GolfBlogger: Golf News, Golf Reviews and Golf Opinion

How do you calculate your golf handicap? is the eighth most asked question on Ask.Com:

After figuring out a golf course’s rating, take the score and subtract it from the course rating before multiplying it times 113 and dividing this number by the slope of the course. Take five scores and multiply the lowest by .96 to get a handicap.

Actually, a handicap is calculated from a golfer’s ten best scores out of the last twenty rounds.

For each of those rounds, calculate a differential based on the following formula:

Differential = ( (Player Score - Course Rating) (113) ) / Slope

Then, use those differentials to average a handicap.

Handicap = (Average of Differentials) (.96)

In English: for each round you’re counting, subtract the course rating from your score. Then, multiply that result by 113. Finally, divide the previous result by the slope of the course that you played. That gives you the differential score for that round.

Handicaps often are misunderstood by players. Handicap is a measure of a player’s potential, and not his average. That’s why you take the ten best out of 20. It’s also why it would not be unusual for a player to perform far below expectations on any given day.

For a much more thorough discussion of handicaps, see this post on calculating handicaps.

Golf Club Toilet Flush Handle - Side Mount

Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week

I don’t usually take my frustrations public, but sometimes “customer service” at the megafirms just drive me over the top. The latest in question is Sears. I was in the market for a new LCD TV and decided to see what Sears had to offer. I did a search and came up with the product below:

That was a good price, so I added it to my cart and went to checkout. It was then I discovered that Sears had pulled the bait-and-switch and increased the price to $386.99.

So I called “customer service.” The pleasantly stupid girl on the other end insisted that the price was $386.99 and that the problem was my computer wasn’t showing the price properly.

Huh??? Apparently she doesn’t have a clue about how the interwebs work.

I insisted that it was their site that was showing an incorrect number. She didn’t understand what I was talking about and so referred me to a supervisor. The supervisor then told me that Sears doesn’t honor the prices it shows on the website—only those that show up in the cart. Further, she explained, it’s all laid out in the website user agreement.

So the bottom line: Sears doesn’t honor its own advertisements.

They’ve lost a customer. Not that they care.

How many golf clubs can you carry?—the seventh most asked golf question on Ask.Com. Their answer:

The rules of golf allow you to carry fourteen clubs in your bag, so many golfers add another iron or a specialty wood to the traditional set.

There originally was no limit to the number of clubs a player could carry. Early players (or their caddies) toted just three or four, which they tucked under their arms to carry. However, as the sport progressed, players began to carry a large variety of specialized clubs. Lawson Little won the US and British Amateurs with more than 30 clubs in his bag.

The USGA set 14 as the maximum in 1938. The R&A followed suit in 1939.

Caddies all over the world were grateful.

Under Rule 4-4, the penalty for carrying more than 14 clubs is two strokes for each hole played at the point at which the breach was discovered, with a maximum of four strokes per round.

ADAMS Speedline Fast10 Driver

The word on this driver seems to be that it is indeed fast, but that the shaft has a bit too much flex. Those who like a regular might be better served getting a stiff.

I think this points out something that everyone should be aware of when buying clubs: there is no standard for flex. One manufacturer’s regular is another’s stiff and so on. So you really have to try a club for a while before knowing.