[6][7] During the late 19th century, taking the difference between the average of a golfer's best three scores during the year and par became the most widely used method of handicapping in England and Scotland.
As the sport grew, so did discontent with the fairness of handicapping, with less proficient players being particularly unhappy as it was much less likely for them to play to the standard of their three-score average.
Another issue was the lack of consideration in the system for the varying difficulties of different courses which meant the handicap was not very portable.
It was not until the formation of the British Golf Unions Joint Advisory Committee in 1924 that the men's game fully coordinated to create an equitable handicap system, that included a uniform course rating, throughout Great Britain and Ireland; the Standard Scratch Score and Handicapping Scheme was introduced in 1926.
The biggest development was a "par rating" system that assessed the average good score of a scratch golfer on every course, which made the handicap more portable.
However the most significant change was the creation of the slope rating system, which enables handicaps to allow for differences in difficulty between scratch and bogey golfers.
[4][5] Amateur golfers who are members of golf clubs are generally eligible for official handicaps on payment of the prevailing regional and national association annual fees.
These bodies have different methods of producing handicaps but they are all generally based on calculating an individual player's playing ability from their recent history of rounds.
[14] Stroke allowances may sometimes be reduced by a set percentage in order to maintain the level playing field; this is especially common in pairs and team competitions.
Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) and net double bogey (also called Stableford Points Adjustments) are the two most common mechanisms for defining a maximum hole score.
In golf clubs, peer review is usually managed by an elected Handicap Secretary who, supported by a small committee, conducts an Annual Review of the handicaps of all members and assesses ad hoc requests from individual members (usually when age or medium to long-term infirmity affects their playing ability).
To a degree, these regional bodies also monitor the performance of and provide training for Handicap Secretaries at the club level.
Nationally, the peer review is extended further to assessing golfers from external jurisdictions for their suitability for entry into their elite international events.
Ongoing handicaps are based on the average of the best 8 differentials, but with an "anchor" to prevent rapid increases that would not necessarily reflect the player's true potential.
[18] A WHS handicap is calculated with a specific arithmetic formula that approximates how many strokes above or below par a player might be able to play, based on the eight best scores of their last twenty rounds.
Many elements of WHS have flexibility which allows for local authorities to determine their own settings, but the basic handicap index calculation remains the same.
This was reduced to 10 from 20 in 1967, which remains to this day although a further adjustment was made with the introduction of a "Bonus of Excellence" multiplier to equalize handicaps and give better players a marginal advantage.
In 1974, Equitable Stroke Control was adopted in order to eliminate the effect of very high individual hole scores on handicap calculations.
[11] With the system still not accounting for variances in playing difficulty for golfers of different abilities, in 1979 the USGA set to work on how to address the issue with the creation of the Handicap Research Team.
The USGA then set about making further refinements to the course rating system, which at the time was still largely dependent on length, to take account of many other factors affecting scoring ability for a scratch golfer.
In one such case, the California Court of Appeal (First District) summarized the system's history: The USGA was founded in 1894.
Because permitting individual golfers to issue their handicaps to themselves would inevitably lead to inequities and abuse, the peer review provided by authorized golf clubs and associations has always been an essential part of the [system].
The research team invested approximately a decade and up to $2 million conducting intensive analysis and evaluation of the various factors involved in developing a more accurate and satisfactory [system].
As a result, the research team developed new handicap formulas ... designed to measure the overall difficulty of golf courses, compare individual golfers with other golfers of all abilities, take account of differences between tournament and casual play, and adjust aberrant scores on individual holes.
[24]A USGA handicap is calculated with a specific arithmetic formula that approximates how many strokes above or below par a player might be able to play, based on the ten best scores of their last twenty rounds.
[3] Updates to a golfer's handicap index are issued periodically, generally once or twice per month depending on the local state and regional golf associations.
[32] In addition to playing in qualifying competitions, golfers in Category 2 and above may also submit a number of extra day scores in order to maintain their handicap.
When GOLF Link was first introduced it contained two key characteristics that set it apart from other world handicapping systems at the time: In April 2010 GA adopted the USGA calculation method using the average of the best 10 differentials of the player's past 20 total rounds, multiplied by 0.96.
[40] The Argentine Golf Association (AAG) handicapping system is a relatively simple one, using only a course rating, without slope.
The Callaway handicapping algorithm works by totaling a variable number of "worst" scores achieved (subject to a double-par limit) according to a simple table.