Forums

Handicap average.

• DaveDwingdale 1,240 Posts

  Thu, Jul 9 2015 8:18 PM

  Hi,

  Okay, what I was trying to say was that worrying about what your "average" is should not be your main focus.  It appears to me that the OP wants to know why his is not going down. The simple fact is that his scores are not lower than his "average", and that is the reason his "average" is not going down.

  If you learn how to play the game your scores will get better and your "average" will go down. At some point after saturation enough of your scores will be low enough and you move to the next tier.

  A WGT "average" is not a true average.  It is the average score of your lowest scores for whatever the saturation number is for that tier.

  --------------------------------

  "How about all these lower tier players, pro, tour pro, master, tour master etc. that are trying to advance to the next tier? They have to have a certain average to advance, so it means something to them! And, they are not playing from the tips."

  Bless their hearts.

• SweetiePie 4,925 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 6:59 AM

  IRISHPUNK:

  I see how you might be confused.

  I'm not confused, although I can see how others might be. What you have stated is simply your singular, personalized, convenient definition of how you may wish to think about it. Nothing more.  

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 7:58 AM

  LCruz2003:

  I would like to know how the handicap average works.

  WGT doesn't use a 'handicap average'.

  A golf handicap lets players of different skill levels to compete. At the end of a round the players handicap is used to adjust the players score. Most golfers have a minus handicap and subtract strokes from their score. Many professional golfers have plus handicaps and if they play in a competition that is using handicaps would have to add strokes to their score.

  Professional golf tournaments don't use handicaps, so players make no adjustments to their score when they complete a round. That forms the basis for a golfers  'stroke average'.

  WGT uses a stroke average based on the players actual score.

  However, WGT also has a kind of 'handicap' in that lower tier players get to play from tees that are closer to the hole than higher tier players.

  As mentioned, when a WGT player moves up a tier the stroke average resets essentially to zero, and the first stroke play round at the new tier becomes the players new stroke average. The score of each successive stroke play game affects the score average, up or down, until a player has reached the number of ranked rounds for that tier that 'saturates' the players stroke average. Once a players stroke average is 'saturated' a score higher than the players stroke average no longer makes the stroke average go up. scores lower than the players stroke average still lower the players stroke average - until the player's stroke average reaches the next lower tier up threshold.

  Notice that as a player moves up in tiers, the number of ranked rounds to reach stroke average 'saturation' also increases. At the Legend tier and above it traes 500 ranked rounds to 'saturate' a players stroke average.

  Par 3 courses (18 hole par of 54) (Bandon Dunes) and the Best Of par 3 & 5 courses (18 hole par of 90) have course par totals that are not normal. So those are not used for calculating the stroke average.

  Par for championship golf courses usually range from 70 to 72. However, a few golf courses have par of 73 or 69. There is no 'standard' par for a championship golf course.

  But the majority of championship golf courses have par of 70, 71, or 72 for 18 holes.

   

• alosso 21,091 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 10:08 AM

  I agree in general.

  Nitpickingly:

  ApexPC:

  Many professional golfers have plus handicaps

  Nope. Handicaps are issued by the Golf Unions for Amateurs only. I concede that an Amateur should have a plus handicap before turning Pro, but from then on he will only compete without handicap strokes.

  Q to good researchers: Which was the best handicap of Bernhard Langer?

  ApexPC:

  Once a players stroke average is 'saturated' a score higher than the players stroke average no longer makes the stroke average go up.

  Nope. Since an average is made from a collection of different scores, the only prerequisite for average movement is that a higher score exists in the mix.

  Simple example: Scores of 5x60 and 5x80 = 700 strokes, form a 70 average. Imagine that it's saturated. Then a score of 75, well above the average, will move it to 69.5.

  This detail, BTW, is a good sign for a newly saturated Legend/TL average: Scores above the average lead to a drop.

• IRISHPUNK 4,019 Posts

  Fri, Jul 10 2015 5:54 PM

  SweetiePie:

  IRISHPUNK:

  I see how you might be confused.

  I'm not confused, although I can see how others might be. What you have stated is simply your singular, personalized, convenient definition of how you may wish to think about it. Nothing more.  

  Yeah.  I admitted as much.  

• Olelpaso 149 Posts

  Sat, Jul 25 2015 10:09 AM

  I too, just reached Tour Pro status, and my handicap went from 73, to 86???? why does/did this happen?? I have also played matches with hacks, who have a 63-69, handicap.... What gives????

• alosso 21,091 Posts

  Mon, Jul 27 2015 11:08 PM

  DaveDwingdale:

  When you move up tiers your average resets. That's why the one bad score put your average up so much.