Handicap - Home vs Away question

I just started keeping an official handicap a few months ago. I signed up through the Tennessee Golf Association and chose a club that's at a course I like to play... but I play here, there and everywhere. Anyway, on GHIN, when posting scores, it asks you the date and whether it is a home, away or tournament round. I don't play tournaments but I'm not sure I'm doing home and away right. Is home any round at the course where the club I chose is located? Is away everything else? If not, what is it? It seems when I chose the course where my club is at, it should know that's "home." Thanks!

[quote name='BigOgolfer' timestamp='1384059671' post='8126236']
I just started keeping an official handicap a few months ago. I signed up through the Tennessee Golf Association and chose a club that's at a course I like to play... but I play here, there and everywhere. Anyway, on GHIN, when posting scores, it asks you the date and whether it is a home, away or tournament round. I don't play tournaments but I'm not sure I'm doing home and away right. Is home any round at the course where the club I chose is located? Is away everything else? If not, what is it? It seems when I chose the course where my club is at, it should know that's "home." Thanks!
[/quote]

You've got the home/away thing right.

As far as ease of entry, create a profile/sign up for "my game" on the GHIN site, and you can easily call up your home course (or any course you've recently played) by clicking on the red "p" on your recent scores listing.

At least that's how my GHIN portal here in Connecticut works, perhaps yours is different.

[quote name='Sawgrass' timestamp='1384060265' post='8126256']
You've got the home/away thing right.

As far as ease of entry, create a profile/sign up for "my game" on the GHIN site, and you can easily call up your home course (or any course you've recently played) by clicking on the red "p" on your recent scores listing.

At least that's how my GHIN portal here in Connecticut works, perhaps yours is different.
[/quote]
That red p is going to save some time. Thanks!

Old post, but new to me....

How does the home/away thing work if I joined and internet-based (Golf Southern Cal Club) club in order to get my handicap index. Does that mean all scores are "away?" Or can I somehow declare one of the courses I play regularly as my "home" course (even though I don't below to the men's club at any of them).

Thanks,

[quote name='DaveGoodrich' timestamp='1438033991' post='12029798']
Old post, but new to me....

How does the home/away thing work if I joined and internet-based (Golf Southern Cal Club) club in order to get my handicap index. Does that mean all scores are "away?" Or can I somehow declare one of the courses I play regularly as my "home" course (even though I don't below to the men's club at any of them).

Thanks,
[/quote]

Technically every score will be "away" unless you play in an event run by the internet-based "club". I belong to a club without real estate and every score is "away" except the tournaments they put on for the membership. In the long run, "H" or "A" means nothing in the calculation. Courses with a membership typically look hard at people in their tournaments with lots of "A" scores but you shouldn't have an issue with that.

Playing the same course every week has a big effect on how you score that course compared to other equally difficult courses. And that well known fact is not factored into the handicapping formulas at all?? Hard to believe.

First, welcome to WRX, and thank's for reviving an old thread.

So as to your concern, how would you prefer to have this issue considered in the calculations? And really, is it a fact, or an opinion, or supposition supported by a small sample size?

In CONGU we used to have a visitor and home CSS (the equivalent of the PCC daily rating) for Open competitions. This got over the factor that due to the influence of visitors playing ‘worse’ than home players, the CSS (daily course rating) often went up.

This, I assume, will not figure in WHS when it’s introduced.

Here is an interesting one-off regarding adjusting differentials for home vs away play. At our club members have access to as many as 9 pretty different courses. Surely 'home play' for these folks is different than it would be for the golfer who is a member of a club with only one course.

To me the biggest difference is 'never played it before' vs 'played it a couple times'. It is not in the difference between 'played it a couple times' and 'played it a couple hundred times'.

dave

Yeah, sometimes its a big difference once you've learned where NOT to miss, and that usually doesn't take but about 3 or 4 times around a course.

OTOH, to quote myself to a club teaching pro a good while back ... "Nate, I don't have a "know problem". I have a "do problem".

dave

Well, after reading these posts I am seeing this a little differently now. I play a lot of different courses but every Sunday I’m on the same course week after week. Well there are two courses there. We bounce back and forth between them. My comfort level there allows me to usually score lower that I would say at a course I am unfamiliar with. But my ability hasn’t changed. The handicap system measures ability / potential. I guess I always just thought posting home or away factored something in there. But I can see now how it not only couldn’t, it shouldn’t. Thanks everyone....

Sorry to revive an old thread but this topic has been dogging me lately. I play at my home course 6 days/week and have gotten to the point where I consistently break 80 and have broken par a few times. As a result, my handicap has dipped down to a 1.9. The problem is that when I play at a course other than my home course I struggle to break 80 and usually end up with an 81 or 82. As a result, I feel like my handicap is fraudulent and I'd be embarrassed to tell someone (other than y'all on the internet, ha ha) that I'm a 2. I know this post isn't really helpful or anything- just needed to get it off my chest!

Perhaps there's some solace in the fact that people who shoot way higher than their handicap are judged less harshly than those who shoot way lower!

That's true! I just hate to be thought of as the dude who brags about his handicap and can't even break 80. It's almost as bad as the dude who says they can drive the ball 300 yards but is lucky to hit one 250.

This might be a learning too, reason to examine your game, see if there's something that you lack that causes problems when you play away from home. The course Rating system certainly doesn't treat all players equally across all courses, but you're seeing a pretty wide swing. So what's the difference, where do you lose strokes?

I think it's a matter of course knowledge. I've lost strokes because of misread putts and hitting the wrong irons into greens, mostly. My ballstriking is consistent, I just have a hard time figuring out how to attack a course until I've played it a few times. I'm sure confidence level also factors in.

In my experience you are EXACTLY correct.

From 1987, for near 20 years, I was a 2-4 at home (lowest 1.8,,,,,,, until the following revision LOL) where, until about 15 years ago, I played 90% of my rounds. If my "away" scores had been calculated separately I'd have been no better than a 10 "away". After I took lessons, circa 2001, I got no better at home BUT got considerably better away, maybe around 5-6.

If someone asked me my handicap I'd guess about their level of golf knowledge. If I figured they didn't know much about golf I'd say "About 4". If I figured they knew about golf I'd say, a bit sheepishly, "About a 3 AT HOME, and about a 10 away".

The more I played away though, the more the gap narrowed, but I've never gotten to 2 since. In the last 8 years I haven't played my (old) home course at all and the closest I've gotten to my home 'cap was 3.9 at the end of 2018.

My complete guess as to the "line", or percentage of rounds played at a single course, where an overall 'cap s/b be (roughly) the same home and away would be somewhere around 50% of their rounds at a single course, while the other 50% are at a variety of different courses. As mentioned, a complete guess.

This is where I'm at! If someone asks me, I tell them I'm about a 7. Most people don't understand handicaps and I'm sure they'd think I was an a-hole if I admitted to my "real" handicap and then shot an 80.

There are also 'horses for courses'. I tend to be very straight, consistent, (assuming that I am playing well) but not very long. My brother is longer than me but much less consistent (particularly off the tee). The course that he plays is pretty open and frequently doesn't penalize wild tee. My courses are tighter and often penalize a wild shot. He shoots worse here than on his home course. I don't shoot any better at his course.

dave

I'll keep chasing this little bit. You need to improve your green reading. You "remember" the breaks on your home course, but you don't read greens all that well when you're not familiar with them. This is something that I improved when I started with Aimpoint, but I'm sure there are other methods to improve green reading. But why do you select the wrong club? Is it a matter of elevation change? I know I do see issues with guests picking clubs on uphill and downhill shots at my "very hilly" home club. Or do you try to hit the exact number on front or back pin placements, where just a small miss can leave you in a pretty bad spot? Maybe picking clubs for the center distance could help, a slight change in strategy.
I also agree with @DaveLeeNC , and I alluded to it in my first post. Some courses may fit your game better than others, even though the ratings may be similar. A "tight but short" lower Course Rating course may actually play tougher for a long hitter than a much longer (higher CR) but more open course would play.

This is great stuff and gives me lots to think about. Thanks!

You are not the only one who has a lower Hdc on a home course they play 75-95% of the time.

You know how to play the tricky holes, you know what the green looks like (slopes) from out in the fairway, you know the best positions, you know the green breaks, you know when a pin is in a impossible spot and can play left/right of it, etc.

Something not often listed is that when knowing the course so well, that we are confident in our aim and club selection, we are more likely to put a good swing on it.

FWIW, I once had a brief chat with a "Official Course Rater Person" about the fact that it seemed to me that what I would call severe difficulties on holes (other than pure yardage) seem to (IMHO) be under-reflected in the Scratch and Bogey rating #'s. His statement was that in the experience of the USGA "the members almost always figure out how to deal with that stuff".

The interesting point here is that this statement implies the USGA Course Rating system assumes Scratch and Bogey golfers with lots of experience on whatever course is being rated. That does not seem unreasonable to me (and only loosely relates to the OP's point/question).

dave

Yes. Local knowledge is not a rating parameter. (Except possibly for 'layups').

Why wouldn't you expect to play better on a course you play 3x a week than one you play once or twice in a lifetime? You'd either have to be a truly abysmal golfer or the course would have to be dead boring if a hundred or a thousand rounds of local knowledge had no value whatsoever.

I have trouble even giving advice to guests at my club (I'm up to a little over 2,500 rounds there) because they're asking me to point out things that have been part of my autopilot for a decade or more. When I travel, I love playing good interesting courses for the third, fourth, fifth time and gradually learning how best to maximize my scoring chances and avoid unexpected disasters.

On 3/5/2020 at 7:39 AM, thealey989 said:

Playing the same course every week has a big effect on how you score that course compared to other equally difficult courses. And that well known fact is not factored into the handicapping formulas at all?? Hard to believe.

One of the MANY reasons the GHIN system is severely flawed

6 minutes ago, cmatthews77 said:

 

One of the MANY reasons the GHIN system is severely flawed

Oh, here we go Joe Scratch whinging about the handicap system. You don't need it, but you complain anyway. Don't play handicap events. 🙄

This makes me think we’d need different ratings for Course Rookie with Caddie, Course Rookie without Caddie, Course Veteran, ….
 

I’m kidding. 

6 hours ago, lchang said:

This makes me think we’d need different ratings for Course Rookie with Caddie, Course Rookie without Caddie, Course Veteran, ….
 

I’m kidding. 

Pins in middle. Pins in back corner. Pins in front. All offer different scoring issues too.