Soft and Hard Cap Trigger based on Calendar Year

[Pfish]

I understand the reason which is to eliminate rapidly increasing handicaps.  However the method is based on the Calendar year regardless of how many times a person has played between the low index and the cap coming into force.  Right now I have a soft cap on my handicap which I think will go away on Wednesday because my low index was on April 23, 2023.  I have played 133 times since then and regrettably have been slowly getting worse not rapidly in my opinion. A person with an established handicap having their low index on the same date and not playing again until last week posting high scores are under the same rules.  This does not seem fair.

[rogolf]

For every "rule" in life (and golf) you can always find a "victim" who thinks it's not "fair".  However, the rule is meant for all.

You'll just have to deal with it.

[davep043]

this is infinitely more fair than the previous USGA Exceptional Tournament Score Reduction.   if that kicked in,which it sometimes did if your handicap went up, whenever you posted a score which would raise your index, the adjustment actually reduced your index.  

[Hawkeye77]

What you mean is 365 days, or "a year" - calendar year suggests a Jan. -Dec. basis for some.  They picked a standard - that's what applies.  Don't shoot a low score Thursday!

[North Butte]

Both the Soft Cap and Hard Cap would be unnecessary if every golfer kept their handicaps honestly. But that's not the way it is. So anyone who goes through a period of worsening play gets needlessly penalized. 

 

In theory you can apply to the handicap "committee" at your "club" to have the caps lifted due to special circumstances but I don't know anyone who's ever done that. Probably because only a tiny fraction of handicap holders belong to a old-fashioned club as envisioned by the handicap system!

[Pfish]

Yes I should have said 365 days not calendar year. I was thinking of golf active season here I guess when I wrote that.  I never had an exceptional tournament score so don’t remember the old method.  I would have handicap committee override if I had been injured causing the higher scores but I guess at 75 I’m just getting old. In fact this year I decided to ride instead of walk the course.  Maybe I’ll have more energy at the end of a round and better scores as a result. I can hope anyway.

[Hawkeye77]

23 hours ago, Pfish said:

Yes I should have said 365 days not calendar year. I was thinking of golf active season here I guess when I wrote that.  I never had an exceptional tournament score so don’t remember the old method.  I would have handicap committee override if I had been injured causing the higher scores but I guess at 75 I’m just getting old. In fact this year I decided to ride instead of walk the course.  Maybe I’ll have more energy at the end of a round and better scores as a result. I can hope anyway.

Good for you! Concern about good golf is better in my book than concern about whether handicap is too low or high.

[Wolfric]

Don't feel bad  I’ve been hard capped because of one single score. I took a few weeks off back in September 2024 and played on vacation at a course that was much easier than its rating. I had one round under par, shooting 71 on a par 72 course from the back tees at 7,300 yards. But the fairways were the size of three football fields, and the greens were large, mostly flat, and offered very little challenge. The course had a slope around 140 with a rating above 75.

 

Long story short, that one score dropped me from my normal and fair 8 to 10 index  which I’ve played to for about 15 years  down to a 2.6. Now, because of the hard cap, I’m stuck at a 7.6 for nearly the entire year, even though my average score is 84 on a course with a 125 slope and a 71 rating.

 

My club won’t do anything about it because the score came from a course in Florida while I was on vacation. It’s totally unfair. At the very least, the USGA should reduce the hard and soft cap duration to a maximum of three months.

 

When will they realize that there’s no way to completely prevent cheating? The ones who do cheat eventually expose themselves. I truly believe that most golfers respect the game and do things the right way. So why is the system so strict and punishing for those of us who play honestly? And even with all these restrictions, it’s not stopping the real cheaters  they just find ways around it, like only posting high scores.

 

I post every single round I play. If I hadn’t posted that one outlier, I’d be a 9 or 10 index today. That’s the frustrating part  the system penalizes the honest players the most.

[Shilgy]

4 hours ago, Wolfric said:

Don't feel bad  I’ve been hard capped because of one single score. I took a few weeks off back in September 2024 and played on vacation at a course that was much easier than its rating. I had one round under par, shooting 71 on a par 72 course from the back tees at 7,300 yards. But the fairways were the size of three football fields, and the greens were large, mostly flat, and offered very little challenge. The course had a slope around 140 with a rating above 75.

 

Long story short, that one score dropped me from my normal and fair 8 to 10 index  which I’ve played to for about 15 years  down to a 2.6. Now, because of the hard cap, I’m stuck at a 7.6 for nearly the entire year, even though my average score is 84 on a course with a 125 slope and a 71 rating.

 

My club won’t do anything about it because the score came from a course in Florida while I was on vacation. It’s totally unfair. At the very least, the USGA should reduce the hard and soft cap duration to a maximum of three months.

 

When will they realize that there’s no way to completely prevent cheating? The ones who do cheat eventually expose themselves. I truly believe that most golfers respect the game and do things the right way. So why is the system so strict and punishing for those of us who play honestly? And even with all these restrictions, it’s not stopping the real cheaters  they just find ways around it, like only posting high scores.

 

I post every single round I play. If I hadn’t posted that one outlier, I’d be a 9 or 10 index today. That’s the frustrating part  the system penalizes the honest players the most.

No….for the life of me I can’t do the math in my head.  Even if you were on the low end with a 8.0 index of the range you stated you’re saying you went from 8.0 to 2.6 overnight?

 

2 stroke exceptional score adjustment plus that score which was substantially better than the score it knocked out I can see you going from 8.0 to 4.5 or so but how did index drop 5.4 in one score?

 

 

[iacas]

7 hours ago, Wolfric said:

At the very least, the USGA should reduce the hard and soft cap duration to a maximum of three months.

 

I disagree.

 

2 hours ago, Shilgy said:

No….for the life of me I can’t do the math in my head.  Even if you were on the low end with a 8.0 index of the range you stated you’re saying you went from 8.0 to 2.6 overnight?

 

2 stroke exceptional score adjustment plus that score which was substantially better than the score it knocked out I can see you going from 8.0 to 4.5 or so but how did index drop 5.4 in one score?

 

Yeah, I'm having a hard time with that one too… if he was an 8.0 he could drop to a 6.0 with the ESR, so then you're looking at a score that would take a 6.0 down to a 2.6.

 

(6.0 * 7 + x)/8 = 2.6…

 

Solving for x you get… -21.2. Hmmm. Not gonna get there with a 71 on a course with a rating/slope of 75/140.

 

@Wolfric, can you share your GHIN page/chart? Something seems way off here.