[Tommy Williamsen]

An interesting article in GOLF DIGEST. Some guys play our course 95% of the time. When they travel for our league, they have a difficult time playing to their handicap, yet when other teams visit us, they dominate.


https://www.golfdigest.com/story/home-course-disadvantage-handicap-calculation-member-concern

[Matt Schoolfield]

This is a statistics problems that could be answered with access to the USGA database. I suspect that it is true, but is likely course specific.


The ability of a course to align with an individual’s play style, and knowledge of course nuances, seems to be what would drive that phenomenon if it exists.

[A.G._Crockett]

An interesting article in GOLF DIGEST. Some guys play our course 95% of the time. When they travel for our league, they have a difficult time playing to their handicap, yet when other teams visit us, they dominate.


https://www.golfdigest.com/story/home-course-disadvantage-handicap-calculation-member-concern

Tommy,


This a topic that is near and dear to my heart b/c I’m an interclub captain for the 65+ team at my club. Home course advantage is real and massive, probably bigger any other home advantage in all of sports.  I think the home team wins over 70% of the CGA Interclub matches, and that’s bases on a pretty huge sample size; there are well over 300 interclub teams in the Carolinas, with each team playing 6 matches a year.




When I make out my lineups, there are guys that I will NOT put in the lineup for an away match; there are other guys that I think have a pretty good chance of playing well wherever we go.




Some of this is GCA-related; knowing what club to pull on layup shots, knowing the correct line of play, and especially knowing the greens.




But here’s the other factor: Pretty much every time I hear a conversation about whether or not “our handicaps travel well”, the person asking the question plays most of his golf in a regular group in a format that keeps him from playing fully under the Rules.  Gimmes, preferred lies, S&D penalties, picking up at double, etc, all make individuals who play that who especially unsuited to playing real golf in competition on the road.  Add that to the obvious difficulty of the unfamiliar course, and they just have no chance of playing well.

[DFarron]

Over the years I have taken many “low handicappers” to Pro-Am’s where they fail to break 90 and many times are near 100.


Their handicap is low because 1) They know where to hit it at their course 2) They are generally poor adapters 3)They don’t know their realistic carry distances and 4)They don’t usually play by the rules (putt everything out, etc).


I’ve had opportunities to join a club but have passed because I play a lot of competitive golf and I feel playing different courses and conditions prepares me better.

[Carl Johnson]

Quote from A.G. Crockett, Reply 2:


"But here’s the other factor: Pretty much every time I hear a conversation about whether or not “our handicaps travel well”, the person asking the question plays most of his golf in a regular group in a format that keeps him from playing fully under the Rules.  Gimmes, preferred lies, S&D penalties, picking up at double, etc, all make individuals who play that who especially unsuited to playing real golf in competition on the road.  Add that to the obvious difficulty of the unfamiliar course, and they just have no chance of playing well."

Concerns about how well handicaps travel.  I think about this a lot, not because it means anything to me personally as I no longer play interclub matches or guest tournaments where handicaps come into play, but because other people worry about it and talk about it and may do things (that might be inappropriate) to try to rig the system.  I love "numbers," too, and when you come down to it the handicap system is just a numbers game.

I too believe that A.G.'s observation highlights a significant problem affecting how well some players' handicap's travel.  The resulting handicaps may not be vanity handicaps in the sense that they are intentionally manipulated to keep one's handicap low, but the net result is the same.

I've read a fair amount about the handicap system, ratings and slopes, and served on a ratings team for a short time, which was eye-opening.  For many reasons it's not a perfect system.  Moreover, I can't envision one.

Here's an article by the pope, which points out the "par" issue with the new world handicap system (2020).  One thing he says it does is screw high handicappers of a certain age who play from the forward tees (e.g., me). https://www.golfdigest.com/story/voices-the-flaw-in-the-new-world-handicap-system-dean-knuth

I've also read somewhere that rating and sloping involves taking into account 460 factors from each set of tees on a course.  Frankly, based on my experience, I do not recall quite that many, but there were a heck of a lot.  I have no paperwork from my years of rating and sloping, but I've looked on the web for the forms and instructions that are used and haven't been able to find them.  Does anyone have a good link to such?

[Dan_Callahan]

Sometimes, a handicap that doesn’t travel is a result of the design of your home course. I was a member of a nice 9-hole course where I didn’t have to hit driver. In fact, most of the time I would take driver and 3-wood out of my bag to lighten the load. My handicap got down to a 3. But when I would travel with friends and played long courses where it was super important to be able to hit driver far and straight, I struggled. After a few years of that, I started spending way more time at the range hitting only my woods to get rid of that hole in my game.

[Thomas Dai]

Not convinced any trends even more so travelling trends are accurate given the WHS.
Atb

[Rob Marshall]

I can’t imagine anyone on average not scoring better on their home course. I’ve had some good rounds my first time out with no guidance because you are oblivious to the hidden trouble. Out sight out of mine works great in golf.

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