SCRAMBLE GOLF HANDICAPPING

the Score-Count way

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Conventional Handicapping | Formatting | Conclusions | Score-Count System | Implementation

For golfers, there are few games as enjoyable as a Scramble, especially when teammates are long-time friends. Yet many golfers of average skill are reluctant to enter them. Topping the list of reasons for this reluctance is that winning is unlikely and entry fees are hard to justify, in spite of our “fun” and “charity” rationalizations. A young golf pro once proclaimed the truism that, ”Scramble tournaments are usually won by teams with the best golfers, even when teams are handicapped”.

Another reason for this reluctance is that the satisfaction felt when one’s ball location is selected for the team’s next shot usually goes to one of the team’s low-handicap golfers. This is especially true with drives. A low-handicap friend once admitted that he always looks for good putters when forming his teams. He doesn’t need good ball strikers. And when conventional handicapping is to be applied, the higher their handicaps the better.

The practice of selling mulligans (i.e., repeat shots) also discourages average golfers. When individuals or teams are allowed to purchase varying numbers of mulligans the equity sought by handicapping can be corrupted beyond recognition.

Flighting teams is, of course, a convenient way to distribute wins across the field, but it’s a feeble method for achieving equity. Being first in one flight can be just one stroke from being last in another. And when flights are based solely on the Handicap Index of each team's best golfer, without regard to the skills of their teammates, inequities are inevitable. Consequently, flighting does little to encourage average golfers to participate. The element of chance is substantial.

Conventional handicapping

The methods of handicapping are many. Four of the best known systems in use today are those outlined below:

1. Probably the most common method for calculating team handicaps is to divide the sum of team-members’ Handicap Indexes by a factor of 5, 8 or 10. Although simple to implement, it is undoubtedly the least equitable. For example, a team made up of golfers with Handicap Indexes of 10,30,30 and 30 would have the same team handicap as a team made up of a 1, 33,33 and 33, an obvious misrepresentation of their likely performance differences. The Score-Count System puts the difference at 11 strokes. Of course, this extreme situation would normally not be allowed to occur, but inequities of this sort are prevalent with more usual ranges of team Handicap Indexes as well.

2. Another method is to total varying percentages of each member’s Handicap Index. This method produces more equitable results, but only when golfers are assigned to teams according to their relative skills, with one member from each of four skill levels assigned to each team. This, of course, minimizes the likelihood of friends playing together.

3. A third and considerably better method is to assign golfers to teams as described in paragraph 2 and then to use 35% to 50% of the team’s best Handicap Index as the handicap for the team.

4. For social events, when most players don’t have official handicaps, the Modified Scheid Scramble Handicap System is used. It employs hole-deduction procedures similar to the Callaway System; so individual Handicap Indexes are not involved. It gives all golfers an equal chance, according to its supporters. Details of the Scheid System can be found on the Internet.

Common formatting practices

In addition to handicapping, tournament organizers often impose a variety of team-formation restrictions, handicap controls, and play stipulations; all with the intent of promoting fair competition, maximizing everyone’s enjoyment and accommodating all who wish to play. But even with these embellishments conventional handicapping systems tend to favor teams with low-handicap golfers - by as much as 5 strokes when compared to handicaps produced with the Score-Count System. A few of the more common format provisions include:

1. Limits on the number of low-handicap golfers permitted on a team;

2. A maximum Handicap Index any player may claim;

3. Permission for each member of a 3-man team, for 6 holes, to play a second shot at each ball location - with team handicaps based on a phantom 4^th player Handicap Index equal to the average of the teams’ other three; and finally,

4. Requiring that the locations of 2 or 3 of each team-member’s drives be used for subsequent shots; a practice intended to achieve scores that better represent the performance of an entire team, but one that diminishes the pleasure derived from “earning” a ball-location selection.

Conclusions

In view of the variety of handicapping and formatting practices in use today one might conclude that another system for satisfying the needs of Scramble tournaments isn’t necessary, in spite of the widely known but unchallenged deficiencies of conventional systems. Unfortunately, that conclusion would be short sighted. None of today’s systems and formats deal simply and effectively with the matter of multiple-tee tournaments, mixed-gender play and teams of various sizes competing in the same tournament. However, all of these situations, in addition to those mentioned above, are accommodated by the Score-Count System.

An overview of the Score-Count program.

The Score-Count System embodies the concept that a team’s handicap is defined by the projected performance of the team’s best golfer as enhanced by the projected performances of his teammates. It is based on two empirically-based premises: (1) that a player’s normal performance can be represented by the average number of Birdies, Pars and Bogies (including Double Bogies) golfers of his caliber produce in a complete round of golf, and (2) that the number of each hole-score he produces is proportional to the fraction of the round being considered.

By progressively blending the fractional numbers of different hole-scores projected for less-skilled members of a team with those projected for the team’s best golfer one can arrive at a potential team score that reflects the skills of all its members. With projected-performance data in hand for each member of a team, the theoretical number of Birdies, Pars and Bogies projected for the team as a joint effort can be calculated and used to determine the team’s handicap.

Although designed primarily to eliminate the unfair outcomes spawned by conventional handicapping, the computerized Score-Count System makes implementation easy while also providing valuable flexibility and precision. In addition to handicapping single-tee tournaments it can handicap teams with a mix of men and women or the young and old, playing from as many as four different tees – using Course Handicaps which have been adjusted for differences in teeing-ground Ratings. And due to the system's methodology, it can produce competitive handicaps for teams of 2 and 3 golfers in 4-man tournaments without the use of convenient but arbitrary format appendages. Consequently, Score-Count handicapping has the potential for encouraging those who normally shun Scramble tournaments to enter them, knowing that winners will be those teams that post the day's best better-than-normal performances, rather than teams of low-handicap golfers whose performances are normal.

The Course and Game Setup section of the program offers default data for a number of factors that have an impact on handicaps, all of which can be changed to fit the course being played and the game’s format. These include:

Number of teeing grounds used for tournament

Course Rating (for up to 4 teeing grounds)

Course Slope (for up to 4 teeing grounds)

Number of game holes (up to 18)

Number of required mandatory drives per golfer

Maximum Handicap Index allowance

Number of free mulligans per golfer

This is followed by a Team Handicap Processing section which requests input for (1) the number of golfers on the team under consideration, (2) either a Handicap Index for each player or the score that player would likely post at a course of average difficulty (Such scores are immediately converted to handicap indexes for use in subsequent processing.) and, (3) when more than 1 teeing ground is used, which tee that player will be using. Processing then proceeds with the data provided in the Game Setup section and with adjustments for tee selections, mandatory drives, mulligans, double-bogies and for the better-than-normal performance facilitated by the Scramble format.

Mandatory drives requirement.

To accommodate formats that require mandatory drives, the Score-Count system increases handicaps based on the number of drives required of each member and on the projected number of those drives that are likely to be poor. However, instead of using mandatory drives to produce team scores that more accurately represent the performance of all team members, the Score-Count program, in conjunction with tee assignments, can accomplish this when long-ball hitters (such as, low handicappers) are required to drive from back tees and short knockers from fronts, with players’ Course Handicaps automatically changed to match. The good drive of any team member, then, is more likely to influence play - without the need for a mandatory drive requirement.

Maximum handicap index allowance.

Although the Score-Count system produces equitable team handicaps for teams with Handicap Indexes of 40.4 or less there are times when tournament officials may want to limit indexes to a lower number (to defuse sandbaggers, for example). The Game Setup section of the program permits such limits to be entered.

Player performance adjustments.

Since the Score-Count System is based on the actual stroke-making ability of participants, the unproductive strokes included in USGA handicap calculations are discarded, - just as unproductive strokes are abandoned during actual Scramble play. Such strokes include penalty strokes and strokes required to recover from bad lies, bunkers and natural obstructions. The system also embodies calculations for the effect of better putting facilitated by information gleaned from prior putts made from the same location. When such stroke projections are deducted from a player's normal score for individual play the number of birdies, pars and bogies projected for that player will change as well, resulting in more realistic team handicaps.

Double-Bogie adjustments.

To account for the Double-Bogies that are included in the Bogie counts of some teams a further adjustment is made, based on the size of the team and on the handicap of the team’s best golfer.

Mulligan adjustments.

The use of mulligans adds considerable enjoyment to Scramble games, but to maintain equity they should be provided equally to every participant or team. Unequal distributions of mulligans cannot be processed by the program. Any reduction of income this approach may cause to sponsors can be recouped by a small increase in entry fees and by the income produced with the additional participation it will likely generate.

Since mulligans are likely to lower gross scores, those reductions must also be reflected in team handicaps. By recognizing that low-handicap golfers are more likely to be successful with a “second chance” than will high-handicappers, the Score-Count program calculates the potential score reduction each player is likely to contribute to his team’s score and reduces the team’s handicap accordingly.

Final compilation.

Finally, after the team’s profile of projected Birdies, Pars and Bogies has been fully developed, the Score-Count program calculates the team’s handicap by subtracting the number of Birdies from the number of Bogies, adding and deducting adjustments, and rounding the result to a single-decimal number.

Implementation & CD purchase.

The complexity of Score-Count Scramble Handicapping, necessarily, requires a great deal of number crunching. Consequently, the system has been programmed for implementation with Windows operating systems on conventional desktop and laptop computers. The team handicaps they produce will cause all team net scores, for normal play, to be close to the Course Rating. Winning teams will, of course, do much better.

The Score-Count Scramble Handicapping CD is available for $5.00, which includes shipping and handling. It contains the necessary program files and, for Windows XP and Windows 98 systems, detailed instructions for installing them. (With minor modifications these instructions are also applicable to other Windows platforms.)

To place an order, press the Buy Now button below. Payments are being processed through PayPal with credit cards, debit cards and PayPal payments.

For more information about the system call (256) 236-4135.

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