Calculating Handicaps for 2 man best ball tourneys?

[dewnami]

Hello everyone,

 

I am having a friendly golf tournament with some friends and we are having trouble figuring a handicap system that works. I was hoping some of you would be able to help me out.

 

We will have 6 two man teams with a total of 12 players. We will be playing a 2 man best ball tournament. Not a Scramble but best ball, each player plays thier own ball to the hole, and the lowest score is taken. The handicaps will be as follows.

 

team 1: handicap 10, handicap 10

team 2: handicap 10, handicap 20

team 3: handicap 10, handicap 10

team 4: handicap 10, handicap 15

team 5: handicap 15, handicap 30

team 6: handicap 10, handicap 20

 

I have searched for ways of calculating handicaps for best ball tourneys but I havent found much. I guess each player could just play with thier own single handicap on each hole but for some reason that just doesnt seem fair in a 2 man best ball tournnaments.

 

Is there a formula for calculating handicaps for best ball tournaments? Are strokes taken as a team or individually?

 

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks! :drinks:

[mozgolf]

The South Africans just changed their handicap system. Pretty sure for better and best ball events they play at 85% of their individual handicaps ie. the 10 plays off 8.5 , say a 9 where the 30 plays off a 25.5 say 26. It seems to work in that it tightens up the field a bit to compensate for the higher capper who often plays with wildly varying results.

You might want to look at your groups as well- the 15 and 30 cappers together in team 5 have 25 shots over some of the 10 and 10 teams even 15 shots on team 6 who I assume they are playing

[hbear]

2 ways it could be done. Either way the lower caps should play off scratch, so that the higher guys get their strokes on the hardest holes, not the easiest ones.

Simple way:
1st- all the 10s play off scratch, the others play of the difference.
So the 10s don't get any stroke holes, the 15 gets 5 strokes, the 20 gets 10 strokes, and the 30 gets 20 strokes.

IMO the better and more fair way:
2nd- calculate 75% of everybody's cap, round to nearest whole number, then play the lowest caps as scratch and others play off it.
e.g 10s are now 8s, the 15s are now 11s, the 20s are now 15, and 30 is 23.
Now adjust so the low guys play off scratch.
So the 10s still don't get any strokes, the 15s get 3 strokes, the 20s only get 7 strokes, and the 30 gets 15 strokes.

As you can see in the second case the higher caps get less strokes in relation to the 10s, and this is much more fair to the 10s as best ball is essentially like match play.

e.g. An 18 capper that makes 9 pars, and 9 doubles is going clean up. As each of his pars = net birdie. Tiger doesn't even make 9 birdies in a round. However in stroke play that 18 shoots 90 net 72. His cap and a number that gives others at least a fighting chance.

[philfrance]

In best ball, i'm quite certain each team would get 1/2 of total of handicap points on a card. In other words, as you are only carding the best score on the score card, there should be one line only on the score card with strokes (should be fair for all).

Thus team1 would get 10 strokes, team 2 would get 15 etc..... This levels out the level of play for all, making it fair for all.

Good luck.

[hbear]

[quote name='philfrance' post='858698' date='Jan 11 2008, 03:48 AM']In best ball, i'm quite certain each team would get 1/2 of total of handicap points on a card. In other words, as you are only carding the best score on the score card, there should be one line only on the score card with strokes (should be fair for all).

Thus team1 would get 10 strokes, team 2 would get 15 etc..... This levels out the level of play for all, making it fair for all.

Good luck.[/quote]

Actually this would be the most unfair for the higher cappers.
Since the low guys now get the strokes from the high guys.

e.g. I (scratch) play with a 30cap on my team....now as a team we get 15 strokes. (esentially me getting his strokes)
So if I card my usual 72 or so....our team scores a net 57???

For Best Ball (each player plays his ball out, the better of the 2 scores [in this case net score] is counted) the players should NEVER "share" strokes. But instead get thier own alloted strokes and score individually (better score obviously counting towards team score).

As posted above, the lowest guy should ALWAYs play off scratch, and then the other players adjust accordingly.
That way the higher caps get their strokes on the hardest holes...not the easiest ones.

[mozgolf]

[quote name='Croonie15' post='828068' date='Dec 18 2007, 12:31 AM']Congrats to adams for sigining the biggest a****** on the tour. I think rory is an arrogant ***** with a lot of talent but a terrible attitude. I wouldn't mind sending him back to South Africa.

Croonie[/quote]


[quote name='hbear' post='861521' date='Jan 13 2008, 11:47 AM'][quote name='philfrance' post='858698' date='Jan 11 2008, 03:48 AM']In best ball, i'm quite certain each team would get 1/2 of total of handicap points on a card. In other words, as you are only carding the best score on the score card, there should be one line only on the score card with strokes (should be fair for all).

Thus team1 would get 10 strokes, team 2 would get 15 etc..... This levels out the level of play for all, making it fair for all.

Good luck.[/quote]

Actually this would be the most unfair for the higher cappers.
Since the low guys now get the strokes from the high guys.

e.g. I (scratch) play with a 30cap on my team....now as a team we get 15 strokes. (esentially me getting his strokes)
So if I card my usual 72 or so....our team scores a net 57???

For Best Ball (each player plays his ball out, the better of the 2 scores [in this case net score] is counted) the players should NEVER "share" strokes. But instead get thier own alloted strokes and score individually (better score obviously counting towards team score).

As posted above, the lowest guy should ALWAYs play off scratch, and then the other players adjust accordingly.
That way the higher caps get their strokes on the hardest holes...not the easiest ones.
[/quote]

Sounds OK, You cant combine the hadicaps or apply 1/2 the hadicap, you have to use the net scores of each idividual against their own handiacp. But is reducing the best handicapper to scratch just complicating things? Does it really matter if everyone plays their full handicap strokes(or 85% as a means of closing the field a little and making some allowance for the potentially wild swings in results a high capper can post, as explained in my previous post) . As an example a 10 and 28 handicap playing net matchplay- on holes stroke 1-10 the 10 gets a shot and the 28 gets two shots. The 10 has to shoot one better than the 28 to half the holes. The remaining 8 holes the 28 has one shot and the 10 no shots. The net result is the 28 has one more shot than the 10 on every hole- ie. gets 18 shots, as the difference in handicap allows. Just the same as the 10 playing scratch and the 28 off 18

Am I missing something here?

[hbear]

What you are missing is WHERE the strokes are given. However in your example the numbers work out in such a way it doesn't matter.
But how often do you have exactly an 18 stroke difference between players.

A better example would be...
E.g. a 10 cap playing an 18cap each getting their strokes.
The 10 cap strokes on the 10 hardest holes....and the 18 strokes on the 18 hardest holes.

8 stroke difference.....but what changes is where the strokes are given.
In with each getting full strokes...the 18 get strokes on holes 11-18 (easiest holes on the course) whereas they should be getting them on the hardest holes (where they will need them most).

The general guide is that the hardest handicapped holes should be the toughest to score on. If you force the higher capper to plays heads up with a lower guy on the hardest holes....it's not fair. Nor is it fair to give the higher capper strokes on the holes he is more likely to make par or even birdie.

So to even those odd dynamics out...the standard is to take the difference between players and play the lower guy off scratch.

A case of 8 strokes is not = 8 strokes because of where the stroke holes fall.

Hope that helps?