I'm trying to find stats on the average golf handicap in the US. Does anyone have any good stats or info. Thanks in advance.

Not like it is official, but I am pretty sure it hovers around 18.

i would be surprised if it was that low even. but then again i am only guessing and could be way off. just my .02

I'm quessing it's way higher than that. I mean for all the guys you see on TV, college and High school stand outs there are likely 5 hacks like me out there shooting over 20. I heard somewhere that most people are lucky to break 100, weekend warriors? I have nothing to back anything, I'm just guessing.

Over here it is 16 i think!

I remember seeing a chart somewhere and cannot remeber were. USGA, GHIN, etc.

There are two points to keep in mind here. Avg handicap or avg score. They will probally vary quite a bit. More than the USGA index accounts for.

My thought to the two questions would be that better players and players who are avid for the sport register and carry a handicap index. So 18 is probally in the nieghborhood. The others are those who struggle to break 100, do not have an official handicap, thus keeping the avg a little lower.

Excellent point! Didn't think about it that way.

The average golf score is still 100, and only small number keep a handicap, which was already stated was about a 16 for those who do keep handicaps.

"The USGA says the average Handicap Index for men is 16.1. For women, it's 28.9. "


I don't know how old this info is but this is where I found it. It is towards the bottom of the article.

http://www.popeofslope.com/courserating/numbers.html

EDIT:

Stats from the USGA

http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/unde...a_handicap.html

I thought I watched an infomercial (if that's reliable) where it stated the average handicap is around 19 or 20.

Personally, I don't believe a lot of recreational golfers have an official handicap and thus (IMHO) the average of all those who play is probably MUCH higher.

Also, recreational golfers don't know or choose not to play by the rules and therefore would have a higher handicap.

most where i play stop at triple bogey, and some stop at double bogey, they say they do this to speed up play mostly, so the handicap i guess doesnt apply to them , lol

madi05

well I could see those average handicaps being accurate for the people that keep handicaps.

But for all the golfers in the US 90 percent can not break a hundred.

Actually, that's how you are supposed to record your score for handicap purposes. It's called the ESC.

As for the original question, I know I did not begin to start tracking my handicap until I could break 100. To me, a 105 is the same as a 115 is the same as a 150. I only started tracking my score recently, because I wanted to track my progress through the 90's into the 80's. (Which I did a couple weeks ago, BTW )

If Handicaps were required and you couldn't play without an established index, it would be like 25+, but I'd say somewhere between 15 and 18 is in the ballpark for the average.

I completely agree with this. I play with a bunch of guys that rarely follow the rules regarding penalty strokes, and take a mulligan here and there. They'll hit a ball OB, then play from "where it might have went out". The word provisional does not exist to them. Then they'll post those scores. Not exactly a great way to establish a handicap if you ask me.

Harvey Penick (sp?) wisely said that if each golfer counted each actual stroke, took no mulligans, and played by every rule, very few in the US would shoot lower than 100. That has to be right. Think of most "golfers" - people who play between 5-15 rounds a year (which is the US average, I think I remember reading)....those guys almost always post AT LEAST three total disaster holes - we're talking at least triple bogey (ESC would keep it to that in calculating handicap). That's 9 over. Add at least a bogey for all the other holes (when you average in a few pars, mostly bogeys, and some doubles - maybe 1 birdie).

sometimes, if I hit a particularly bad shot, I'll drop a ball and hit another shot. its purely for practice, and so I don't get to negative. when Playing with others, they'll usually ask if I want to go pick up my bad shot. they always seem surprised when I tell them that I'm still going to play my first shot, no matter how bad it was. I just don't get the idea that "I hit a bad shot, so I'll completely disregard that I even hit it and hit another one." I mean, why even play? when not just right down an 80, or 75, or 59, and save your greensfee money?

the ONLY time I take a mulligan is if I don't get to warm up, and only on the first tee.

hit it, go find it, then hit it again. repeat as needed.

Agree with all the above comments. The other thing I see is that many people who carry a handicap do not differentiate between what they post (after ESC) and what they actually score. For example, someone might shoot 88 but post 85. All you hear is "I had an 85" because they aren't writing anything more than a 7 on the card.

I see lots of first tee mulligans and lots and lots of gimme parts up to around 3 feet. Finally, I see lots of very creative drops out of hazards, creative drops from unplayable lies, etc. where the rule is followed extremely loosely, usually because people just don't know any better. Then of course there is "bumping in the fairway". I'm sure all of us could go on.

I play lots of amateur tournaments and we count every single stroke. I think in the long run this makes people much better golfers. I don't like to play with people who are "rules nazis" but I do appreciate playing with people who take the game and the rules somewhat seriously.

I'm not from US, but over here, anyone you ask, they will say its 24. It's good for the betting on the course =)

Personally, I don't bet a lot on the course, and I play to a 15 officially. Unofficially, it's likely 20-22. The reason is that most of the rounds are played on a resort course with reachable par5s and I get birdies and eagles there. But other courses are not like that and I struggle at times to break 90.

And also, i tried counting officially once (no gimmes, no mulligans, proper hazard drops etc) and I shot a 93 on the course where I usually shoot in the mid 80s. THis included two OBs and balls in the drink a few times, two missed 2 footers 'gimmes' and an official score of 9 on a par 4. I also got some birds and mostly pars. Most of us don't count official scores, we cap it out at quadruple bogey, so our scores are slightly lower than the actual.

It all points to the fact that Tiger Woods is not human, but an android sent from an alien race, to be able to shoot so low, so consistently.

I am finding some of the responses hilarious. Like Stevie's for instance. Either you count every shot & are playing golf or you don't & are playing whack f#$k. Let's not confuse the two.

What is the average golfer’s score? Information provided by The National Golf Federation.

The average score on an 18-hole regulation golf course was 98.3 in 2005. Average score was 96.4 for men and 108.1 for women.

The percentage of adult golfers by score category are: Score under 80 (5% of golfers); 80-89 (19.7%); 90-99 (27.2%); 100-119 (32.8%); and 120 and above (15.3%).

Average score is a statistic that is very unlikely to change over time, because the pool of golfers is constantly being refreshed by newer, less skilled ones. Also, average score increases as golfers age, which tends to balance out better scores by younger players.

What percentage of today’s golfers maintain a handicap? Information provided by The National Golf Federation.

- Twenty-percent of all golfers maintain a handicap (2004 data). The average handicap (among those who maintain one) is 15 for men, 23 for women, and 16 overall.

Welcome to the third world, mctim, where life ain't so easy and if you're a slow player, you get shot with an elephant gun and carted out off the course.

Unfortunately, lots of instances for weekend golfers are necessary, such as "OB" drops (+2 stroke, instead of going back to the tee and hit it), 3 foot gimmes (heck, even the pros do that in matchplay), and X if you don't finish the hole and the agreed number of mulligans per foursome. We play skins most of the time anyway not stroke, and we get annoyed when the group in front plays to every single rule, like coming back to the damn tee when they hit OB, or can't find the ball and didnt hit a prov. We want to make it back for lunch, dude!!

Of course, when we play tourney its a different story. But leisurely, among friends and weekend betting, we're pretty loose, if everyone agrees on a particular rule set. We just adjust and play golf, or whack f**k or whatever you call it and try not to be too anal about every single thing. Jeez, its not as if we're gonna go into the pros or anything, right.

I do agree that we should play as per the rules given, but I'm just saying in reality, due to practical reasons like not clogging up the back flight, we allow gimmes, OB drops and not so proper hazard drops, as long as everyone agrees. That's how we roll here. Let me know if you ever decide to come over and I'll give you an orientation not to piss local golfers off! =)

Let's not confuse weekend hackers with the pros, shall we? =)

Your points are good but I think slow play happens for many different reasons. Good golfers can play just as slow as bad golfers. People who follow the rules can play just as fast as people who break the rules. If I hit a tee ball into the woods, I am going to play a provisional before leaving the tee. And when I get up to my original, I am not going to spend 5 minutes with my entire foursome looking for it.

I usually play by the rules ... I do count every stroke - don't improve my lie, or use a "foot wedge" to nudge it out from behind a tree. But unless I'm playing in a tournament, I'm not going to be a rule Nazi.

There is a course I often play where I do give myself a Mulligan off the first - because it has no range. I'll almost always bogey one of the first two holes (Mulligan or not) ... because playing golf without hitting at least a few balls first means that the "warm up" is done on the course. Every day is slightly different ... takes a few strokes to really get the swing and grip and set-up in sync. If there's no range, counting every stroke from the first tee really isn't an accurate measure of golf that day ... so I'm not worried about a single Mulligan screwing up my handicap - in fact, it makes the handicap number more accurate.

Plus, when I need to take a drop on a course that requires club lengths, I don't physically lay down my driver to measure two club lengths, stick a tee in the ground, and make sure my ball drops exactly in there. (I do drop within approximately two club lengths ... I just don't go through the formal ritual).

Also, I'll hit a provisional if I know I've lost it in the woods ... but a number of courses have "blind" holes (uphill, or shooting over an obstruction) - where you simply do not see where even a good drive lands. I've lost balls that way before (everyone has probably had weird holes like that - where there's not even any trouble ... you just simply cannot find a ball in fairway rough, due to leaves, or thick rough, or because it plugged in wet ground, or whatever). I certainly am not, on a casual weekend, going to walk all the way back to the tee box to hit another one.

I don't give myself 3 foot putts - but I will give myself 1 footers ... especially if the course is full on a weekend.

I'm convinced mny handicap is what is supposed to be - a fair reflection of my golf at any particular time. Completely following the full rules of golf (as the pros must), however, is not something I see as critical (and at times, would make me a royal pain in the a** to buddies just trying to have a fun weekend foursome).

Yeah I played once with a "Rule Nazi" (funny, we never used that term here...=)), and boy that was stressful for a few of my beginner friends. It's one thing to have someone teach you, another to have someone being so anal about it and making everyone uncomfortable. I mean, we're going to spend 4 hours together at least, let's all try to get along and play weekend golf. If it's OB or lost in the leaves, just drop it for heaven's sakes and play a +2 there.

Cheating in our group would be doing something that the other is unaware of, kicking the ball, improving lie, changing scores etc. If everyone agrees that someone can just drop a ball if we can't find it and have a +2 penalty, then be happy about it and move on. And as I said, we usually play skins, so if there's a loss of the hole, we usually don't hole out, so we don't mark our stroke that accurately. I guess handicap accuracy really depends what sort of golf you play. If its skins week in and week out like us, I'd say its a little less accurate =)

Lucky for me I have an actual day job that pays the bills (and pays for a lot of clubs and rounds) so I don't make my living playing golf. I love this game but if I had to learn all the rules before I played a round and then play by them to the tee, I would have never picked up a club. I'd imagine a lot of others would do the same. The rule are great if you're playing a tournament or you're playing for money. If you're playing for fun (especially starting out) they can take the wind out of your sails.

With that being said, we count all of our strokes (out of bounds, water, badd tee shot, lost balls, provisionals, etc.) but if you have to drop, pick a spot close and drop. If we're playing with some guys that are beginners that are having problems, I'll find their ball and throw back in the fairway. Again, we are realistic in knowing that we're never going to Q-school nor we will ever play in or win a club house tourney.

I am the handicap chairman at my club in Connecticut, and i just looked at the distribution of the index range for all the clubs in the Metropolitan Golf Assoc. There are 81,843 men with handicaps in the Met area. The largest number, 22,640 or 27.7%, have an index between 10.0 and 15.0. You would have to look at the slope rating for each individual course to see how that range of an index would translate to a handicap number. At my club an index of 12.5 translates into a handicap of 15. I hope that gives you a general idea, even though it's not an overall average.

how do you all calculate the usga handicap i find it a bit strange thats its sorta based on your potential score instead of your average. Like im a 6 handicapper in Oz and my last few posts are like 77,78,77,81,73
i mean what would that be in usga terms considering I break par maybe once in 8 or so rounds