Handicaps and scoring
Rules and explanation onlyCallaway, Peoria and System 36
Also called Callaway system, Callaway handicap, Peoria system, Peoria handicap, System 36, One-day handicap systems.
Callaway, Peoria and System 36 are one-day handicap systems for players with no Handicap Index®, each worked out from the round just played. Callaway deducts the worst holes by a table, Peoria triples six secret holes and takes 80% of the excess over par, and System 36 subtracts points earned from 36.
- Used when
- Players have no Handicap Index®: charity days, corporate outings, guests
- Callaway
- Deduct the worst holes (half to six) by a table keyed to gross, plus an adjustment of minus 2 to plus 2
- Peoria
- Six secret holes: (sum × 3 − par) × 80%
- System 36
- 2 points par or better, 1 bogey, 0 worse; handicap = 36 − points
- Net score
- Gross minus the computed handicap, in all three
- On Parful
- Not run. Explained here only
Why these systems exist
A net competition needs every player to have a handicap, and at a charity day or a corporate outing half the field may never have held one. The three systems below work a handicap out of the round the player has just finished, so everyone has a net score by the time the cards are in. None is a substitute for a real Handicap Index®: all three reward a player who plays a few holes badly and the rest well, and all three can be gamed. They are for a single day's prize table, not for a player's record.
Callaway
The committee looks up the player's gross score in the Callaway table. The row says how many of the worst holes to deduct, from half a hole to six, and the column adds an adjustment of minus 2, minus 1, 0, plus 1 or plus 2. Two rules limit the deduction: no hole counts for more than twice its par, and holes 17 and 18 are never deducted, so a player cannot dump strokes on the last two knowing they will be wiped. The deduction plus the adjustment, rounded to a whole number, is the handicap.
- 72 or less: no deduction, scratch. 73 to 75: half of the worst hole.
- 76 to 80: the worst hole. 81 to 85: one and a half. 86 to 90: the two worst holes.
- 91 to 95: two and a half. 96 to 100: three. 101 to 105: three and a half. 106 to 110: four.
- 111 to 115: four and a half. 116 to 120: five. 121 to 125: five and a half. 126 to 130: six.
- Within each row of five scores the adjustment runs minus 2, minus 1, 0, plus 1, plus 2 from the first score to the last; the short rows at the top sit under 0, plus 1 and plus 2.
Peoria
Before play the committee secretly chooses six holes, usually one from each three-hole stretch or two of each par. After the round, each player's scores on those six holes are added and multiplied by 3 to estimate an 18-hole score. Par is subtracted, and 80% of the difference is the handicap, usually rounded to a whole number. Many committees cap each secret hole at twice its par before adding.
System 36
Every hole earns points as the player goes: 2 for par or better, 1 for a bogey, 0 for a double bogey or worse. The points are added and subtracted from 36; that is the handicap. A player who pars every hole scores 36 points and plays off scratch; a player who bogeys every hole scores 18, plays off 18 and nets 72. System 36 is the simplest to run because it needs no table and no secret, and the most predictable: a steady round of bogeys always nets par.
What Parful does
Parful does not run Callaway, Peoria or System 36. There is no setting that computes a handicap from the day's card and no leaderboard that ranks on one. A committee that uses one of these systems works it out by hand from the printed cards and settles the prizes from that sheet.
What Parful does instead is give every player a value or NH. A guest is added with their own index if they have one; a player with no handicap is shown as NH and receives no strokes, never a scratch handicap in disguise. An organizer who wants to move a player's strokes for the day has a per-outing handicap adjustment, a percentage or a points offset on an existing index, recorded with a reason. For a field with no handicaps at all, the honest answer on Parful is a gross competition, or a hand-worked sheet alongside the app.
Worked example
A worked example: one card, three systems
Dana has no handicap and shoots 90 on a par 72. The committee's secret Peoria holes are 2, 4, 9, 11, 14 and 16. System 36 points are shown per hole.
| Hole | Par | Score | System 36 points | Peoria hole |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | yes |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | yes |
| 5 | 4 | 7 | 0 | |
| 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 8 | 5 | 6 | 1 | |
| 9 | 4 | 5 | 1 | yes |
| 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | |
| 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 | yes |
| 12 | 5 | 8 | 0 | |
| 13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 14 | 4 | 6 | 0 | yes |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 16 | 5 | 5 | 2 | yes |
| 17 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 18 | 4 | 4 | 2 | |
| Total | 72 | 90 | 20 | six holes: 31 |
- Callaway ignored holes 17 and 18 and capped each deducted hole at twice par; the 8 on hole 12 is under its cap of 10 and counts in full.
- Peoria depends entirely on which six holes were picked. Had the committee chosen holes 5 and 12 instead of 4 and 9, the six-hole sum would be 35, the estimate 105 and the handicap 26.
Common variants
- Scheid system
- A Callaway relative with a finer table keyed to how far the gross is over par, giving deductions up to eight holes. Same idea, different table. Parful does not run it.
- Peoria with double par cap
- Each secret hole is capped at twice its par before the six are added, which stops one blow-up hole from producing an absurd handicap. Widely used; Parful does not run it.
- System 36 as Stableford
- Some societies skip the subtraction and rank the System 36 points, which is a gross Stableford with a two-point ceiling. That is a points competition, not a handicap system, and Parful does not run it as such.