Generic Handicapping?

[stpitner]

I go out and play disc golf on a regular basis with a group of 4 of my co-workers.  We'll go on lunch and play at any of 3 different courses.

All of us are not the greatest players around, not even close in fact.  However, a couple of the guys usually wind up with scores that are 6-10 shots better than the rest of the group.  Is there any sort of standardized handicapping that we could do that you've tried to help even up the scores a little bit?  I don't know if it's possible to do something similar to how bowling's handicap works, but there it's (200 - your average) * 90%.

I have a couple of ideas that could pass for a generic equation to determine your handicap, but I was curious to hear what others had to say first.  We are also looking at trying to get some other co-workers to come out and play, but since it would be the first time playing for a lot of them, we don't want to scare them away by saying that they were 15 shots worse than everybody else (they'll feel it enough when they are out there trying to play!)

Thanks!
Scott

[Chainmeister]

My first question is whether there is $ involved.  If not, who cares?  If one guy is usually 6-10 strokes better at a given course, you can use that as a benchmark to see how you do.  If you are 15 back you had a crappy day or he had a great one.  If you are 3 back you did pretty well or he was off.  If money is involved there's lots of ways to handicap. I have never been much of a better so I say just throw.  Also, if you are not playing for money, you can work on things during these casual rounds.  Try a forehand or a thumber that you wouldn't normally try and see how it goes.  Experriment with different releases etc.  Its just for grins, so its all good. You can use what you learned and play better when it really counts. If you have to bet, play for something nominal with no handicap.  When I was in college we use to go to Gillsen Park (a moment of silence here for the late, great Gillsen) and the loser bought doughnuts...or beer. That being said, I am mindful that someone once said that a 1000 rated player ( or 970something player )could make a good living off the local leagues.    Just playing the pigeons.   A signficantly lower rated player just forks out the money, doughnuts, or beer.

[Bruce Brakel]

It is possible to calculate handicaps from PDGA ratings if you join the PDGA, play some tournaments and get a rating. 

Because disc golf lacks rigorous par standards, it is hard to calculate par off of posted par at different courses.  Some courses use the old fashioned, dumbed down, DGA par values that seem appropriate for Disc Golf Special Olympics.  Some courses label everything a par 3.  Some courses are honest enough to own up to the par 2 holes and the occasional par 4. 

If you wanted to calculate a lunch league handicap based on something like par, you could use the SSA for par for courses that have hosted sanctioned tournaments.  Using those numbers from courses of similar difficulty you could estimate SSAs for nine hole courses you might be playing. 

Not knowing what courses you play, I can't be anymore specific. 

[stpitner]

We play Madison Meadows in Lombard, the new one in Oak Brook at Central Park (9-hole course, no pars listed yet but we are currently saying they are all par 3), and then the course in Westchester (easier 9-hole course).  We usually don't play all 19 at Madison Meadows, usually just 1-4, 13-19 (to try to keep it closer to an hour).

There's no money involved, but if there's enough interested, I wouldn't be surprised if we get some kind of intra-office tournament going during the summer (doubtful there would be money involved there either).  At least, that's what I would *hope* to do!  I think the longest anyone out of the 5 of us have played is just under a year, and everything has been casual, just keeping track of score to see how we do.

Listed par for the 11-hole version of Lombard that we play is 38 (71 for full 19 holes), Oak Brook we are playing at 27, and Westchester lists at 28.

The last stop at Madison Meadows resulted in scores of 77, 78, 80, and 87 for the 4 of us that played.  It was close to the listed par, but far from a 3/hole or anything like that.

Yeah we all stink, but hey, we're all enjoying it, and it just leaves lots of room for improvement right? lol  I just received a portable basket yesterday to start doing some putting practice 

Although it's too far from Oak Brook, I know a course that many of you would be familiar with is Lippold Park in Crystal Lake.  I shot a 74 (first time there), and I used the new #4 too.  It was snowing like crazy, but that didn't affect my throwing that much (that I know of).  My score could be considered a good average of what the group would do, so any ideas for how we should handicap?

I had to look up that SSA information.  I didn't know what it was before.  Intriguing.  That might be workable if we base the average off our average scores from playing these courses multiple times now.

Scott