We made 2 significant changes tonight to the way we are calculating handicaps. Both changes were required to make sure that oobgolf is following the exact USGA handicapping guildlines.

Equitable Stroke Control (ESC)
I'm going to let the USGA give you the definition here:

All scores for handicap purposes, including tournament scores, are subject to the application of Equitable Stroke Control (ESC). This mandatory procedure reduces high hole scores for handicap purposes in order to make handicaps more representative of a player's potential ability.

What's that mean? Basically it means you can't ever score an 11 on a hole for handicapping purposes. If your handicap is low enough you probably can't even record a score over double boogie. Below is the chart we now use to identify a player's max score per hole:

Course Handicap	Score
9 or less	Double Bogey
10 through 19	7
20 through 29	8
30 through 39	9
40 or more	10

Please note that in the chart "Course Handicap" is not the same as a golfer's Handicap Index. Course Handicaps are displayed just under the date on your oobgolf scorecard. To calculate the course handicap for a course you have not yet played it multiply your current Handicap Index by the Course Slope and divide by 113. (Handicap Index * Course Slope ) / 113

oobgolf is still keeping all your scores exactly how you entered them. But when calculating a handicap we will apply ESC. Whenever a ESC is needed you will see a new line on your scorecard. Here is an example of a score that requires ESC adjustment: White Deer - Vintage. You will notice the extra "ESC Adjustment" line and that the second hole's score has been adjusted.

oobgolf's automatic ESC adjusting only takes place for golfers who have entered hole-by-hole data. If you are entering total scores only you will need to make this adjustment yourself based on the chart above. If you are entering hole-by-hole data it is suggested that you do not make the adjustment, so that you may have the real hole score for other scoring statistics.

Most Recent 20 scores
We needed to modify our algorithm so that it only uses the past 20 scores. This was an oversight on our part and prior to 10/18 we were using the best scores from ALL entered scores. The USGA handicapping manual details this in the following paragraph:

The Handicap Index formula is based on the best Handicap Differential(s) in a player's scoring record. If a player's scoring record contains 20 or more scores, the best 10 Handicap Differentials of the most recent 20 scores are used to calculate the Handicap Index.

For more details on usga handicapping see: http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/manual/index.html

If you have any questions or concerns about these or anything else related to handicapping on oobgolf, please post a comment below.