Fairness offers all golfers a Championship Experience

Winning is fun.  All players, regardless of ability, want reasonable assurances of a fair shake at winning – whether competing in a regular weekly game among friends, or in a club sponsored competition.

Fairness is the goal of the USGA Handicap system.  Its success, however, relies on the honesty and integrity of individual golfers starting with full reporting of scores.  At the Oregon Golf Association, our role is providing tools and services to help create the most level playing field. 
 
Most noticeable among all golfers is our role in measuring and rating golf courses – you see the results of our work whenever you look at a scorecard. 
 
The Course Rating is an objective evaluation of difficulty for the scratch golfer from each set of tees.  In addition to effective playing length, all obstructions and general playing conditions that a golfer normally encounters are evaluated on standardized assumptions. 

Similarly, the Slope Rating is an objective evaluation of the difference in difficulty between the scratch and bogey golfer and is used in calculating course handicaps.

Additional opportunities to promote fairness are found in USGA recommendations for handicap allowances.  While full course handicaps are appropriate in individual stroke play competitions, in team events a full course handicap tends to statistically give an advantage to higher handicapped teams.

If full handicaps are used in a best-ball competition and a team can choose its best net score on each hole, the team getting the most strokes will always have a marginal competitive advantage.  Adjustments applied to team handicaps level the playing field. It’s why the USGA recommends allowances ranging from 40 to 100 percent, depending on the type of contest.

Finally, all clubs that issue their members USGA Handicap Indexes were required to participate in a licensing program to help enhance the system’s integrity.  The OGA’s licensing program is one of the most rigorous in the county – requiring each club to submit to a preemptive audit that requires proof of compliance with their licensing agreement including submission of club bylaws, handicapping policies and play dates.  Additionally, handicap chairs at each club must participate in a certification program and pass a proficiency test.

Happily, we had 100% compliance with the program by the USGA’s deadline in 2006.  This year, both the OGA and USGA will conduct random audits with the possibility of some clubs losing the privilege to issue their members official USGA Handicap Indexes.  In addition to random audits, any OGA member questioning the integrity of handicaps issued by any club may trigger an audit.

Understanding that no system is perfect, your best chance of finding fairness happens when you join an OGA Member Club and play with people who have chosen to work toward the success of the Handicap System.

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