Points Quota

How Points Quota works

Every player starts the day with a quota. The base is 36, the number of points a scratch player scores by making eighteen pars, and each player's quota is 36 minus their Course Handicap™. A 4 handicap has a quota of 32, a 15 has a quota of 21 and a 22 has a quota of 14. A plus 2 player has a quota of 38.

Out on the course every hole earns points on the standard Stableford table: 1 for a bogey, 2 for a par, 3 for a birdie, 4 for an eagle, 5 for an albatross and nothing for a double bogey or worse. At the end the player's total is compared with their quota. Plus 4 means four points over the target; minus 3 means three short. The highest margin wins.

The handicap does its work in the target rather than on the holes, which is why the format suits a mixed field: a 24 handicap who plays well beats a 5 who plays badly on exactly the same arithmetic.

The handicap and the target

The quota uses the Course Handicap for the tees being played, not the Handicap Index®, because the target has to reflect the course of the day. The recommended allowance is 100%: the format registry on Parful carries full Course Handicap for Points Quota, and the target is set from that number.

A missing handicap on Parful degrades the target to the raw base of 36, which is a scratch quota. A player without a handicap is therefore not favored; assign a tee and a handicap before the competition opens and the target is right.

Settling a tie

Two players on the same margin are separated by countback over the back nine, then the last six holes, the last three and the eighteenth, on the final round of a multi-round competition. Parful compares the players' gross strokes over each stretch, the same countback it uses for stroke play. If nothing separates them the position is shared.

How Parful scores it

Points Quota is a competition format on Parful and an individual format on events. Each player's target is the quota base minus their Course Handicap, computed per round; the base is 36 unless the admin sets a different one when the competition is created, and the base is frozen into the round when scoring opens. Points are scored hole by hole on the standard Stableford table as scores go in.

The leaderboard ranks on the margin, points minus target, and shows each player as plus or minus against quota with the points beside it, for example plus 4 vs quota (25 pts). Over several rounds the targets and the points are both added, so a 36-hole quota for a 15 handicap is 42. The podium and the season honors board carry the margin, because the raw points mean nothing without the target.

Worked example

A worked example: three handicaps, one leaderboard

Ana plays off a Course Handicap™ of 4, Ben off 15 and Cal off 22. Points are on the standard Stableford table. Each player's quota is 36 minus their handicap.

• infoBen's 25 points came from 4 pars, 15 bogeys and 2 birdies: 4 times 2, plus 15, plus 2 times 3, minus nothing for one blob on the par 3 eleventh which scored 0.
• infoHad Ana and Ben both finished plus 4, Parful would have counted back over the back nine and the later stretches to separate them.

Common variants

Chicago

The same format off a 39-point base, so every quota is three higher. Parful runs it as its own format, and the base can be edited when the competition is created.

Quota on the 1-2-4-8 table

Some clubs score 1 for a bogey, 2 for a par, 4 for a birdie and 8 for an eagle against the same 36-minus-handicap target. Parful scores quota on the standard Stableford table; a club that wants the doubled birdie and eagle values is running a variant Parful does not score.

Team quota

Pairs or fours add their quotas together and add their points together; the team furthest over its combined quota wins. Parful scores quota as an individual format.

Quota with a stake per point

The money game version: everyone pays in for each point they finish under quota and takes out for each point over. Parful scores the margins; the settlement is the group's.