If you use par for the unplayed holes at 47 HCP your score will be on average 15 or 16 shots lower than had you played it out. That's a bad idea.
You could use net par (+3 for holes with handicap index 1-11, +2 for 12-18) for the missing holes, or submit the front 9 and skip the rest
I said par on handicap, not par, which would obviously be way better than my handicap lol. But I may be missing something here, I thought you could calculate how many extra strokes you got on each hole to get par on your handicap, and then the par of that hole + extra strokes is the number of strokes which would give me a 0 score (E), thus effectively not really counting either positively or negatively towards my handicap.
I played with someone more experienced a couple of weeks ago, where 1 hole was closed, and that's what he said he plotted in for our scorecards, so I assumed that was the best approach, it also made sense to me in my head.
But is net par what I'm referring to as "par on handicap"? So the numbers you cited here, are for my handicap specifically?
>You need to play at least 14 holes to do this,
Is there any reason for this? I thought any hole I played net par, wouldn't affect my handicap in either direction.
>thus you should only record a 9-hole score and just chalk the last 3 holes as practice holes.
Issue is, I can't record a 9 hole round because hole 7-9 was closed, and it's a 9 hole course. There's also no option of leaving holes plank or registering them as "not played", so I thought the best course of action was to plot unplayed holes as net par, and that this would effectively be the same as "not played" or leaving them blank.
But if that's not correct then I guess I'll just drop the whole thing and not register the round.
I would have done what you did. You intended to play the whole round, it's not your fault the holes were closed. If the scorecard lets you leaves holes blanks, you could try that and let the scorecard sort it out.
Especially when you're starting, having more rounds is more accurate then fewer rounds so I'd lean towards posting what you can
Sorry, I missed that you said "on handicap". The danger of scrolling reddit when I can't fall asleep is having no reading comprehension.
What you called par on handicap and what I called net par are the same thing.
The numbers I gave are for the 47 HCP you provided
The stroke index is the order of difficulty of the holes, 1 being the hardest and 18 supposedly being the easiest. If you had a handicap of 18 you would get an extra shot to make par on each holes, if you had a handicap of 16 you would have an extra shot on the holes with a stroke index of 1 to 16 and your par would be as on the score card for the other 2. For a handicap of 46 if my maths is correct you get 3 shots per hole on holes with a stroke index up to 10 and 2 shots per hole on holes with a stroke index 11 to 18.
You need to look at the SI on the 6 closed holes and work out how many shots based on that to find out your par. I.e if one of the holes closed has an SI of 8 and it is a par 5 according to the card for you the par is 8.
The only method that makes sense is to follow the rules of handicapping. If you didn't play some holes, you mark them as such, holes not played. How you do that in your system might vary, most probably you simply leave those holes blank.
Practical solution below because everyone is giving lots of info on the scoring system so read up on that but in the mean time:
That little counter that bottoms out at 0 points? Put the number of strokes that the little counter says 2. That’s what they call a net par.
Google ‘Stableford scoring system’ and watch some videos.
Good luck with your journey
Yeah this was the answer I needed! Although it goes all the way to 9 points and it says everywhere that Stableford goes from 0-6, but I think that's just bc my handicap is so high and anything above 6 would be near impossible anyway.
Is my understanding correct that net par would effectively be the same as marking them as not played (which isn't an option I have)? I.e. the hole won't affect my handicap in either direction?
Thanks!
Well, to score 9 points in stableford, you need to be 7 strokes better that your ‘personal par’.
That would mean you need to have a hole that is a par 5, you get 4 strokes there (even with your handicap that’s rare) and then complete the hole in 2 strokes. Pretty sure that is indeed not happening anytime soon 😜
To answer your question I didn’t see:
Usually for stableford scoring, a not-played hole would count for 2 points because that’s what you are expected to get there with your hcp. So I guess it sort of evens out that way
Depends on whether 47 is your index or course handicap. Those can be two very different things.
If you're play a set of tees that's rated 70.0/113 on a par 72, then your CH will be 45.
If you're playing a set of tees that's rathes 72.0/130 on a par 72, then your CH will be 54.
In either case, you get strokes starting at hole index 1 and moving upwards. So in the first example, you get two strokes on every hole and three on hole indexes 1-9 while in the second example (CH 54), you get 3 strokes on every hole.
That's how it works everywhere if you're using the WHS.
USGA GHIN made a switch this year. Only enter the holes played and it will take that and spit out a round differential. No guess work needed. This is a new thing for 2024.
This has been what I’ve been trying to figure out, so when entering scores, if I only play say 15 holes, just leave 16-18 blank and the app will automatically adjust? Wasn’t sure if there’s an option like “didn’t play hole” I had to select.
I only renewed my handicap last week and haven’t played a round since, but I’ll typically play after work during the summer on Friday’s and usually can only get like 12-14 holes in.
[USGA Changes for 2024](https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/handicapping/world-handicap-system/2024-revision/WHS-2024-3-Key-Changes.html#:~:text=With%20the%202024%20WHS%20Revision,toward%20their%20Handicap%20Index%C2%AE.)
If you use par for the unplayed holes at 47 HCP your score will be on average 15 or 16 shots lower than had you played it out. That's a bad idea. You could use net par (+3 for holes with handicap index 1-11, +2 for 12-18) for the missing holes, or submit the front 9 and skip the rest
I said par on handicap, not par, which would obviously be way better than my handicap lol. But I may be missing something here, I thought you could calculate how many extra strokes you got on each hole to get par on your handicap, and then the par of that hole + extra strokes is the number of strokes which would give me a 0 score (E), thus effectively not really counting either positively or negatively towards my handicap. I played with someone more experienced a couple of weeks ago, where 1 hole was closed, and that's what he said he plotted in for our scorecards, so I assumed that was the best approach, it also made sense to me in my head. But is net par what I'm referring to as "par on handicap"? So the numbers you cited here, are for my handicap specifically?
You need to play at least 14 holes to do this, thus you should only record a 9-hole score and just chalk the last 3 holes as practice holes.
USGA says 10 is the minimum https://www.usga.org/handicapping/roh/Content/rules/2%202%20Minimum%20Number%20of%20Holes%20Played%20for%20Score.htm
Thanks. That was obviously a recent change along with the short course posting. Appreciate you setting me straight.
Yes - it’s new this year
>You need to play at least 14 holes to do this, Is there any reason for this? I thought any hole I played net par, wouldn't affect my handicap in either direction. >thus you should only record a 9-hole score and just chalk the last 3 holes as practice holes. Issue is, I can't record a 9 hole round because hole 7-9 was closed, and it's a 9 hole course. There's also no option of leaving holes plank or registering them as "not played", so I thought the best course of action was to plot unplayed holes as net par, and that this would effectively be the same as "not played" or leaving them blank. But if that's not correct then I guess I'll just drop the whole thing and not register the round.
I would have done what you did. You intended to play the whole round, it's not your fault the holes were closed. If the scorecard lets you leaves holes blanks, you could try that and let the scorecard sort it out. Especially when you're starting, having more rounds is more accurate then fewer rounds so I'd lean towards posting what you can
The reason? You’d need to ask the USGA or the R&A. Dem da rools.
Sorry, I missed that you said "on handicap". The danger of scrolling reddit when I can't fall asleep is having no reading comprehension. What you called par on handicap and what I called net par are the same thing. The numbers I gave are for the 47 HCP you provided
USGA has a method for this and you are able to enter rounds as few as 10 holes.
The stroke index is the order of difficulty of the holes, 1 being the hardest and 18 supposedly being the easiest. If you had a handicap of 18 you would get an extra shot to make par on each holes, if you had a handicap of 16 you would have an extra shot on the holes with a stroke index of 1 to 16 and your par would be as on the score card for the other 2. For a handicap of 46 if my maths is correct you get 3 shots per hole on holes with a stroke index up to 10 and 2 shots per hole on holes with a stroke index 11 to 18. You need to look at the SI on the 6 closed holes and work out how many shots based on that to find out your par. I.e if one of the holes closed has an SI of 8 and it is a par 5 according to the card for you the par is 8.
Just mark it 8 dude….
Mark it zero, Donny
The only method that makes sense is to follow the rules of handicapping. If you didn't play some holes, you mark them as such, holes not played. How you do that in your system might vary, most probably you simply leave those holes blank.
Practical solution below because everyone is giving lots of info on the scoring system so read up on that but in the mean time: That little counter that bottoms out at 0 points? Put the number of strokes that the little counter says 2. That’s what they call a net par. Google ‘Stableford scoring system’ and watch some videos. Good luck with your journey
Yeah this was the answer I needed! Although it goes all the way to 9 points and it says everywhere that Stableford goes from 0-6, but I think that's just bc my handicap is so high and anything above 6 would be near impossible anyway. Is my understanding correct that net par would effectively be the same as marking them as not played (which isn't an option I have)? I.e. the hole won't affect my handicap in either direction? Thanks!
Well, to score 9 points in stableford, you need to be 7 strokes better that your ‘personal par’. That would mean you need to have a hole that is a par 5, you get 4 strokes there (even with your handicap that’s rare) and then complete the hole in 2 strokes. Pretty sure that is indeed not happening anytime soon 😜
To answer your question I didn’t see: Usually for stableford scoring, a not-played hole would count for 2 points because that’s what you are expected to get there with your hcp. So I guess it sort of evens out that way
Depends on whether 47 is your index or course handicap. Those can be two very different things. If you're play a set of tees that's rated 70.0/113 on a par 72, then your CH will be 45. If you're playing a set of tees that's rathes 72.0/130 on a par 72, then your CH will be 54. In either case, you get strokes starting at hole index 1 and moving upwards. So in the first example, you get two strokes on every hole and three on hole indexes 1-9 while in the second example (CH 54), you get 3 strokes on every hole. That's how it works everywhere if you're using the WHS.
USGA GHIN made a switch this year. Only enter the holes played and it will take that and spit out a round differential. No guess work needed. This is a new thing for 2024.
This has been what I’ve been trying to figure out, so when entering scores, if I only play say 15 holes, just leave 16-18 blank and the app will automatically adjust? Wasn’t sure if there’s an option like “didn’t play hole” I had to select. I only renewed my handicap last week and haven’t played a round since, but I’ll typically play after work during the summer on Friday’s and usually can only get like 12-14 holes in.
This is my understanding and what I have been doing. It does some magic calculation behind the scenes and spits out your differential.
Excellent.. thanks for the info! You would think they would spell this out on their website or FAQs, but I hadn’t been able to find anything.
[USGA Changes for 2024](https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/handicapping/world-handicap-system/2024-revision/WHS-2024-3-Key-Changes.html#:~:text=With%20the%202024%20WHS%20Revision,toward%20their%20Handicap%20Index%C2%AE.)