Handicaps and scoring
Parful runs thisOwn tee or committee-designated tee
Also called Which tee to play, Tee selection, Designated tee.
In most formats every golfer plays their own tee and their handicap is computed for it. In formats where a side plays one ball there is no such thing as an individual tee, so the committee designates one for the side and every handicap in it is computed from that tee.
- Own tee
- Individual formats and every own-ball team format
- Committee-designated
- Scramble, foursomes, greensomes, chapman, shamble
- Why
- A side playing one ball has one tee, so it needs one rating
- Common designation
- The tee the side actually plays from
- Mixed sides
- Play one tee and take one team handicap from it
- On Parful
- Every format declares its tee rule
Own tee, the normal case
In stroke play, Stableford, match play, four-ball and every format where each golfer plays their own ball to the hole, each golfer plays whichever tee they are entitled to and their Course Handicap™ is computed from that tee's Slope Rating™, Course Rating™ and par. Two players in the same group can be on different tees with different handicaps and the competition still resolves, because the rating system is doing exactly the job it was designed for.
Where the tees have different pars, a further adjustment applies, and that is the mixed tees page.
Committee-designated, and why it is different
A scramble side plays one ball. So does a foursomes pair, a greensomes pair and a chapman pair. There is no individual tee shot to attribute for handicap purposes, because the side is playing one golf course from one set of markers and returning one card.
The committee therefore designates the tee the side plays, and every handicap that goes into the team formula is computed from that tee. A side with a mix of entitlements plays one set of markers, and where a group is mixed the sensible designation is the one they actually played, which in practice means the shorter tee in a mixed pair unless the conditions say otherwise.
Which formats use which
The dividing line is not team versus individual. It is whether a per-player ball exists. Four-ball is a team format and uses own tees, because each player plays their own ball to the hole. Shamble is a team format where a shared drive is used, so it is designated.
- Own tee: stroke play, Stableford, modified Stableford, par and bogey, points quota, Chicago, skins, match play singles, four-ball in both stroke and match play, and every counted-score format including best 2 of 4, 30/40, maxwell, bramble and cha cha cha.
- Committee-designated: scramble and its Texas and Florida variants, foursomes, greensomes, chapman, shamble, and the match play versions of foursomes, greensomes and chapman.
How Parful runs it
Every format in Parful declares a tee rule. On an own-tee format each player carries the tee they are set to and their handicap follows it, so changing a player's tee changes their strokes immediately. On a designated format the side plays one card and the team handicap is built from that tee.
A player's tee also decides which stroke index and which pars Parful reads for their card. A course can allocate its stroke index differently from different tees, and reading the wrong set produces a card that looks right and scores wrong.
Worked example
A worked example: the same four golfers, two formats
Ana and Cal are entitled to the blue tees, Ben and Dee to the red. Blue: Slope Rating™ 128, Course Rating™ 71.2, par 72. Red: slope 119, rating 70.6, par 74.
| Format | Tee rule | Ana (14.0) | Ben (14.0) | How the handicap is built |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four-ball stroke play | Own tee | Blue, Course Handicap™ 15 | Red, Course Handicap™ 11 | 85% of each player's own number |
| Foursomes | Committee-designated | Red, Course Handicap™ 11 | Red, Course Handicap™ 11 | 50% of the pair's combined number from one tee |
- Ana's Course Handicap™ changes between the two rows because the tee changed, not because the format did.
- In the four-ball row the par difference between the tees also triggers the mixed-tee adjustment; in the foursomes row both players are on one tee so there is nothing to adjust.
Common variants
- Everyone off one tee
- A simple society day where the whole field plays one set of markers needs neither rule: every handicap comes from the same tee and the mixed-tee adjustment is zero throughout.
- Combo tees
- A course that rates a mixed set of markers as its own tee gives it a slope, rating and par like any other. Parful treats a combo tee as a tee.
- Choosing the designated tee
- Some committees designate the forward tee for every side to keep pace of play. It is a committee decision and Parful applies whichever tee the side is set to.