The basic premise of handicapping in sport is to enable participants with different levels of ability to compete against each other fairly. This essentially means that with a handicap system each competitor should have an equal chance of winning. Handicapping is employed in many sports, the best known of which would be golf and horse racing. Here I will explain how handicapping is used in both of these sports so as to give you an indication of how this can be transferred to other sports such as basketball, bowling and track and field.
Handicapping in GolfTo many people golf handicaps can seem complicated but the idea really is quite simple. When you first begin to golf you are required to keep your score for three rounds of golf, that is how many shots you take to complete an 18 hole golf course on three separate occasions.
All golf courses have a par. Par simply means how many shots you SHOULD complete the course in. So if a golf course is a par 72 then you should complete the course in 72 shots. Of course unless you are extremely talented individual this is highly unlikely, though if you did you would be what is known as a scratch golfer and therefore be of a very high standard.
The beginner’s scores for 3 rounds may look something like this:
Round 1 – 96 Round 2 – 94Round 3 - 92The average score then would be 94. You take this score from the ‘par’ of the course so 72 – 94 = 22. This figure is then the beginner’s handicap. The beginner can now compete more fairly with other golfers of varying abilities.
Official golf handicaps are only changed after competitions and eventually the handicap will reflect a golfers best efforts rather than an average score.
Professional golf players do not have a handicap and therefore no handicap is utilised in any of the major golf championships.
The mechanics of applying golf handicaps would require much more
explanation than we have room for here, though I hope this brief
outline has been suffice to show how handicapping levels the playing
field. If you do require further assistance then feel free to watch this video tutorial.
Handicapping in HorseracingHandicapping in horseracing is different in method but the same in principle. Approximately half the horse races in the UK are known as handicaps, simply because a system of handicapping is employed in them. There are 8 different classes of handicap races in the UK (A-G) with class A being the race containing the horses with the strongest ability and G the weakest.
Handicap races enable horses of differing ability to race each other. The horses with the most ability are simply given additional weight to carry. The amount of additional weight is calculated by relating one horse’s official rating to another horse’s official rating. For example if one horse has an official rating of 50 and another has an official of 60, the horse with the higher rating will carry 10lbs more weight. 1lb is equal to 1 point in the official rating system.
An official rating is first awarded after a horse has won a race or if the horse has ran in 3 races and finished at least 6th in one. The official rating is set by a designated team which study racing results and form, each week, to determine whether a horse’s official rating should increase, decrease or remain the same.
In the following video you get to see this process in practise in the day of a life of a clocker.
The best most elite horses do not use a handicap system. Therefore there is no handicap system used in the best, most high profile races throughout the world.
SummaryTo use a golfing term, we have here only ‘scratched’ the surface of handicapping. Using the two sports with the biggest worldwide appeal we hope we have adequately explained how handicapping can make even the most uneven of contests a lot more interesting!