A Different Way to Use Your Handicap

 

The handicap system in golf is often used to gauge how good (or poor) a player is even though it’s meant to determine the number of strokes you get on the more difficult holes. For example, if you play to a 6 handicap, you would take a stroke off your score on the 6 hardest holes (marked in the scorecard). So if you made a bogey on the 5th hardest hole, you’d adjust your score to make a par. What this does is help you adjust your score so that you play as close to even par as possible. 

This is something that most golfers tend to forget, to be honest. We spend so much time watching guys on TV or YouTube make birdies left and right, picking apart courses, and firing low scores that we don’t realize that the whole point of golf is to try and shoot a score of even par. If we can shoot better than even par, that’s fantastic, but the reality is that par should be our friend. This is where the handicap system comes in. It’s a big help in getting us to see a score close to even, or maybe even to be able to flirt with a score under par. 

But the way handicaps work, the score is adjusted, often after the round, and it can make the player feel like he didn’t play that well. So I suggest using the handicap in a slightly different way to help with those mid-round blues. Instead of taking strokes off your score with the handicap, try adding strokes to the par of the holes you get strokes on. Before your round, go through and find the holes you would get a stroke on and add a stroke to the par of that hole. For example, if the most difficult hole is a par 4, play it as a par 5. 

It’s a simple thing, but you might find that you don’t get down on yourself during the round. If you see more pars and maybe even birdies on an adjusted scorecard, you might be surprised when you go to actually record your adjusted score after the round. Try it out and see if you don’t enjoy your golf more!