Changes to Four-Ball Match Play Handicap Calculation
Throughout a given year, most clubs run some form of Four-Ball match play, with the most common forms being a Season Long Bracket Tournament or Round Robin Invitation (5 9-hole matches: Member-Member and/or Member Guest). For the 2024 update of the Rules of Handicapping, a change was made to when the handicap allowance is applied.
The below example looks at a 7.4 index playing a 12.6 index at a course rated 70.6/137, par 71 using both the old and new method.
Old Method - Double Rounding
New Method - Rounding last
The change in methodology, which is laid out on page 142 of the Rules of Handicapping, results in Player 2 receiving one more shot now than in the previous rounding method.
In the majority of courses and index levels, there will be no difference in the amount of strokes received, but the example above shows that there will be some discrepancies. Golf Genius Tournament Management has updated their software to ensure the order of operations is done correctly, but the way scorecards are printed may lead to some confusion for your members:
In the case of Player 1 and Player 2, the math is actually pretty straightforward and should not lead to any questions. The confusion in this case will be with Player 3, a 7.9 index, showing a 9 in the PH column (same as Player 1), but getting 1 shot. The easiest explanation here is that the PH column is each player's rounded course handicap. When looking at unrounded values, Player 1 is 8.57 and Player 3 is 9.17, both of which round to 9. After making the Off Low Adjustment, player 3 is down to 0.6, and after the 90% adjustment, is still at 0.54 which rounds up to the 1 seen in the stroke column.
The takeaway here for your members is that the math is being done correctly, but subtracting the PH of the lowest player in the group from each player will not always result in the value seen in the stroke column.
- Our recommendation is to always Add the Handicap Analysis Page to your Event or League portal and distribute it to all playing in the event beforehand.
- If preferring a paper copy, we created a community report titled Foursome Handicap Analysis that will print the breakdown for each foursome on a separate page..
Scorecard Printing
Many clubs have also decided to just show the strokes in the match, and edit out the PH column.
That can be done in the scorecard editor by changing the Font.
Is the new Method reflected in the GHIN Mobile App?
The new rounding method only applies for Four-Ball match play circumstances.
If navigating to the "Play with GPS/Games" and select match play on the GHIN Mobile App, the new rounding takes place and will be identical to the Scorecard above:
If navigating to the "Handicap Calculator" from the home page of the GHIN App, stroke play is assumed and the old rounding method takes place and will match the second Golf Genius card (achieved by the Balls Selected by Hole workaround). Note - 85% is the recommended allowance for Four-Ball Stroke Play, and Off Low for stroke play events is rare.
In the Handicap Calculator, there is no ability to arrange the ordering on this page. The player in the app will always be Player 1, and any subsequent player(s) will be in alphabetical order.
