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How’s your recreation?
We don’t imply ‘How do you assume you could have been enjoying.’ We’re asking the way you’ve truly been performing. There’s typically a distinction between really feel and actual.
The excellent news is, your reply doesn’t have to return right down to guesswork. Efficiency, in any case, could be measured. The best manner to take action is by preserving a handicap index.
Posting your scores doesn’t simply give you a snapshot in time. It helps paint a broader image. It exhibits how you might be progressing, or regressing (hey, it could actually occur to the very best of us). It additionally permits you to place your recreation in context. Dig deeper into the info, and you’ll see the way you evaluate to different golfers.
Are you higher than common? This, too, could be, measured. The typical handicap index for male golfers on this nation is 14.2. For feminine golfers, the typical is 28.7.
In the USA right now, greater than 3.2 million golfers hold a handicap index, up from 2.6 million in 2020. Simply as participation within the recreation is rising, so is participation in GHIN, the handicapping system overseen by the USGA, which retains including to GHIN’s capabilities whereas making GHIN itself simpler to make use of.
Take, as an example, a brand new 30-day free trial for the GHIN app. Now you can obtain the app without charge (beforehand, you might solely use the app should you have been already signed up for a handicap index) and begin posting scores. The clock doesn’t begin ticking in your 30-day free trial till you’ve posted 54 holes, at which level GHIN offers you your estimated handicap vary (inside 5 strokes). You may hold posting scores all through your 30-day free trial. When your trial expires, you’ll be able to then join a handicap index on GHIN (the fee is often about $50-$60 contingent upon your membership or native golf affiliation’s pricing), which is nice for a 12 months.
Within the final three months, greater than 86,000 golfers have taken benefit of the 30-day free trial, and a greater than 27,000 have gone on to enroll in a handicap index on GHIN, having fun with options which are extra expansive than ever, corresponding to enhanced shot-tracking, on-course GPS, and color-coded maps of greens that present which manner putts break. Extra bells and whistles are coming later this 12 months and subsequent, together with gamification options that may permit golfers to match their internet scores with others, primarily based on their handicap on the course they’re enjoying.
As a lot as golfers play by really feel, surveys present that almost all additionally take into account themselves data-driven.
“So we’re additionally improved stats and evaluation of your recreation and the way you evaluate to golfers in your handicap vary or golfers in a focused handicap vary,” says Tom Padula, the USGA’s director of product administration, GHIN apps. “The emphasis is, how can we allow you to perceive your recreation higher primarily based on the knowledge you give to us?”
How’s your recreation? No must reply proper this minute. We’ll test again after you’ve posted a couple of extra scores.