to avoid manually copying the member's scoring history, I don't have full access to the scoring history database; so this is the easiest possible solution IMO.  It should be easy enough and should provide enough options for everyone wishing to run "net score" tournaments.

  It is possible that I'll revise this a bit.  I think I've got all the pieces in place.  If you think I've left something out, please let me know.

  Kat ♥

• Dubfore 4,350 Posts

  Thu, Jan 23 2014 1:23 PM

  Hello again Kat,

  I haven't read all of the above yet, but will you tell me what program the spreadsheet is in, and can it be converted with PDF?

• DaddysKat 3,554 Posts

  Thu, Jan 23 2014 3:45 PM

  Dubfore:

  will you tell me what program the spreadsheet is in, and can it be converted with PDF?

  The program is written using VBA in Excel 2007.  I know in Excel, you can create PDF reports using the "Publish" option under the menu button.

• DaddysKat 3,554 Posts

  Fri, Jan 24 2014 10:48 AM

  I've completed the handicap portion of my tourney manager.  Below is a sample video where I've computed the handicaps of two players.  Both of these players are on my friends list and are regular contributors to the forum.  

  Please excuse the value of this video ... I created it with a rather cheap recording program. Pay attention to the screen, as I am pointing out areas within the program that give you the option to change certain attributes of the calculation.  I also recommend you view this on full screen.

                           

  In the video I've selected to round the revised handicap to 0 decimals.  You have an option to go to as many as 3 decimal places.  I've also selected to use 60 as the par value.  This is the number subtracted from the average to obtain the gross handicap.  I've also selected to subtract a value from the handicap, and I'm set that value to 1.

  You can use 3 different methods to calculate a handicap.  The "Best 10 of 20 - no exclusions" method will use the last 20 rounds played to determine the handicap.  It's the fastest method, but not the most accurate.  The 2nd method is "Best 10 of 20 with exclusions"  In this method, the rounds you select in the scoring history will be excluded.  The third method is "Selected rounds only".  In this method, only the scores selected will be used.

  The program will use the "best 10" method to determine a player's handicap.  You must select at least 5 rounds to determine a player's handicap.  Only the first 20 scores selected will be used to calculate the handicap, and only the best 10 scores will be used to determine a player's handicap (same as the USGA's GHIN handicap system).

  Any questions or comments, let me know.  I should have the entire tournament manager completed soon.