Handicaps are simple.
They are how many extra shows you get over 18 holes, to take your total score to equal the course Par.
eg. You shot 90 on a Par72 course - 18 Handicap.
That means you get 1 extra shot per hole on every hole.
If you only play the same course over and over, you can give yourself a handicap, it's not difficult to work out.
Lets say you only have 5 cards, take the 3 best scores from those 5 cards. Lets say you shot:
30 over *
35 over *
40 over
50 over
28 over *
Take your best 3 (I've starred them)
Get the average of these. (28+30+35)/3 = 31. Your handicap is 31 (unofficially), as it's not gone through the relevant channels to be official), but it's roughly the same.
If you then have 31 extra shots per hole, that's +1 on every hole to start with, so that's taken 18 from your 31 handicap, leaving you with 13 left.
Look at the scoresheet for your course, holes with SI 1 to 13.... you get 2 shots, rather than 1.
That's all the extra shots you get.
Update your scorecard to say these are now Par+1 or Par+2 and play to those scores. You *should* be able to reach your new par on all of those holes. That's what playing to your handicap means.
Mentally, don't try to BEAT those par's and get birdies against your new Par otherwise you might as well just be ignoring the updates. Try to get your new pars every hole.
Once you've done this, you'll be much more relaxed and you should be hitting much easier shots, these are shots you know you can make 90% of the time.
These types of shots are something like... after your drive, 2nd shot in.. you have 180 to the hole. Break this up to 2x 90 yard shots. Or a a 120 yard and a 60 yarder. Whatever is most comfortable for you. You're scores will fly down.
Sorry for the long one!
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